School Library, which may be obtained by Schools of the above description for Forty Shillings, being about half the regular price of the books. The Committee are willing to defray one-half of the expense of a selection of their books, not exceeding Ten Pounds, estimated at the reduced prices, for the benefit of the poor in any Union Work House. It is hoped, that in most neighbourhoods benevolent persons may be found, who will kindly raise the needful funds to supply religious Circulating Libraries for the objects which have been specifically mentioned, namely, destitute districts, Sunday and Day Schools, and Union Work Houses. In this way scriptural reading will be provided for a large number of persons, who may be exposed to the dangers arising from erroneous and infidel publications, which are widely circulated in the present day. The total grants of Libraries amount to 3,697. In addition to the Libraries which have been thus described, the Committee have gratuitously granted to the agents of all Protestant Missionary Institutions, libraries of their publications for each station. About two hundred and fifty Missionary Stations have been thus supplied with a good selection from the Society's works. The Committee grant to young ministers of limited resources on their ordination, £10 in books on payment of £5; and the masters of National and British Schools may obtain £2 in books, at half price. In the following list, amounting to 101 languages and dialects, many of the Society's works have been printed. The grants of the past year included large supplies of tracts and children's books for Great Britain and Ireland, for British emigrants, soldiers and sailors, labourers on railways, foreigners in England; for Sabbath-day circulation; for District Visiting, Christian Instruction, and Town Mission Societies; for prisons, hospitals, workhouses, fairs, races, and numerous other important objects. Similar supplies have also been sent to the British Colonies, particularly to the East and West Indies, British North America, and Australasia. Grants have been recently made, for China, Burmah, the Georgian, Society, and Navigators' Islands, New Zealand, Africa and its Islands, South America and the Brazils, Iceland, Greenland, France, Switzerland, Germany, Prussia, Saxony, Hungary, Russia, Greece, Turkey, and other eastern lands. In aid of these home and foreign objects, the Society only receives about £6,000 per annum, while its grants during the past year were £8,020, thus showing the accuracy of a former part of the present statement, that although the whole of the subscriptions, donations, and contributions from auxiliaries are applied to the gratuitous circulation of the Society's publications, without any deduction or charge whatever for agency, the Committee, of late years, have distributed even larger sums than the amount thus received from the Christian public. RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, INSTITUTED 1799. SUMMARY OF ITS PROCEEDINGS TO MARCH 31, 1847. Total annual circulation, including the issues of Foreign 22,000,000 101 442,000,000 238 3,924 About 4,245 libraries have been granted since 1832, at reduced prices, exclusive of those sent to foreign lands, the cost of which, at subscribers' prices, would be upwards of £20,000: namely, For destitute districts, parochial and miscellaneous objects 1,589 2,268 173 108 58 49 Total grants for the year, for Great Britain and Ireland, the British colonies, and heathen and unenlightened lands Total amount of subscriptions, donations, and auxiliary contributions, excluding the special subscriptions for China Appropriated beyond the subscriptions, donations, collections, and auxiliary contributions 4,245 £59,416 3 9 7,936 9 7 5,918 19 9 THE FUNDS. The following are the receipts for the present year 1847 From the Auxiliaries Donations and Life Subscriptions Although the Committee have been permitted to present an encouraging Report to their friends, yet they are far from being satisfied that all has been done that ought to be accomplished by the agency which the Society employs. In Great Britain and Ireland, and the Colonies, about eighteen millions of tracts and books have been distributed. May it not be asked, "What are these, when the population is considered?" The Committee are convinced that additional means are required for bringing cheap religious publications into immediate contact with those for whom they are specially designed. Already a new agency has been tried with success. In Norfolk and Devonshire, pious, active, and ingenious colporteurs have lately been sent forth, and considerable sales have been effected. In the latter county, 3,900 copies of the Scriptures, and 17,000 publications of this Society, were sold in four months. These sales included the Tracts for Children, sold at |
