The sixth anniversary of the Society for promoting Ecclesiastical Knowledge was held in Finsbury chapel, Moorfields, on Wednesday evening, the 6th of May. Dr. Brown was in the chair.
After prayer by the Rev. A. Fletcher, and some introductory remarks by the Chairman, the Rev. Dr. Bennett read a report, which consisted chiefly of an exposition and defence of the principles and operations of the Society. It excited deep interest, and drew forth repeated expressions of applause.
The receipts by subscriptions, donations, and collections, amounted to £180 4s. 6d.; and the sale of books, to Dec. 31, 1834, amounted to £128 11s. 8d. The disbursements were, printing, publication, paper, and copy-rights, £254 2s. 7d.; postages, advertisements, books for review, &c., £26 4s. 5d.; commission and advertisements for publications, £28 8s. 8d.; balance in hand, £3 8s. 10d. Their new monthly publication, The Ecclesiastical Journal, had more than paid its expenses, and the Society was not in arrears, either to printers, or to other tradesmen. The only arrear was the remuneration which, in honour, was due to those who had furnished important communications.
The Rev. C. Stovel, T. Scales, of Leeds, Mr. Davis, Blackfriars; also Mr. Brown, of Wareham, D. Wire, Esq., H. Thompson, Esq., B. Hanbury, Esq., G. Hadfield, of Manchester, and A. Pellatt, Esq., severally defended the principles of the Society, and showed the necessity for its existence.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.
The thirty-first Anniversary Meeting of this Society was held on Wednesday, the 6th of May, at the great room of Exeter Hall, and was more numerously attended than any meeting since the formation of the Society. Long before the chair was taken, notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the weather in the morning, every part of the hall, save a few seats reserved on the platform, was so closely occupied, as in many instances to be inconvenient to the parties; but even with that inconvenient pressure, there was not sufficient room for all who claimed admittance. Under these circumstances it was determined that the lower room should be opened for those who could not gain admission into the greater, and that after the Report had been read to the large meeting, it should be taken down and read in the lower room, where the Treasurer of the Society, John Thornton, Esq., had consented to take the chair. Several distinguished supporters of the Society kindly acceded to the suggestions made to them, that they should deliver their addresses to the meeting in the lower room. Amongst these were the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, Rev. C. Daley, Rev. G. Clayton, and the Rev. Dr. Morison.
At eleven o'clock Lord Bexley, the President of the Society, came on the platform. His Lordship was accompanied on the platform by the Marquis Cholmondeley, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Lord Lorton, Lord Mountsandford, Lord Teignmouth, Rt. Rev. the Bp. of Ohio, the Rev. Archdeacon Corrie, the Rev. J. W. Cunningham, Mr. Plumptre, M.P., Mr. Hardy, M.P., Mr. Lushington, M.P., and many other distinguished supporters of the Society.
The Secretary, the Rev. A. Brandram, read the Report, which gave statements and extracts from the communications of correspondents in various parts of the world, describing the progress of Bible distribution in those places during the year. The distribution by the Paris Bible Society had, in the year just closed, amounted to 62,194 Bibles and Testaments; the distribution of the previous year had not exceeded 55,666. The accounts from Paris contained also most gratifying intelligence of the progress of the Society in Switzerland, in some parts of which a distribution to the amount of 27,000 copies had been effected by two of the Society's colporteurs. It appeared from extracts from Dr. Pinkerton's report of the distribution of Bibles and Testaments in the North of Europe, that 27,935 copies had been distributed last year in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, Polish, and other languages, and that a considerable number of these had found their way into the hands of Roman Catholics. After adverting to the satisfactory progress of Bible distribution in other parts of Germany, in Sweden, and Russia, the principal Bible Society of which latter place had already distributed 717,977 copies of the Sacred Scriptures, the Report adverted to the state of Portugal and Spain. In the former country there was now no persecution for religious opinion, but every man was allowed to choose which religion he pleased, and to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. In the Islands of the Mediterranean and in Greece, the distribution of the Holy Scriptures had gone on favourably, and the prospect was equally favourable in Moldavia, Wallachia, Bucharest, and part of Persia. In Calcutta, and other parts of the East Indies, there had been a much greater than ordinary distribution of Bibles and Testaments, and larger collections had been made to forward the objects of the Society. The accounts from New South Wales, and the Islands of the Pacific, were also most satisfactory. Two translations of the New Testament into the language of the different Islands of the Pacific had been brought to this country by the Rev. Mr. Yate and the Rev. Mr. Williams, and were now being printed by the Society. After going into some details from the accounts from Africa, which were on the whole favourable, the Report observed that they were the reverse in the States of South America. The attention of the Society had, during the last year, been greatly directed to the West Indies, with the view of an extensive distribution of the Scriptures to such of the newly emancipated negroes as could read. An extra subscription of £15,000 had been raised for the purpose of promoting that object without interfering with the general funds of the Society. The Report proceeded to give extracts from the communications from several islands, showing the earnest desire of the negroes to avail themselves of every opportunity to obtain religious instruction. It added that the first shipment made by the Society to that part of the world consisted of 73,695 copies of the Scriptures, the conveyance of which was given by the owners of the vessels without any expense to the Society. From returns from the Isle of France, it appeared that 60,000 negroes had received civil freedom, not one in ten of whom knew how to read; and the ignorance was, of course, great in proportion. Adverting to the progress made by the North American Bible Society, the Report stated that its receipts in the last year were 88,600 dollars; that its issue of Bibles and Testaments exceeded 110,000 copies, bringing up the whole distribution, since the commencement, to 1,113,000. The receipts of the past year amounted to £107,926. 1s., being the largest amount ever received in one year since the Society's first commencement. In that amount there were two items, which could not be included in the permanent income of the Society. The first was a legacy of £11,695. 12s. 9d. (less by the legacy duty), being a bequest of the late Horatio Cock, Esq.; and the other a sum of £15,000, voted exclusively for the negro fund. But when these were taken into account, the general subscriptions of the Society would be found to be little less than those of the previous year. In these were included a sum of £29,184. 13s. 7d., being the amount of free donations from auxiliaries to the Parent Society. The expenditure within the year was £84,249. 13s. 4d., leaving a balance exceeding £23,000; but the engagements of the Society amount to above £69,000. The distribution by the Society in the past year amounted to 653,604 Bibles and Testaments, and portions of the Holy Scriptures, including those sent to the West Indies, &c.; but even after deducting the latter, it would be found that there had been a considerable increase of the issues in the last year as compared with the previous years. The Report, after again adverting to the exertions made for the West Indies, and the prospect held out that those exertions would, under the Divine blessing, be attended with complete success in the religious instruction of the negro, proceeded to state that the present year, 1835, was the third centenary anniversary of the first printing of an English Bible. It then contrasted the state of society, and of England generally of that day with those of the present, and deduced the moral greatness of England now, compared with what it was then, to its exertions to promote the free circulation of the Holy Scriptures. At that time the number of copies in circulation was very small; the extent of the demand in the present day, as contrasted with that, might be judged of from this fact, that in one day last month orders had been given for 365,000 copies of new editions.
Amongst the speakers were the distinguished individuals whose names have been already mentioned, to which may be added, the Rev. Dr. Spring (representative of the American Bible Society), J. Leifchild, W. Yate, of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Williams, and Hugh Stowell.