report mentions two hundred and thirty-six Sunday schools supported on the Home Missionary stations of this society. The expenditure of this society, in its operations for the year ending May, 1830, was one thousand nine hundred and fifty-four pounds, fifteen shillings, and nine pence.

XVI. RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.-In 1799, the "Religious Tract Society" was instituted. Previously, some worthy efforts had been made by Mrs. Hannah More and a few friends, and their Cheap Repository Tracts had been brought into extensive circulation. The Rev. George Burder and the Rev. Samuel Greathead had also published their "Village Tracts," by which the saving doctrines of the Gospel had been happily communicated to many. But in May 17, 1799, the Rev. Joseph Hewes, A. M., a Baptist minister of London, and four lay gentlemen, were appointed at a public meeting to carry into effect the object of the friends present. The Religious Tract Society, thus formed, includes members of the Church of England, as well as Dissenters, and its fundamental principle, to which it has labored sacredly to adhere, is contained in their first tract, written by Dr. Bogue, an Independent minister, in which they profess that their publications should "consist of pure truth." This, flowing from the sacred fountain of the New Testament, should run from beginning to end; uncontaminated with error, undisturbed with human systems; clear as crystal, like the water of life. "By way of explanation," the committee add, “that by pure truth, when not expressed in the words of Scripture, they refer to those evangelical principles of the Reformation, in which Luther, Calvin, and Cranmer agreed. On this large portion of ground, which the Churchman, the Dissenter, and the foreigner jointly occupy, they conceive that Christian union may be established and strengthened; Christian affection excited and cherished; Christian zeal concentrated and rendered proportionally effective. Every year the operations of this society have increased: but to do justice to its principles, proceedings, and publications, is impossible. Talents of the highest order have been engaged in preparing its varied works, which are adapted for all ages, from the lisping infant to the mature believer and the dying saint, illustrative of the Gospel, and demonstrative of its divinity. Their numerous publications for the young-their antidotes to infidelity-their series of Christian Biography, Church History, Works of the Reformers, Commentary on the Bible, and Monthly Magazines, are above all praise. And as many of its publications have been translated into various languages of the East, as well as of Europe, and widely circulated, eternity alone can develop the abundance and richness of its fruits.

The

missionaries of the various societies receive the most valuable and seasonable help from this great institution. The receipts of the Tract Society, for the year ending May, 1830, were twenty-five thousand and sixty-two pounds, sixteen shillings, and four pence; and the number of publications issued, more than ten millions. The total circulation of the society, at home and abroad, since its commencement, exceeds one hundred and forty millions of its publications!"

The western general meeting of this society was held at Willis's assembly rooms, on May second. The marquis of Cholmondeley, chairman. Thirty-six thousand pounds had been received during the year, by the sale of the publications, and four thousand pounds in the way of donations. During the past year, Leangafa, a converted Chinese, had written nine new tracts, which had been widely circulated among his countrymen. The society had issued one million three hundred thousand children's books, and one million true narratives. The Bible Catechism had been just translated into Malay. Upwards of one hundred thousand tracts had been circulated in China; and such was the demand for them, among the Coreans, to whom five hundred were sent, that they cut them into pieces that all might read. In the Burmese empire, Calcutta, and other places in India, they had been found especially useful, in converting upwards of three hundred to Christianity. There was a large circulation of tracts in Armenia and Georgia, and fifty pounds had been granted to the society at Shusha to print tracts. In Van Dieman's Land, the Georgian and the Society islands, similar results had occurred. In the Sandwich islands, where twenty-five thousand persons were able to read their own language, many tracts had been distributed. At Cape Town, Graham's Town, and Lattakoo, the printing presses were actively engaged. At Madagascar, the reading of a tract by a child to her father, caused him to dig a hole and bury all his household gods. The negroes in the West Indies read the tracts with avidity. During the last two years, one hundred thousand tracts had been circulated by the Paris Tract Society. The Hamburg Tract Society sent to Bavaria twenty thousand during the past year. An order was sent to the Roman Catholic priests to collect them together and burn them. That order was read from the pulpit and put into execution; a number of Testaments and one thousand two hundred tracts were collected and burnt, but the effect was an increased desire on the part of the people to read them, and a new supply of twenty thousand had been received with avidity; four hundred and fifty-seven thousand tracts had been circulated in Russia, and the dignitaries of the Russian Church had translated Baxter's Call, and the Saint's Rest

In two Mahometan countries, also, the society was making

rapid and flattering progress. In the first year, the tracts distributed amounted to two hundred thousand, and the income of the society four hundred pounds; during the past year, it has sent from its depot twelve million five hundred and ninety-five thousand two hundred and fortyone tracts, being an increase on any preceding year of eight hundred and eighty thousand two hundred and seventy-six. Eighteen thousand volumes of Church history, fifty-one thousand of Christian biography, ten thousand of the works of British reformers, and fifteen thousand of the Commentary on the Scriptures. The society had also published a periodical called the Weekly Visitor, at the price of one half-penny; four hundred and twenty-seven thousand of which had been sold since last January. The foreign grants of money amounted to four thousand one hundred and eighty-four pounds; being one hundred and fourteen pounds more than the same society had received in the way of subscriptions from the Christian public. The receipts of 1832 were thirty-one thousand three hundred and seventy-six pounds, but those of the present year were forty thousand pounds, being an increase of eight thousand six hundred and twenty-four pounds.

XVII. CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.-In 1800, the "Church Missionary Society" commenced. Aroused by witnessing the active zeal of other denominations of Christians, several pious Churchmen united to form this institution, for the extension of the Gospel under the forms of the Church of England. This society manifested but little zeal for several years; and, being discountenanced by the prelates and dignitaries of the Church, its labors were inconsiderable. Two missionaries were at length obtained from Germany, and they departed from England to Western Africa, in March, 1804. Three more were sent forth in 1806. The Soosoo country and the Bullomshore, in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone, were the first stations of this society; but both were afterwards abandoned, and the mission established at Sierra Leone. In 1809, two missionaries were sent to New Zealand, at the recommendation of Mr. Marsden, chaplain of New South Wales. Before 1811, the efforts of this society had been exceedingly inefficient; but in that year, the Rev. Melville Horne, late chaplain to the colony of Sierra Leone, preached the annual sermon before the society, from which it appears, that not one Englishman had engaged in the work. He says, "Sorry am I to say that the clergy, and the clergy alone, decline the cross! When not one clergyman will arise in the cause of the Redeemer, what is to be said? Have you, my honored brethren, in Africa, or in the East, one English clergyman who serves as a missionary?" Having

then directed his hearers to contemplate the zeal of the Dissenters, he appeals to them," Have Carey and the Baptists had more forgiven than we, that they should love more? Have the fervent Methodists and patient Moravians been extortionate publicans, that they should expend their all in a cause which we decline? Have our Independent brethren persecuted the Church, that they should be now much more zealous in propagating the faith which they once destroyed?" The appeal was not in vain; the Church Missionary Society has, since that period, been making considerable progress; having not only German agents, but many Englishmen, who receive ordination from the bishop of London, as his diocess is regarded as extending to most of our foreign colonies. Much attention has been directed by this society to schools in India; where Messee, a converted Mahometan, began scriptural instruction, under the direction of Mr. Gowie, a chaplain of Calcutta, in 1812. In 1814, two German missionaries were sent from England to Madras, and from that period others have been sent successively to various places. The schools established by this society, have engaged the greater degree of the attention of its agents; and they have been of incalculable benefit to the rising generation. In their labors, this society has found worthy coadjutors in some of the chaplains of the East India Company, and in some others: yet still, the cumbrous machinery of the Church of England is observed to be ill adapted to the missionary cause; and the successes of this society have not been considered equal to what might have been expected from its expenditure. What is deeply regretted in this society, even by many of its most pious friends and ministers, is, its uncharitable sectarianism; for though its secretaries meet the secretaries of the missionary societies conducted by the Dissenters, for the purposes of conference and prayer, monthly, it is complained, that, in their general proceedings, they studiously avoid any allusions to the extensive labors of others, and that the like care is observed to abstain from recognising the marvellous successes with which they have been honored by the blessing and Spirit of God. It is also regretted that they carry this exclusive policy so far, as not to allow the most eminent agent of the other missionary societies to take any part in their public meetings! It is reported that this unlovely spirit is carried, in a great degree, to foreign countries; and we see that even the late devoted bishop Heber, when he arrived in India, as he has recorded in his journals, required the Church of England missionaries to relinquish their social prayer meeting, which had been held with the missionaries of other societies!

The following tabular view of the Church Missionary Society we extract from the "New Missionary Gazeteer."