Domestic operations were multifarious and important, increasing in magnitude. The receipts for

the year were £108,449 0s. 10d. ; and the issues were 415,529 Bibles, and 390,652 Testaments; total, 805,181; and on the Continent 76,061 Bibles, and 273,400 Testaments: a grand total of 1,154,642 copies of the Word of God. The grants this year amounted to £31,194 7s. 9d., including the value of 14,650 Bibles, and 17,600 Testaments for the schools and the poor in Ireland.

The Forty-eighth Annual Meeting was held in Exeter Hall, May 5, 1852; when the great assembly was addressed by the Earl of Shaftesbury, President, the Bishops of Winchester and Cashel, the Earl of Roden, and Lord Teignmouth, the Chevalier Bunsen, Prussian Ambassador, Rev. Dr. Dyer, of America, the Rev. E. O. Vidal, of Sierra Leone, Rev. J. Kennedy, of Benares, Rev. P. Percival, of Ceylon, Rev. W. Keane, of Calcutta, Rev. W. Wilkinson, and Rev. G. Browne.

THE FORTY-NINTH YEAR OF THE SOCIETY,

1852-1853.

FROM year to year, the Committe of the Bible Society have had reason to cherish a spirit of gratitude to "the God of all grace" for his goodness, in crowning their labours with increasing success. Their Forty-ninth Anniversary Meeting finds them in the midst of the Jubilee of the Society; in the height of prosperity therefore, they regard their

"circumstances such as to call forth and justify the utterance of joy and praise." The review of the past year afforded the most solid ground for thankfulness, while it should lead to prayer for their adversarics, enemies of "the truth as it is in Jesus," in the spirit of our gracious Lord, " Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

France continues a source of anxiety and of rejoicing; for while new laws and police regulations create difficulties, the circulation of the Scriptures increases. The issues this year, by M. De Pressensé, from the depôt at Paris, are 92,765; of which 74,554 were by colporteurs. The French and Foreign Bible Society issued 61,108 Bibles and Testaments; and 6,812 copies were issued by the Protestant Bible Society of Paris.

In Belgium, Holland, and North Germany, the work progresses. Mr. Tiddy issued 7,306 Bibles and Testaments, at Belgium; 21,030, in Holland ; and 64,481 from Cologne.

From Frankfort, Dr. Pinkerton issued 45,829 Bibles and Testaments; a decrease from the amount of last year, arising from difficulties in the times.

The Austrian Government vigorously enforced the requisition, as mentioned last year, that all the Scriptures in the depôts at Güns, Pesth, and Vienna, should be removed out of the country. Under the charge of gendarmes, therefore, 204 bales, and 125 cases, containing 58,087 Bibles and Testaments, were conveyed beyond the frontiers of the Austrian territory, amidst the unavailing tears and sighs of tens of thousands, anxious to possess the precious

volumes, of which they were so mercilessly bereft. Strange infatuation, surely, on the part of the rulers! The books were received by Mr. Millard, at Breslau, in Prussia; but he reports with joy his having issued 41,659 copies in Austria and Hungary; and in the year ending March 1853, 10,502 volumes of the Scriptures.

Lieut. Graydon laboured amid peculiar difficulties in Switzerland and Northern Italy; and his total issues in Lombardy, now amount to 15,000 copies, and 12,000 in the kingdom of Sardinia; of which 7,000 were sold at the depôt, in Turin. His issues for the last year were, 8,000 copies in Switzerland; 60,000 since 1846.

The Netherlands Bible Society issued 31,450 Bibles last year, and finished the Javanese translation of the whole Scriptures.

The Central Prussian Bible Society issued in the year, 14,794 Bibles, and 1,149 Testaments; besides 16,419 copies for the troops; and £300 were voted by the Parent Society in aid of printing for the same use, 12,000 copies of the New Testament.

The Swedish Agency at Stockholm, issued 39,133 Bibles and Testaments. In Norway, the Agency at Christiania issued 1,020 Bibles, and 5,789 Testaments; and 3,200 copies were sent to Drontheim and Stavanger. The Danish Bible Society, for two years ending December 31st, 1851, issued 9,570 copies.

In Russia, the Agency at St. Petersburgh issued 21,332 Bibles and Testaments, besides preparing and transmitting 20,000 Revel Esthonian

Testaments with Psalms, on account of the American Bible Society, for distribution in Esthonia. Besides these, the British Society having resolved in 1841 to supply every household in Finland, destitute thereof, with a copy of the New Testament; 50,086 copies in the Finnish language, and 9,000 in the Swedish have been supplied. The Agency at St. Petersburgh, have been authorized to print a new edition of 20,000 Settish New Testaments for the Parent Society. In the same year also, Mr. Melville issued 7,672 Bibles and Testaments at Odessa.

Spain and Portugal are still, like Italy, closed against the Scriptures, by the policy of Rome.

From Malta, the Rev. T. Lowndes issued 7,633 copies of the Scriptures; and 9,576 were issued by Mr. Barker, from Constantinople, Smyrna, and Bucharest, producing a wonderful reformation among the Armenian Christians.

India still presents a vast field for the Bible Society; and immensely large operations are carried on in the several provinces, in translating, revising, and printing the Scriptures. The Calcutta Auxiliary issued in the past year, 55,819 copies of the Scriptures; 18,742 from Monghyr, and 6,803 from Agra. The Madras Auxiliary issued 67,418 copies; and 5,245 were issued by the Bombay Auxiliary. In Ceylon, the work proceeds; but complete reports have been received only from Jaffna, where the issues have been, 3,254 Bibles, and portions of the Sacred Scriptures.

In China some progress was made, though the controversy regarding the terms for "God" and

"Spirit," was not finally settled: 18,000 copies, in several editions of the New Testament, and 5,000 of the Gospels and Acts were printed, chiefly under the direction of Dr. Medhurst and Dr. Legge, by several grants of £1,300 from the Parent Society, and £500 towards printing an edition of the Old Testament.

The Auxiliary Society at Sydney, issued 2,956 Bibles and Testaments, and ordered 11,367. The South Australian Auxiliary at Adelaide, issued 947; the Melbourne 2,377; and the Van Dieman's Land and Launceston ordered 4,111 copies. The Auxiliary in New Zealand issued 908, and received 1,872, besides 812 New Zealand Testaments, and 4,800 copies of the Pentateuch.

For Tahiti, the Society granted 5,000 New Testaments, and put to press a new edition of 7,000. The distribution of the 5,000 Bibles in the Rarotongan produced excessive joy. To print the Samoan, 500 reams of paper were granted. An edition of 10,000 copies of the New Testament in the Tonga languages, has been granted to the Wesleyan Missionaries; and 5,000 in the Feejee language are being printed for the same. In the New Hebrides, an Auxiliary has been formed, and the Gospel of Matthew nearly translated.

The South African Auxiliary, at Cape Town, issued in the year 3,446 Bibles and Testaments, aided by those of Graham's Town and Salem. The Rev. R. Moffat is progressing with his translation of the Old Testament. In Western Africa, the Gold Coast, Fernando Po, and the Mauritius, the Bible