BRIEF VIEW

OF THE PRINCIPAL RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETIES, THROUGHOUT

THE WORLD.

EUROPE.

ENGLAND.

The first Society known to have engaged extensively in the printing and circulation of Religious Tracts is THE SOCIETY IN ENGLAND FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, incorporated by the British Parliament, in 1647. It is not known how early the Society commenced this mode of operation, nor how much it accomplished in this way, during the first 150 years. From the first volume of the Christian Observer, for the year 1802, it appears, that it had circulated many Tracts previous to that time. In 1804, it circulated 103,000; in 1811, 130,000; in 1816, 683,301, in which year the whole amount of its issues, in Books, Tracts, Broad Sheets, &c. was 1,202,961. In 1819, this Society, alarmed by the progress of infidelity, issued a circular requesting funds to print Tracts expressly designed to counteract its influence; £5,000 were soon contributed for the purpose, which enabled the Society to issue 34 new Tracts, of which, in three months previous to May, 1819, 400,000 copies were put in circulation. The issues of this Society in 1823 amounted to 1,400,711 Books and Tracts and other small publications; and it had then printed 14,000 Tracts in the languages of India.

The Tracts issued by this Society, however, constitute but a very small part of its operations; its annual receipts and expenditures for the spread of the Gospel, especially for missions, amount to near $250,000.

The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge among the Poor in England, and some other kindred Institutions, have circulated many Tracts as an Auxiliary to their other and more prominent benevolent designs.

LONDON RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

This Society was instituted in 1799, and may properly be termed the parent of all other Religious Tract Societies, now existing in any part of the world. It had circulated several millions of Tracts before any other, of any considerable magnitude, was instituted; and has given to all, whether in Britain, or in foreign lands, the use of its publications, the benefit of its example, its cordial co-operation, and in many instances, essential pecuniary aid. It was instituted four years after Mrs. Hannah More and her friends commenced the publication of the Tracts of the Cheap Repository. The happy influence of these Tracts was perceived by the friends of Religion, and the REV. GEORGE BURDER and the REV. SAMUEL GREATHEED soon published a number of Tracts, exclusively Religious, under the denomination of Village Tracts. By the success of this measure, the importance of this branch of benevolent exertion was more deeply felt, and at the suggestion of the former of these Gentlemen, a number of valuable friends united with him in forming THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, on the broad principle of circulating those simple evangelical truths, in which all, of every denomination, "who are looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus unto eternal life, may unite with pleasure, as in one great common cause." During the same year, another Society was formed in London, "for the gratuitous distribution of Evangelical Tracts;" but a conference being proposed between the Committees of the two Institutions, they were immediately united in the RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY.

Though the operations of the Society in its commencement, were humble, in comparison with what they have since been, they were characterized by energy and fixedness of purpose. Previous to presenting the first annual report, thirty four Tracts were published, twenty three of them original; and above 200,000 copies were put in circulation. At the end of its second year, the series of Tracts amounted to sixty one, and 800,000 had been circulated. At the end of the third year, 1,000,000 had been circulated; at the end of the fourth, 1,400,000; at the end of the fifth, 1,700,000.*

*It is an interesting fact, that the BRITISH AND FOReign Bible SOCIETY, instituted in 1804, owes its arigin, under God, to the London Religious Tract Society.

While the Committee were thus pursuing their operations, they discovered a constantly widening field of usefulness opening before them. They not only increased the exertions they had hitherto been making, but commenced the Translation of Tracts into other languages; and in August, 1805, moved by the overwhelming influence which a flood of infidel and other vile publications was exerting upon the lower orders of society, they conceived the idea of publishing a distinct series of Tracts, adapted to gain their attention, and to supplant the mischievous publications with which they were furnished in great profusion by unprincipled men, for mere purposes of gain. A new and considerably extensive series for this purpose, was immediately issued. They were short; and by narrating memorable and interesting incidents, with which suitable and serious reflections were interwoven, were peculiarly calculated to answer the end designed. They were ornamented with engravings illustrating the striking scenes, and were sold, in many instances, below the actual cost, that the vender might realize more profit from the sale of them, than from disposing of other and injurious publications. And so happy was the result of the measure, that in nineteen months, ending May, 1807, seven hundred and fifty two thousand copies of this series were put in circulation. In the succeeding year, in addition to a million of the first series, four hundred and fifty thousand of this gained a circulation; and the Committee reported, at their annual meeting, that in less than ten months, about three hundred thousand of the profane and immoral books commonly sold to Hawkers, were known to have been kept out of circulation, by this series of Tracts having been purchased instead of them. In order to promote the circulation of this series, measures were early adopted to enlist beggars and other vagrants in the work. One of these measures was the issuing of Tickets, each of which entitled the bearer to twelve Hawker's Tracts. Great numbers of these tickets have been purchased by the benevolent, and given to the beggar, instead of money. These publications were afforded at so low a rate, that, in numerous instances, Booksellers, wholly unconnected with the Society, adopted the expedient of making them up into little books, with neat covers and coloured prints, for the use of children; and in 1810, the Society printed a selection on superior paper and in a neat style, to be used as Reward Books for Children in Sabbath Schools.

In 1819, this series of Tracts was carefully revised by the Committee; and in 1820, those of this series which are not embraced in the first series, were republished in a duodecimo volume of 650 pages. Near the close of this year, by a simultaneous effort of the Committee and other friends of evangelical truth, to stem the current of Infidel and other vile publications at that time most indus triously circulated, there were sold and distributed, in the short space of nine weeks, no less than 600,000 Tracts of this series.

In the year 1814, the Society commenced the publication of Tracts on Broad Sheets, to be affixed to the walls of cottages, public houses, ships, &c. In 1815, it began a new series of Children's Books, in a small size, ornamented with many engravings, and adapted, every way, to excite the attention of the young, and to meet their approbation. This series has been constantly receiving improvements, and has been sought with such avidity, that the issues, in the year ending May, 1824, amounted to 1,688,760. Owing to these and other similar efforts, together with the establishment of Sabbath Schools, it is calculated, that “more than two hundred thousand juvenile readers are, in Great Britain, every year added to the mass already athirst for information, and comparatively destitute of the means to obtain it."

The Society has also, from time to time, seized on the occasions which have created great popular excitements, as the death of the Princess Charlotte and the Coronation, to publish Occasional Tracts, not numbered in any series. In 1823, a series of Hand Bills was commenced, and soon after, a series of Short Stories for Children under ten years of age, calculated to allure their attention and leave some important truth fixed in their tender minds.

To these publications are to be added the Tract Magazine, and the Child's Companion, commenced in January 1824, and issued monthly; the former in a duodecimo size and containing 12 pages, the latter in a very small size and containing 32 pages. Each of these had, a half year after their commencement, a circulation of 30,000 copies monthly. Both are composed chiefly of short articles, of the same character as the other publications of the Society; and the Magazine embraces extracts from the correspondence of the Society, lists of its new publications, its monthly receipts, &c. In 1820, this Society had printed one Tract in the Welsh lan

guage, 7 in the Irish, 18 in French, 12 in Dutch, 4 in Spanish, 2 in Portuguese, 6 in Italian, 7 in German, 3 in Danish, and 1 in Swedish. It has since added 9 new Tracts to the series in Spanish. Some of the Society's Tracts, either in part or wholly at their expense, have been translated into each of the following languages:

The Society had, at the end of its twenty fifth year, May 1824,

Besides à considerable number of Bound volumes and Christmas Carols, and its periodical publications.

The following brief outline of the progress of the Society, from the comparatively small issues of its first year, to the ton millions reported at its twenty fifth anniversary, though given in round numbers down to the year 1818, and in the years 1814-1816 prob❤ ably falling somewhat short of the reality, is sufficiently accurate for all practical purposes.