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CHAPTER XXVIII.

BARTLETT'S BUILDINGS.

Contents.

I. Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. II. Society for promoting Christian Knowledge.-III. Objects. Charity Schools.-IV. Dispersion of Bibles, Liturgies, and Tracts.-V. Irish and Manx Bibles.— VI. Gaelic and other Translations.--VII. Mant and Doyley's Family Bible.-VIII. Remarks.-IX. Family Prayer-book.-X. Books and Tracts.-XI. Supplemental Catalogue.-XII. Missions: Scilly, Hindostan.-XIII. Missionaries: Swartz, &c. chiefly Germans and Danes.-XIV. Buchanan's Christian Researches.-XV. Calcutta made a Bishopric; Bishop Middleton.-XVI. Bishop Heber.-XVII. Diocesan and District Committees.-XVIII. Anti-Infidel Branch. -XIX. Remarks.-XX. Parochial Libraries.-XXI. General Remarks on the Society.-XXII. Evangelical Influence.-XXIII. Removal of the Society to Lincoln's Inn Fields.

Incorporated Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts*.

I. CONCERNED at the growth of vice and immorality, and tracing it to ignorance of the prin

See Vol. iii. p. 98.

ciples of Christianity, a few individuals, high in station and eminent in piety, assembled, in March 1699, and formed the rudiments of a Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. They proposed to erect catechetical schools, to establish parochial libraries, and to distribute good books; and fixed the chief sphere of their labours in North America, where the provision for the clergy was mean. Around this nucleus all the chief divines of that period were very quickly gathered: Bishops Stillingfleet, formerly mentioned,-Kidder, who wrote the "Demonstration of the Coming of the Messiah," and Fowler, author of the "Design of Christianity;" Dean Stanhope, known by his " Epistles and Gospels;" Kennet, the historian; Nicholls, the commentator on the Liturgy; Grabe, the editor of the "Septuagint;" Wheeler, the traveller, who wrote likewise on the "Character of the primitive Christians;" Blackmore, the poet, on "The Creation;" the pious Nelson, whose "Festivals and Fasts" are found wherever a country pastor has a book-shelf; Melmoth, who wrote and exemplified "The Importance of a religious Life;" Lewis, who penned a History of the Translations of the Bible;" all assisted in the early deliberations of the society. In 1701, King William incorporated them by charter, as the Society for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts; the better to encourage that branch of

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their plan, which related to the British colonies beyond the seas*.

The operations of this society have hitherto been principally confined to the North American continent, and the contiguous islands. More than eighty missionaries are now employed in their service, with liberal salaries; who disseminate the purest form of Christianity throughout Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, the two Canadas, Cape Breton; and their care has lately been extended towards the Bahama Islands, the coast of Africa, New South Wales, and Norfolk Island. The missionaries are supplied with Bibles, Prayer-books, and short religious tracts; assistance is afforded in the erection of churches, and salaries are given to catechists and schoolmasters. The directing members of this society belong exclusively to the Established Church of England.

* Owen's History of Bible Societies; General Account of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, published at Bartlett's Buildings, 1821; Charity Almanac for 1823, p. 155; Collins's Summary of Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 514; Basil Woodd's Sermon at Aylesbury.

Both these societies mainly owe their institution to the zeal of Dr. Thomas Bray, minister of St. Botolph, Aldgate. (See his Memoirs, printed by Rivington, 1808). Dr. Bray also instituted another society, now entitled "Dr. Bray's Associates," for the purpose of providing parochial libraries, for the benefit of the ministers of small livings, and for the conversion of adult negroes.

Recently, under the auspices of this chartered body, the National system has been introduced into America, with much advantage to the religious and moral character of the people. Establishments have been organized, on the Madras plan, at Halifax, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Quebec: whence the rising generation derive those facilities in instruction, which have been so widely and so advantageously diffused throughout the mother country *.

II. The chartered society having chiefly confined its views to the plantations in North America, the original members enlarged their views, under the character of a voluntary association, distinct from their corporate capacity, and retaining the original name of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. Not interfering with the sister association, they prosecuted their benevolent designs at home, and extended their zealous labours first to India, and gradually into other countries of the world.

* Never ought to be forgotten, a noble act of assistance extended, in 1733, to the persecuted Protestants of Saltzburg; whom the society conveyed to their new settlement in Georgia, and supplied with pecuniary relief. It likewise supported, till the American war, two missionaries, for the com. fort of that family.

+ Brewster's Secular Essay; General Account of the Society, 1821; Middleton's Memoir, p. 84 and 264; Charity Almanac, 1823, p. 1; History of the Church, vol. iii. p. 182,

III. Among their leading engines of improvement was the establishment of catechetical, since called Charity Schools; in which children were at once taught religious and useful knowledge, and trained in industrious habits. In 1711, five thousand children were educated, and many of them clothed, boarded, and apprenticed, in London and Westminster; and in 1741, one thousand six hundred schools, in England and Wales, gave education to forty thousand children. In 1784, the rise of Sunday schools was hailed and encouraged by the same institution; and in 1811, when the National Society was formed, for educating the children of the poor, on a new and enlarged scale, an increased expense was cheerfully incurred at Bartlett's Buildings, to favour a resolution, that no books should be used in the schools, throughout the union, save those on the catalogue of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. One thousand eight hundred schools, and three hundred thousand children, are embraced in the scope of this resolution.

IV. To disperse, and sell at a reduced price, Bibles, Prayer-books, and other religious tracts, was another leading object proposed by the society. Their funds, however, were limited; and even in 1736, amounted only to 450l. per annum. Having enlarged their means, through the success of a letter written by the Bishop of London to his clergy, they directed their attention to the

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