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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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