After this brief exposition of this invaluable Institution, your Committee enter with pleasure upon the duty of reporting to its Friends the proceedings which have taken place since the last General Meeting. By a faithful attention to the numerous applications for assistance, in the formation and establishment of Sunday Schools within the last year, your Committee have added two hundred and seventy-nine to the Society's list.-(For particulars, see page 70.) Besides which, forty-two other schools formerly established by this Society have received repeated assistance. within the same time, for which, and the 279 new schools before stated, the Committee have distributed 23,821 spelling books, and 3558 testaments.-The total number of books given at the Society's, expence since the commencement of the Institution, is 426,297 spelling books, 87,092 testaments, and 8177 bibles, to 4791 schools, containing upwards of 400,000 scholars.-And from the commencement till about the 24th year of the Institution, your Committee were under the necessity of paying small sums for the hire of teachers in many of the schools under their patronage to the amount of £4179: 8: 5, as, during that period they could not be otherwise obtained; but, through the blessing of God, in the towns and villages where these schools have been planted the happy effects produced by them in the conduct both of children and parents are so manifest, that individuals now generally volunteer their services as teachers without fee or reward, and with much more effect than by those who were hired, so that for the last six or seven years your Committee have not had a single application for pecuniary aid; yet, notwithstanding this favourable circumstance, such has been the rapid increase of Sunday Schools, and conse quently the demand for books, that the expences of the Society have continued to advance from year to year. Your Committee however, cannot suffer their zeal in promoting its operations to be restrained by any apprehension of the paucity of its contributors or the insufficiency of its funds; they have acted on a presumption. which they continue to cherish, that the same Providence which points to the extension of the Society's employment will furnish the means for carrying it into effect; and that the Institution will be supported with a liberality proportioned to the degree in which its services are employed for disseminating Christian instruction, and thereby promoting the best interests of mankind. Previous to the establishment of Sunday Schools, the children of the poor were, it is well known, generally brought up in the grossest ignorance, and paid little or no attention to the Christian Sabbath.-The change produced by this Institution in the habits of the children, and the general improvement in their appearance is now so obvious, that the most superficial observer cannot fail to remark it, and is abundantly confirmed by numerous testimonies received from time to time by your Committee. If there be one object with which hardly any other can be placed in competition, it is Education; not that which is ornamental, but that which serves to supply principle, to induce active industry, to promote the love of God and of our neighbour, and to prepare us for our duty in our allotted station of life. This Society provides so effectually for educating those whose time is taken up in the days of labour by the calls of their necessary occupations, and also for recovering them from vagrancy, disorder, and irreligion on the sabbath day, and training them up to a due observance of that holy appointment, that it must ever be regarded as an Institution connected most nearly and vitally with the vigor, the improvement, and the stability of the country. At present, the demands for its aid exceed any thing which has yet been experienced. Its operations are going forward to a great part of the British Dominions; and there is reason to believe that, if suitably supported, it will penetrate into those parts which remain unenlightened, and supply the poor generally with the means of understanding and appreciating those Scriptures, which, through the blessing of God, may make them wise unto salvation. A LIST THE SUBSCRIBERS. Those marked * are Donations. *ADAM, J. W. Esq. New Grove-house, Mile-end 10 10 Adams, Mrs. Reading Adams, Miss Sarah, ditto Adderley, Thomas, Esq. 6, Burrows'-buildings £. s. d 0 112 2 Alexander, James, Esq. New-inn, St. Clements 1 1 20 20 .... 14 9 6 Anstie, Mr. B. Webb, Devizes, Wilts........ Austen, Rev. Dr. Robert, Middleton, Ireland *Averell, Rev. Adam, Dublin...... *A. J. .... .... 10 10. 0 .. 15 5 0 Babington, Thomas, Esq. M. P. Downing-street 220 Bagster, George, Esq. Pancras..... *Bainbridge, Thomas, Esq. Guildford-street.. 10 Ditto, Annual O 1 1 0 Ο 0 220 |