BIBLE SOCIETIES. 



525 



inaccuracy of some of the translations executed un- 1 

 Jt-r the authority of the society, such as the Turkish 

 New Testament, printed at Paris in 1819; and a 

 fourth, not less serious, appears to be impending over 

 the society, on the admissibility of anti-trinitarians to 

 the privilege of membership. 



The Edinburgh Bible Society consists of all who 

 are disposed to promote the circulation of the Scrip- 

 tures, being Protestants, and professing their belief 

 in the doctrine of the holy trinity. Its funds arise 

 from subscriptions, collections, and the contributions 

 of nearly one hundred associations in different parts 

 of Scotland. In the course of 1830, it expended 

 about 4000. In that time, it issued above 10,000 

 Bibles and Testaments in English, and 3000 in Gae- 

 lic, in which language it has recently printed 15,000 

 copies in different sizes, and has in the press a second 

 edition of 10,000 copies of a pocket Bible. It has 

 sent above 3000 Bibles and Testaments to Ireland in 

 the course of the year, and has given 200 to the 

 Hibernian Bible society, and 200 to the society in 

 Dublin for education through the medium of the 

 Irish language. It has, in the same period, issued 

 4174 Bibles, and 1108 Testaments, in foreign lan- 

 guages, including French, German, Spanish, Portu- 

 guese, and Italian. It has contributed largely to the 

 publication of correct editions of the Bible in the 

 German and French languages. 



This society, with some others in Scotland, has, 

 within the last few years been engaged in a law-suit 

 with his majesty's printers for Scotland, who Insisted 

 on preventing the importation of Bibles printed be- 

 yond the bounds of Scotland. Though the patentees 

 have succeeded in obtaining an interdict against im- 

 portation, the result of the aqtion has upon the whole 

 been favourable to the public. In a memorial on the 

 case of the Bible societies, printed in 1824, many in- 

 accuracies in the common editions of the Bible were 

 complained of, and in several other respects the Bibles 

 printed in Scotland were alleged to be inferior to 

 some of the English editions. It cannot be denied, 

 that a manifest improvement in the appearance of 

 the Edinburgh editions has since taken place ; and 

 the printers are fully aware, that if they were to in- 

 cur the charge of printing carelessly, or imposing 

 unreasonable prices, there are persons alive who 

 would not be slack in complaining of these grievances, 

 and endeavouring to procure redress. 



The number of Bible societies throughout the 

 world, given in the 24th report of the Bible society, 

 is as follows : In Great Britain and Ireland, con- 

 nt-cted with the British and Foreign Bible Society, 

 i'o'jJ auxiliaries, 350 branches, and 1493 associations ; 

 in Ireland, connected with the Hibernian Bible so- 

 ciety, 70 auxiliaries, 38 branches, and 18 associa- 

 tions ; on the European continent and in the Ionian 

 Mauds, 854 societies ; in Asia, 13 ; in Africa, 4 ; in 

 America, 630 ; total, 3732. Since the publication 

 of this report, many more societies have been formed. 



In Germany, the following were the chief Bible 

 societies in 1817 : one at Hanover, where an edition 

 of the Bible, of 10,000 copies, has been completed ; 

 one at Berlin ; one at Dresden, which, besides a stereo- 

 type edition of the German Bible, has also published 

 an edition in the Wendish tongue, for Lusatia ; one at 

 Frankfort on the Maine. In Bavaria, the distribu- 

 tion of the Bible has been confined to the efforts of 

 individuals. (180,000 copies of the Catholic transla- 

 tions of the New Testament, by Gossner and van Ess, 

 hud been distributed in Germany and Switzerland, 

 up to 1821. Many of these reached the Austrian 

 provinces, which at present are closed against Ger- 

 man Bibles.) The society of Stuttgart has printed 

 mi _ edition of 10,000 Bibles and 2000 Testaments, 

 which have already been taken up. Societies exist 



at Hamburg, Baden, Weimar, Bremen, Lubeck ; at 

 Schleswic-Holstein, Schwerin, Ratzeburg, Kutiii, 

 Brunswick, &c. (each of them having auxiliary socie- 

 ties). Protestant Switzerland has a Bible society of 

 its own ; so had the kingdom of the Netherlands, 

 which provided its colonies with Bibles. In Paris, 

 such a society was instituted, December 6, 1818, for 

 the Protestants in France. The means of this society 

 were small (in 1820, not more than 58,212 francs had 

 been received), and it had principally in view the 

 supplying of schools, hospitals, and prisons ; but, as 

 Catholics also have received the Bible, it met 

 with a strong opposition from the papal Jesuitical 

 party in France. In Strasburg, an edition of 20,000 

 Bibles was printed for Alsace. In Sweden, the chief 

 society in Stockholm have distributed a large number 

 of Bibles and Testaments. In Norway and Denmark, 

 editions have been published with the same view, and 

 the Danish society has branches in Iceland and the 

 West Indies. The Russian society in Petersburg lias 

 vied witli the British, and some years since had 

 printed the Bible in thirty-one languages and dialects 

 spoken in the Russian dominions, among which is 

 one in the modern Russian, since the translation of 

 the church is in the Sclavonic, and unintelligible to 

 laymen. This new translation has been joyfully 

 received by the country people, and shows them the 

 errors and superstitions which disfigure the ritual of 

 the Greek church. On this account, it will probably 

 give rise to contests, which can hardly be terminated 

 without a gradual reformation of the Greek church. 

 Part of the clergy are opposed to the distribution of 

 the Bible, and persecutions against zealous readers of 

 the sacred book have already taken place in the 

 more distant governments. The gospels in the Cl- 

 muc language and the Persian New Testament are 

 much sought, for. A translation of the Bible for the 

 Buriats, Mongol worshippers of the Lama, near lake 

 Baikal, is preparing, with the assistance of two young 

 Buriats of high birth, who embraced Christianity at 

 Petersburg. Auxiliary societies have been formed 

 at Irkutsk, Tobolsk, among the Kirghises, Georgians, 

 and Cossacks of the Don. The word of God is car- 

 ried from Odessa to the Levant. The bull of Pius 

 VII. June 28, 1816, obtained by the archbishop of 

 Gnesen, did not prevent the Poles from forming a 

 society in Warsaw, under the protection of Alexan- 

 der. In 1817, the distribution of the Bible by such 

 societies was forbidden in Austria, and those already 

 existing in Hungary were suppressed. Italy, Spain, 

 and Portugal have had, as yet, no Bible societies ; 

 France only one ; but the British have provided them 

 with Bibles in their own tongues. In the United 

 States of America, the great American Bible society, 

 formed in 1816, acts in concert with the auxiliary 

 societies, of which, in 1829, there were 630. The 

 management of the society is intrusted to a board of 

 managers ; stereotype plates have been procured, 

 and Bibles are issued at a low price for the auxilia- 

 ries, and for gratuitous distribution among the poor. 

 During the first year, 6,410 copies of Bibles and Tes- 

 taments were distributed. In 1827, the niunber 

 amounted to 146,000, and during the first eight 

 months of 1828, to 140,000. The whole number 

 issued since the organization of the society, up to 

 1829, was about 700,000. These have been mostly 

 in English, Spanish, and French, from the society's 

 plates. The managers have occasionally purchased 

 Bibles in Europe, and issued them to applicants, in 

 German, Dutch, Welsh, Gaelic, Portuguese, modern 

 Greek, and some other Eiiropean languages. They 

 have also furnished money to print translations into 

 pagan languages, by American missionaries. They 

 have in operation eight power presses and twenty 

 hand presses, and copies are prepared at the rate of 



