172 ; REPORT—1862. 
guardians and relief committees. It appears obvious to the writer that if the death- 
rate in the distressed unions does not permanently exceed, or positively falls below, 
that of prosperous times, the relief granted to the unemployed operatives and their 
families is sufficient to maintain them in health. A greatly increased death-rate, 
on the other hand, must, though it be neither directly nor indirectly the result of 
insufficient aid, be a source of uo little anxiety to those who are now officially or 
voluntarily engaged in alleviating the wants of the poor. Rochdale, for example, 
can give little concern to its guardians just now on the score of mortality. But 
Bury and Salford would in the same matter justify a considerable amount, 
Statistics showing the Increased Circulation of a Pure and Instructive Lite- 
rature adapted to the Capacities and the Means of the Labouring Popula- 
tion. By Henry Roserts, F.S.A. 
The author of this paper, alluding to the progress of sanitary amelioration, and to 
his “ Notes on various Efforts to Improve the Domiciliary Condition of the Labour- 
ing Classes,” given in extenso in the Transactions for 1860, assumed that, in an en- 
lightened seat of learning, the efforts made to promote a healthy state of the mind, 
and of the immortal part of man, would be deemed equally worthy of attention. 
With the progress of popular education in this country, and the unrestricted 
liberty of circulating pat of every description, excepting such as openly outrage 
morality, the desire of gain led to the production of a large amount of low litera- 
ture, most objectionable in its character, tending to foster the worst passions of 
human nature, and stimulating to the commission of crime, as well as to the con- 
tempt of all laws, human and divine. In order to counteract an evil so insidious, 
and one productive of so poisonous a state of the moral atmosphere, it was found 
worse than useless to have recourse to the law, excepting in a very few instances 
of its notorious violation. But much greater success has resulted from the various 
efforts made to supplant and drive out of the field the most injurious of the pub- 
lications in question, by the introduction of such as are calculated to create a 
healthy moral atmosphere, to cultivate the mind, inform the judgment, to improve 
and elevate the taste. 
A notice of the efforts made for promoting this object must, on the present occa- 
sion, be necessarily restricted to those of leading societies, some of which, as their 
titles indicate, were formed originally for the exclusive circulation of strictly reli- 
gious publications, but now combine with that object a more extensive range of 
wre and instructive literature. These societies will be referred to in the order of 
their establishment; and afterwards some statistics will be given to show the ex- 
tent of the circulation of works of the same class by private publishers, which are 
only illustrative of what is now done for this object, though perhaps on a less ex- 
tended scale, by many other publishers in the United Kingdom, 
The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge was founded in 1698, by mem- 
bers of the Established Church. It has three distinct objects, one of them being 
the preparation and circulation of books and tracts, including the Sacred Scriptures 
and Prayer-books, in various languages ; and from this source our army and navy 
have been largely supplied. The supply of emigrants and the system of lending- 
libraries has been long a valuable branch of the society’s operations, and, with a 
special view to the latter object, its publications now embrace works on history, 
biography, philosophy, political economy, natural history, topography, &c., pre- 
pared in an attractive form, and written in a Christian spirit. The outlay on the 
society’s publications has averaged, for the last twenty-five years, about £16,000 
erannum. Its issues in the year 1860 to 1861 were, of Bibles and New Testa- 
ments, 235,592 ; Common Prayer Books, 339,997 ; bound books, 1,952,873 ; tracts, 
&c., 4,105,611 ; total of publications in the year, 6,634,073: and from the year 
1733, when its issues were first reported, it has circulated 148,902,287 copies of 
various publications. 
The Book Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge among the Poor was esta- 
blished in 1750. Its objects are the gratuitous distribution and the sale of Bibles, 
Testaments, and books of established excellence, not exclusively religious, as well 
