Classified Digest of the Records of the S.P.G. (S.P.G. Office.)—It
was originally proposed to publish the records of the S.P.G. in extenso. The pecuniary risk, however, seemed to be greater than the Society, having regard to the demands upon its funds, could legitimately encounter. Accordingly, this digest has been made. The labour expended on it must have been very large. It has cost Mr. C. F. Pascoe, who undertook the task, "all his leisure- time and his annual holidays for the last five years." To this gentleman, therefore, in the first place, are due the thanks of all interested in missions. Due also they are, in the second place, to the Rev. H. W. Tucker, the secretary, who has edited the digest and made himself responsible for its accuracy. After a brief history of the origin of the Society, we have an account of its work in various places, the first twelve chapters being given to what is now the United States. The succeeding sections are British North America, the West Indies and South America, Africa, Australasia, and Asia. No British Colony has been outside the operations of the Society, the Falkland Islands being the only place where it has not had a paid missionary. Nor have its opera- tions been confined to the Colonies. In Asia, for instance, China, Corea, Manchuria, and Japan appear in the list of localities to which its labours have been extended. Some little time ago, we objected in these columns to the claim of priority in the mission-field made for the Baptist Missionary Society, whose centenary had then been celebrated. "Prom the first," we read in the preface, "it [the Society] has had direct missions to the heathen." And it was founded, it will be remembered, in 1701. In that year its income was £1,537. In 1711, it had for the first time a " Royal Letter." This, which authorised a collection throughout England and Wales, raised in 1854, when it was last issued, .228,870 (it bad been as high as £41,883). The income last year was just over £100,000,—no very magnificent sum, it must be allowed. No legacies were left before 1799, when 4349 was received. In the year following the discontinuance of the Royal Letter, the legacies rose from £3,191 to £10,853.
Previous page
