books on credit. Subsequently the same bodies have made donations to the general treasury, which, it afterwards appeared, they intended should be in payment of their former purchases. In the intention of the whole body of the contributors to the general missionary purposes of the Society, and on the grounds on which the appeals of the Society to the churches for aid have uniformly been made, and in the very nature of the case, the Book Department is to be regarded as a publishing firm, selling for cash and on credit. Its own interests, as well as the duty of the Society to its supporters, require that it should be governed by those regulations which are essential to the proper business management of all similar establishments, Purchasers who become indebted to it should pay to it in return, nor be permitted to plead that they have given as much money to a benevolent institution. If the Society decides to adhere to the department, it is hoped that the above suggestions will be received with favor. Should they be adopted, they will at least assure the public that the Society is resolved to use its utmost exertions to preserve the department free from all pecuniary dependence on the Foreign Department, and to make it self-supporting. The true state of the department will at least be easily ascertained, and will be publicly exhibited each year. All which is respectfully submitted. J. N. GRANGER, for the Committee. [Note. The action of the Board of Managers on the above Report will be found on the concluding pages of the Annual Report.] Years. Receipts. Appropriations. Paid to Agents. Interest, Discounts, and Bad Money. Expense of Charter Showing the amount of Receipts and Expenditures of the American and Foreign Bible Society, from the first year of its organization down to April 6, 1850. Prof. Conant's tour to Germany. Reports and Period icals. Salary General Ag' and Assistant. Salary Correspond ing Secretary. Incidental Expenses. Unavailable Stock. Paid for Books, Re ports, Periodicals, and Circulars. THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY In Account with Nathan C. Platt, Treasurer. Total foreign appropriations, For paper for Scriptures, Reports, &c., 66 $2,000 00 1,000 00 3,500 00 China, 3,000 00 1,750 00 1,000 00 600 00 400 00 14,750 00 1,000 00 6,511 76 France, 521 51 "Periodical paper, "Depository expenses, including packing-boxes, fuel, station ery, cartage, freight, postage, rent in Boston, insurance, "repairs, stove, fuel, stationery, filling certificates, &c., in 66 Secretaries and Depository agent, "salaries of agents, 118 56 1,957 70 319 72 229 56 150 00 7.00 11,130 15 $44.729 88 1,000 00 $45,729 88 We, the subscribers, a committee appointed by the Board of Managers of the American and Foreign Bible Society to audit the accounts of the Treasurer, do report that we have examined the accounts and vouchers of the Society for the last year, and find the same correct. The receipts from all sources, including a balance of three hundred and eighty-nine dollars and sixtyeight cents from the previous year, have been forty-five thousand three hundred and seventythree dollars and forty-one cents; and the payments have been, including one thousand dollars unavailable funds loaned to Platt & Brother, on interest, forty-five thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine dollars and eighty-eight cents; leaving a balance this day due the Treasurer of three hundred and fifty-six dollars and forty-seven cents. The one thousand dollars unavailable funds, mentioned above as loaned to P. & B., was a legacy from the estate of Thomas Burton, late of Maine, to be invested, and the interest only to be used.* New-York, April 10, 1851. P. TOWNSEND, JOHN DOWLEY, Auditing Committee. The one thousand dollars above alluded to has since been safely invested on bond and mortgage. Fourteenth Annual Report. In fulfilling the duties committed to their trust, the Board of Managers, at the commencement of their term of office, adopted a general course of conduct which they have continued to the close. This course was, to adhere as closely as possible to the established methods of administration, studying meanwhile such changes for future adoption as a careful scrutiny of the Society's experience might indicate as desirable. The members of the Board brought with them to their posts no spirit of criticism with reference to past administrations, nor any desire to signalize their term of office by the adoption of new plans. They looked upon their work as a simple and practical one,-to collect the offerings which Christian disciples might contribute to the treasury of the Society, for "the wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures in all lands,” and to dispense those offerings so as best to reach the poor and perishing. They believed the Society to be worth to its friends and to the world just what it might do practically in the work of the world's evangelization. They loved it, and believed its friends loved it, for its work's sake. Its works, therefore, engrossed their attention. And they have now the privilege of coming before the Society, at the close of their official term, to present a brief statement of what they have been permitted to accomplish, with a few suggestions as to future plans. They offer to the Society their congratulations that the year has been one of unsurpassed prosperity. The receipts have been larger by some thousands of dollars than those of any preceding year in the Society's history, and the calls for disbursements, which have been of the most urgent and practical kind, have been met to a degree which cannot fail to awaken general thanksgiving to the Father of Lights. DEATH OF REV, DR. JUDSON. The Board of Managers received, in the month of September last, the painful intelligence of the decease of this distinguished servant of Christ. His long and eminent labors as a Christian missionary, and especially his services as a translator of the Holy Scriptures, seemed to require at the hands of the Board some special notice of the event; and, in the resolutions passed upon the occasion, a public service commemorative of his life and labors was appointed. This service occurs on Sunday evening next, at the Tabernacle Baptist church, in this city, and the Rev. Rufus Babcock, D.D., formerly Corresponding Secretary of this Society, has been invited to deliver the discourse. The appointment of such a service supersedes the necessity, in this connection, of any extended remarks upon his character, or narration of his various and valuable labors; yet in a brief allusion, the Board cannot refrain from reminding the Society, that it was his fidelity to the true principles of translation, which, in great part, gave occasion for the rise of this organization, and they would express the hope that his illustrious example may perpetually stimulate and encourage its labors, till, not Burmah alone, but all the lands which sit in darkness, shall see the light of God's uncorrupted Word. FOREIGN OPERATIONS. APPROPRIATIONS. The appropriations for the foreign field during the year have been as follows: 1. To the American Baptist Missionary Union : For Printing the New Testament in Sgau Karen, $2,000 1,000 3,500 1,500 3,000 1,750 1,000 600 400 $14,750 It is worth while to pause at this place to consider for one moment the relations of this Society to the American Baptist Missionary Union. It is well known that the American and Foreign Bible Society had its origin in a necessity cast upon the Baptist denomination to sustain the translations of its own missionaries. The principles of translation which those missionaries had adopted, both as impelled by their own convictions and by the instructions of the Baptist Board of Missions, requiring a fidelity to the divine originals so scrupulous as to permit no words to be transferred which could be intelligibly translated, were unacceptable to those with whom Baptists had hitherto co-operated in the work of Bible distribution, and no resource was left them but to assume and carry on their share in that work upon their own responsibility. There were some differences among Baptists as to the best methods of conducting their Bible operations, but there was a wonderful unanimity among them as to the principles on which such operations were to be based. On this essential point it is hardly too much to say that they uttered one voice. The translations of their missionaries were to be sustained. This was the practical work which summoned the energies of the denomination, and to |