The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-02 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY.

On Friday evening, the twenty-ninth anniversary of the
Liverpool Auxiliary to the British and Foreign Bible Society
was held in the Music-hall, Bold-street. There was a nume-
rous and respectable attendance. The following clergymen
were present :—The Rev. A. Brandram, Rev. Dr. Byrth,
Rev. Dr. Tattershall, Rev. Dr. Raffles, Rev. Dr. Beau-
mont, Rev. J. Driffield, Rev. John Jones, Rev. Robert
Davies, Rev. Fielding Ould, Rev. Peter Brown, Rev. D.
James, Rev. H. S. Joseph, Rev. H. Carpenter, Rev. C.
M. Birrall, Rev. James Lister, Rev. David Roberts, Rev.
David Hay, Rev. J. Molineux, and the Rev. Charles Hamil-
ton.

The Rev Dr. BYRTH having been called to the chair,
alluded to the limited support which the society received in
Liverpool, and expressed a hope that the time was not far
distant when it would again attain the high station it once
held in the estimation of the Christian world. He was unable
to understand why the object which the society had in view,
one of such magnitude and benefit, should have been allowed
to sink in the opinion of the Christian public ; for he could
not conceive of any object calculated to recommend itself so
strongly to the British mind as this, so free from objections,
or from anything calculated to give offence—so qualified to
combine all parties—so truly affording an illustration of the
possibility, even now in the midst of our differences, and con-
tentions, and mistakes, of the realisation of the Christian's
best hope, that the day will come at last when we shall see,
even here upon earth, as it were eye to eye, and acknowledge
that there is but one thing worth contending for, the diffu-
sion of the knowledge of truth, and the appreciation of that
truth when communicated to ourselves. The rev. gentleman
also alluded to the very valuable aid which the Church of
England, the Wesleyan, and all other missions derived from
the British and Foreign Bible Society.
The Rev. R. DAVIES, one of the local secretaries, read the
report for the past year. The document stated that the parent
society continued to maintain its high position. The receipts
last year amounted to £111,449 13s ld, being an increase of
about £7OOO over the preceding year; and the issues at home
and abroad, amounted to 716,310 copies of the scriptures.
This was the largest receipt, and this the largest issue by
the society, in any one year since its formation. The total
receipts of the Liverpool auxiliary were £1948, of which the
ladies' branch contributed £358. The sum !emitted to the
parent society was £l6BO. The issues during the past year
were 4140 Bibles and 3439 Testaments, making a total of
7579. The total issue of the auxiliary since 1811, amounted
to 211,119 copies. The committee deeply deplored the want
of agents to carry out the objects of the society ; and the
ladies' committee had again to draw attention to what was
now an annually recurring theme of expostulation, the want
of lady collectors. The report regretted the opposition of the
Roman Catholic priests in South America to the distribution
of the Bible. Captains were now afraid of taking Bibles
out, lest, being found on board, they (the captains) should be
adjudged to be distributors, in which case the vessel and car-
go were liable to confiscation. The fruitful and prosperous
state of the Welsh branch in this town, which last year raised
a sum of above £4OO, was alluded to in terms of commenda-
tion. It was also mentioned that a Young Men's branch
was about to he established in Liverpool.
Mr. EDWARD CROPPER, treasurer of the auxiliary, read
the accounts.
The Rev. C. M. BIRRELL moved the adoption of the re-
port. In the course of his observations he alluded to the
spread of socialism, an evil which he attributed in a great
measure to the want of the scriptures, and mentioned that
the agents of the Town Mission had found, in 242 streets,
1470 families destitute of the word of God. Among those

were 340 Roman Catholic families who were willing to accept
the sacred volume. _ .

The Rev. A. BRANDEAM, secretary of the parent society,
seconded the motion. He expressed the delight he felt at
hearing that efforts had been made in the course of the past
year to revive or establish a Young Men's Bible Association,
and spoke of the very liberal, the almost unexampled, remit-
tance of the Welsh branch in this town, for which the so-
ciety was desirous of returning its especial thanks. Instead
of giving a detail of the operations of the society during the
past year, he thought that he should equally well gain the
object he had in view, the stimulating of the Christian pub-
lic to increased exertions on behalf of the society, by laying
before the audience a statement of the several applications
which would come before the committee at their meeting on
Monday (yesterday.) From this statement it appeared that
urgent applications for copies of the holy scriptures, to a very
large extent, and surpassing the demands of the previous
year, were already before the committee of the parent society
from the Sunday School Society of Ireland, from the French
agent to Paris, from Belgium, from Sweden, from Sincapore,
and various other places in the east, and from many of the
West Indian islands, particularly Jamaica. In conclusion,
he mentioned that a Jamaica paper, which he had received
that day, contained a list of the schools there in connexion
with the Jamaica Educational Society. The list, he said, ap-
peared to comprise from forty to nifty schools, and there
were in them 16,330 scholars.
The Rev. J. JONES moved the second resolution. He
said, that although he had not for some time attended any of
the meetings of the society, he was yet proud of an opportu-
nity of expressing his continued admiration of the principle
and operations of the society. The aspect in which it seemed
to him most valuable was in the important assistance it af-
forded to missionary labours among the heathen. He men-
tioned, on the authority of the secretary of the parent society,
that the scriptures had been translated into 156 languages by
the society, and dwelt at some length, and with considerable
eloquence, on the great advantage to a foreign missionary of
having in his hand a version of the Bible in the tongue of the
people whom he addressed, in order that, when doubts were
raised, or disbelief strengthened by the vicious conduct of
the Europeans who were supposed to be Christians, or where
Roman Catholic missionaries came in and tampered with the
half-converted natives, he might have the opportunity of re-
ferring them to the word of God itself as the standard of
belief.
The Rev. FIELDING OULD seconded the resolution in a
very able speech, statinr, that he admired the society for its
wisely catholic spirit of includinv all trinitarian Christians,
and answered the objections which had been brought against
churchmen connecting themselves with dissenters in the dif-
fusion of the word of God. He mentioned that the society

had distributed, since its formation, 12,332,471 copies of the
scriptures, and expressed a hope that the British and Foreign
Bible Society would have a regular income of half a million
sterling. •

The-third resolution was moved by the Rev. Dr. BEAU-
MONT, and seconded by the Rev. Dr. TArnmsn ALL.
On the motion of the Rev. Dr. RAFFLES, a vote of thanks
to the chairman was passed, amidst much applause.
The meeting terminated at ten o'clock.

• INQUESTS.
(Before P. F. Curry, Esq., Coroner.)
AWFULLY SUDDEN DEATH.—Yesterday, an inquisition
was held on view of the body of Jane Blaylock. A female,
named Horrocks, said, that on Sunday morning she went to
Christ Church, and observed the deceased enter the pew ad-
joining that in which she was. She leaned forward in coming
in as if saying a prayer, and when in the act of rising up she
fell forward and appeared to faint. The witness went up to
her immediately and found her quite insensible. She was
carried out immediately, and a surgeon who was in the church
was called out, but she only breathed once after being got
out, and died. A servant, named M'llougald, said the de-
ceased was her fellow servant. She was 35 years of age. On
Sunday morning, about half-past ten o'clock, she went out
for the purpose of going to church. She appeared then to
be quite well. Mr. Edward Bulteel, the surgeon who went
to the assistance of the deceased, said that she was almost
dead when he reached her, and died immediately afterwards.
He had since made an examination of the body, and was of
opinion that the deceased died from apoplexy. The jury re-
turned a verdict to that effect.

A MAN UNKNOWN DROWNED.—On Saturday, the body
of a man was found by the mate of the revenue cutter, at the
entrance of Wallasey Pool, between Seacombe and Woodside,
The body, being in a state of decay, was towed across the
river, and deposited in the dead-house. Yesterday, an in-
quest was held upon it, but from the decomposition that had
taken place from its having been long in the water, it was
found impossible to prove the identity of the deceased by any
evidence that could be brought forward. The features, in-
deed, were nearly obliterated. The jury therefore returned
a verdict to the effect, that " the deceased, who was unknown,
was found drowned." The deceased had on a Petersham
frock coat, a light coloured waistcoat, and dark trousers.
DEATH BY 13URNING.—The fatal accidents that arise from
parents of children leaving them in rooms in which there are
tires are so numerous, that we may almost say they are con-
tinuous. Yesterday, an inquest was held on view of the body
of Henry Bridge, a fine child of about five years of age, son
of a widow, lodging in Meadow-street. It appeared that the
mother had gone out, leaving the deceased playing with some
other children in the room, in which there was only a small
fire. A person in the house hearing a scream ran to the
stair, and found the deceased in flames, which she extin-
guished as speedily as possible. The deceased was carried
to the Dispensary, where he was dressed, and was afterwards
attended by a surgeon, but he died from the effects of the
burning on Saturday night. Verdict, " accidental death."