Part 2

There is one other plan proposed by the British and Foreign Bible Society, which requires to be shortly noticed; _viz._ The pennies collected from the poor. If the representations of Mr. Gisborne are correct, as to the flourishing state of the Auxiliary Bible Society, that their revenue amounted in 1815 to £124,019. 7s. 7d.; that £26,687. 16s. 5d. was expended for the foreign department; that there was left for home consumption annually the sum of £97,331. 11s; 2d.; that, in addition to this income, there are exchequer bills to the amount of £33,822. 3s. 8d., besides funded property to the amount of £10,000 more: with such an immense sum, an unappropriated surplus of £43,000 and upwards, and an income for home consumption of £90,000 and upwards, it may be fairly asked, for what Christian purpose are the poor to be taxed a penny a week, in support of a Society whose income exceeds it expenditure? What reason can there be to tax the paupers of this kingdom to supply foreign nations with Bibles? There is no poor family in the kingdom, to whom 4s. 6d. is not, at the end of the year, a real object, in the purchase of clothing for children, payment of rent, or procuring food and fuel. To deduct such a sum, therefore, from a poor family, is a cruel, a wicked, and an unchristian act. If the poor cannot claim a Bible gratuitously, for what reason is £90,000 taken every year from the pockets of the rich? It is greatly to be feared, that the real purport of this vexatious impost has a more mischievous tendency; and though there are some who have united in this scheme, more from error in judgment, than from badness of intention, yet there are others, whose aim and ambition it is to puritanize the whole community, and to raise the fabric of enthusiasm upon the ruins of Church and State. {15}

* * * * *

* * * * *

FINIS.

* * * * *

_Printed by J. Keymer_, _King-Street_, _Yarmouth_.

FOOTNOTES.

{5a} That edition of the Bible is now sold by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge for 3s.; and therefore, the advantage is still greater than here represented.

{5b} It has been asserted, that the Bible Society affords to its subscribers these Bibles at 3s. 9d.; but as the poor do not receive them till they have paid one penny weekly for a whole year, to them it is not allowed at less than 4s. 4d.; and there are instances, where they have not received them even for that. Whatever indulgence, therefore, the rich subscribers may receive, the poor are not in the least benefited. And the price is far above that allowed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, as may be seen by the note above.

{12} The Bishop of Lincoln.

{15} See British Critic, November, 1815.