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Instructions furnished to the Agent.

use of the ship's company, a supply of Bibles and Testaments, according to the following scale: viz.

For vessels navigated with six or seven men, one Bible and two Testa

ments.

For vessels navigated with eight or nine men, one Bible and three
Testaments.

For vessels navigated with ten men and upwards, a Bible for each
watch, and a Testament for every three or four men.

IV. This authority to bestow Bibles and Testaments gratuitously on ships that are unfurnished with them, need not, however, be used in cases where the captain feels the obligation incumbent on him, or shews a willingness to provide the requisite means of instruction for his crew. In such cases, copies of the Scriptures may be supplied to him at prime cost, and the gratuitous supply will then be unnecessary.

v. The description of Bibles and Testaments to be gratuitously bestowed must for the present be left to your discretion; with this general remark, that we should wish economy to be consulted, as far as may be consistent with higher objects.

VI. At the same time that the ship is thus supplied with the Scriptures for the use of the seamen, it will be desirable that an offer should be made to the seamen themselves of Bibles and Testaments, for their own use, at half the prime cost. We are disposed at present to think that it will not be expedient to give copies of the Scriptures to individual seamen. Those who value them sufficiently to make this course at all proper, will not hesitate to purchase them at the reduced rate which has been mentioned.

VII. It will be particularly important that every fact should be minutely noted by you, as far as time and circumstances will permit, which may be likely to aid us in our future measures, and to throw light on the moral condition of the seamen, on the disposition manifested by them to receive and read the Scriptures, and on the disposition shewn by the officers to encourage their men in so doing. It would also be useful to know how many there may be on board who can read them; and if an opportunity should be offered of making the suggestion, those who cannot, might be incited to employ their leisure time, during the voyage, in learning to read from those who can.

VIII. We are well persuaded that no prudent exertions will be wanting on your part to interest all classes on board in the Society's object, to induce the officers to give the requisite encouragement to the men in reading the Scriptures, and to induce the men to read them, and to dispense the benefit of them also to such of their shipmates as cannot read themselves.

Ix. It will be proper also to recommend the books to the special care of the captain or chief officer.

x. Besides keeping a book, which shall exhibit clearly the receipts and issues of Bibles, and the stock in hand, under columns corresponding with the numbers in the inclosed schedule,* and a book which shall also clearly record all your cash transactions in the society's account (with which books you will be furnished), it will be necessary to keep a clear register of all your proceedings in a book which will also be furnished for the purpose, and according to the form there prescribed. + Of the entries in the book, it will be necessary that transcripts should, on a fixed day in each week, be sent

to us.

• This schedule will be found under the head of "Agent's Registry," in Section IV.

+ This form is similar to that recommended in Section IV. of this chapter.

Weekly Report of the Agent.

XI. The secretaries will also furnish you with a number of copies of the address and plan of the society, and of the circular letters intended for shipmasters, which you will employ according to your discretion in forwarding the society's views."

5. The following extracts from the First Annual Report of the London Merchant-Seamen's Society, will illustrate the practical tendency of these instructions, and of the mode pursued by this society:

1. "Those who are acquainted with the state of the maritime concerns of this port, will feel the propriety of confining the gratuitous supply of the Scriptures within the limits prescribed by the Committee. While such seamen as value the Scriptures sufficiently to pay a trifling price for them, have the opportunity of purchasing them, the copies which are gratuitously supplied are given, not to the seamen themselves, but to the ship for their use: they are to be regarded as part of the ship's furniture, to be used for the instruction and edification, not merely of the present crew on the present voyage, but of successive crews on successive voyages.

11. The instructions given to Lieutenant Cox have been carried into effect with a singular degree of regularity. The Committee have never failed to receive, on the appointed day, the weekly report of his proceedings; and each succeeding report has tended at the same time to excite a livelier interest in the society's objects, and to call forth their gratitude for being allowed to bear any part, however humble, in promoting their attainment. III. The reports of Lieutenant Cox are drawn up in a tabular form, and they exhibit distinctly the following particulars :

1. The Date.

2. The Name of the Ship visited.

3. The Captain.

4. The Ship's Owner or Husband.

5. The Port to which the Ship belongs.

6. The Voyage on which the Ship is bound.
7. The number of the Ship's Company.

8. The number of those who can read.

9. The number of Bibles and Testaments found on board.

10. The number supplied gratuitously.

11. The number sold, and the amount.

These particulars are accompanied by general observations, of a very useful and interesting description."

In order to prevent the improper disposal of Bibles and Testaments designed for "the use of the ship," the Committee, in addition to the stamp affixed to the title-page, have directed their agent to brand the outside cover of every copy distributed, with the words "Merchant-Seamen's Auxiliary Bible Society, London." They have also adopted the plan, originally devised at Bishop-Wearmouth, of recommending the owners and captains of ships to provide boxes, of which the agent exhibits a model, for the preservation of the Bibles.

Abstract of the Proceedings to the present time.

6. In the Second Annual Report, the Committee detail the mode of their proceedings, in reference to the supply of seamen in the coasting-trade; for which purpose, exclusively, they have appointed an active and judicious agent, and fixed the rate of sale at three-fourths of the cost price. The propriety of this arrangement will be evident, when it is stated, that, in the short period of nine months, nearly 1300 Bibles and Testaments have been sold to seamen employed in this branch of trade.

7. The following abstract of the agent's reports will exhibit the results of this institution to the 21st of March, 1821 :I. Total number of ships visited and supplied

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of ships found totally destitute of

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3,157 49,456

832

8,149

1,962

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Bibles.... 2591
Testaments 6509

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9100

At reduced prices {

Bibles. . . . 1849
Testaments. 1204

3053

12,153

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The total amount of 14,031 Bibles and Testaments
received by the Society to March 1821, at cost
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The amount remitted to the British and Foreign
Bible Society, is

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Leaving a balance against the Society of.. £. 1633. 3. 5 But the Committee of the Parent Society, under a sense of the exigency of the case, and of the unavoidable extent of the incidental expenses attending the institution, have, with their usual liberality, granted Bibles and Testaments to the amount of this balance, and thus extinguished a debt which must otherwise have paralysed the future efforts of the Committee. On this subject they observe, in their Second Annual Report,

"Whether we shall be hereafter enabled, by the zeal and charity of the merchants and ship-owners of London, to repay these sums into its treasury, and thus to vindicate the title we have assumed of an Auxiliary, is uncertain. But we can make them a return, which, to the members of that institution, will be still more gratifying ;-we can shew them that good has been effected by their bounty; and that the seed they have enabled us to sow among our seamen is producing a rich harvest of blessings."

Beneficial effects produced on the moral character of Seamen.

8. An important part of Lieutenant Cox's duties consists in revisiting the ships he has supplied, to ascertain whether the Scriptures furnished by the society remain on board, and whether they have been read by the seamen. In discharging this branch of his duty, he has received the most gratifying and unequivocal evidence of the moral benefits derived from this institution.

Ah,

"The alteration that has been effected in my crew,' said one captain, 'by reading of the Scriptures, would astonish any one: they are become quite different beings.' I can assure you, sir,' said another, 'I see an alteration in seamen every voyage for the better.'-A third observed, 'I am persuaded your society has been the means of altering the manners of seamen much, for the change is of late; and to what can we attribute that change, but to those means which have been used in behalf of our seamen? They are not that ungrateful and unprincipled set of men they were.'-On board another ship, the captain observed, It is to me, sir, astonishing, to see the alteration which seems to have taken place in the manners of seamen. sir, religion will soften them down, if any thing can: they are not those swearing, cursing, drunken, debauched creatures they were a little while ago.'-In another vessel, where the agent found twenty-eight Bibles among thirty-six men, the language was, 'Some of the seamen went to sea lions, and came home lambs.'-I wish,' observed another captain, I could always secure a religious crew: all connected with the vessel would reap the benefit of it.'-'Oh,' said the master of another ship, you know not how glad I am to see you: come, and see the books, how well they have been used: they have been well read, indeed.' Here he produced them, saying, Do look at the corners of the leaves: see with what attention they have been read. How often have I been delighted in observing the attention of the crew to the Scriptures! and were you to behold them, I am sure you would be equally pleased, sir: they are a world the better for them. Alas! no good owners-no good captains-no good seamen-no good any thing, without religion.'"

6

It would be easy to multiply testimonies of a similar kind, extracted from the agent's reports: nor is it matter of surprise, that one of the captains, under a conviction of the benefits resulting from the labours of the society, should

exclaim

66 Ship-owners, I presume, defray all the expense attending this work. If they do not, they ought to do so. Every man of the least consideration must be convinced in a moment of the vast utility of such an institution."

9. It will be recollected, that the Bibles and Testaments gratuitously supplied are not presented to individuals, but to the ships, for the use of the crew; and that they are given in charge to the captain or chief officer. Yet it will doubtless excite surprise, that the number of copies distributed by sale bears so small a proportion to the total issued by the society. As this subject will be more fully considered in the sequel, this sketch of the Merchant-Seamen's Society cannot be better closed than in the energetic language of their appeal to

Appeal of the Committee.- Liverpool Marine Bible Society.

the sympathy and Christian feeling of the merchants and ship-owners of London:

"The benefits resulting to them from the communication of Scriptural knowledge can no longer be questioned: still less can the line of conduct, which, under these circumstances, is prescribed to us, by our obligations to GOD and man, admit of a moment's doubt or hesitation. Even if we were insensible to those obligations, insensible to the motives, which are furnished by the religion we profess, to minister to the spiritual wants of our seamen ; -if we could shut our ears to the claims of common humanity, which call upon us to raise them from the misery and degradation which are the neverfailing effects of ignorance and vice ;-if we could remain unaffected by all the facts which have been produced, to prove the ameliorating influence of Scriptural knowledge on their state and character;-if we could be indifferent to the consideration of the advantages which, as members of this great and happy community, we should derive from having our future navies manned by men who have been taught to fear GOD, and honour their king, and love their country;-if we could be insensible to all these purer and loftier incentives to exertion, let us at least be swayed by the more sordid calculation of personal interest. Even that lower motive would bring us to the same conclusion. Even in the estimate of pecuniary profit and loss, we should find ourselves gainers, by expending on our seamen the cost of the Bibles they require. No fact can be more incontrovertibly established, by what has passed under the observation of the Committee during the last year, than this, that the effect of religious instruction on shipboard, is, to diminish among our seamen the evils of intemperance, insubordination, and wastefulness; and to substitute habits of order, sobriety, carefulness, cleanliness, obedience to superiors, and general attention to the duties of their station. No policy, therefore, can be more undeniably expedient on the part of merchants and ship-owners, if we could suppose the weight of higher motives to fail, than that which the Committee now beg leave, in conclusion, most respectfully but most earnestly to recommend to their adoption; namely, that of supporting, by their countenance and contributions, the MERCHANTSEAMEN'S AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY, for supplying British merchant-ships with the Holy Scriptures."

There are two other institutions of this description, which acquire, from their importance or peculiarity of constitution, a distinct notice:

1. THE LIVERPOOL MARINE BIBLE SOCIETY.-This society was established on the 13th of January, 1818; and in the October following it was organized on the plan of that in the metropolis. The Committee, however, appear to have been aware of the insufficiency of their Rules; and shortly afterwards the following additional Regulations were adopted :—

I. "That two members of the Committee be appointed as a Sub-Committee for each Dock, with power to add to their number; that each Sub-Committee meet once every fortnight, and make a written report of their proceedings once a month to the Secretaries.

II. That a suitable person be obtained, on as moderate terms as possible, to assist in procuring information as to the vessels on the point of sailing, and in the delivery of Bibles and Testaments.

III. That the attention of the Committee shall be confined at present to

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