jyvPAN.— Active measures are in progress for the prep- aration and diffusion of Christian tracts and books in Japan Bnt as vet such efforts are limited to the various missions aided by the principal Bible and Tract societies of England and America.
AusTiiAT.iA.— Tract Society of Sydney, 1S23 ; Tract So- cietv of Van Diemen's Land, 1S37 ; Religious Tract Society of Victoria, 1855; Victoria Tract Distribution Society,
1858 New Zf.at.anp.— New Zealand Tract Society, 1839; Wel-
linn'tou Tract Society, 1S4S.
South Africa.— Cape Town Auxiliary Tract Society, 1820; South African Ladies' Tract and Book Society, 1832.
West Indies.— Jamaica Tract Society, 1835 ; New Provi- dence Tract Society, 1837.
Canada.— Tract Society of Quebec, 1824 ; Tract Society of Montreal, 1825; Religious Tract Society of Toronto, ]8''4; Religious Tract Society of Halifax, 1824: Reiigious Tract Society of St. Johns, N. B., 1825 ; British American Book and Tract Society, Halifax, 1868.
LTnited States of Ameiuoa. — Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1803 ; Con- necticut Religious Tract Society, 1807: Vermont Relig- ious Tract Society, ISOS; The Protestant Episcopal Tract Society, 1809; New York Religions Tract Societ}', 1812; Evangelical Tract Society, Boston, 1813; Albany Relig- ions Tract Society, 1813; New England Tract Society, 1814; Religious Tract Society of Philadelphia, 1815 ; Re- ligious Tract Society of Baltimore, 1810; New York Meth odist Tract Society, 1817; Baptist General Tract Society
Society of the United States, New York, 1S74,
It is not within the design of this article to give the history of the tract societies enumerated ; but it is proper to remark that various modifications have taken place in the title and specilic character of some of the earlier American organizations. In several instances primary associations have been merged in the formation of more important societies, while others have continued under new names and with modified forms of action. With increasing ex|ierience, the tendency has been to cen- tralize the work of publication in a few strong societies, and to multiply the agencies of distribution outward from the great centres of publication. A few examples of comliiiiatioii and reconstruction may lie noted. The New England Tract Society, organized in 1814, became in 1823 the American Tract Society, having its location in Boston. The same society in 1878 was merged in the American Tract Society which ^vas organized in New York in 1825. The last-named arrangement was consummated none too soon, as great confusion hart arisen from having two publishing societies of the same corporate name. The Baptist General Tract Society, organized in Washington in 1824, was subsequently transferred to Philadelphia, and in 1840 became, wi^h enlarged designs, the American Baptist Publication Society. The New York JNIethodist Tract Society, organized in 1817, subsequentlj^ became incorporated as the Tract Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
As a counterpart to the above sketch of the rise and development of the Religious Tract Society of London, and as a specimen illustration of results from about half a century's operations of a similar American or- ganization, the following facts are condensed from offi- cial publications of the American Tract Society : The society has a large and commodious building in Nassau Street, New York, with twenty steam-presses, tens of thousands of stereotype plates, and every facility for composing, printing, binding, storing, and issuing its own publications to the number of 4000 books, 30.000 tracts, and 20,000 papers daily. It is therefore enabled to abate, in fixing the prices of books, what otherwise would have to be added for rent of buildings hired, and for the profits of trade. It numbers on its list about GOOO distinct publications, including, besides tracts and hand- bills of various kinds, 1240 volumes of biography, his-
tory, and helps to Biblical study. Among what are called its home publications, 1584 distinct issues are in foreign languages, viz. (ierman, French, Spanish, Ital- ian, Portuguese, Swedish, Welsh, Dutch, Danish, Fin- nish, and Hungarian, designed for immigrants coming to the LTnited States. Of its home publications in the English language, 28,000,000 volumes, besides about 3,000,000,000 pages of tracts, have been issued. Of its periodicals, several of which are illustrated and printed in the highest style of typography, over 5,000,000 are issued yearly to 350,000 subscribers. This society has become distinguished for its faithful and systematic prosecution of the work of colportage. By its agents, employed chiefly in frontier and destitute sections (d' the country, it has within a period of forty years done a work equal to that of one man for more than 5000 years. It has S(dd more than 11,000,000 volumes, ami donated 3,0CJ0,000 to destitute persons and families. It has made more than 12,000,000 visits to families; iu about 1,000,000 of which no religious book was found, with the exception of Bibles in about one third of the number. It has thus done much to meet the moral and religious wants of our frontier popidation in advance of schools and churches. It is accustomed to make grants each year of fifty thousand dollars' worth of its publica- tions for circulation in prisons and hospitals, in Sab- bath-schools and mission-schools, in cities and remote and lonely hamlets, to soldiers and to sailors on our in- land waters, and in hundreds of outward-bound vessels for every corner of the globe. The foreign work of the society has been chiefly accomplished through dona- tions of money grantexl to missionaries in seventy dif- ferent foreign stations. By means of some $700,000 thus appropriated, the society has printed, in 145 differ- ent languages and dialects, not less than 4211 distinct publications, including G40 vcdumes. Thus "fruits of the society's sowing may be found in almost everv land — from Russia to the Cape of Good Hope, and from China in the East to Hawaii in the West."