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» ' ¦ * principally transacted at the monthly meetings , which take place on the . fourth Sunday of every month . To secure regular and full attendance , every meeting is notified to the members on the
preceding day , by a circular from the Secretary , and special meetings for urgent business are called in the same way at the instance of any three of the members . The resolutions passed at these meetings are duly recorded , and the execution of them is iu trusted to individual
members , or to sub-committees , appointed for the purpose , according as the case may require . The correspondence is conducted by the Secretary , subject to such alterations as may appear necessary to the Committee . All communications relating to the funds of the Institution should be addressed to the Treasurer , who renders an account-current under
date the 30 th of April of every year , and furnishes an Annual Report on the state of the funds , the probable expenditure during the next twelvemonth , and the means to be employed for meeting that expenditure . Auditors will hereafter be specially appointed to report on the accuracy of the accounts . The duties of
the Collector are to keep a correct list of the subscribers , to collect the subscriptions and transmit them to the Treasurer , and to report arrearages , the discontinuance of old subscribers , aud the accession of new ones . The Collector , Treasurer , and Secretary , are members of the Committee ex officio .
The income of the Committee is derived from subscriptions , which are either applied to special purposes according to the washes of the subscribers , or are left to be employed according to the discretion of the Committee . The amount of the funds for special purposes will hereafter be stated under each
particular head ; those for general purposes consist either of occasional donations , that have been received from England and America , or of monthly and annual local subscriptions . The monthly subscriptions amount to Sa- Rs . 64 ; the annual subscriptions to Sa . Rs . 350 ; and there is at this date a small balance
due by the Treasurer to the General Fund , amounting to Sa . Rs . 64 , 14 , 4 . At present the only expenses are for a native copyist , stationary , postage of letters , and similar incidental charges . Should there be any surplus remaining from the General Fund after the current
expenses are defrayed , the amount will be added , according to a late resolution , either to the Chapel or the Permanent Fund , until the objects of both these
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funds shall be fully accomplished . The collection of the subscriptions was discontinued some time ago , in consequence of the discouraging aspect of our affairs ; but since the receipt of your recent communications , the Collector has again resumed his duties , and it is hoped that the General Fund will soon be placed on a more satisfactory footing .
The faithful and economical appropriation of the funds must be the chief ground of public confidence , and the chief means of success in the prosecution of our objects . It is therefore important to add , that no expenditure is incurred by any of the officers of the Committee , except under the express
authority of a resolution either passed at a meeting regularly convened , or submitted by a circular notice , and sanctioned by the signature of a majority of the members . This regulation is considered peculiarly proper and necessary , as freeing the missionaries that may labour in connexion with the Committee
from exclusive pecuniary responsibility . The propriety of this is shewn by the greater leisure which they will thereby possess , to pursue the proper object of their calling , which is not to collect money , to treasure it up , or to dictate the mode of disbursing it , but to
promote useful knowledge , good morals , and true religion , and to employ for these purposes the funds which are placed under their controul , by those who have been primarily intrusted with the management of the secular concerns of the mission . The Committee
determine what plan shall be pursued , and furnish the missionaries with the means of pursuing them . To the Committee the missionaries are responsible for the due appropriation to the purposes specified , of the particular sums which they may receive by a regular vote . The Committee are responsible to the Christian public for the goodness of the pur *
poses to which these sums are applied , and the fitness of the persons to whom they are confided . The missionaries , in short , are the agents of the Committee ; the Committee are the agents of the public . This constitution of things is not only proper in the point of view in which it has been presented , as tending
to free missionaries from much worldly care and anxiety , but it is also imperiously required by the present state of the public mind in India respecting missionary responsibility in pecuniary matters . Its adoption implies no want of confidence in the persons who may be employed as Unitarian missionaries , but
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156 Intelligence . —Foreign .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1827, page 156, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1793/page/76/
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