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Report . Tn presenting the Report of the first proceedings of your Society , your Committee cannot refraiii from warning you at the outset against any large expectations from the incipient efforts of an infant institution in promotion of an
oppressed cause . They are of opinion that such unreasonable expectations , proceeding from that preference of the imposing to the useful which constitutes the bad taste of benevolence , have imparted to the reports of religious societies a style of declamatory and boastful exaggeration , which justly weakens the confidence in their truth . It is the
object of your Committee to give a faithful account of the mode in which they have administered their trust , of the amount of valuable influence which their resources may have circulated , and of the means of extended usefulness which appear to them to demand increased exertion .
It was to be expected that the necessary expeuses of organizing and setting in motion the machinery of the Society would contract its operations dm ing the first year of its existence . It has been the object of your Committee to reduce as much as possible the merely instrumental and unproductive expenditure of your funds , by the employment of
voluntary zeal instead of paid services ; and in this they have been specially aided by the kindness of a well-known and publicspirited member of the Society , who has liberally afforded to the Committee a room in the Northumberland Buildings , with all accompanying accommodations , in which to hold their monthly or special
meetings . With every assistance , however , the cost of printing circulars , of purchasing the first book stock of the Society , and of providing bookcases for its reception , has considerably exceeded the average of the annual incidental expenses . The encroachment from such causes on an income which does not at
present amount to 130 / ., must obviously have borne a large proportion to the whole . On the other hand , the extraordinary exigencies of the first year have met with extraordinary aid . The liberal donations of books to the amount of 51 . from the West Riding Tract Society , of 5 / . from the Western Unitarian Society , and of
25 / . from the British and Foreign U nitanan Association , have not only afforded cheering assurances of the sympathy of our brethren in England , but rendered an efficient and almost necessary addition to the materials of usefuliicsh at the disposal of your Committee . It must also be remembered that , with a view to
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carry the Society securely through its first difficulties , many of its friends became life members rather than annual subscribers ; and that however convenient or even necessary may be such special aid at the origin of the Society , its cessation or diminution at the end of the first year cannot but be seriously felt . At
the same time that the Committee have great satisfaction in being able to report an increase in the amount of subscriptions this year , they must be permitted to urge the continued necessity of exertions to increase the funds of the Society For the guidance of their successors they would record their opinion that efforts should be particularly directed towards
augmenting the provincial contributions . In Dublin , the Society may be said to have the principle of self-diffusion ; every member is or may be an advocate and promoter of the Society ; and its annual meetings , if conducted with due publicity , keep it sufficiently before the view of those who have any sympathy with its objects . But in the country , where there
are no such periodical mementos , the very existence of the Society is iu danger of being forgotten , or its design of being misunderstood , unless efficieut measures be taken to awaken a permanent interest . Four District Societies have already been formed ; others are in progress ; and by observing the causes in which these have had their origin , the
Committee are enabled to suggest two methods by which the operations of the Society may be extended . ( 1 . ) Local agents may be appointed from the known friends of Unitarian Christianity in different places , and may be requested to receive and distribute catalogues and other publications , to collect and transmit subscriptions , and by every available means to awaken an interest iu the
affairs of the Society . ( 2 . ) A minister may occasionally be sent from Dublin on a mission to some of the principal towns of Ireland , for the express purpose of encouraging Unitarianisin where it is weak , and bringing its zeal into action where it is strong . Your Committee cannot avoid
expressing a hope that District Societies may uot have the effect of intercepting all individual subscriptions from the places where they are organized . If this should be the case , your Society must for ever remain exclusively a book association , and be debarred from ever carrying into effect the missionary objects which were distinctly contemplated at its formation . While the local bodies may usefully represent the tract department of your Society , various other fields ot
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358 Intelligence . —Irish Unitarian Christian Society Anniversary .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1831, page 358, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2597/page/70/
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