29 JUNE 1878, Page 15

RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

Snt,—Last year you were kind enough to allow me to place side by side, by way of comparison, the incomes of the two principal Societies for home and foreign Missions respectively in the Church of England. The interest excited by the figures was so great, that I ask your permission to quote them again, from reports of this year now lying before me, for the benefit of your readers :- Society for the Propagation of the Gospel

.C148,438 Church Missionary Society 223.038 Additional Curatea' Society 72,682 Pastoral Aid Society 77,134

It is, of course, important that the comparison should be made in pan i materiii. I will only add, therefore, that in the case of both the Societies for foreign Missions the sums specially en- trusted to them for the relief of the sufferers by famine in Asia are included ; while in the case of both the Societies for home Missions, the sums locally contributed to supplement grants are included.

I refrain from any comments upon these figures, because to all who feel any interest at all in our religious societies they cannot fail to speak for themselves. I will only remark in passing that the fears expressed by some of your correspondents last year for the prospects of the C. M. S. seem hardly to have been fulfilled. —1 am, Sir, &c.,