SOCIAL, SANITARY, AND MUNICIPAL
PROGRESS.

THE sixty-fifth anniversary dinner of the Royal
Literary Fund was held on the 3rd inst.,—Lord Mahon
in the chair. The chairman stated that £1490 had been
distributed last year among thirty-one gentlemen and
sixteen ladies. The subscriptions for the current year
included the Queen's seventeenth donation of £100,
Lord Mahon's fourth donation of £20, and subscriptions
of £10 each from the Earl of Ellenborough, the Earl of
Ellesmere, Mr. Hallam, and Mr. Macaulay.

The annual meeting of the Church Missionary
Society took place on the 2nd inst.; the Earl of
Chichester in the chair. The income of the society was
stated to be £123,915; the expenditure £131,783. The
society has 118 stations throughout the world; is served
by 1661 teachers of all classes; and during last year (it
is estimated) 107,000 persons attended divine service in
the society's missions, of whom there were 17,821
communicants.

At the annual meeting of the British and Foreign
Bible Society, on the 3rd inst.,—Lord Shaftesbury in
the chair,—it was stated that during last year £66,507
had been raised for jubilee objects; £30,485 for the
Chinese testament fund; received for bibles and
testaments, £66,009; and for general purposes, £59,656
The aggregate amount raised was £222,659—an increase
of more than £16,000 as compared with the preceding
year. During last year 1,367,528 copies of the bible
were issued at home and abroad; making the total
number, since the commencement of the society,
27,938,631.

The annual meeting of the London City Mission took
place on the 4th inst., Mr. J. P. Plumptre in the chair.
During the year, 1,439,380 visits had been made, and
1,931,705 tracts distributed. The income of the society
was £27,484; an income of £10,003 over the preceding
year.

The Governesses Benevolent Institution has now
been in existence eleven years: on the 3rd inst. Lord
Newark presided over a dinner to celebrate the
anniversary, and to present a testimonial to the Rev. David
Laing, for his services to the institution. Since the
society was founded, aid has been given to 3,300
governesses, at a cost of £9000; and sixty ladies have been
allowed small but certain incomes. The provident
fund is now £108,000, all invested in government
securities.

Lord Shaftesbury presided, on the 3rd inst., at the
twelfth annual meeting of the Field Lane Ragged and
Industrial School and Nightly Refuge for the Destitute.
He protested that what they are doing for the ragged
children is of little use while they live with their
parents in such pestilential habitations. According to
the report, 26,399 persons had slept in the Refuge
during the year; 20 boys had been returned to their
friends; 85 had been taken into reformatory
institutions; and 112 placed in situations. The receipts last
year had been £1020; the expenditure, £781; leaving
a balance of £239.

The twenty-second annual meeting of the Literary
Association of the Friends of Poland was held on the
3rd inst. The principal persons present were Lord
Dudley Stuart the chairman, the Earl of Harrowby,
the Earl of Harrington, the Marquis of Bredalbane,
Lord Beaumont, and Mr. Monckton Milnes. In
the report it was stated that the recent dinner had
realised £900.

The eighty-sixth annual dinner of the Royal Academy
took place on the 4th inst. Sir Charles Eastlake was in
the chair. Many of her Majesty's ministers, members
of both houses of parliament, and men of distinction,
were present. The speeches were almost entirely of a
complimentary description.

The Printers' Pension Society, established for the
relief of aged and infirm printers and their widows,
celebrated its twenty-seventh anniversary by a dinner
on the 4th inst., at the London Tavern. Mr. Layard,
the chairman, in giving the toast of the evening, made
some interesting remarks. His absence (he said) from
the chair last year had been unavoidable. This year he
had great pleasure in officiating for Sir R. Peel, who
had been incapable of performing the duties in
consequence of an awful catastrophe in the Mediterranean,
of which they had heard through the newspapers. He
hoped that, in the absence of Sir R. Peel, they would
put up with him. They knew that he had been
employed in excavating old stones on the site of cities
that were once as famous as their own. It might occur
to them to inquire what was the cause of the disappearance
of those cities from the face of the earth. One
cause, he thought, was the absence of knowledge, and
the absence of a power in those times to distribute it.
Knowledge was then confined to the priesthood, and a
few other classes. The printing-press was now become
as necessary to them as the air they breathed. It
was by its instrumentality that the great and sacred
truths contained in the Bible had been disseminated
over the globe. If they wished to ascertain the value
of the printing-press, let them imagine for a moment
what would be their state under its absence. They
remembered the cab strike. Now, let them imagine
what would be their feeling if all the morning newspapers
had been stopped. What would be the feeling of
members of Parliament to find no record of their speeches?
How would the City merchant dispense with the record
of the money market? How would they miss the
account of the taking of Sebastopol—news which,
whether true or false, was always so gratifying?
Mistakes would happen—they all knew that, but still
they all knew the value of the morning newspapers.
The duty of the printer was of an arduous character.
The midnight hour, at which he most frequently
pursued his labour, was most destructive to health, and
one of the great afflictions peculiar to printers was the
loss of sight. As a member of parliament, he had
often been struck, after the house had risen at four
o'clock in the morning, to see 'those burning lights' at
the offices of the morning newspapers which indicated that
the words, only as it were just out of the mouths of
members of their houses of legislature, would soon be on
their breakfast-tables.—Mr. Cowan, M.P., in proposing a
toast, said, the public—not less than printers, were
indebted to the authors of the country. It was notorious
that not one book in three, nor one pamphlet in three,
paid its expenses. Without attempting to investigate
the cause of this, he might observe that it evinced a
feeling of disinterestedness which was creditable to the
authors of this country. Subscriptions were then
announced, amounting to about £400.

A meeting of the subscribers to the Metropolitan
Churches Fund was held on the 9th inst., at which the
Bishop of London presided. In 1830, the Bishop had
called upon the public to assist him with subscriptions
for the building of fifty churches in the Metropolis.
The sum he asked for was £150,000. Although he met
with discouragement he persevered, and instead of the
sum asked, £280,000 was raised. At this meeting it was
announced, that, instead of fifty churches, seventy-eight
have been built since 1836; and that, of these, thirteen
were entirely built at the cost of the fund, while in the
case of the remainder, sums had been granted in
aid only. Altogether, £530,000 has been thus expended
in church-building; accommodation thereby afforded
to 110,000 persons, and the services of 120 additional
clergymen put in requisition.

Lord John Russell presided over the annual meeting
of the British and Foreign School Society, on the 8th
inst. The report stated that there are 1031 children in
attendance at the Model Schools in the Borough Road,
and 31 pupil teachers appointed by the Committee of
Council on Education; that there are 170 young men,
and 171 young women, students in the Normal Schools;
that certificates of merit have been awarded to 86
students; that 169 schools have been supplied with
teachers; that 21 schoolhouses have been either rebuilt
or enlarged, and 48 new schools opened for 5000
additional children. Grants of materials have been made
to many foreign schools. The finances of the society
are flourishing. The income last year was £15,183, and
the expenditure nearly the same. Lord John Russell
addressed the meeting, mainly in argument against a
secular system of education. At the end of his speech,