introducing them into the Kingdom and selling them at the lowest prices, thinking they were conferring a benefit when in reality they were doing an injury.

I have also to state to You that in order to carry this Royal determination into effect, orders have been issued to prohibit its being printed in Spain, in the vulgar tongue, unless it should be the entire Bible as recognised by the Catholic Church with corresponding Notes, preventing its admittance at the Frontiers, as is the case with books printed in Spanish abroad; that the Bibles exposed for public sale be seized and given to their owners in a packet marked and sealed, upon the condition of its being sent out of the country through the Custom Houses on the Frontier or at the Ports.

I avail myself, etc., etc.

THE COUNT OF OFALIA. {255a}

Borrow and Graydon were advised of this inhibition, and both ordered their establishments for the sale of books to be closed, thus showing that they were "Gentlemen who are animated with due respect for the Laws of Spain." {255b} At Valladolid, Santiago, Orviedo, Pontevedra, Seville, Salamanca, and Malaga the decree was at once enforced. On learning that the books at his depots had all been seized, Borrow became apprehensive for the safety of his Madrid stock of New Testaments, some three thousand in number. He accordingly had them removed, under cover of darkness, to the houses of his friends.

Borrow was not the man to accept defeat, and he wrote to Mr Brandram with great cheerfulness:

"This, however, gives me little uneasiness, for, with the blessing of God, I shall be able to repair all, always provided I am allowed to follow my own plans, and to avail myself of the advantages which have lately been opened--especially to cultivate the kind feeling lately manifested towards me by the principal Spanish clergy. {255c}

Later he wrote:

"Another bitter cup has been filled for my swallowing. The Bible Society and myself have been accused of blasphemy, sedition, etc. A collection of tracts has been seized in Murcia, in which the Catholic religion and its dogmas are handled with the most abusive severity; {256a} these books have been sworn to as having been left BY THE COMMITTEE OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY WHILST IN THAT TOWN, and Count Ofalia has been called upon to sign an order for my arrest and banishment from Spain. Sir George, however, advises me to remain quiet and not to be alarmed, as he will answer for my innocence." {256b}

Borrow strove to galvanise the General Committee into action. The Spanish newspapers were inflamed against the Society as a sectarian, not a Christian institution. "Zeal is a precious thing," he told Mr Brandram, when accompanied with one grain of common sense." The theme of his letters was the removal of Graydon. "Do not be cast down," he writes; "all will go well if the stumbling block [Graydon] be removed."

Borrow's state of mind may well be imagined, and if by his impulsive letters he unwittingly harmed his own cause at Earl Street, he did so as a man whose liberty, perhaps his life even, was being jeopardised, although not deliberately, by another whom the reforming spirit seemed likely to carry to any excess. It must be admitted that for the time being Borrow had forgotten the idiom of Earl Street.

The president (a bishop) of the body of ecclesiastics that was engaged in examining the Society's Spanish Bible, communicated with Borrow, through Mr Charles Wood, the suggestion that "the Committee of the Bible Society should in the present exigency draw up an exposition of their views respecting Spain, stating what they are prepared to do and what they are not prepared to do; above all, whether in seeking to circulate the Gospel in this Country they harbour any projects hostile to the Government or the established religion; moreover, whether the late distribution of tracts was done by their connivance or authority, and whether they are disposed to sanction in future the publication in Spain of such a class of writings." {257a}

Borrow was of the opinion that this should be done, although he would not take upon himself to advise the Committee upon such a point, he merely remarked that "the Prelate in question is a most learned and respectable man, and one of the warmest of our friends." {257b} The Society very naturally declined to commit itself to any such undertaking. It would not have been quite logical or conceivable that a Protestant body should give a guarantee that it harboured no projects hostile to Rome.

Undeterred by the official edict against the circulation in Spain of the Scriptures, Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram (14th June):

"I should wish to make another Biblical tour this summer, until the storm be blown over. Should I undertake such an expedition, I should avoid the towns and devote myself entirely to the peasantry. I have sometimes thought of visiting the villages of the Alpujarra Mountains in Andalusia, where the people live quite secluded from the world; what do you think of my project?"

All this time Borrow had heard nothing from Earl Street as to the effect being produced there by his letters. On 15th or 16th June he received a long letter from Mr Brandram enclosing the Resolutions of the General Committee with regard to the crisis. They proved conclusively that the officials failed entirely to appreciate the state of affairs in Spain, and the critical situation of their paid and accredited agent, George Borrow. Their pride had probably been wounded by Borrow's impetuous requests, that might easily have appeared to them in the light of commands. It may have struck some that the Spanish affairs of the Society were being administered from Madrid, and that they themselves were being told, not what it was expedient to do, but what they MUST do. Another factor in the situation was the Committee's friendliness for their impulsive, unsalaried servant Lieut. Graydon, who was certainly a picturesque, almost melodramatic figure. In any case the letter from Mr Brandram that accompanied the Resolutions was couched in a strain of fair play to Graydon that became a thinly disguised partizanship. At the meeting of the Committee held on 28th May the following Resolutions had been adopted:-

First.--"That Mr Borrow be requested to inform Sir George Villiers that this Committee have written to Mr Graydon through their Secretary, desiring him to leave Spain on account of his personal safety."

Second.--"That Mr Borrow be informed that in the absence of specific documents, this Committee cannot offer any opinion on the proceedings of Mr Graydon, and that therefore he be desired to obtain, either in original or copy, the objectionable papers alleged to have been issued by Mr Graydon and to transmit them hither."

Third.--"That Mr Borrow be requested not to repeat the Advertisement contained in the Correo Nacional of the 17th inst., and that he be cautioned how he commits the Society by advertisements of a similar character. And further, that he be desired to state to Sir George Villiers that the advertisement in question was inserted by him on the spur of the moment, and without any opportunity of obtaining instructions from this Committee."

In justice to the Committee, it must be said that they did not appreciate the delicacy of the situation, being only Christians and not diplomatists. Perhaps they were unaware that the WHOLE OF SPAIN WAS UNDER MARTIAL LAW, or if they were, the true significance of the fact failed to strike them. Mr Brandram's letter accompanying these Resolutions is little more than an amplification of the Committee's decision:

"I have, I assure you," he writes, "endeavoured to place myself in your situation and enter into your feelings strongly excited by the irreparable mischief which you suppose Mr G. to have done to our cause so dear to you. Under the influence of these feelings you have written with, what appears to us, unmitigated severity of his conduct. But now, let me entreat you to enter into our feelings a little, and to consider what we owe to Mr Graydon. If we have at times thought him imprudent, we have seen enough in him to make us both admire and love him. He has ever approved himself as an upright, faithful, conscientious, indefatigable agent; one who has shrunk from no trials and no dangers; one who has gone through in our service many and extraordinary hardships. What have we against him at present? He has issued certain documents of a very offensive character, as is alleged. We have not seen them, neither does it appear that you have, but that you speak from the recollections of Mr Sothern." {259a}

The letter goes on to say that if it can be shown that Lieut. Graydon is acting in the same manner as he did in Valencia, for which he was admonished,

"he will assuredly be recalled on this ground. You wonder perhaps that we for a moment doubt the fact of his reiterated imprudence; but audi alteram partem must be our rule--and besides, on reviewing the Valencia proceedings, we draw a wide distinction. Had he been as free, as you suppose him to be, of the trammels of office in our service, many would say and think that he was prefectly at liberty to act and speak as he did of the Authorities, if he chose to take the consequences. Really in such a country it is no marvel if his Spirit has been stirred within him! Will you allow me to remind you of the strong things in your own letter to the Valencia ecclesiastic, the well pointed and oft repeated Vae!"

Mr Brandram points out that strong language is frequently the sword of the Reformer, and that there are times when it has the highest sanction; but

"the judgment of all [the members of the Committee] will be that an Agent of the Bible Society is a Reformer, not by his preaching or denouncing, but by the distribution of the Bible. If Mr G's. conduct is no worse than it was in Valencia," the letter continues, rather inconsistently, in the light of the assurance in the early part that recall would be the punishment for another such lapse into