The Life of George Borrow Part 13

A serious difficulty now arose in the resignation of Mendizabal (March 1836). Two of his friends and supporters, in the persons of Francisco de Isturitz and Alcala Galiano, seceded from his party, and, under the name of moderados, formed an opposition to their Chief in the Cortes. They had the support of the Queen Regent and General Cordova, whom Mendizabal had wished to remove from his position as head of the army on account of his great popularity with the soldiers, whose comforts and interests he studied. Isturitz became Premier, Galiano Minister of Marine (a mere paper t.i.tle, as there was no navy at the time), and the Duke of Rivas Minister of the Interior.

Conscious of the advantage of possessing powerful friends, especially in a country such as Spain, Borrow had used every endeavour to enlarge the circle of his acquaintance among men occupying influential positions, or likely to succeed those who at present filled them. The result was that he was able to announce to Mr Brandram that the new ministry, which had been formed, was composed "entirely of MY friends." {175a} With Galiano in particular he was on very intimate terms. Everything promised well, and the new Cabinet showed itself most friendly to Borrow and his projects, until the actual moment arrived for writing the permission to print the Scriptures in Spanish. Then doubts arose, and the decrees of the Council of Trent loomed up, a threatening barrier, in the eyes of the Duke of Rivas and his secretary.

So hopeful was Borrow after his first interview with the Duke that he wrote: --"I shall receive the permission, the Lord willing, in a few days . . . The last skirts of the cloud of papal superst.i.tion are vanis.h.i.+ng below the horizon of Spain; whoever says the contrary either knows nothing of the matter or wilfully hides the truth."

{175b}

At Earl Street the good news about the article in the Espanol gave the liveliest satisfaction. "Surely a new and wonderful thing in Spain," wrote Mr Brandram {175c} in a letter in which he urged Borrow to "guard against becoming too much committed to one political party," and asked him to write more frequently, as his letters were always most welcome. This letter reached Madrid at a time when Borrow found himself absolutely dest.i.tute.

"For the last three weeks," he writes, {175d} "I have been without money, literally without a farthing." Everything in Madrid was so dear. A month previously he had been forced to pay 12 pounds, 5s.

for a suit of clothes, "my own being so worn that it was impossible to appear longer in public with them." {175e} He had written to Mr Wilby, but in all probability his letter had gone astray, the post to Estremadura having been three times robbed. "The money may still come," he continues, {176a} "but I have given up all hopes of it, and I am compelled to write home, though what I am to do till I can receive your answer I am at a loss to conceive . . . whatever I undergo, I shall tell n.o.body of my situation, it might hurt the Society and our projects here. I know enough of the world to be aware that it is considered as the worst of crimes to be without money." {176b}

For weeks Borrow devoted himself to the task of endeavouring to obtain permission to print the Scriptures in Spanish. The Duke of Rivas referred him to his secretary, saying, "He will do for you what you want!" But the secretary retreated behind the decrees of the Council of Trent. Then Mr Villiers intervened, saw the Duke and gave Borrow a letter to him. Again the Council of Trent proved to be the obstacle. Galiano took up the matter and escorted Borrow to the Bureau of the Interior, and had an interview with the Duke's secretary. When Galiano left, there remained nothing for the conscientious secretary to do but to write out the formal permission, all else having been satisfactorily settled; but no sooner had Galiano departed, than the recollection of the Council of Trent returned to the secretary with terrifying distinctness, and no permission was given.

Tired of the Council of Trent and the Duke's secretary, Borrow would sometimes retire to the banks of the ca.n.a.l and there loiter in the sun, watching the gold and silver fish basking on the surface of its waters, or gossiping with the man who sold oranges and water under the shade of the old water-tower. Once he went to see an execution-- anything to drive from his mind the conscientious secretary and the Council of Trent, the sole obstacles to the realisation of his plans.

Borrow informed Mr Brandram at the end of May that the Cabinet was unanimously in favour of granting his request; nothing happened.

There seems no doubt that the Cabinet's policy was one of subterfuge.

It could not afford to offend the British Minister, nor could it, at that juncture, risk the bitter hostility of the clergy, consequently it promised and deferred. A pet.i.tion to the Ecclesiastical Committee of Censors, although strongly backed by the Civil Governor of Madrid (within whose department lay the censors.h.i.+p), produced no better result. There was nothing heard but "To-morrow, please G.o.d!"

Foiled for the time being in his constructive policy, Borrow turned his attention to one of destruction. He had already announced to the Bible Society that the authority of the Pope was in a precarious condition.

"Little more than a breath is required to destroy it," he writes, {177a} "and I am almost confident that in less than a year it will be disowned. I am doing whatever I can in Madrid to prepare the way for an event so desirable. I mix with the people, and inform them who and what the Pope is, and how disastrous to Spain his influence has been. I tell them that the indulgences, which they are in the habit of purchasing, are of no more intrinsic value than so many pieces of paper, and were merely invented with the view of plundering them. I frequently ask: 'Is it possible that G.o.d, who is good, would sanction the sale of sin? and, supposing certain things are sinful, do you think that G.o.d, for the sake of your money, would permit you to perform them?' In many instances my hearers have been satisfied with this simple reasoning, and have said that they would buy no more indulgences."

Mr Brandram promptly wrote warning Borrow against becoming involved in any endeavour to hasten the fall of the Pope. Although deeply interested in what their agent had to say, there was a strong misgiving at headquarters that for a few moments Borrow had "forgotten that our hopes of the fall of -- are founded on the simple distribution of the Scriptures," {178a} and he was told that, as their agent, he must not pursue the course that he described. The warning was carefully worded, so that it might not wound Borrow's feelings or lessen his enthusiasm.

Borrow had found that the climate of Madrid did not agree with him.

It had proved very trying during the winter; but now that summer had arrived the heat was suffocating and the air seemed to be filled with "flaming vapours," and even the Spaniards would "lie gasping and naked upon their brick floors." {178b} In spite of the heat, however, he was occupied "upon an average ten hours every day, dancing attendance on one or another of the Ministers." {178c}

Sometimes the difficulties that he had to contend with reduced him almost to despair of ever obtaining the permission he sought. "Only those," he writes, {178d} "who have been in the habit of dealing with Spaniards, by whom the most solemn promises are habitually broken, can form a correct idea of my reiterated disappointments, and of the toil of body and agony of spirit which I have been subjected to. One day I have been told, at the Ministry, that I had only to wait a few moments and all I wished would be acceded to; and then my hopes have been blasted with the information that various difficulties, which seemed insurmountable, had presented themselves, whereupon I have departed almost broken-hearted; but the next day I have been summoned in a great hurry and informed that 'all was right,' and that on the morrow a regular authority to print the Scriptures would be delivered to me, but by that time fresh and yet more terrible difficulties had occurred--so that I became weary of my life."

Mr Villiers evidently saw through the Spanish Cabinet's policy of delay; for he spoke to the ministers collectively and individually, strongly recommending that the pet.i.tion be granted. He further pointed out the terrible condition of the people, who lacked religious instruction of any kind, and that a nation of atheists would not prove very easy to govern. It may have been these arguments, or, what is more likely, a desire on the part of the Cabinet to please the representative of Great Britain, in any case a greater willingness was now shown to give the necessary permission.

Measures were accordingly taken to evade the law and protect the printer into whose hands the work was to be entrusted, until an appropriate moment arrived for repealing the existing statute.

Borrow forwarded to Earl Street the following interesting letter that he had received from Mr Villiers, which confirms his words as to the keen interest taken by the British Minister in the endeavour to obtain the permission to print the New Testament in Spanish

DEAR SIR,

I have had a long conversation with Mr Isturitz upon the subject of printing the Testament, in which he showed himself to be both sagacious and liberal. He a.s.sured me that the matter should have his support whenever the Duque de Ribas brought it before the Cabinet, and that as far as he was concerned the question MIGHT BE CONSIDERED AS SETTLED.

You are quite welcome to make any use you please of this note with the D. de Ribas or Mr Olivan. {179a}

I am, Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, GEORGE VILLIERS.

June 23rd [1836].

It was unquestionably Borrow's personality that was responsible for Mr Villiers' interest in the scheme, as when Lieutenant Graydon {179b} had applied to him on a previous occasion he declined to interfere.

At Borrow's suggestion the President of the Bible Society, Lord Bentley, wrote to Mr Villiers thanking him for the services he had rendered in connection with the Spanish programme. It was characteristic of Borrow that he added to his letter as a reason for his request, that "I may be again in need of Mr V's. a.s.sistance before I leave Spain." {180a} Borrow was always keenly alive to the advantage of possessing influential friends who would be likely to a.s.sist him in his labours for the Society. He was not a profound admirer of the Society of Jesus for nothing, and although he would scorn to exercise tact in regard to his own concerns, he was fully prepared to make use of it in connection with those of the Bible Society. He was a Jesuit at heart, and would in all probability have preferred a good compositor who had been guilty of sacrilege to a bad one who had not. He saw that besides being something of a diplomatist, an agent of the Bible Society had also to be a good business man. He has been called tactless, until the word seems to have become permanently identified with his name; how unjustly is shown by a very hasty examination of his masterly diplomacy, both in Russia and Spain. Diplomacy, as Borrow understood it, was the art of being persuasive when persuasion would obtain for him his object, and firm, even threatening, when strong measures were best calculated to suit his ends. It is only the fool who defines tact as the gentle art of pleasing everybody. Diplomacy is the art of getting what you want at the expense of displeasing as few people as possible.

"The affair is settled--thank G.o.d!!! and we may begin to print whenever we think proper." With these words Borrow announces the success of his enterprise. "Perhaps you have thought," he continues, "that I have been tardy in accomplis.h.i.+ng the business which brought me to Spain; but to be able to form a correct judgment you ought to be aware of all the difficulties which I have had to encounter, and which I shall not enumerate. I shall content myself with observing that for a thousand pounds I would not undergo again all the mortifications and disappointments of the last two months." {181a}

There were moments when Borrow forgot the idiom of Earl Street and reverted to his old, self-confident style, which had so alarmed some of the excellent members of the Committee. He had achieved a great triumph, how great is best shown by the suggestion made by the prime minister that if determined to avail himself of the permission that had been obtained, he had better employ "the confidential printer of the Government, who would keep the matter secret; as in the present state of affairs he [the prime minister] would not answer for the consequences if it were noised abroad." {181b} By giving the license to print the New Testament without notes, the Cabinet was a.s.suming a very grave responsibility. All this shows how great was the influence of the British Minister upon the Isturitz Cabinet, and how considerable that of Borrow upon the British Minister.

Now that his object was gained, there was nothing further to keep Borrow in Spain, and he accordingly asked for instructions, suggesting that, as soon as the heats were over, Lieutenant Graydon might return to Madrid and take charge, "as nothing very difficult remains to be accomplished, and I am sure that Mr Villiers, at my entreaty, would extend to him the patronage with which he has honoured me." {181c} In conclusion he announced himself as ready to do "whatever the Bible Society may deem expedient." {181d}

Borrow now began to suffer from the reaction after his great exertions. He became so languid as scarcely to be able to hold a pen. He had no books, and conversation was impossible, for the heat had driven away all who could possibly escape, among them his acquaintances, and he frequently remembered with a sigh the happy days spent in St Petersburg.

A few days later (25th July) he wrote proposing as a member of the Bible Society Dr Luis de Usoz y Rio, "a person of great respectability and great learning." {182a} Dr Usoz, who was subsequently to be closely a.s.sociated with Borrow in his labours in Spain, was a man of whom he was unable to "speak in too high terms of admiration; he is one of the most learned men in Spain, and is become in every point a Christian according to the standard of the New Testament." {182b}

Dr Usoz also addressed a letter to the Society asking to be considered as a correspondent and entrusted with copies of the Scriptures, which he was convinced he could circulate in every province of Spain. The advantage of having one of the editors of the princ.i.p.al newspaper of Spain on the side of the Society did not fail to appeal to Borrow. Dr Usoz not only became a member of the Bible Society, but earned from Borrow a splendid tribute in the Preface to The Bible in Spain.

Before advantage could be taken of the hardly earned permission to print the New Testament in Madrid, the Revolution of La Granja {182c} broke out, resulting in the proclamation of the Const.i.tution of 1812, by which the press became free. In Madrid chaos reigned as a result.

Borrow himself has given a vivid account of how Quesada, by his magnificent courage, quelled for the time being the revolution, how the ministers fled, how eventually the heroic tyrant was recognised and killed, and, finally, how, at a celebrated coffee-house in Madrid, Borrow saw the victorious Nationals drink to the Const.i.tution from a bowl of coffee, which had first been stirred with one of the mutilated hands of the hated Quesada. {183a}

Now that no obstacle stood in the way of the printing of the Spanish New Testament, Borrow was requested to return to England that he might confer with the authorities at Earl Street. "You may now consider yourself under marching orders to return home as soon as you have made all the requisite arrangements; . . . you have done, we are persuaded, a good and great work," {183b} Mr Brandram wrote. It was thought by the Committee that the advantages to be derived from a conference with Borrow would be well worth the expense involved in his having to return again to Spain.

To this request for his immediate presence in London Borrow replied:

"I shall make the provisional engagement as desired [as regards the printing of the New Testament] and shall leave Madrid as soon as possible; but I must here inform you, that I shall find much difficulty in returning to England, as all the provinces are disturbed in consequence of the Const.i.tution of 1812 having been proclaimed, and the roads are swarming with robbers and banditti. It is my intention to join some muleteers, and attempt to reach Granada, from whence, if possible, I shall proceed to Malaga or Gibraltar, and thence to Lisbon, where I left the greatest part of my baggage. Do not be surprised, therefore, if I am tardy in making my appearance; it is no easy thing at present to travel in Spain. But all these troubles are for the benefit of the Cause, and must not be repined at." {183c}

Leaving Madrid on 20th August, Borrow was at Granada on the 30th, as proved by the Visitors' Book, in which he signed himself

"George Borrow Norvicensis."

The real object of this visit appears to have been his desire to study more closely the Spanish gypsies. From Granada he proceeded to Malaga. Neither place can be said to be on the direct road to England; but the disturbed state of the country had to be taken into consideration, and it was a question not of the shortest road but the safest.

On his return to London, early in October, Borrow wrote a report {184a} upon his labours, roughly sketching out his work since he left Badajos. He repeated his view that the Papal See had lost its power over Spain, and that the present moment was a peculiarly appropriate one in which to spread the light of the Gospel over the Peninsula.

Forgetting the thievish propensities of the race, he wrote glowingly of the Spaniards and their intellectual equipment, the clearness with which they expressed themselves, and the elegance of their diction.

The mind of the Spaniard was a garden run to waste, and it was for the British and Foreign Bible Society to cultivate it and purge it of the rank and bitter weeds.

He foresaw no difficulty whatever in disposing of 5000 copies of the New Testament in a short time in the capital and provincial towns, in particular Cadiz and Seville where the people were more enlightened.

He was not so confident about the rural districts, where those who a.s.sured him that they were acquainted with the New Testament said that it contained hymns addressed to the Virgin which were written by the Pope.

CHAPTER XII: NOVEMBER 1836-MAY 1837

Borrow remained in England for a month (3rd October/4th November), during which time he conferred with the Committee and Officials at Earl Street as to the future programme in Spain. On 4th November, having sent to his mother 130 pounds of the 150 pounds he had drawn as salary, and promising to write to Mr Brandram from Cadiz, he sailed from London in the steamer Manchester, bound for Lisbon and Cadiz.

In a letter to his mother, he describes his fellow pa.s.sengers as invalids fleeing from the English winter. "Some of them are three parts gone with consumption," he writes, "some are ruptured, some have broken backs; I am the only sound person in the s.h.i.+p, which is crowded to suffocation. I am in a little hole of a berth where I can scarcely breathe, and every now and then wet through."