The Life of George Borrow Part 19

That the Primate of Spain should have sent to Borrow such a message is surprising; but what is still more so is that six days later Borrow wrote telling Mr Brandram that he had asked a bishop to arrange an interview between him and the Archbishop of Toledo, and Sir George Villiers, who was present, begged the same privilege.

{253a} On 23rd May Borrow wrote again to Mr Brandram: "I have just had an interview with the Archbishop. It was satisfactory to a degree I had not dared to hope for." In his next letter (25th May) he writes:

"I have had, as you are aware, an interview with the Archbishop of Toledo. I have not time to state particulars, but he said amongst other things, 'Be prudent, the Government are disposed to arrange matters amicably, and I am disposed to co-operate with them.' At parting he shook me most kindly by the hand saying that he liked me.

Sir George intends to visit him in a few days. He is an old, venerable-looking man, between seventy and eighty. When I saw him he was dressed with the utmost simplicity, with the exception of a most splendid amethyst ring, the l.u.s.tre of which was truly dazzling."

There is only one conclusion to be drawn from this archiepiscopal condescension, if the interview were not indeed sought by Borrow, that it was a political move to pacify the wounded feelings of an outraged Englishman at a time when the goodwill of England was as necessary to the kingdom of Spain as the sun itself

The upshot of the Malaga Incident was that "the Spanish Government resolved to put an end to Bible transactions in Spain, and forthwith gave orders for the seizure of all the Bibles and Testaments in the country, wherever they might be deposited or exposed for sale. They notified Sir George Villiers of the decision, expressly stating that the resolution was taken in consequence of the 'Ocurrido en Malaga.'"

{254a} The letter in which Sir George Villiers was informed of the Government's decision runs as follows:-

MADRID, 19th May 1838.

SIR,

I have the honor to inform You that in consequence of what has taken place at Malaga and other places, respecting the publication and sale of the Bible translated by Padre Scio, which are not complete (since they do not contain all the Books which the Catholic Church recognises as Canonical) nor even being complete could they be printed unless furnished with the Notes of the said Padre Scio, according to the existing regulations; Her Majesty has thought proper to prevent this publication and sale, but without insulting or molesting those British Subjects who for some time past have been 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 G.o.d, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 inst.i.tution. "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 cla.s.s 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 partizans.h.i.+p. 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 doc.u.ments, 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 Advertis.e.m.e.nt contained in the Correo Nacional of the 17th inst., and that he be cautioned how he commits the Society by advertis.e.m.e.nts of a similar character. And further, that he be desired to state to Sir George Villiers that the advertis.e.m.e.nt 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 a.s.sure 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 hards.h.i.+ps. What have we against him at present? He has issued certain doc.u.ments 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 a.s.suredly 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 a.s.surance in the early part that recall would be the punishment for another such lapse into indiscretion, "you must not expect anything beyond a qualified disavowal of it, and that simply as unbecoming an Agent of such a Society as ours.

"After what I have written, you will hardly feel surprised that our Committee could not quite approve of your Advertis.e.m.e.nt. We have ever regarded Mr Graydon as much our Agent as yourself. In three of our printed reports in succession we make no difference in speaking of you both. We are anxious to do nothing to weaken your hands at so important a crisis, and we conceive that the terms we have employed in our Resolution are the mildest we could have used. Do not insert the Advertis.e.m.e.nt a second time. Let it pa.s.s; let it be forgotten.

If necessary we shall give the public intimation that Mr G. was, but is not our agent any longer. Remember, we entreat you, the very delicate position that such a manifesto places us in, as well as the effect which it may have on Mr Graydon's personal safety. We give you full credit for believing it was your duty, under the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case, to take so decided and bold a step, and that you thought yourself fully justified by the distinction of salaried and unsalaried Agent, in speaking of yourself as the alone accredited Agent of the Society. Possibly when you reflect a little upon the matter you may view it in another light. There are besides some sentiments in the Advertis.e.m.e.nt which we cannot perhaps fully accord with . . . If to our poor friend there has befallen the saddest of all calamities to which you allude, should we not speak of him with all tenderness. If he be insane I believe much of it is to be attributed to that entire devotion with which he has devoted himself to our work.

No complaint can be urged against the Committee for refusing to condemn one of their agents unheard, and without doc.u.mentary evidence; but it was strange that they should pa.s.s resolutions that contained no word of sympathy with Borrow for his sufferings in a typhus-infested prison. It is even more strange that the covering letter should refer to Graydon's sufferings and hards.h.i.+ps and the danger to his person, without apparently realising that Borrow HAD ACTUALLY suffered what the Committee feared that Graydon MIGHT suffer. There is no doubt that Borrow's impulsive letters had greatly offended everybody at Earl Street, where Lieut. Graydon appears to have been extremely popular; and the few words of sympathy with Borrow that might have saved much acrimonious correspondence were neither resolved nor written.

The other side of the picture is shown in a vigorous pa.s.sage from Borrow's Report, which was afterwards withdrawn:

"A helpless widow [the mother of Don Pascual Mann] was insulted, her liberty of conscience invaded, and her only son incited to rebellion against her. A lunatic [Lieut. Graydon] was employed as the repartidor, or distributor, of the Blessed Bible, who, having his head crammed with what he understood not, ran through the streets of Valencia crying aloud that Christ was nigh at hand and would appear in a short time, whilst advertis.e.m.e.nts to much the same effect were busily circulated, in which the name, the n.o.ble name, of the Bible Society was prost.i.tuted; whilst the Bible, exposed for sale in the apartment of a public house, served for little more than a decoy to the idle and curious, who were there treated with incoherent railings against the Church of Rome and Babylon in a dialect which it was well for the deliverer that only a few of the audience understood. But I fly from these details, and will now repeat the consequences of the above proceedings to myself; for I, I, and only I, as every respectable person in Madrid can vouch, have paid the penalty for them all, though as innocent as the babe who has not yet seen the light."

If the General Committee at a period of anxiety and annoyance failed to pay tribute to Borrow's many qualities, the official historian of the Society makes good the omission when he describes him as "A strange, impulsive, more or less inflammable creature as he must have occasionally seemed to the Secretaries and Editorial Superintendent, he had proved himself a man of exceptional ability, energy, tact, prudence--above all, a man whose heart was in his work." {262a}

Borrow's acknowledgment of the Resolutions was dated 16th June. It ran:-