The Life of George Borrow

by Herbert George Jenkins

In reporting progress to the Bible Society on 17th March Borrow, after assuring Mr Brandram that he had “brought every engine into play which it was in my power to command,” asked for instructions. “Shall I wait a little time longer in Madrid,” he enquired; “or shall I proceed at once on a journey to Andalusia and other places? I am in strength, health and spirits, thanks be to the Lord! and am at all times ready to devote myself, body and mind, to His cause.” [224a] The decision of the Committee was that he should remain at Madrid.

During the time that Borrow had been preparing his Depôt in Madrid, Lieutenant Graydon had been feverishly active in the South. On 19th April Borrow wrote to Mr Brandram:—

“Sir George Villiers has vowed to protect me and has stated so publicly . . . He has gone so far as to state to Ofalia and [Don Ramon de] Gamboa [the Civil Governor], that provided I be allowed to pursue my plans without interruption, he will be my bail (fiador) and answerable for everything I do, as he does me the honor to say that he knows me, and can confide in my discretion.”

In the same letter he begs the Society to be cautious and offer no encouragement to any disposed “‘to run the muck’ (sic) (it is Sir George’s expression) against the religious and political institutions of Spain”; but “the delicacy of the situation does not appear to have been thoroughly understood at the time even by the Committee at home.” [224b] They saw the astonishing success of Graydon in distributing the Scripture, and became infused with his enthusiasm, oblivious to the fact that the greater the enthusiasm the greater the possibilities of indiscretion. On the other hand Graydon himself saw only the glory of the Gospel. If he were indiscreet, it was because he was blinded by the success that attended his efforts, and he failed to see the clouds that were gathering. [225] Borrow saw the danger of Graydon’s reckless evangelism, and although he himself had few good words for the pope and priestcraft, he recognised that a discreet veiling of his opinions was best calculated to further the ends he had in view.

About this period Borrow became greatly incensed at the action of the Rev. W. H. Rule of Gibraltar in consigning to his care an ex-priest, Don Pascual Mann, who, it was alleged, had been persuaded to secede from Rome “by certain promises and hopes held out” to him. He had accordingly left his benefice and gone to Gibraltar to receive instruction at the hands of Mr Rule. On his return to Valencia his salary was naturally sequestrated, and he was reduced to want. When he arrived at Madrid it was with a letter (12th April) from Mr Rule to Borrow, in which it was stated that Mann was sent that he might “endeavour to circulate the Holy Scriptures, Religious Tracts and books, and if possible prepare the minds of some with a view to the future establishment of a Mission in Madrid.”

Borrow had commiserated with the unfortunate Mann, even to the extent of sending him 500 reals out of his own pocket; but on hearing that he was on his way to Madrid to engage in missionary work, he immediately wrote a letter of protest to Mr Brandram. He was angry at Mr Rule’s conduct in saddling him with Mann, and that without any preliminary correspondence. He had entertained Mr Rule when in Madrid, had conversed with him about the unfortunate ex-priest; but there had never been any mention of his being sent to Madrid. Mr Rule, on the other hand, thought it had been arranged that Mann should be sent to Borrow. The whole affair appears to have arisen out of a misunderstanding. There was considerable danger to Borrow in Mann’s presence in the capital; but it was not the thought of the danger that incensed him so much as what he conceived to be Mr Rule’s unwarrantable conduct, and his own deeply-rooted objection to working with anyone else. Mr Brandram repudiated the suggestion that assistance had been promised Mann from London (although he authorised Borrow to give him ten pounds in his, Brandram’s, name), and gave as an excuse for what Borrow described as the desertion of the ex-priest by those who were responsible for his conversion, that “the man had returned of his own accord to Rome,” Graydon vouching for the accuracy of the statement.

On the other hand, Mann stated that he was persuaded to secede by promises made by Graydon and Rule, and induced to sign a document purporting to be a separation from the Roman Church. He further stated that he was abandoned because he refused to preach publicly against the Chapter of Valencia, which in all probability would have resulted in his imprisonment. Whatever the truth, there appears to have been some embarrassment among those responsible for bringing in the lost sheep as to what should be done with him. “I hope that Mann’s history will be a warning to many of our friends,” Borrow wrote to Mr Rule and quoted the passage in his letter to Mr Brandram, [226] “and tend to a certain extent to sober down the desire for doing what is called at home smart things, many of which terminate in a manner very different from the original expectations of the parties concerned.” Mr Brandram thought that Borrow was a little hard upon Graydon, and that he had not received “with the due grano salis the statements of the unfortunate M.” He intimated, nevertheless, that the Committee had no opening for Mann’s services.

That Borrow was justified in his anger is shown by the fact that, as he had foreseen, he reaped all the odium of Mann’s conversion. The Bishop of Cordoba in Council branded him as “a dangerous, pestilent person, who under the pretence of selling the Scriptures went about making converts, and moreover employed subordinates for the purpose of deluding weak and silly people into separation from the Mother Church.” [227a]

Although Borrow was angry about the Mann episode, he did not allow his personal feelings to prevent him from ministering to the needs of the poor ex-priest “as far as prudence will allow,” when he fell ill. He even went the length of writing to Mr Rule, being wishful “not to offend him.” None the less he felt that he had not been well treated. To Mr Brandram he wrote reminding him “that all the difficulty and danger connected with what has been accomplished in Spain have fallen to my share, I having been labouring on the flinty rock and sierra, and not in smiling meadows refreshed by sea breezes.” [227b]

On 14th July 1838 Borrow made the last reference to the ex-priest in a letter to Mr Brandram: “The unfortunate M. is dying of a galloping consumption, brought on by distress of mind. All the medicine in the world would not accomplish his cure.” [227c]