pot than
another, it is here, in this heart of old, popish, anti-christian Spain,
always difficult of access, but now peculiarly so, as it is scarcely
possible to travel a league from its gates without being stript naked and
murdered. Yet in this singular capital, in the midst of furious priests
and Carlists, I have ventured upon establishing a shop which bears on its
front in large letters: 'Despatch of the British and Foreign Bible
Society.' To call the attention of the people to this establishment, I
printed three thousand advertisements on paper, yellow, blue, and
crimson, with which I almost covered the sides of the streets, and
besides this inserted notices in all the journals and periodicals,
employing also a man after the London fashion to parade the streets with
a placard, to the astonishment of the populace.

The consequence has been that at present every person in Madrid, man,
woman, and child, is aware of the existence of the establishment. You
must feel convinced that such exertions would in London or in Paris have
insured the sale of the whole edition of the New Testament within a few
days. But hitherto I have had to contend with ignorance--and such
ignorance, with bigotry--and such bigotry, and with great and terrible
distress. So that since the opening of the establishment, which I hope
the Lord will deign to bless, I have contrived to sell, and I may say
that every copy sold has cost me an exertion, and no slight one, between
70 and 80 New Testaments {274} and 10 Bibles. You will doubtless wonder
where I obtained the latter: in the shop of a bookseller who dared not
sell them himself, but who had brought them secretly from Gibraltar. Of
these Bibles there were two of the large edition, printed by William
Clowes, 1828 (I would give my right hand for a thousand of them); these I
sold (on the bookseller's account) for 70 _reals_ or 17 shillings each,
and the others, which were of the very common edition, for 7 shillings,
which is, however, far too dear. My own Testament I sell for 10 _reals_,
which every person allows to be unaccountably cheap, but I deem it best
to be moderate, on account of the distress of the times. Permit me here
to observe that this Testament has been allowed by people who have
perused it, and with no friendly feeling, to be one of the most correct
works that have ever issued from the press in Spain, and to be an
exceedingly favourable specimen of typography and paper: and luc