rom
the Bishop of ---, the president of the body of ecclesiastics at present
engaged in examining our Bible.

He is of my opinion 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 and 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.

It of course does not become me to advise the Committee and yourself upon
this point. I merely take the liberty of communicating the circumstance,
and observing that the Prelate in question is a most learned and
respectable man, and one of the warmest of our friends.

I have not seen any of the tracts seized at Murcia, nor do I wish. If
examined by the Council, I shall declare on oath that I am innocent and
ignorant of the matter, and that I believe the Bible Society to be the
same. Sir George assured me that one or two of them were outrages not
only to common sense but decency.

I forgot to tell you yesterday that my poor servant is dead. He died of
the pestilential typhus caught in the prison; his body at the period of
his death was a frightful mass of putridity, and was in consequence
obliged to be instantly shovelled into the Campo Santo or common field of
the dead near Madrid. May Christ be his stay at the Great Day; a more
affectionate creature never breathed.

Hear now what the _Madrid Gazette_ says of our Society, in an article in
which it reproves in the strongest terms the conduct lately pursued by
pseudo-agents, and gives me a rap on the knuckles for an anti-catholic
expression or two in the advertisement in which I denounced them. The
_Gazette_ is the official organ of the Government, and all it says is
under authority:--

'We will not conclude this article without bestowing the merited tribute
of praise on the project truly magnificent of the Bible Society,
considered not under the religious but the social aspect. Christianity
has been, is, and will be the grand agent in the civilisation of the
world; and the preaching of its doctrine, and the propagation of its
maxims among the nations who know it not, is the most costly p