"You
obtained the permission of the government of Isturitz," said he,
"which was a much less liberal one than the present.
I am a
witness to the promise made to you by the former ministers, which I
consider sufficient. You had best commence and complete the work
as soon as possible, without any fresh application; and should any
one attempt to interrupt you, you have only to come to me, whom you
may command at any time." So I went away with a light heart, and
forthwith made preparation for the execution of the object which
had brought me to Spain.
I shall not enter here into unnecessary details, which could
possess but little interest for the reader; suffice it to say that,
within three months from this time, an edition of the New
Testament, consisting of five thousand copies, was published at
Madrid. The work was printed at the establishment of Mr. Borrego,
a well-known writer on political economy, and proprietor and editor
of an influential newspaper called El Espanol. To this gentleman I
had been recommended by Isturitz himself, on the day of my
interview with him. That unfortunate minister had, indeed, the
highest esteem for Borrego, and had intended raising him to the
station of minister of finance, when the revolution of the Granja
occurring, of course rendered abortive this project, with perhaps
many others of a similar kind which he might have formed.
The Spanish version of the New Testament which was thus published,
had been made many years before by a certain Padre Filipe Scio,
confessor of Ferdinand the Seventh, and had even been printed, but
so encumbered by notes and commentaries as to be unfitted for
general circulation, for which, indeed, it was never intended.
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