The Life of George Borrow [103]
that Sir George Villiers went to the length of informing Count Ofalia that unless full satisfaction were accorded Borrow, he would demand his passports and instruct the commanders of the British war vessels to desist from furnishing further assistance to Spain. {240b} There is, however, no record of this in the official papers sent by Sir George to the Foreign Office. What actually occurred was that, on 8th May, the British Minister, determined to brook no further delay, wrote a grave official remonstrance, in which he stated that, "if the desire had existed to bring it to a close," the case of Borrow could have been settled. "Having up to the present moment," he proceeds, "trusted that in Your Excellency's hands, this affair would be treated with all that consideration required by its nature and the consequences that may follow upon it . . . I have forborne from denouncing the whole extent of the illegality which has marked the proceedings of the case" (viz., the Civil Governor's having usurped the right of the Captain- General of the Province in causing Borrow's arrest). In conclusion, Sir George states that he considers the
"case of most pressing importance, for it may compromise the relations now existing between Great Britain and Spain. It is one that requires a complete satisfaction, for the honor of England and the future position of Englishmen in the Country are concerned; and the satisfaction, in order to be complete, required to be promptly given."
"This disagreeable business," Sir George writes in another of his despatches, "is rendered yet more so by the impossibility of defending with success all Mr Borrow's proceedings . . . His imprudent zeal likewise in announcing publicly that the Bible Society had a depot of Bibles in Madrid, and that he was the Agent for their sale, irritated the Ecclesiastical Authorities, whose attention has of late been called to the proceedings of a Mr Graydon,--another agent of the Bible Society, who has created great excitement at Malaga (and I believe in other places) by publishing in the Newspapers that the Catholic Religion was not the religion of God, and that he had been sent from England to convert Spaniards to Protestantism. I have upon more than one occasion cautioned Mr Graydon, but in vain, to be more prudent. The Methodist Society of England is likewise endeavouring to establish a School at Cadiz, and by that means to make conversions.
"Under all these circumstances it is not perhaps surprising that the Archbishop of Toledo and the Heads of the Church should be alarmed that an attempt at Protestant Propagandism is about to be made, or that the Government should wish to avert the evils of religious schism in addition to all those which already weigh upon the Country; and to these different causes it must, in some degree, be attributed that Mr Borrow has been an object of suspicion and treated with such extreme rigor. Still, however, they do not justify the course pursued by the Civil Governor towards him, or by the Government towards myself, and I trust Your Lordship will consider that in the steps I have taken upon the matter, I have done no more than what the National honor, and the security of Englishmen in this Country, rendered obligatory upon me." {241a}
Whilst Borrow was in the Carcel de la Corte, a grave complication had arisen in connection with the misguided Lieutenant Graydon. Borrow gives a strikingly dramatic account {241b} of Count Ofalia's call at the British Embassy. He is represented as arriving with a copy of one of Graydon's bills, which he threw down upon a table calling upon Sir George Villiers to read it and, as a gentleman and the representative of a great and enlightened nation, tell him if he could any longer defend Borrow and say that he had been ill or unfairly treated. According to the Foreign Office documents, Count Ofalia WROTE to Sir George Villiers on 5th May, ENCLOSING a copy of an advertisement inserted by Lieutenant Graydon in the Boletin Oficial de Malaga, which, translated, runs as follows:-
"The Individual
"case of most pressing importance, for it may compromise the relations now existing between Great Britain and Spain. It is one that requires a complete satisfaction, for the honor of England and the future position of Englishmen in the Country are concerned; and the satisfaction, in order to be complete, required to be promptly given."
"This disagreeable business," Sir George writes in another of his despatches, "is rendered yet more so by the impossibility of defending with success all Mr Borrow's proceedings . . . His imprudent zeal likewise in announcing publicly that the Bible Society had a depot of Bibles in Madrid, and that he was the Agent for their sale, irritated the Ecclesiastical Authorities, whose attention has of late been called to the proceedings of a Mr Graydon,--another agent of the Bible Society, who has created great excitement at Malaga (and I believe in other places) by publishing in the Newspapers that the Catholic Religion was not the religion of God, and that he had been sent from England to convert Spaniards to Protestantism. I have upon more than one occasion cautioned Mr Graydon, but in vain, to be more prudent. The Methodist Society of England is likewise endeavouring to establish a School at Cadiz, and by that means to make conversions.
"Under all these circumstances it is not perhaps surprising that the Archbishop of Toledo and the Heads of the Church should be alarmed that an attempt at Protestant Propagandism is about to be made, or that the Government should wish to avert the evils of religious schism in addition to all those which already weigh upon the Country; and to these different causes it must, in some degree, be attributed that Mr Borrow has been an object of suspicion and treated with such extreme rigor. Still, however, they do not justify the course pursued by the Civil Governor towards him, or by the Government towards myself, and I trust Your Lordship will consider that in the steps I have taken upon the matter, I have done no more than what the National honor, and the security of Englishmen in this Country, rendered obligatory upon me." {241a}
Whilst Borrow was in the Carcel de la Corte, a grave complication had arisen in connection with the misguided Lieutenant Graydon. Borrow gives a strikingly dramatic account {241b} of Count Ofalia's call at the British Embassy. He is represented as arriving with a copy of one of Graydon's bills, which he threw down upon a table calling upon Sir George Villiers to read it and, as a gentleman and the representative of a great and enlightened nation, tell him if he could any longer defend Borrow and say that he had been ill or unfairly treated. According to the Foreign Office documents, Count Ofalia WROTE to Sir George Villiers on 5th May, ENCLOSING a copy of an advertisement inserted by Lieutenant Graydon in the Boletin Oficial de Malaga, which, translated, runs as follows:-
"The Individual