BORROW'S BIBLE IN SPAIN.

Ma. Miaow has been employed by the Bible Society in various countries, and among others in Spain. On a former occasion, he gave to the world a not very edifying account of the Gipsies of that "romantic land." The volumes before us contain the narrative of his personal adventures in the Peninsula, whilst employed in printing and distributing the Scriptures ; the narrative being intermixed with many remarks on the character of the people and the country. The time occupied by Mr. BORROW in this adventure was about five years, though his present work only appears to embrace the interval between 1835 and 1838. The jouruies he made and the districts he traversed in that period were various. He began from Lisbon, with a trip into the Alemtejo, or the wild and Southern provinces of Portugal : he then proceeded, through Elves and Bada- joz, to Madrid : at the capital he was occupied in negotiations with Iwo successive Ministries to be allowed to print and circulate a Spanish version of the New Testament without notes,—a permission which was eventually, and through the assistance of' Mr. VILLIERS, now Lord CLARENDON, obtained after a fashion ; Isvuarrz giving a verbal opinion to go on, a few days before the revolution of La Granja compelled the Premier himself to go off. On this event Mr. Boaaow returned to England, apparently to consult his em- ployers upon this informal sanction : but they resolved to perse- vere; and the agent found himself, rid Cadiz and Seville, again at Madrid, busy in printing Testaments ; and soon after made a tour through the Northern provinces of Spain, to distribute them both

in the villages and the cities, establishing "agencies " wherever h could. On his return to the capital, be publicly opened a Bibl Society's depot ; but, after a time, the sale of the books was for- bidden by authority. He then printed a translation of St. Luke in the Gipsy jargon ; sold it, if we understand him, in despite of the prohibition ; and got arrested, through the machinations of the clergy. There was an informality about his imprisonment, (that practically was rather confinement than imprisonment,) of which the Ambassador took advantage : Mr. Boaaow, quoting St. Paul, refused to go out privately, and was at last let out triumphantly. Soon after which, he bad an interview with the Premier ; and thus frankly enough announced his intention of disobeying the law-

4. I had an interview with Ofalia on the subject uppermost in my mind. I found him morose and snappish. 'It will be for your interest to be still,' said

he : 'beware t you have already thrown the whole Corte into confusion ; be-

ware I I repeat ; another time you may not escape so easily.' Perhaps not,' I replied, and perhaps I do not wish it : it is a pleasant thing to be persecuted

for the Gospels sake. I now take the liberty of inquiring whether, if I attempt to circulate the Word of God, I am to be interrupted." Of course,' exclaimed Ofalia; 'the Church forbids such circulation. I ball make the attempt, however,' I exclaimed. Do you mean what you say ? ' demanded Ofalia,

arching his eyebrows and elongating his mouth. 'Yes,' I continued ; ' I shall make the attempt in every village in Spain to which I can penetrate.' "

However, a fever, which rendered it necessary for Mr. Bottaow to return to England, postponed this plan ; and on his return the clergy had organized proceedings. His books were seized at the shops of his town-agents ; his country-agents were watched and arrested ; and though he still contrived to sell a few privately, he at last got weary, withdrew, first to Seville then to Gibraltar, and then crossed over to Africa; his third volume closing at Tangier, where he was distributing books to the Spanish inhabitants.

This is not the place to discuss the religions propriety of in- truding into a country with which we are at peace, and openly violating the law ; though we may observe, that both the Apostles

and their Master were occasionally in the habit of withdrawing from spots where persecution was threatened. In a temporal and

political sense, there can scarcely be more than one opinion upon the question. The state is bound to protect its meanest sub- ject, wherever he may be, and at any cost, so long as he con- ducts himself peaceably and in compliance with the laws of the country be is residing in : but as soon as he takes upon himself to interfere with the government or religion of that country, he throws off the character of the subject and becomes a cosmopo- litan or apostle ; which characters (however excellent in them- selves) an individual state cannot recognize, though it may exert its

influence as an act of kindness or of favour. To public officers of every

kind this rule applies still more distinctly. Yet, according to Mr. Boaaow, the British Ambassador actuakly took upon himself the distribution of his publications, through his power over the Consular offices ; it is true, before the circulation was positively forbidden, but whilst the whole transaction was informal in a high degree.

" A few minutes after his departure, whilst I was sitting alone, meditating on the journey which I was about to undertake, and on the ricketty state of my health, 1 heard a loud knock at the street-door of the house, on the third floor of which I was lodged. In another minute Mr. 8— of the British Embassy, entered my apartment. After a little conversation, he informed me that Mr. Villiers had desired him to wait upon me to communicate a resolution which he had come to. Being apprehensive that, alone and unassisted, I should experience considerable difficulty in propagating the gospel of God to any considerable extent in Spain, he was bent upon exerting to the utmost his own credit and influence to further my views, which he himself considered, if carried into proper effect, extremely well calculated to operate beneficially on the political and moral state of the country. To this end, it was his intention to purchase a very considerable number of copies of the New Testament, and to despatch them forthwith to the various British Consuls established in dif- ferent parts of Spain, with strict and positive orders to employ all the means which their official situation should afford them to circulate the Looks in question, and to assure their being noticed."

In a country situated as Spain is, no political injury has resulted from the practices of Mr. Boaaow and the diplomatic functiona- ries. But in the East this question assumes a very grave and practical character. The odd contrasts of supercargoes and mis- sionaries, opium and bibles, have for some time been privateering along the coast of China ; and some persons have been calling upon the English or Americans to wage war with Japan, because she will not permit strangers, that is missionaries, to enter her territories. With these "pulpit drum ecclesiastic" notions, it is not difficult to see that, with the most prudent conduct, there is a bone of contention already prepared at the four new stations which are opened to British enterprise in China. But if public

functionaries, in their public capacity, are to be allowed to go be- yond their duty, and, whether from private conviction or a desire

to curry political favour with a numerous but unauthorized body at home, to aid in evading (we will not say in defying) the authorities of the country where they reside, we may look before long for a Bible war as a sequel to the Opium war.

To return to The Bilk in Spain. The success of Mr. Boaaow may be briefly told. He seems to have found the bulk of the en- lightened classes indifferent—perhaps unbelieving ; but still there was a fair sale (at the Society's low price) of the New Testament: at Madrid, though, the demand seemed greater for the Bible. The village-schoolmasters generally were purchasers ; but as much, we think, for a school-book—of the want of which they greatly com- plained—as for any higher object : a few, very few of the clergy, were willing to permit its distribution ; more were willing to purchase it for themselves : the lower classes generally were anxious to pro- cure it ; but sometimes, it strikes us, like the schoolmasters, as much from its being a book as from any knowledge they had of its nature. Among the lower classes, Mr. Boanow found much de- vout feeling, and throughout all classes a vest dislike of the clew.

As an addition to our literature, this work is entitled to high praise. In mere artistical skill, and even in native power, there are tourists who excel Mr. Boanow—writers who can hit off a scene or a person with more telling effect, and describe a landscape with more graphic force, as well as impart more buoyancy and brevity to their composition. The qualities of this author are of a more peculiar kind; and it is these, in conjunction with his information, which give the value to the volumes they are infused

into. Mr. Boaaow is a man of many languages, and of very varied if not of very profound acquirements : he is a traveller of large experience, accustomed to privation, difficulty, and danger ; partly from nature and habit, partly from the necessities of his calling, he is ready in making acquaintances and turning them to ac- count ; and no one knows better than he does how to fulfil the Scrip- tural maxim " all things to all men,"—though not perhaps in a Scriptural sense. As a mere instrument for distribution, no better agent than our author could be selected by a Bible or any other society. But had some passages been struck out of The Bible in Spain, and the Scriptural names, &c. altered, we never, in the accommodating character of Mr. Bouttow, should have thought we had a member of that sleek and somewhat particular sect before us which delighteth in Exeter Hall. With the Carlists he was a Carlist, with the Christinos a Liberal, and with the Gipsies very much like an Egyptian : he did not un- deceive an old Catholic priest and quondam member of the Inqui- sition as to his estimate of the Romish lady whilst sucking the old man's brains : with certain Jews he tacitly allowed himself to pass as one of the tribe; and his panegyric to the bigoted Genoese at Tangier, on the unity of the Godhead in Mahomet- anism, compared with Popery, would have sounded "harsh and unmusical" in the ears of many subscribers to the Bible Society. Though in form and structure a book of travels, The Bible in Spain is in reality a species of prosaic story of adventure, re- sembling those romances without unity of action, but with plenty 'of action, of which Spain has been so prolific. The tours through out-of-the-way parts of the country, often with a pack-animal, and a pack of Testaments, which the traveller disbursed as he went along—the risks he sometimes ran—the strange companions be fell in with, very often of the publican and sinner tribe—the singular treasure-hunting acquaintance he made, together with the adventures of himself and his Cosmopolito-Greek servant—form a sort of modern matter-of-fact Gil Bias in water-colours.

These features of the work cannot be exhibited in extracts ; -which must be taken from the more digressional or tourist passages.

THE JEWS OF LISBON.

Gathered in small clusters about the pillars at the lower extremities of the Gold and Silver Streets in Lisbon, may be observed, about noon in every day, certain strange-looking men, whose appearance is neither Portuguese nor Eu- ropean. Their dress generally consists of a red cap, with a blue silken tassel at the top of it, a blue tunic girded at the waist with a red sash, and wide linen pataloona or trousers. He who passes by these groups generally hears them conversing in broken Spanish or Portuguese, and occasionally in a harsh guttural language, which the Oriental traveller knows to be the Arabic, or a dialect thereof. These people are the Jews of Lisbon. Into the midst of one of these groups I one day introduced myself, and pronounced a beraka, or blessing. I have lived in different parts of the world, much among the Hebrew race, and am well acquainted with their ways and phraseology. I was rather anxious to become acquainted with the state of the Portuguese Jews, and I had now an opportunity. " The man is a powerful rabbi," said a voice in Arabic; " it behoves us to treat him kindly." They welcomed me. I favoured their mistake, and in a few days I knew all that related to them and their traffic in Lisbon. I found them a vile, infamous rabble, about two hundred in number. With a few exceptions, they consist of escapadoes from the Barbary shore, from Tetuan, from Tangier, but principally from Mogadore; fellows who have fled to a foreign land from the punishment due to their misdeeds. Their manner of life in Lisbon is worthy of such a goodly assemblage of antis reunis. The generality of them pretend to work in gold and silver, and keep small peddling shops ; they, however, principally depend for their livelihood on an extensive traffic in stolen goods which they carry on.

MADRID AS A CITY.

I have visited most of the principal capitals of the world ; but upon the whole none has ever so interested me as this city of Madrid, in which I now found myself. I will not dwell upon its streets, its edifices, its public squares, its fountains, though some of these are remarkable enough : but Petersburg has finer streets, Paris and Edinburgh more stately edifices, London far nobler squares, whilst Shiraz can boast of more costly fountains, though not cooler waters. But the population I Within a mud-wall scarcely one league and a half in circuit, are contained two hundred thousand human beings, certainly forming the most extraordinary vital mass to be found in the entire world; and be it always remembered that this mass is strictly Spanish. The popu- lation of Constantinople is extraordinary enough, but to form it twenty nations have contributed—Greeks, Armenians, Persians, Poles, Jews, (the latter,liy the by, of Spanish origin, and speaking among themselves the old Spanish language); but the huge population of Madrid, with the exception of a sprinkling of foreigners, chiefly French tailors, glove-makers and peruquiers, is strictly bpanish, though a considerable portion are not natives of the place. Here are no colonies of Germans, as at St. Petersburg; no English factories, as at Lisbon ; no multitudes of insolent Yankees lounging through the streets, as at the Havanna, with an air which seems to say, the laud is our own when- ever we choose to take it ; but a population which, however strange and wild, and composed of various elements, is Spanish, and will remain so as long as the city itself shall exist.

LA CIRANJA : REVOLUTION AT MADRID.

The Granja, or Grange, is a royal country-seat, situated among pine-forests, on the other side of the Guadarama hills, about twelve leagues distant from Madrid. To this place the Queen Regent Christina bad retired, in order be aloof from the discontent of the capital, and to enjoy rural air and amusements in this celebrated retreat, a monument of the taste and magnificence of the first 'Bourbon ahostscended the throne of Spain. She was not, however, permitted turemain long in tranquillity : her own guards were disaffected, and more in- clined to the principles of the Constitution of 1823 than to those of absolute monarchy, which the Moderados were attempting to revise again in the Govern- ment of Spain. Early one morning, a party of these soldiers, beaded by a cer- tain sergeant Garcia, entered her apartment, and proposed that she should subscribe her band to this Constitution, and swear solemnly to abide by it. Christina, however, who was a woman of considerable spirit, refused to comply with this proposal, and ordered them to withdraw. A scene of violence and tumult ensued ; but the sergeant still continuing firm, the soldiers at length led her down to one of the courts of the palace, where stood her well-known pa- ramour, Munos, bound and blindfolded. " Swear to the Constitution, you she- rogue !" vociferated the swarthy sergeant. " Never! " said the spirited daughter of the Neapolitan Bourbons. " Then your cortejo shall die," replied the sergeant. " Ho, ho I my lads; get ready your arms, and send four bullets through the fellow's brain." Munos was forthwith led to the wall, and com- pelled to kneel down ; the soldiers levelled their muskets, and another moment would have consigned the unfortunate wight to eternity ; when Christina, for- getting every thing but the feelings of her woman's heart, suddenly started for- ward with a shriek, exclaiming—" Hold, hold ! I sign! I sign !"

A MADRID MOB.

We had scarcely been five minutes at the window, when we suddenly beard the clattering of horses' feet hastening down the street called the Calle de Car- retas. The house in which we had stationed ourselves was, as I have already observed, just opposite to the Post-office, at the left of which this street de- bouchea from the north into the Puerta del Sol : as the sounds became louder and louder, the cries of the crowd below diminished, and a species of panic seemed to have fallen upon all : once or twice, however, I could distinguish the worth., Quesada! Quesadal The foot soldiers stood calm and motionless ; but I observed that the cavalry, with the young officer who commanded them, dis- played both confusion and fear, exchanging with each other some hurried words : all of a sudden, that part of the crowd which stood near the mouth of the Calle de Carretas fell back in great disorder, leaving a considerable space unoccupied; and the next moment Quesada, in complete general's uniform, and mounted on a bright bay thoroughbred English horse, with a drawn sword in his hand, dashed at full gallop into the area, in much the same manner as I have seen a Manchegan bull rush into the amphitheatre when the gates of his pen are suddenly flung open. He was closely followed by two mounted officers, and at a short distance by as many dragoons. In almost less time than is sufficient to relate it, several indi- viduals in the crowd were knocked down and lay sprawling upon the ground beneath the horses of Quesada and his two friends; for as to the dragoons, they halted as Boon as they had entered the Puerta del Sol. It was a fine sight to see three men by dint of valour and good horsemanship strike terror into at least as many thousands : I saw Quesada spur his horse repeatedly into the dense masses of the crowd, and then extricate himself in the most masterly manner. The rabble were completely awed and gave way, retiring by the Calle del Comercio and the street of Meals. All at once, Quesada singled out two Nationals, who were attempting to escape; and, setting spurs to his horse, turned them in a moment, and drove them in another direction, striking them in a contemptuous manner with the fist of his sabre. He was crying out, " Long live the absolute Queen!" when, just beneath me, amidst a portion of the crowd which had still maintained its ground, perhaps from not having the means of escaping, I saw a small gun glitter for a moment, then there was a sharp report, and a bullet had nearly sent Quesada to his long account, passing so near to the countenance of the General as to graze his hat. I had an indis- tinct view for a moment of a well-known foraging-cap just about the spot from whence the gun had been discharged; then there was a rush of the crowd ; and the shooter, whoever he was, escaped discovery amidst the confusion which arose.

As for Quesada, be seemed to treat the danger from which he had escaped with the utmost contempt. He glared about him fiercely for a moment; then leaving the two Nationals, who sneaked away like whipped hounds, be went up to the young officer who commanded the cavalry, and who had been active in raising the cry of the Constitution, and to him he addressed a few words with an air of stern menace: the youth evidently quailed before him, and, probably in obedience to his orders, resigned the command of the party, and rode slowly away with a discomfited air ; whereupon Quesada dismounted, and walked slowly backwards and forwards before the Casa de Postas, with a mien which seemed to hid defiance to mankind.

MOORISH SENTIMENT.

The Moors of Barbary seem to care but little for the exploits of their ances- tors: their minds are centered in the things of the present day, and only so far as those things regard themselves individually. Disinterested enthusiasm, that truly distinguishing mark of a noble mind, and admiration for'

or what is great, good, and grand, they appear to be totally incapable of feeling. It is astonish- ing with what indifference they stray among the relics of ancient Moorish

grandeur in Spain. No feelings of exultation seem to be excited by the proof of what the Moor once was, nor of regret at the consciousness of what he now is. More interesting to them are their perfumes, their papouches, their dates, and their silks of Fez and Maraks, to dispose of which they visit Andalusia : and yet the generality of these men are far from being ignorant, and have both heard and read of what was passing in Spain in the old time. I was once con- versing with a Moor at Madrid, with whom I was very intimate, about the Al- hambra of Granada, which he had visited. " Did you not weep," said I, when you passed through the courts, and thought of the Abencerrages ? " " No," said he, " I did not weep ; wherefore should I weep? " " And why did you visit the Alhambra?' I demanded. " I visited it," he replied, " because being at Granada on my own affairs, one of your countrymen requested me to accompany him thither, that I might explain some of the in- scriptions. I should certainly not have gone of my own accord, for the hill on which it stands is steep." And yet this man could compose verses, and was by no means a contemptible poet.

POVERTY IN SPAIN.

Opposite to my room in the corridor lodged a wounded officer, who had just arrived from San Sebastian on a galled broken-kneed pony : he was an Eatri- menian, and was returning to his own village to he cured. He was attended by three broken soldiers, lame or maimed, and unfit for service : they told me that they were of the same village as his worship, and on that account be permitted them to travel with him. They slept among the litter, and throughout the day lounged about the house smoking paper cigars. I never saw them eating, though they frequently went to a dark cool corner, where stood a hate or kind of water-pitcher, which they held about six inches from their black filmy lips, permitting the liquid to trickle down their throats. They said they bad no pay, and were quite destitute of money ; that au tnerced the officer occasionally gave them a piece of bread, but that he himself was poor and bad only a few dollars. Brave guests for an inn, thought I: yet, to the honour of Spain be it spoken, it is one of the few countries in Europe where poverty is never insulted nor looked upon with contempt. Even at an inn, the poor man is never spurned from the door; and if not harboured, is at least dismissed with fair words, and consigned to the mercies of God and his Mother. This is as it should be. I laugh at the bigotry and prejudices of Spain; I abhor the cruelty and ferocity which have cast a stain of eternal infamy on her history ; but I will say for the Spaniards, that in their social intercourse no people in the world exhibit a juster feeling of what is due to the dignity of human stature, or better understand the behaviour which it behoves a man to adopt towards his fellow-beings. I have said that it is one of the few countries io Europe where poverty is not treated with contempt, and I may add, where the wealthy am not blindly idolised. In Spain, the very beggar does not feel himself a degraded being, for he kisses no one's feet, and knows not what it is to be cuffed at opium upon ; and in Spain the duke or the marquis can scarcely entertain a

vary overweening opinion of his own consequence, as be finds no one, with primps the exception of his French valet, to fawn upon or flatter him.

FERROL.

Sadness came upon me as soon as I entered this place. Grass was growing in the streets, and misery and distress stared me in the face on every side. Ferrol is the grand naval arsenal of Spain, and has shared in the ruin of the once splendid Spanish navy : it is no longer thronged with those thousand shipwrights who prepared for sea the tremendous three-deckers and long frigates, the greater part of which were destroyed at Trafalgar. Only a few ill- paid and half-starved workmen still linger about, scarcely sufficient to repair any guards costa which may put in dismantled by the fire of some English smuggling-schooner from Gibraltar. Half the inhabitants of Ferrol beg their bread; and among these, as it is said, are not unfrequently found retired naval- officers, many of them maimed or otherwise wounded, who are left to pine in indigence; their pensions or salaries having been allowed to run three or four years in arrest', owing to the exigencies of the times. A crowd of importunate beggars followed me to the posada, and even attempted to penetrate to the apartment to which I was conducted. " Who are you?" said I to a woman who flung herself at my feet, and who bore in her countenance evident marks of former gentility. " A widow, Sir," she replied, in very good French; " a widow of a brave officer, once admiral of this port." The misery and degrada- tion of modern Spain are nowhere so strikingly manifested as at Ferrol.

SPANISH ROGUES.

What most surprised me with respect to the prisoners, was their good beha- viour : I call it good when all things are taken into consideration, and when I compare it with that of the general class of prisoners in foreign lands. They bad their occasional bursts of wild gayety, their occasional quarrels, which they were in the habit of settling in a corner of the interior court with their long knives ; the result not unfrequently being death, or a dreadful gash in the face or the abdomen : but, upon the whole, their conduct was infinitely superior to what might have been expected from the inmates of such a place. Yet this was not the result of coercion, or any particular care which was exercised over them; for perhaps in no part of the world are prisoners so left to themselves and so utterly neglected as in Spain : the authorities having no farther anxiety about them, than to prevent their escape ; not the slightest attention being paid to their moral conduct, and not a thought bestowed upon their health, comfort, or mental improvement, while within the walls. Yet, in this prison of Madrid, and I may say in Spanish prisons in general, for I have been an in- mate of more than one, the ears of the visitor are never shocked with horrid blasphemy and obscenity, as in those of some other countries, and more parti- cularly in civilized France ; nor are his eyes outraged and himself insulted, as he would assuredly be were be to look down upon the courts from the galleries of the Bicdtre. And yet in this prison of Madrid were some of the most desperate characters in Spain—ruffians who had committed acts of cruelty and atrocity sufficient to make the flesh shudder. But gravity and sedateness are the lead- ing characteristics of the Spaniards; and the very robber, except in those mo- ments when he is engaged in his occupation—and then no one is more san- guinary, pitiless, and wolfishly eager for booty—is a being who can be courteous and affable, and who takes pleasure in conducting himself with sobriety and de- corum.