My dearest Sir,do me the favour to ask our excellent Committee,Would it have answered any useful purpose if,instead of continuing to struggle with difficulties and using my utmost to overcome them,I had written in the following strain -and what else could I have written if I had written at all?-'I was sent out to St.
Petersburg to assist Mr.Lipoftsoff in the editing of the Mandchou Testament.That gentleman,WHO HOLDS THREE IMPORTANT SITUATIONSUNDER THE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT,AND WHO IS FAR ADVANCED IN YEARS,has neither time,inclination,or eyesight for the task,and I am apprehensive that my strength and powers unassisted are incompetent to it'(praised be the Lord,they were not!),'therefore I should be glad to return home.Moreover the compositors say that they are unaccustomed to compose in an unknown tongue from such scribbled and illegible copy,and they will scarcely assist me to compose.
Moreover the working printers say (several went away in disgust)that the paper on which they have to print is too thin to be wetted,and that to print on dry requires a two-fold exertion of strength,and that they will not do such work for double wages,for it ruptures them.'Would that have been a welcome communication to the Committee?Would that have been a communication suited to the public?I was resolved 'to do or die,'and,instead of distressing and perplexing the Committee with complaints,to write nothing until I could write something perfectly satisfactory,as I now can;and to bring about that result I have spared neither myself nor my own money.I have toiled in a close printing-office the whole day,during 90degrees of heat,for the purpose of setting an example,and have bribed people to work whom nothing but bribes would induce so to do.
I am obliged to say all this in self-justification.No member of the Bible Society would ever have heard a syllable respecting what I have undergone but for the question,'What has Mr.Borrow been about?'I hope and trust that question is now answered to the satisfaction of those who do Mr.Borrow the honour to employ him.
In respect to the expense attending the editing of such a work as the New Testament in Mandchou,I beg leave to observe that I have obtained the paper,the principal source of expense,at fifteen roubles per ream less than the Society paid formerly for it -that is to say,at nearly half the price.
As St.Matthew's Gospel has been ready for some weeks,it is high time that it should be bound;for if that process be delayed,the paper with be dirtied and the work injured.I am sorry to inform you that book-binding in Russia is incredibly dear,and that the expenses attending the binding of the Testament would amount,were the usual course pursued,to two-thirds of the entire expenses of the work.Various book-binders to whom I have applied have demanded one rouble and a half for the binding of every section of the work,so that the sum required for the binding of one Testament alone would be twelve roubles.Dr.Schmidt assured me that one rouble and forty copecks,or,according to the English currency,fourteenpence halfpenny,were formerly paid for the binding of every individual copy of St.Matthew's Gospel.I pray you,my dear Sir,to cause the books to be referred to,for I wish to know if that statement be correct.In the meantime arrangements have been made,and the Society will have to pay for each volume of the Testament the comparatively small sum of forty-five copecks,or fourpence halfpenny,whereas the usual price here for the most paltry covering of the most paltry pamphlet is fivepence.Should it be demanded how I have been able to effect this,my reply is that I have had little hand in the matter.A nobleman,who honours me with particular friendship,and who is one of the most illustrious ornaments of Russia and of Europe,has,at my request,prevailed on his own book-binder,over whom he has much influence,to do the work on these terms.That nobleman is Baron Schilling.
Commend me to our most respected Committee.Assure them that in whatever I have done or left undone,I have been influenced by a desire to promote the glory of the Trinity and to give my employers ultimate and permanent satisfaction.If I have erred,it has been from a defect of judgment,and I ask pardon of God and them.
In the course of a week I shall write again,and give a further account of my proceedings,for I have not communicated one-tenth of what I have to impart;but I can write no more now.It is two hours past midnight.The post goes away to-morrow,and against that morrow I have to examine and correct three sheets of St.
Mark's Gospel,which lie beneath the paper on which I am writing.
With my best regards to Mr.Brandram,I remain,dear Sir,most truly yours,G.BORROW.
P.S.-I wrote to Mr.Jackson and Mr.Tarn last week.