Bible Society required different treatment from the Army Pay Office,
or the Solicitor of the Treasury. It was accustomed to humility in
those it employed, and a trust in a higher power, and Borrow's self-
confident letters alarmed the members of the Committee. How
thoroughly Borrow appreciated what was required is shown in a letter
that he wrote to his mother from Russia, when anticipating the return
of his brother. "Should John return home," he warns her, "by no
means let him go near the Bible Society, for he would not do for
them."

Borrow's reply to the Literary Superintendent's kindly worded
admonition was entirely satisfactory and "in harmony with the rule
laid down by Christ himself." It was something of a triumph, too,
for Mr Jowett to rebuke a man of such sensitiveness as Borrow,
without goading him to an impatient retort.

The meeting of the General Committee that was to decide upon Borrow's
future was held on 22nd July, and on the following day Mr Jowett
informed him that the recommendation of the Sub-Committee had been
adopted and confirmed, at the same time requesting him to be at Earl
Street on the morning of Friday, 26th July, that he might set out for
St Petersburg the following Tuesday. On 25th July Borrow took the
night coach to London. On the 29th he appeared before the Editorial
Sub-Committee and heard read the resolution of his appointment, and
drafts of letters recommending him to the Rev. Wm. Swan and Dr I. J.
Schmidt, a correspondent of the Society's in St Petersburg and a
member of the Russian Board of Censors. Finally, there was impressed
upon him "the necessity of confining himself closely to the one
object of his mission, carefully abstaining from mingling himself
with political or ecclesiastical affairs during his residence in