Russia. Mr Borrow assured them of his full determination religiously
to comply with this admonition, and to use every prudent method for
enlarging his acquaintance with the Manchu language." {104a}

The salary was to date from the day he embarked, and on account of
expenses to St Petersburg he drew the sum of 37 pounds. The actual
amount he expended was 27 pounds, 7s. 6d., according to the account
he submitted, which was dated 2nd October 1834. It is to be feared
that Borrow was not very punctual in rendering his accounts, as Mr
Brandram wrote to him (18th October 1837): --"I know you are no
accountant, but do not forget that there are some who are. My memory
was jogged upon this subject the other day, and I was expected to say
to you that a letter of figures would be acceptable."

It is not unnatural that those who remembered Borrow as one of
William Taylor's "harum-scarum" young men, who at one time intended
to "abuse religion and get prosecuted," should find in his
appointment as an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society a
subject for derisive mirth. Harriet Martineau's voice was heard well
above the rest. "When this polyglott gentleman appeared before the
public as a devout agent of the Bible Society in foreign parts," she
wrote, "there was one burst of laughter from all who remembered the
old Norwich days." {105a} Like hundreds of other men, Borrow had, in
youth, been led to somewhat hasty and ill-considered conclusions; but
this in itself does not seem to be sufficiently strong reason why he
should not change his views. Many young men pass through an
aggressively irreligious phase without suffering much harm. Harriet
Martineau was rather too precipitate in assuming that what a man
believes, or disbelieves, at twenty, he holds to at thirty; such a
view negatives the reformer. Perhaps the chief cause of the change