tracts, with which he is supplied by an excellent English lady who
dwells there. He says that before he has reached home, he has
invariably disposed of his whole cargo to the surrounding
peasantry; and such is the hunger and thirst which they display for
the word of salvation that his stock has always been insufficient
to answer all the demands made, after it was known what merchandise
he brought with him. There remain at present three hundred copies
unsold of the modern Russian New Testament at the shop which has
the disposal of the works of the late Russian Bible Society; these
copies, all of which are damaged from having been immersed during
the inundation of 1824, might all be disposed of in one day,
provided proper individuals were employed to hawk them about in the
environs of this capital. There are twenty thousand copies on hand
of the Sclavonian Bible, which being in a language and character
differing materially from the modern Russ character and language,
and only understood by the learned, is unfit for general
circulation, and the copies will probably remain unsold, though the
Synod is more favourable to the distribution of the Scriptures in
the ancient than in the modern form. I was informed by the
attendant in the shop that the Synod had resolved upon not
permitting the printing of any fresh edition of the Scriptures in
the modern Russ until these twenty thousand copies in the ancient
language had been disposed of. But it is possible that this
assertion is incorrect.

I must now conclude; and with an earnest request that you will
write to me speedily, and deliver my kindest remembrances to Mr.
Brandram and to my other good friends at the Society House, I
remain, Revd. and dear Sir, your most obedient servant,