Mr. Hitchin
16 Harpur Street
30th July 1850
My dear Sir,
I have after much reflection and real regret, written to Mr Ramsden to decline attending his Bible meetings, as I find I could by no means finish my business in Scotland by the end of September. I have thought it right thus to advise of this in good time.
Yours Truly,
James Thomson.
Mr. Hitchin
Edinburgh, 9th Aug. 1850
Mr Robertson's, 1 Archibald Place
My Dear Sir,
I duly received your note of the 6th and thank you for freely communicating to me what passed about my address, and through you also I would thank the party who mentioned the objection to you.
The reason for my using the Earl Street address was an uncertainty of my continuing at my lodgings and money being concerned...
(letter incomplete)
Mr. Hitchin
Glasgow, 19th August 1850
My Dear Sir,
I duly received your note, enclosing one from Mr Cobb to Mr Brown. I am obliged on the part of Malaga by Mr Cobb's donation; and shall furnish the letter wished for.
I have this day received a note from the Mexican Consul General, in which he expresses a wish for a Spanish Bible for his own use. As he has been serviceable to us I should be glad you would present him with one of the octavo size. His name is I. M. Mendoza and he lives at No.7 Gloucester Road, Regents Park. Please to accompany the gift with a little note. Believe me
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson
Mr. Hitchin
Greenock, 27th August 1850
My Dear Sir,
I had purposed to see you about this time, having expected to be at Frankfort to attend the great Peace Congress[1] there, an object in which I feel much interest. Things so turned out that my more immediate duty seemed to be that I should at this period occupy my time in Scotland, in pleading, as I am doing, for Spain and Portugal, and those other countries connected with them in language.
Last week I spent a day with Mr. John Henderson in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and whom you probably know personally, or at all events by name. He is the gentleman who has laboured so much in the Sabbath cause.
Mr Henderson gave me to read the copy of a letter addressed to you by W. Marriott, dated Basle, the 15th inst. In that letter it is stated that Mr. W. (I suppose Mr. Weimar) circulated Bibles with the Apocrypha in them, and printed at the expense of the B. and F. Bible Society. This statement appears to me very singular, and if true is certainly greatly wrong, considering the delicate position of the Bible Society on this point. It would seem that you had stated to Dr. Marriott that Mr. Weimar was at liberty to circulate Bibles with the Apocrypha, as he was not an agent of the Bible Society. That the Society Bibles are sold at places where Bible with the Apocrypha are also sold, but not its property, is I believe true, and understood by the Society, but considering that Mr. Weimar was so much or nearly altogether employed by the Society and paid by him is a different case, and I should not think the Society would authorise or tolerate him to circulate these Apocrypha Bibles. How Bibles were issued, with the Apocrypha at the expense of the S. I do not understand.
It is further stated that Mr. Weimar circulated Bibles having in them Lists of the Epistles and Gospels, with Saints Days including the Days of the Virgin Mary, and also that the Confession of Augsburg was bound up in the Bibles he circulated. Surely these things were wrong and highly so.
It appears by the letter before me that you declined entering on proper inquiries in this matter so as to ascertain the nature and whole extent of the evil. I am not fully aware of the various circumstances connected with this concern, but as far as I do see into them, I think it was a pity such investigation was not gone into, and the evil forthwith corrected.
I hope you have seen it good to attend to his present letter and within the period mentioned which will end to morrow.
I am here you see in Scotland where this Apocrypha concern is not yet forgotten. I thought I could speak with perfect confidence and to the purity of the Society on the point, but not so, if Dr. M's statements are correct. Please write to me on this.
I shall be returning to London before long, and shall necessarily have some conversation with Mr. Brandram on the subject, as this is not the first communication from Mr. Henderson respecting it, and the matter should be fully understood and settled.
I called on Mrs Trueman the other day in Newton Place, Glasgow, but she had just left.
With kind regards to all your family, believe me,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
[1] Third General Peace Congress, 22-24 August, 1850, organised by Quakers. (BM)
Rev A Brandram
Glasgow 10th September 1850
My Dear Friend,
I send you a note from Mr. Herschell which came into my hands a few days ago. It is very gratifying to observe such a demand for Scriptures in Hungary, and I doubt not but that you will use every means to satisfy this demand.
I hope you continue well and strong amidst all your labour through the season, and I hope you have great encouragement in your visitations.
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
-----------------------------------
My dear Friend,
I wish you would lay the claims of Hungary before the Committee. The demand for Hungarian and Solavani (?) Bibles is very great, 100,000 could be sold by the ? ? ? (illegible).
Yours very affy.
R. M. Herschell
Sep 5, 1850
Rev A Brandram
Liverpool 4th Oct. 1850
My Dear Friend,
I have recently received a letter from Madrid, from the Hebrew Professor there, and translator of the Old Testament direct from the Hebrew into Spanish. He informs me that he has now finished the Pentateuch, and that he purposes to print the same, and simply in the text, in order that he may have the observations of persons able to judge of its qualities, and that it may also be of service to all who read it.
He wishes to know whether you could aid him in printing such an edition, and by means of buying a certain number of copies at a fixed price. I write to you therefore accordingly, that you may lay the proposition before the Committee, say on Monday next, on which day I have hopes of being with you.
I remain,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
P.S. I received from Mr. Knolleke a copy of your letter to Dr. Marriott. We can talk on the subject of it when we meet.
Rev G. Browne
16 Harpur Street
18th Nov.1850
My Dear Friend,
I beg leave to petition for 1,000 octavo Spanish New Testaments, to be placed at the disposal of my esteemed friend Mr. Saviñon, who wishes for them, and who will use, I doubt not, all due means for their useful circulation in his native country.
I remain,
My Dear Friend,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
Mr Hitchin
16 Harpur Street
Wednesday Morning
Dec 4/50
My dear Sir,
Please to send the parcel here by the Van.
Thank you for the 500 Test. to Mr. Saviñon. Let them be addressed to him, and consigned to Manning & Co.
I am sorry you have less favourable accounts respecting Mr. Brandram. May God graciously hear our prayers for him, and raise him up, and speedily. Please to keep me apprised of any important changes in his state for worse or better. I shall hope for the best.
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
Rev G. Browne
Harpur Street
Wednesday Morning
23rd Dec 1850
My Dear Friend,
It is my intention to leave this next month for Portugal, Spain, and Italy, and the tour may last say for six months. Can I during the same serve you in an official or unofficial manner?
I remain,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
16 Harpur Street
23rd January 1851
My Dear Friend,
I enclose you a note from a missionary to Africa, and whom I intimately knew many years ago in Jamaica.
I should feel glad could you make a grant of the number of Bibles and Testaments mentioned, or give them at a very low rate, as I am sure they would be put to good account and in connexion with a Mission that has much to struggle against, and is sustained by a body in Scotland that is very friendly to us.
The Books should be early forwarded to Liverpool, according to the address given.
I was truly sorry I could not be at the funeral of our late dear departed friend,[1] as I was on that day in Lincolnshire.
I hope you have good strength for all your present duties. Wishing a continuance of it, with every other blessing,
I remain,
Very Truly Yours,
James Thomson.
[1] Andrew Brandram died in Brighton, 26 December 1850. (BM)
16 Harpur Street
22nd March 1851
Dear Sir,
As you are in difficulties as to the Stoke Newington B.S. meeting on 1st of April, I shall relieve you by taking it.
Please inform me where it is to be, at what hour, and on whom I should call.
Yours Truly,
James Thomson.
16 Harpur Street
29th March 1851
My Dear Sir,
I have received your note regarding the B.S. meeting of the 22nd of April, and have to say in reply that I have in prospect to be out of town at that time. Should it be otherwise I have no objections to attend the meeting, but cannot entangle myself by an engagement.
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
16 Harpur Street
Friday morning, 4th April 1851
Dear Sir,
I received your note last night with invitation note from Mr. Wilson.
Pray at what our is meeting.
I shall be glad if you will furnish me with notes of the income, issues, etc. of the B.S. year closed on the 31st ultimo.
Yours truly,
James Thomson.
Rev George Browne
16 Harpur Street
12th April 1851
My Dear Friend,
You have by this time nearly concluded, I should think, the writing of your Report for the Bible Society year closing at the end of March. I fear poor Spain figures poorly in it. Spain however has not been standing still all the year in the great Bible cause. There has been during the year a singular combination of circumstances in the shape of preparing the Bible for Spain. I will not further notice these at present, but intend to bring them all before you soon after the Annual Meeting, when I shall take the liberty of stating what appears to me to be the duty of the Bible Society under all these occurring circumstances.
My object at present is to bring before you what is at this moment being done in Spain towards extending the knowledge of the word of God in Spain. I have just received from Madrid an advertisement or prospectus of a new edition of the entire Bible about to be issued, dedicated to and under the patronage of the Archbishop of Toledo, the Primate of Spain.
You may perhaps recall that in one of my letters from Barcelona in the year 1848 I mentioned that an enterprising Publisher there was then issuing a new edition of Scio's Bible in stereotype, and at a price much under that of former editions, calculating upon an extensive sale. I trust that sale has been as extensive as he calculated on, and that he has been duly rewarded for his enterprise and his risk, and his desire to benefit the country.
That edition was in ten duodecimo volumes, and the price was 25/- which was a great reduction compared with the cost of previous editions.
The present edition is to be cheaper still. It will cost about 18/- and being thus patronized by the Archbishop of Toledo it is likely to have a very extensive circulation.
This edition, as well as the Barcelona one above mentioned, contains the Latin Vulgate text along with the Spanish version of Scio, and has also an ample supply of notes. Of these notes it may be said that nine tenths of them are good and useful. The other tenth is not without errors, and such as we might expect. But the text of God's own word is all there, and distinct and legible in good sized type, whilst the notes stand below and in a smaller letter. Probably most who read the Scriptures in this form will give their chief attention to the text itself as containing God's own communication and as being easier to read. I might say also perhaps, easier to understand, for I suppose it may happen in this case as it did when Thomas Scott asked the good woman of whom he inquired how she liked his edition of Pilgrim's Progress to which he had appended notes. She replied that she thought she now tolerably understood Bunyan, and that she hoped by and bye to understand the notes also.
In making this remark I am not writing from supposition only, for I have observed among Spaniards in reference to this very matter a decided preference given to the text, and with confidence in it as being from God; whilst I have also noticed an indifference to the notes, both from their being man's work and also from a sort of feeling that the notes might not always be in accordance with the text.
Both these cheaper and stereotype editions are the result of our Bible Society influence in Spain. But as often happens we get no thanks for the good we have thus done. On the contrary, this as well as the former edition is brought out, and avowedly, to counteract on the one hand, the circulation of our mutilated and corrupted Bibles, as they are pleased to characterize our unapocrypha and noteless Bibles.
All this however shows the extent and the use of our Bible operations in Spain, and it is a clear indication contained in the opposition of the fact that the Bible is wanted and wished for in Spain, and that the people will have it in one form or another.
Further the extensive sale of these two stereotype editions will not allay but increase the desire for the Scriptures in Spain, and this desire cannot be met in any other way than by our very cheap and noteless Bibles, for which without doubt, and before long, God himself will make due openings in that dark and (to me at least) interesting country.
In my notices to be brought under your consideration after the anniversary meeting, to which I alluded, I purpose to show how we may meet the present state of Spain in regard to the Bible, and how we may at the same time prepare the way for the unfettered circulation and use of the Scriptures there.
I have now concluded my present communication, and I am glad that I have this little something to send you before our last year is not yet quite past & out of sight. Please to try to get some notice of this new and cheap edition of the Scriptures in Spain, and of these prospective operations into your Report in some shape or other, so that the dark spot of Spain in it may be somewhat lessened in its size or in the intensity of its darkness. Better and brighter things I shall hope to communicate to you at the close of another year, should God spare me to see it closed, in respect to that country which if not my cure is my care and the object of my daily prayers.
I remain, My Dear Friend,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
16 Harpur Street
Monday morning, 26 May 1851
My Dear Friend
I had a note from Mr. Hitchin on Saturday night, stating that you are in distress for someone to take Richmond tomorrow. I had arranged to be after a special meeting tomorrow evening of the Meteorological Society in which I feel much interest, but will give it up rather than see you at a loss. Please then to let me know the hour of the meeting at Richmond, and whom I am to call on there as a guide.
I seize this opportunity of enclosing the postscript of a letter I lately had from Mr. Benoliel. I fully agree with his views of the case, and beg you will send him and at once a supply to Gibraltar for Morocco as he wishes. They will lie free in the Wesleyan Mission House then to be taken out as needed.
I was present in the Committee when Mr. Benoliel'ss letter was read and he was directed to correspond with Mr. Lowndes. I was then going to make the same observation on the subject which Mr. B has done here in this note, but somehow neglected to do so.
I remain
Yours Very Truly
James Thomson.
P.S. I will try to look in today at Earl Street.
Rev G. Browne
16 Harpur Street
4th June 1851
My Dear Friend,
I enclose you a communication which I received last night from Mr Jones of the Tract Society.
I think the observations of Mr Hardy are just, and it is well you should see them to aid you in judging concerning the Kingston petition which it seems is now before you.
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
16 Harpur Street
6th June 1851
Dear Sir,
I have read the papers you sent me, and am particularly pleased to see the life and energy being displayed by the Kingston B.S. In the view of this, and their special desire to cultivate the field around them in an effectual manner, together with the friendly concession to them of territory formerly occupied by the Toronto and Montreal Societies, I should see no objections, but the contrary, to our Committee here acceding to their request for help to carry out their extended and more efficient operations. Kingston is well situated between Montreal and Toronto, and from its position, and importance otherwise, is well fitted to be a central B.S. place. Every thing possible should be done in those countries to increase the extension of the Bible, where people live at great distances from places of worship and from each other.
Judging of things as they were when I was last in Kingston I was unfavourable to the grant in question, and wrote to Mr Browne in the view of Mr Hardy's observations, but in the view of all which I now have before me, my opinion is as above. The principle contained in the plan I very fully agree to of aiding those auxiliaries to extend their own work, and it was at my recommendation that help was first given to the Toronto Society.
I shall be glad to know that you acceded to Mr Benoliel's wishes as to Morocco.
There is a Paper by Mr Morton in the Calcutta B.S. report for 1834 (or some year near to it) respecting the translation of the Scriptures into the Bengalese tongue. You would much oblige me by letting me have it for a little.
Yours Truly,
James Thomson.
Rev G Browne
16 Harpur Street
Thursday morning (July)
My Dear Friend,
I enclose you a note and warmly recommend the petition contained in it.
I should be glad to get the particulars about the Brazil and S.A. Agency, as I wish to speak to a friend about it who well understands the Portuguese.
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
Rev. Wm Morton
16 Harpur Street
16th July 1851
My dear Sir,
I have read with much interest your report as drawn up for the Calcutta Bible Society in respect of the Bengali New Testament.
It appears from this Report that neither the version of Dr. Carey, nor that of Mr. Yates, up to be considered as fit for forming a standard version and that such a work was thus wanting.
I should like to know whether anything has been done since your Report was drawn up, to meet the desideratum. Secondly I should like to know, in case of nothing having been done in this, whether you could and if you would be disposed to take up this matter, and prepare a version? And thirdly, I should like to know whether or not absence from India, and the lack of native help would not be a serious obstacle towards you finishing and also printing such a version as is contemplated?
I shall feel obliged if you will take into full consideration all these items, and give me early your judgment upon them.
I remain,
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
Rev G Browne
16 Harpur Street
4th August 1851
My Dear Friend,
Some three months ago I got acquainted with the Rev. William Morton, formerly missionary in India, and I have had a good deal of communication with him since. In speaking with him about the translations of the Scriptures in India, and more particularly respecting the versions of the Bengali, he referred me to a Report drawn up by himself on the subject at the request of the Committee of the Calcutta B.S.. I procured a volume of the Calcutta Reports from your Library. In the 25th Report, Appendix No.3 I found with Mr. Martin had written on the subject of the version before mentioned. From this it would appear that neither Dr. Carey's nor Mr. Yates's version was satisfactory to the Calcutta Committee as a standard version for general use. On finding this I wrote to Mr. Morton to inquire whether an improved and satisfactory version had been made since the date of his Report (1836). I also inquired whether, in the case of no such version having been made, he could himself undertake to prepare an improved version, and further whether his absence from India would not be a serious obstacle to his properly finishing and printing such a version in this country.
I send you his reply, together with a copy of my letter,[1] that you may see the whole subject in order.
From these communications and several personal ones I should think it would be very desirable that Mr. Morton should be engaged to prepare the Bengali version of the New Testament so as to meet the present want in the case. From the circumstance of Mr. Morton's having been chosen to draw up the Report in question it clearly appears that he was judged the most competent person to judge as to existing defects and the improvements required.
It would be a pity I think to lose such an opportunity as is now within the reach of the Society in respect to a version so extensively spoken in India.
Yours Very Truly,
James Thomson.
[1] See letter of 16th July to Morton.