ious to be informed by virtue of what correspondence or
communication with me does Mr. Rule now write from Valencia, consigning
to my hands this person, whom I have never seen, and whom I know not,
although, as I have stated on a former occasion, I have received two
letters from him, to one of which I returned a cautious and guarded
answer.

Mr. Rule suddenly arrived at Madrid, upon some business connected with
the Society to which he belongs; he called upon me, and I, upon learning
from him that he was a perfect stranger in Madrid, without friends or
acquaintances, received him with the hospitality which the Scripture
enjoins, and which I continued during his stay in the capital, a period
of about ten days. In the course of our conversations he spoke to me of
the peculiar hardships of the case of Pascual Marin of Valencia, who, as
he informed me, had been induced, partly by conviction, and partly by
persuasion, to secede from his own Church, but who not having received
from England the assistance which he had been led to expect, was in
danger of perishing, with his mother, in the streets of Valencia, he
having lost the benefice which constituted their support. Whereupon
through the medium of Mr. Rule I sent him 500 _reals_ on my own account,
without, however, directly or indirectly pledging myself to do anything
more in his behalf, or to attempt to engage the Bible Society to do so.

Mr. Rule left Madrid for Valencia, and on his departure informed me that
it was his firm intention to carry Marin with him to Gibraltar, to which
resolution I, of course, made no objection, as I conceived that it was a
matter with which I had little or no connection, and in which it would be
advisable not to involve myself, more especially on account of the
peculiar state of the affairs at Madrid with which the Society had done
me the honour to entrust me.

I was aware that in my situation peculiar caution in every step was
necessary and indispensable, and after Mr. Rule's departure I harboured
not the slightest surmise that my attentions to himself, or the slight
conversation which I had held with him respecting Marin, could possibly
tend to compromise me in any point. I was, however, mistaken.

In the name of all that is singular, what does Mr. Rule mean, without the
courtesy of asking my permission, by sending this man to me at Madrid?
Assist in preparing the way for a mission! Very probably; but that
mission will be my own, over