decided to stay in America. Russell arrived in Paris in July 1801, to find the French government negotiating with the Vatican. It was not a time for Protestants to rock the boat, and Russell was advised to postpone his plans for a Unitarian church at Paris. Instead, he formed an association for translating and publishing books 'to promote Rational Christianity.' But even this was objected to, and was suspended. To add to his problems, Russell was warned that he would face arrest if he returned to England. In 1795, while in Paris, waiting to travel on to America, he had advanced a loan to Fulwar Skipwith, the American consul. The loan not being repaid, in February 1799, Skipwith conveyed through Russell's agent, Mr. Walker, a house in Paris on the Quai Voltaire, and an estate in Normandy, the Ardenne Abbey, at St Germain la Blanche Herbe, on the Bayeux road, four kilometres from Caen. Although no money had changed hands at the time, and Russell himself was 3000 miles away and knew nothing of the transaction, technically he had purchased property in a country with which Britain was at war. Furthermore, having offended the government by his 'perseverance in endeavouring to establish a bond of union among Dissenters, and to support the plan for District Meetings, &c.,' he could not expect a dispensation. So, in August, Russell decided to settle on his Normandy estate. Here he wrote several Letters in French to introduce the ideas of Rational Christianity. The front sheet containing an exhortation to search the scriptures, and to use the liberty they now enjoyed of exchanging superstition for genuine Christianity. Russell sent his letters to John Hurford Stone, at Paris, to edit and print, but Stone advised against publication, 'at least for the present.' Rather than 'flying Pamphlets,' Stone suggested a larger more systematic work addressed to the 'philosophical part of the Nation.' Stone suggested translating Priestley's History of the Corruptions of Christianity. Russell enthusiastically agreed, later financing the publication of French translations of Priestley's Institutes of Religion, and Alexander Geddes' Apology for the Catholics, and, in 1805, an edition of the Geneva Bible. In the meantime, Russell had been busy trying to establish a Unitarian church at Caen. The Protestant pastor, M. Fontbonne du Vernet, who had gone into seven years hiding during the Terror, was now holding services in a room in the rue de Bras,