Flaget writes in good humor and as Brute desires he is sending the $50 to Father Gabriel Richard to sweeten his misfortune in not being elected a second time. Richard says that it is good for priests to run for Congress. To him Richard was greater in his prison with his bed of straw than in the center of Congress. Father Stephen Theodore Badin is always having Richard made a bishop, but the letters from Rome say nothing about it but the promotion of Father Benedict Fenwick to Boston, and Richard has heard nothing on the subject. Father Felicite LeMannais has sent him three books he has had printed this year, one on the project of Bishop Dhermopolis, one on a law against scrileges and a third he has not yet read. Flaget marvels at the power with which he writes against the minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs. France should be very happy to have such a writer. But after reading LeMannais he thinks that the last days approach. Like Noe they should be preparing for them. They should be ready to be canonized as the first bishops of their sees, instead of spending their time building and buying lands. Brute should pray for him that he escape from the mud in which he is now embedded. He asks Brute to come to see him during the next vacation and bring with him Wheeler. Bishop Jean David plans a new edition of his catechism with some new questions and answers. He has added a little catechism for children and for slaves and has added an explanation of all the feasts of the year. He will certainly send one to Brute as soon as it is off the press. Flaget asks about Father John Dubois who is engaged in the same work as he and David and Flaget. P.S. David sends his regard to Brute and Dubois. :: II-3-o - A.L.S. - French - 3pp.5