Brute can scarcely appreciate how valueable his letters are with their precious news which they get from nowhere else. He asks him to continue them even when he cannot answer letter for letter, for that is the etiquette of the world. The news from Philadelphia while less serious in the second letter than they were in the first are lamentable. Flaget and Bishop Jean B. David are becoming convinced that a national council would be useful in these lamentable circumstances. It is the advice of others respectable for their talents. Flaget has conveyed ideas about this to Father Jean Tessier. He would have the council in Pittsburg when the river was open. Despite Brute's opposition to the place Flaget says 1. it is central and all can come there 2. his secretary and helper Bishop David could come also 3. the costs to the western bishops would be half that it could cost to go to Baltimore 4. it is practically impossible for the two Bishops of Kentucky to leave their diocese together at any time. These arguments are even stronger for Bishop Joseph Rosati. Flaget asks Brute to examine the idea and see if it is possible. He knows that the Bishop John England of Charleston is zealous for a council. He feels the meeting is necessary not only to check the trouble in Philadelphia but also to prove to the world that there is a hierarchy in the United States, to prove that they have at heart the interests of religion. Flaget is grateful for the success of Brute's college and the house of St. Joseph. He does not envy his fellow religious, although in Kentucky there is the greatest peace between the bishops and their clergy. At the college they have 103 or 4 boarders and about 65 externs. The convents are doing marvelously even though attacked have never been better. It is true that they have had to go into debt to build but today that is finished and with the scholars they expect to have them aid in eighteen monthes or two years. Brute must continue to pray for his companion of the journey. P.S. Bishop Jean Dubois has finally given a sign of life. He sends his regards to Father John Hickey and the other coworkers of Brute and to the Sisters, especially Mother Rose. :: II-3-o - A.L.S. - French - 3pp. 4to. 4