In a letter marked "Private and Personal", Macmanus explains his delay in writing. He is delighted over the promotion of Bishop D. Manucy to Mobile, where he will find a more congenial field——for he was wholly out of place in Corpus Christi. McManus does not know who will be the successor, but has a suggestion. Somewhere in the diocese of Lyons, France, in a monastery, is a priest named Father Pierre de St. Jean, who was parish priest here before the Bishop's coming. He could do more than any other in spreading Catholicity throughout the region; it is owing to him that there is any spark of Catholic life left in a section dominated by infidel Jews and by money idolators masquerading under the name of Catholics, attending Mass, paying dues, but being all things to all men. Father St. Jean is a pious, wise, and discreet man with a broad knowledge of men and things. He remained for three or four years after the Bishop's arrival, giving up his own house to the Bishop, and remaining to keep order. He returned to France and probably had some misunderstanding with his family, shortly after which he retired to a monastery. Everything he has been writing about Father St. Jean, whom he loved dearly, is the truth. Father St. Jean left three years ago and has not been heard of, but a small legacy was left him nevertheless by a former parishioner. In political matters, Macmanus describes himself as an interested looker-on in the contest over the Brownsville Collectorship, in which a common, coarse, illiterate booby. John L Haynes, was permitted to defy the authority of Judge Folger. Haynes had previously compared the installation of the Bishop Manuoy to dancing the "bolero" at a "fandango". His term will expire shortly; Macmanus wonders if he could not be replaced by a Catholic. Mcmanus and his friends were pained during the Brownsville Collectorship contest that Eugene Kelly of New York supported Haynes' adjutant Calvin G. Brewster. If Kelly had known as much about the Rio Grande smugglers as Macmanus knows, he should not have joined them. Brewster is a cowboy with the rough edges rubbed off. Kelly, however, has been looked up to by all as a Catholic gentleman who was successful by honorable methods. Macmanus hopes the cost of Kelly's finding out the truth will not be too great. The Catholics in the region outnumber the Know-nothings by three to one, but count as a mere cipher because of the compact organization of their opponents. Occasionally a liberal and feeble Catholic is taken up by the opponents and publicized merely as a matter of policy. The only exception of which Macmanus knows is his friend J.B. Murphy, who was elected Mayor of the city, although the Catholics number 300 voters to the opponents 80. Macmanus would like a part in the campaign of the year, and believes a friendly hint from McMaster to one of the managers would be of help. He despises offices and office-holding, but he would like to earn the Brownsville Collectorship. He begs McMaster not to be angry with him for writing so long a letter. P.S. He asks that the "Freeman's Journal" be sent to Brownsville as well as Corpus Christi. He is going to Brownsville in a few days and cannot be without the paper. :: I-2-e A.L.S. 4pp. 8vo.