By the letters McMaster encloses the addresses will see that Richard A. Clarke, who has vowed he will run the projected Catholic Historical Society, has caused Dr. John Gilmory Shea to be crowded out. Clarke is an ass, and the Historical Catholic Society will prove a humbug, out of the which Clarke perhaps hopes to get some money as well as a clerkship for his stupid son, the ex-Jesuit scholar. McMaster sends this as private information. He will take an early occasion to explode the humbug in the Freeman, but will have nothing else to do with the project. A note at the top of the letter instructs the addressee to return Clarke's letters. First draft of letter, in McMaster's handwriting :: I-2-g A.L.S. 2pp. 12mo.