From Savoy, Bernard greets McMaster and not knowing the English language he will use his French in hopes that in New York it will be possible to find a translator. In answer to the questions Who he is? and What he is asking? Bernard answers that he is the vicaire of a small parish of 1600 inhabitants in Savoy and that he is asking for help. His parish is the prey of Freemasonry, a sect which is progressing with shameless damage to souls. Bernard reminds McMaster how powerless the laws of France have rendered the clergy in the last few years: its words are muzzled, its resources are spoiled, its influence paralyzed. The antagonistic Freemasonry, which is the government at this day, propagates the evil by its orators, its press, and its funds—by its immoral pressure. Men are drawn from the Church and dragged into taverns where two or three secret agents of the lodge quickly pervert them. The women likewise succumb to the contagion and temptations of all kinds are invented to distract them, give them frivolous tastes, and make them slowly forget their duty as Christians. Youth is lost. Lay schools, novitiates of impiety, draw from them the first elements of faith bestowed upon them by baptism. Books like Manuel Civique of Paul Bert, school masters like those of this parish who are Freemason instill in them doubt, distrust, and finally indifference and hatred toward religion. It does not end there. The Enemy of God and his agents take advantage of every opportunity in behalf of their perverse work. Local usage, small possessions, tastes, all are exploited to the advantage of Free Thought. The answer to this situation is to found good works, but that is impossible because the parish is without resources, the parishoners are poor farmers not property owners and the moderately rich are reduced to about three families having mediocre fortunes. The School of St. Joseph established this year absorbs all the resources and the subscription for them yielded only 420 francs, a considerable sum considering the few subscribers, but 1200 francs were needed for four religious. The R.P. Chartreux accorded them 500 francs totaling 920 francs for the four sisters. But they have to find means of providing books and notebooks which their students will need. They have established a Conference of St. Vincent de Paul but with the scarcity of funds, they have little success, at least immediate, to hope for. Besides a work like that attracts especially those who are good Christian and distinctly not those who no longer practice their religion. And thus the calumny rises and the bad never fail to spread the lie that our society is entirely political and against the Republic. The simple, representing the greater number, permit themselves to be mislead, the weak dare not follow us. There is nothing for the youth. Since it is against them that the masonic action is directed, it is around them that protection must be centered. They need a Catholic school and a workshop. The school would demand the sum of 3,000 francs annually because it would have to meet with the rivalry of the lay schools because they offer courses said to be superior. They need 3,000, for the construction of a school, since the Government, hardly generous to those which it does not like, demands almost a palace. And when the children leave school they have yet to be preserved. It is for that reason that Bernard would like to have large workshops where able masters would teach them trades. Their trade would keep them occupied and they would no longer loaf; they would cease to be the prey of evil speakers and bad literature. These trades would hold them to the paternal household and form Paris where a third of our youth go to lose body and soul. Or if others should wish to leave, we could try to place them with good patrons. Bernard is at a loss how to solicit charity from people who find their purses emptied by taxes, and exiled, and deprived of appointments. The Catholics are at the end of their resources and their charity great and heroic is hardly inexhaustible. Bernard appeals to McMaster, a free man in a free American who can appreciate the misfortune of those whose liberty has been suppressed. France, who followed the American flag and in its shadow fought to make America free, is today no longer free. France who so generously gave to for the propagation of the faith will soon have nothing to give for the conservation of the same faith. Must religion perish? No, since our money earned by our sweat, confiscated by government apostates, is used to extricate that which is most precious to us, we extend our hand to the Christians of the New World, you of distant regions where charity beams, where gold flows in full stream like the waters of our immense rivers. Bernard asks McMaster if he would not consent to interest the readers of his excellent newspaper in behalf of Gresy. If the school is given an engraved stone will tell of its origin and Savoy will bless its sister, America. Bernard's intentions are to keep the property in his own name, or in whoever's name McMaster may designate, so that the government will not to be able to deprive them of it. Bernard also asks that the names of the writer of this letter and of the parish be not disclosed. Later, if successful, Bernard will comply with McMaster's wishes. Bernard asks that the reply be in French or Latin. :: I-2-f A.L.S. French 4pp. 8vo.