I have received your favor of 14th inst. and am glad to hear of your welfare; particularly glad to hear that such a scheme as that of the Brooklyn University Ground has been committed you. I wish that I could think that you were much more likely to see satisfactory results from any labor you may give the problem than I am for what I have done in Brooklyn.

The present course of the Brooklyn Park Commissioners is sadder than anything else I know of in American public affairs. Until it is frankly reversed no man whose judgment should be allowed the slightest weight in the more important matters before them can, it seems to me, have part in any consultation even as to such operations within the park as those which your duty outside ofit obliges you to speculate upon. During the last ten years I have repeatedly declined to be employed upon any particular question of the Central Park under a form of employment that did not involve an obligation on the part of the Commissioners to receive, (not necessarily to follow) advice from the original designers of the park, upon any and all questions affecting that design. I have declined to give such advice in any form, directly or indirectly, to any commissioner. I have advised Commissioners of the Brooklyn Parks that I should take the same view of any duty in regard to Prospect Park. I cannot waste my time in trying to help a body of men who have so little idea of their duty as the Brooklyn Park Commissioners. I cannot put myself in the least between them and the public condemnation which they are diligently earning. I must most reluctantly decline your request. But I thank you for making it and remain faithfully yours