"Mr. Manning said while there was a hope, but no certainty of Mr. Tilden's consenting to run, his friends, embracing a large majority of the Democratic party of the State, were getting divided as to their second choice, and there was danger, when he came to withdraw, that the party would be hopelessly distracted, and its influence in the convention dissipated. He had been so impressed by a sense of this danger, he said, that on the Sunday previous he called on Governor Cleveland, laid the whole case before him, and pressed upon his attention the necessity of doing something immediately to prevent the friends of Mr. Tilden from getting pledged to other candidates as their second choice. "On the following day we repaired to Greystone. Mr. Manning then repeated to Mr. Tilden substantially what he had said to me of his interview with Governor Cleveland and of his mission, except that in regard to the cabinet. I think he said, 'You can name any member of the cabinet you please--an unobjectionable man, of course, like ----, for instance' (naming a gentleman whom he knew Mr. Tilden would regard as such a man). "Though the general import of the conversation was that the cabinet would be selected in harmony with Mr. Tilden's wishes, I did not hear him state distinctly to Mr. Tilden, as I understood him to state to me in New York, that the cabinet in its entirety should consist of men whose selection Mr. Tilden should approve of. During that part of the conversation with Mr. Tilden which I overheard, he said that Mr. Tilden might name any member of the cabinet he pleased, which might mean many or only one. This statement was reinforced by the remark that Governor Cleveland would do anything that he (Manning) should advise him to do, for he was conscious that his only hope now was from and through Mr. Tilden. The letter to Mr. Manning declining a renomination appeared in the morning prints the second or third day following the interview. "He at the same time expressed his conviction that the only way of securing the result was for Mr. Tilden to signify at once and before the election of any more delegates to the State convention, which were in the main to be chosen during that week, that he would not be a candidate. "Mr. Manning went on to say that Governor Cleveland promptly and unhesitatingly authorized and expressed the desire that Mr. Manning would go at once to Greystone, represent the situation to Mr. Tilden, and give him any assurances he required in regard to the naming of the cabinet, and of his disposition and purpose to regard Mr. Tilden's friends as his friends, and, if elected, to have as nearly as possible a thoroughly Tilden administration.