MY DEAR O’MAHONY--The contemplated modification of our body, as well as the still more important step spoken of to you and friends the night before I left New York, you are henceforth to look upon as facts. I need scarcely say, however, that it will be wise to limit the knowledge of such a fact as the latter to such men as Doheny, Roche, Cantwell, etc., and to command all parties to whom such information is given to observe secrecy--not whispering it to the very air, without special permission from you. I have reason to believe myself fully justified in the course decided on. Indeed, on meeting our friends here, I at once saw the necessity of remodeling, and in many instances, utterly doing away with the test. Not that the men at home had given any sign of blenching; on this head I have every reason to be satisfied. One Centre only had given way, owing, probably, to our inability to communicate with him often enough--to the utter darkness, rather, in which he had been left almost from the very first. This man has declared off; so that however repentant and anxious to resume his work, he shall never more hold higher position than that of rank and file, till he shall have won his grades on the battlefield. Such be the guerdon of all waverers; the fate of the coward, much more the traitor, shall his be such as to make him curse the day he was born. Two other Centres, though staunch and true, and longing for the death-grapple, have been able to give nothing to our force but their own earnestness. Of two more again, our friend could say nothing, having found it impossible to meet them. We know, however, that one of these last had accomplished the work at first entrusted to him; and the other, though in a bad view, had done something. These are the shadows; now for the lights. As many of the Centres, known to our friend, had exceeded their numbers as the Centres who (though formidable, and working earnestly), had not been able to complete theirs. Thus, every Centre (balancing one with another) represents a full regiment. To compensate for the lost Centre and the two ineffective ones (the other two are merely doubtful--rather to be counted on than otherwise), three new Centres had been added.