"My dear Sir,--Yesterday I received your letter of the 7th, and answer it as early as I can. My oratorio is in progress, and becomes every day more developed; but whether I shall be able to finish it in time for your preparations is another question, which I shall not be able to answer positively before _two months_ are elapsed. It will then be the middle of March, more than five months before the period of your Festival, and if I should fail in my efforts of ending my work in time (which I fully hope and trust to do), there will be ample time for you to make it up by something else. Your question about Jenny Lind is very important to the success of the Festival, as I consider her, without hesitation, as the first singer of the day, and perhaps of many days to come. But I am not able to undertake the negotiation which your chairman would entrust me with, as I know how much she is surrounded with engagements of all sorts, and how little likely it is that I could get anything like a positive answer from her, unless a formal application from the Committee had previously been made to her. It is by no means certain that such an application would be successful, but at any rate I think it the only way, if there is one. When you formally wrote to me about the same subject, I was at Berlin, and spoke to her about it, but then she said she should not go to England, she had declined it already twice, it was quite impossible, etc., etc.; so that I am sure that she will not come to _London_ at least (for I did not make any direct enquiries about Birmingham and the Festival at that time). When you have determined what you will do, and if you have written, or if another (perhaps at Berlin) has negotiated for you, pray let me know of it, and I could then, perhaps, be of some use in removing some difficulties which might still arise, and in persuading her to accept the Festival, which I should be most happy to do. But at present, I am afraid, by beginning to talk or correspond with Jenny Lind about this subject, I would do your cause no good, and I therefore beg to be excused. "Truly and sincerely yours, "FELIX MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY."