The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1865-02-05

against the possibility that nom the conjunction
Of these two little steamers on The quiet stream
Of the James river-fike the ran Of the Nismsn--
may come the exodus Of the dove of peace,
which shall find an olive branch somewhere
springing out Of tho troubled waters; but we
have ouf doubts.
The Rebels IN CsnaAs-Th0 Plot 60 Burn
the CITY.
We give today part Of tho secret history u
tho rebel attempt to burn the olty by means Of
phosphorus scattered In the various hotels.
With ths general fAsts Of that great attempt Tho
people are familiar; but the secret operations
Of the wretches who xads It, their persons,
their plans, their desperate character, and the
exact views and wishes OF their director In
Canada, are now for the first time made public.
The story i ono replete with tho peculiar in
terest with which " follow the recital Of sue
oessful pursuit.
As our report shows, certain strangers in this
city, supposed to be rebels, were under surveil-
lance for some days before the incendiary At
tempt was made. Their measures were taken,
however, with such precaution that no fact
could be fixed upon sufficient to justify their
arrest But the attempt was made, and they
were gone. II would seem that no criminal can
put his foot down anywhere, whether on the
softest Of velvet carpets, or on the hardest and
smoothest part Of the Broadway pavement,
without leaving print that skilful detectives
can trace and follow. So the phosphorus
bearers left in the meagrely furnished
leather bag clues that enabled Detective
Young to pursue ell their labyrinthine
steps Within very few days after
the attempt there werc detectives at all the
frontier outlets to Canada, having In their pos
session descriptions of the incendiaries. They
had some success on our side the lines, and
continued their pursuit, both of the criminals
and of evidence, to st. Catharines, Hamilton
and Toronto.
On the cars, from St. Catharines to Hamilton,
there occurred one Of those dramatic incidents
peculiar to detective stories. The detectives sat
in the same car with, and in adjacent seats to,
two of the hotel burners. They saw these men
read in the NEW YoRK HERALD tho published
account of their attempt, and noted their COM
ments on the reward and on the pursuit which
they supposed they had 50 completely cutwit-
ted and distanoed. In Toronto the detectives
managed to get into the confidence of McDon-
aid, formerly merchant in this city and
sutler in our army, now the rebel agent
ct that place, and the real prime mover and
manager Of the whole nefarious attempt He
is still at large. Several arrests were made;
but the most important was that Of the rebel
Captain Kennedy, who made the attempt to fire
Barnum's Museum. He is pictured a. very
desperate fellow, disposed to cut and shoot
terribly at any possible risk to his own life.
He has, however, managed to keep himself
alive thus far and Is not known to have seriously
injured any one else. He would have thrown
phosphorus, while in the Museum, on the
dresses of the women, but he was "afraid" that
the alarm and rush would then be 70 great that
no himself would not be able to get out.
The story shows us to what an extent Canada
had become rebel plotting place against US,
and how unsorupulously its asylum had been
abused by the rebels In their attempts to break
the peace between Great Britain and the United
States For that has In all this been one Of the
great objects. There is no doubt that these
rebel demonstrations are inspired by the same
rebel leaders who humbugged Horace Greeley
into the notion that they had the wish and the
power to make peace. George N. Sanders and
Jake Thompson are the real authors of every
movement, though they use such miserable
wretches as Mcdonald to manage the particu-
lars. Doubtless they would have gone great
way further in their plans; but fortunately the
Canadian authorities have come to their senses.
They see that the SO called sympathy with
the South" Is only another name for hostility
to the United States, and that to suffer them
selves to be controlled by such an influence is
to identify themselves with rufIianism, to be re-
sponsible for its excuses, and TO imperil some
Of their very material interests. They are dis
posed to do better, therefore; and now, in view
Of these detective exposures, they may very
properly take 1t into consideration whether
Mcdonald, Thompson, Sanders and all such are
mot proper persons to be sent out Of the pro-
vince under the recent Alien act Our own
government ought also to consider the pro-
priety of demanding Mcdonald as party to
the incendiary attempt
A REMEDY FOE THE kaPUDENU or THE
MANHATTAN GAS CoMANY.-We hope that our
municipal authorities will be firm In their re-
sistance to the extortionate demands of the gas
companies. If the Manhattan Company leaves
this city in darkness, from any motive what
ever, the Common Council will be fully justi-
fed in appointing vigilance committee, SELF
ing the gas works and running them at the OK
psnse Of the city, leaving the Gas Company to
sue for damages. This viii remedy the COM
panys impudence.