The Rhode Islander

McLeod.—It was incorrectly stated last week that McLeod left Boston in the steam ship Acadia, on the 16th instant, for Liverpool. By the following account in the Montreal Herald of Monday, it seems he arrived in that city last Saturday.

As we anticipated in our last, Mr. McLeod arrived in this city on Saturday forenoon in the steamer Princess Victoria. Although his departure from Utica and his progress therefrom were necessarily private, from the apprehension entertained by his friends of the application of Lynch law, the short notice of his expected arrival here had the effect of collecting a great number of his fellow countrymen to greet him with a hearty welcome on his safe deliverance from as diabolical a conspiracy as ever disgraced humanity.

On the arrival of the steamer at the wharf, the anxiety to get a peep at the "lion" was intense, notwithstanding the presence of a body of police, stationed at the landing place to prevent confusion and overcrowding.—The great feeling seemed to be who could soonest shake hands with the political and national martyr, and congratulate him on again returning to the ark of safety and freedom.

As he proceeded from the boat to a cab, he was loudly cheered amid the waving of hats and handkerchiefs, and his progress to Rosco's hotel was marked like a triumphal procession.

Mr. McLeod is very unassuming in his manner and address, and appeared to feel a diffidence and a distress at the attention and in some cases rough courtesy shown him which were only the outbursts of the warm hearts of his fellow countrymen.

He looked pale and sallow, which his long confinement sufficiently accounts for.

Now that he has been acquitted by a jury of Americans, it affords us pleasure to pay a tribute of praise to the great zeal and legal abilities displayed by his Counsel, Mr. Spencer, and to the marked impartiality and firmness of the Judge, Mr. Gridley, who discharged his duties in a most admirable manner.
McLeod's Character.—This man has been made a lion of by the presses in Canada and the United States, and many credulous persons, not knowing the real history of this man, have extended to him a sympathy to which he is no way entitled. The following may be relied on, and cannot be contradicted by any advocate of truth. McLeod was a dragoon in the British army, was promoted to a sergeant, served a few years and was discharged. He then emigrated to Canada, where, by his impudence bragging and pretensions, he succeeded in getting himself appointed an officer in the militia and deputy sheriff. His education is very limited, and his acquirements are on a par with his manners, which are coarse and vulgar. He is a practical illustration of the old saying, 'When the pot boils the scum comes uppermost.' McLeod, with a thousand other vagabonds has an interest in getting up trouble on the frontier, without which they would lack employment: the volunteer militia in Canada being raised to oppose the rebels and sympathisers.
The noble manner in which Mr. McLeod's case was conducted by Mr. Spencer, United States District Attorney, has called forth a general expression of approbation, and it is felt that if the sentiments expressed by that gentleman are common to many of his countrymen, there can be little danger of hostilities arising between the two countries. The correspondent of the Herald, writing from Utica, notices the generous warmth manifested by the Counsel, and infers from it "that the animosity which we believe to exist in the United States against England and Englishmen is not so acrimonious as we fancy.'—Montreal Courier.