The New York herald

ject of my first letter. But on arriving and making various inquiries, relative thereto, and after carefully looking over the state of the country, I was thoroughly satisfied of the perfectly tranquilized state of this city and its inhabitants, which had been represented to me as being in a state of siege. A very intelligent merchant, and one who had a considerable stake in the issue of events, said to me, the plot did not give them four-and-twenty hours uneasiness.

The principal facts concerning it are briefly the following, which I have gathered on the spot, and from authentic sources. On the 21 of December last, the President, receiving information through several individuals, that a conspiracy was on foot in this city to throw off the Haitian yoke. He immediately summoned a cabinet council of the principal officers of state, to take measures to secure the city and put it in a state of defence; and measures were forthwith taken to disarm the troops and the citizens who volunteered with them, and a number of the principal citizens were arrested at the command of the military authorities.

On the morning of the 22d, on the reassembly of the cabinet, the officer in command of the garrison, the officer charged with making the inquiries, relative thereto, reported that no plot existed, as the result of them thus far, the discoveries made, showed that no plot existed. He then present in the council, and who had officially issued or countersigned the order for these very measures, and measures were forthwith taken which he had called for, was at the head of the conspiracy. He was immediately arrested, with several others, and conveyed away to prison. A brother of his, who was also arrested, and four or five several others, to the number of about nine, were brought to trial before a military commission, composed of members of congress, judges of the court, officers of the army, and private citizens; and four of the number, including the two brothers, were convicted of the crime of high treason, and condemned to death. They were accordingly executed on the morning of the 23d instant. Several of the others were subsequently banished the country.

Such was the end of the affair. The firmness, energy, and decision with which the government acted on the occasion, at their first discovery, and meeting the emergency, inspired all, I believe, and with good reason, with a thorough conviction of its ability to maintain its authority. Towards evening the consternation was great and universal. Every preparation had been made to resist an attack, which, in such cases, rumor, with its thousand surmises, had magnified into a formidable one. The foreign traders, merchants, all armed to sustain the government, and preserve their property from the plunder with which they were threatened. But the lapse of a very few hours brought back order and tranquility; and though business was somewhat paralyzed by the event, it soon recovered its former tone as far as these had disturbed it.

The effect of the plot, however, will still continue to be felt, and with for some time to come. Besides the cost of the military force, which had mostly been sent to the city, the government paper fell about fifty per cent. in value, causing a necessity, for apart for the purpose of encouraging and effecting foreign immigration, the withdrawal of much of the rural population--sparse and scanty at best--from their agricultural avocations, to serve as additions to the army, caused a necessity for the interruption to that branch of domestic industry, and a consequent diminution in the corresponding productions, together with a proportionate advance in the price of the necessaries of subsistence; a calamity, of course, to a country that imports a very large proportion of these necessaries.

As regards the state of the currency--which after all is the pulse of the political system--so far as affected by these disturbances, I will briefly refer to it. During the early part of the first two months of my absence, which included that in which the affair took place, the currency depreciated only about as much as it had done during the three preceding months, or about five per cent; and stayed there, and during the last two or three months has recovered its former position.

Thus much, by way of anticipation. The history, political organization, the condition and prospects of the Dominican Republic, will form the subject of the remainder of this letter, and of the succeeding ones.

For about a century and a half after the first discovery of Spanish colony, Columbus had founded the first settlement in the island, until the buccaneers--that hybrid race of adventurers, who have so often been written, and written about, but whom so little is correctly known--commenced their incursions into the north and west portions of the island in quest of the cattle which ran wild in immense herds over its rich plains; and finally formed settlements at the western end.

As these adventurers were mostly French, that nation began to regard them as a colony of her own; and in the treaty of Ryswick, she obtained from Spain, the cession of that portion of the island, comprising nearly one-third of its whole extent. The two colonies came thus to be posssessors, and at long intervals, and remained so separate and distinct, the one a dependence of Spain, the other of France, until 1795, which, so at the period of the memorable revolt of the blacks, and massacre of the whites, in the French part, in 1791. At that period, the latter colony had attained a high degree of prosperity, while the Spanish colony, of which this city was the capital, which had been languishing for nearly two centuries under a very partial and inefficient system of practiced agriculture. Slavery existed in this as well as in the French part of the island; but the condition of the slaves, towards the end of the present century, were there still existing in Spanish colony, was far different from the severe, forced labor, which in the other part produced those immense crops of sugar, coffee, and indigo, for the revolt which in the other part resulted in the independence of the black population, and white race, did not extend to this portion, or, at least, to any such extent or degree as to affect the relative position of the different races.

Meanwhile the year 1795, France, which was still at war with Spain, obtained by treaty the cession of the Spanish colony, on the island, by maintaining a desperate struggle to retain possession of her own colony in the island, obtained by cession from Spain the nominal possession of Spanish colony also. But, on the final triumph of the blacks in the former, and the establishment there of the Haitian governments (of which there were at first two), the Spanish population, who had ever preserved, as they still do, their separate position and ancient social and political institutions against the claims and attempts of the black governments of the west. With the loss of her own colony, France lost all foothold on the island thenceforward, with the exception of one or two years' occupation of this city in the early part of this century.

the same republic. Here he remained until the winter of 1843-4, when the Spanish portion of the inhabitants of this city, who had often sought in vain for an opportunity to throw off the Haitian yoke, suddenly found a favorable one, on occasion of the main body of the Haitian troops being withdrawn for some domestic purpose to the other end of the island, only a few hundred being left in the fort to guard and hold the city. This juncture gert on the unsuspicious garrison, besieged it within the fort, after gaining possession of the city and which they compelled it to capitulate, allowing it to return home.

From this period, the existence of the republic, or, to speak more accurately, its style and duties were assumed by the central junta, or committee, of this city, consisting of its president, vice, president, and eight members, which had organized and nurtured the revolutionary movement. On the 16th of January, 1844, this body published a manifesto setting forth the grievances and oppressions they had suffered under the Haitian rule, they expressed their determination to submit to them no longer, incline their enemies to a just and reasonable settlement of the difficulty, but to avoid the effusion of blood and the horrors of a calamitous war, expressing their readiness to defend their rights, which, if begun, shall, if the case calls for it, be several of the succeeding ones.

On the 9th of March following, the same executive body, in an address to the inhabitants, accompanied with a respectful and dignified address, to the President of the republic of Haiti. In this address, they speak as the organs of the "people of the Spanish part of the island," and reiterate the sentiments of devotion to the existing mating that they thus notify him of their determination, so far as the Dominican people are concerned, that he may act as the occasion may seem to require. On the 15th of March, the junta, in the month, published an address to the resident foreigners, assuring them of their intention of respecting the inviolability of their persons and property, and assuring them of protection under the new government. These guarantees have never, I believe, been violated in the cast of their persons or legitimate rights.

In April, 1844, the Haitian government, disposed to relinquish their former possession without a struggle, sent a force of 15,000 to 20,000 men, an army to the frontier, where it found the Dominicans prepared for them, and eager to defend their presents to the foreign press. Towards the middle On the 11th of the month of March, in which the Dominicans were successful, and forced them to retreat against great numerical odds. The issue of these battles was so far satisfactory to them, and though the war still nominally continues, and has since that time, keeping a considerable force ment along the frontier, as a measure of security, very little fighting has occurred.

The independence, or separation, as it is more properly termed, took place on the 27th of February, 1844; and the name assumed by the new state was that of the Dominican Republic.

Subsequently to the victories which secured the quiet possession of the country, and after order had had been commanded on the frontier, and under whom the government had been conducted, the inhabitants, without distinction of color, had triumphed over their oppressors, sending out of a faction opposed to the Provisional government re-established the authority of the Republic.

The duty of drafting a constitution for the new state, was committed to a convention, which when completed, was published with great solemnity, and ceremony on the 24th of November, 1844.

Having thus brought down the history of the domination of Haitians, the people of the old Spanish part of St. Domingo, have asserted their independence, and sought to assume a place among nations. And as the political position of this island will, most assuredly, some day, and that, probably, not very distant, awaken the attention of our people and government, I shall, besides, in my next, give an outline of the Constitution, and of some of the organic laws enacted to carry out its provisions.

COUPEUR.