“NUMBER ONE.”

Dunstan Times, Issue 1089, 13 April 1883, Page 3

“ NUMBER ONE.”

The mysterious “ Number One,” who has figured under the aliases of M'Altassivey, M’Attaris, Ar iras, etc., is now pretty generally believed in Irish Nationalist circles to be J. P. Mac Donald or O’Donnell, as he was sometimes called, who in 1870 accepted a cornu i-;s on from the French Government to raise an Irish Ambulance Corps for the relief of the sick and wounded during the Franco-German war. On the arrival of the Irish contingent at Havre, the men found they were required for active service ouly, and not as intendance corps. Many of the men, rather than return, enlisted, and went on active service ; but the majority, complaining that they were deceived, returned to Eng'and, some of them in a destitute condition. Mac Donald was afterwards tried at the Centra! Criminal Court for violating the Enlistment Act, but the ease was removed by a writ of certiorari to the Court St" Queen’s Bench, and after many adjournments the prosecution was finally aban ioned. Mac Donald is about 40 years of age, of medium height, and of sandy complexion, and is well known in the Irish quarters of Paris, in which city he has for many years resided. O’Donovan Pmssa, writing in his usual style from America, declares that if General M‘Adams is the man wanted, he will have hereafter a fame of which any Irishman should be proud.