THE INSURRECTION AT HARPER'S FERRY.

The telegraphic despatches had scarcely announced the outbreak at Harper's Ferry, before it brought additional information that it had been put down again, and the outlaws who had instigated it were either shot or in prison. A fanatic, named Brown, whose wits must have been addled in the Kansas war, in which he figured, conceived the idea of raising the slaves of Virginia, and Maryland, and of adding these two to the number of free States. He appears to have induced a small number of white men as crazy as himself to engage in the desperate undertaking. They came armed into the town, and were only driven out at the point of the bayonet. Those who are in the hands of the authorities will no doubt reap the proper reward of their treasonable intent, and means will be taken to capture the others who have escaped. It is not surprising that such civil disturbances as these should take place. For years past war has been preached against the Southern institutions from pulpit and from forum, and every effort has been made by demagogue politicians and political priests to awaken sectional strife and plunge the country into civil war. Hitherto sectional disturbance engendered by these appeals, has been confined to the outlying Territories, where but little mischief could be done. The conflict at Harper's Ferry is a foretaste of what may be expected when the contest becomes general between the two sections of the country, a point which extreme opinions would rapidly drive us, if the good, sober sense of the people does not interpose in time to save the nation from such horrors. The "irrepressible conflict" of Mr. Seward may be a thing to joke over in political papers, but the reality will be a different affair, and smoking houses and fields bathed in blood will be the disastrous end of the folly. Rumors are current that the outbreak was only a premature explosion of a more general conspiracy. It is alleged that a rising all over the States of Maryland and Virginia was contemplated; that the 24th of October was the day appointed for the attempt, and that the seizure of the Arsenal was to be the signal to the insurgents. The taking of the Arsenal, in anticipation of the day whereby the conflict has been precipitated, before the slaves were ready for it, is supposed to be a mistake of some one entrusted by the leaders with the execution of that part of the plot. Whether this be so or not, the insurgents seem to have contemplated more extended operations that they had an opportunity to carry out; for commissions were found in the pockets of the slain, appointing them officers in the "Provisional Government of the United States," which would indicate a design to overthrow the present, and establish a revolutionary government. It will be a curious fact in the investigations to follow, to ascertain how far, and from whom, such an intention received countenance; whether Brown's adventure was the result of some deeper laid plot than has yet been revealed, or the promptings of a madman. The spontaneous uprising of the people, and the sudden and disastrous termination to the insurrection show what dangers are to be incurred in attempting any such wild purpose. The telegraph and railroad improvements have made the Government invincible for the protection of the country, for before any outbreak against the law can attain headway enough to become formidable, the whole Union is apprised, by telegraph, of the fact, and volunteers and other troops are flying over the railroads to crush it.