MR. SHANKS--Once a Rebel officer of distinction, but now a loyal man, consistent in conduct, and of very great assistance to the Government, in ferreting out Rebel officers and Rebel sympathisers, has the confidence and respect of those who know him. He is a young man of signal ability, and if he continues to serve the country as faithfully as he has in the present case, will yet attain distinction.
CHRISTOPHER C. STRAWN--Was a valuable witness. He is a young man who has taken an active part with the Democrats, and is well informed of the incomings and outgoings, and the eccentricities and peccadilloes of the managers in Chicago, although the _Post_ says, that "before his arrest he was not worthy of notice, and after his arrest still less so." We think the _Post_ man a little severe on Strawn, who has done all he could to have the guilty Copperhead readers of that paper brought to justice. Mr. Strawn, has bade his brethren, the Copperheads, an affectionate and, we trust, final adieu.
JOHN MAUGHAN, an Englishman, born in Berkshire county, and about 22 years of age. His family moved to Toronto, Canada West. He was always in Canada regarded as a young man, with fine business qualities and promise. For three years just before his connection with the rebels, and their Northern conspirators, he occupied a very responsible position as a clerk and teller, in one of the branches of the bank of Upper Canada, and was in every way worthy the confidence reposed in him. During the spring and summer of 1864, he however became acquainted with rebel soldiers in Canada, earnestly espoused their cause, and left his position to go with them to the Southern army. They, however, instead of going South, went to Chicago, where he became acquainted with the conspirators, and also gained their confidence, and on account of being an Englishman, and having his papers with him, and being able to travel without fear of detection, he was used by them to carry their correspondence and other communications, which were of too dangerous a character to trust to the mails. This man was truly a dangerous character. No one, except those who employed him, knew him, or the character in which he was acting, and he was able, frequently, to render the conspirators immense service in their desperate schemes. He was captured in Chicago in November, and finally agreed to turn State's evidence, when he saw that unless he did, his own life was forfeited. After this agreement, he was treated with great leniency by the Government, but upon being placed upon the witness stand, his old sympathies and prejudices returned, and it is believed he distinctly perjured himself, acting through the whole trial with bad faith toward the Government which had treated him so generously.