§ MR. BIGGAR (for Mr. SMALL)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether Bernard Smyth, one of the prisoners in the Crossmaglen cases recently convicted at Belfast on the evidence of the informer Duffy, and sentenced to ten years penal servitude, has been released from prison; and, whether the same course will be taken with the other men convicted and sent to penal servitude on the evidence of the same man?
§ MR. TREVELYANBernard Smyth addressed a memorial to the Lord Lieutenant, and His Excellency, on inquiry, and after communication with the Judge before whom the cases were heard, found that the case against Smyth differed somewhat from that against the other prisoners, and also that he is a very 1491 delicate man, subject to spitting of blood, and had been treated in the prison hospital for chronic bronchitis. Under these circumstances, His Excellency took a merciful view of the case, and ordered his discharge. The reasons which influenced His Excellency in dealing with this case do not exist with regard to the other prisoners, and there is no intention of interfering with the sentence in their cases.