MR. SULLIVAN (for Mr. O'CONNOR POWER)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether it is a fact that the military prisoner, John O'Brien, now confined at Chatham Prison, was first sentenced to penal servitude for ten years, but recalled by the judge immediately after he left the dock and, on account of the alleged offence of asking for "three cheers for the Irish Republic," then sentenced to penal servitude for life?
MR. ASSHETON CROSS, in reply, said, he had made inquiry about this matter, and nothing was known about any civil trial. It appeared, from the record of the military proceedings on January 10, 1867, that the prisoner—who then bore another name—was sentenced to penal servitude for life, and there was no record of his having been first sentenced for only 10 years. Had such been the case, he was informed that a record would have appeared on the original proceedings.