§ MR. BLANE (Armagh, S.)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the Government would consent to the liberation of those 1216 prisoners sentenced to penal servitude for an alleged conspiracy at Crossmaglen, County Armagh, in 1882, having regard to the fact that no one was injured by any act of the prisoners, and their having already suffered more than five years' penal servitude?
§ THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Sir MICHAEL HICKS-BEACH) (Bristol, W.)Successive Viceroys have had before them the case of the convicts still in custody in this matter, and have felt themselves unable to interfere with the due course of the law. I cannot hold out any hopes of a different decision.
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