§ MR. W. A MACDONALD (Queen's Co., Ossory)asked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Whether it is true that, at a Crimes Act Court, held last Saturday, at Listowel, County Kerry, two farmers, named respectively Pooling and Gallivan, were sentenced to six months' imprisonment with hard labour, for no graver offence than that they left the chapel at Lixnaw last Sunday, and induced others to do the same, at the moment when Nora Fitzmaurice, whose father was recently murdered, entered the building?
THE CHIEF SECRETARY (Mr. A. J. BALFOUR) (Manchester, E.)Sir, the offence of which these persons were accused, and for which they have been 332 sentenced by the Court of First instance, was the dastardly one of intimidating a poor girl for aiding in bringing to justice her father's murderers. On the character of the evidence by which this charge was supported it would not be proper to say anything, as an appeal is pending.