§ DR. FITZGERALD (Longford, S.)I beg to ask the Attorney General for Ireland whether, in view of the facts that the conviction of Willian Coll at the Maryborough Assizes in the autumn of 1889, for participation in the proceedings at Gweedore on the occasion of the arrest of the Rev. Father M'Fadden, was affirmed, on appeal, only by a small majority of the Judges of the Court of Criminal Appeal in Ireland; that amongst those who dissented from the judgment of the majority of the Court were the Lord Chief Justice (now Lord Morris) and the Lord Chief Baron; and that Coll has now undergone one year and a half 1174 of penal servitude, he will advise the Lord Lieutenant to exercise the prerogative of mercy in his regard, and remit the remainder of his sentence?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR IRELAND (Mr. MADDEN, Dublin University)There has already been a Memorial to the Lord Lieutenant in this case, and the decision come to was that the law must take its course. The question as to the admissibility of evidence, on which the members of the Court of Criminal Appeal differed in opinion, does not in any way affect the merits of the applications.