u, be taken hence to
the place whence you came, and thence to a place of execution,
and that you be there hanged by the neck until you shall be
dead, and that your bodies be afterwards buried within the
precincts of the prison wherein you were last confined after
your respective convictions; and may God, in His infinite
mercy, have mercy upon you."

With quiet composure the doomed men heard the words. They warmly shook
hands with their counsel, thanked them for their exertions, and then,
looking towards the spot where their weeping friends were seated, they
turned to leave the dock. "God be with you, Irishmen and Irishwomen!"
they cried and, as they disappeared from the court, their final adieu
was heard in the same prayer that had swelled upwards to heaven from
them before--

"GOD SAVE IRELAND!"

[Illustration: "GOD SAVE IRELAND!"]

Scarcely had the Manchester courthouse ceased to echo those voices
from the dock, when the glaring falseness of the verdict became the
theme of comment amongst even the most thoroughgoing Englishmen who
had been present throughout the trial.

Without more ado, down sate some thirty or forty reporters, who, as
representatives of the English metropolitan and provincial press,
had attended the Commission, and addressed a memorial to the Home
Secretary, stating that they had been long accustomed to attend at
trials on capital charges; that they had extensive experience of
such cases, from personal observation of prisoners in the dock and
witnesses on the table; and that they were solemnly convinced, the
swearing of the witnesses and the verdict of the jury to the contrary
notwithstanding, that the man Maguire had neither hand, act, nor part
in the crime for which he had been sentenced to death. The following
is the petition referred to:--

We, the undersigned members of the metropolitan and provincial
Press, having had long experience in courts of justice, and
full opportunity of observing the demeanour of prisoners and
witnesses in cases of criminal procedure, beg humbly to submit
that, having heard the evidence adduced before the Special
Commission, on the capital charge preferred against Thomas
Maguire, private in the Royal Marines, we conscientiously
believe that the said Thomas Maguire is innocent of the crime
of which he has been convicted, and that his conviction has
resulted from mistaken identity. We, therefore, p