the courthouse to the prison, and of the release of the prisoners was
sworn to with the utmost minuteness, as the witnesses professed to
identify one after another of the men in the dock, some of whom had no
connection or sympathy with the rescue at all.

In Liverpool, men whom I knew were arrested who were at work all that
day at the docks, and yet were sworn to by numerous witnesses as having
assisted in the attack on the van in Hyde Road, Manchester, the most
minute details being given.

I have mentioned a case of the kind in my "Irish in Britain." William
Murphy, of Manchester, a man whom I knew well, was convicted and sent
into penal servitude as having taken part in the rescue. On his
liberation I was surprised to learn from his own lips that, although he
would gladly have borne his part if detailed for the duty, he was not
present at the rescue of the Fenian leaders. With the authorities in
such a panic, it can readily be understood that it behoved any of us in
Lancashire who were in any way regarded as "suspects" to be ready with
very solid testimony as to where we were on the day in question.

In a recent letter I have had from Captain Condon--from whom
communications reach me from all parts of America, for he is constantly
travelling, holding as he does the post of Inspector of Public Buildings
in connection with the Treasury Department of the U.S.A.--he tells me
something about William Murphy that I never heard before. He says: "When
Allen, Larkin, O'Brien, myself, and the other men were sentenced, Digby
Seymour (one of the counsel for the prisoners) went down to a large cell
in the court house basement where all the others were kept together. He
urged them all to plead 'guilty' and throw themselves upon the mercy of
the court, declaring that, if they refused to do this all would be