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Excellency the following remarks,
which induce me
to request
your Excellency will reconsider
their
sentence,
and
if possible
remit the remainder of their punishment -
1. That the Prisoners were
convicted solely upon their own confession, from the
report of
the
occurrence
which they made voluntarily to their Officer.
2. That the fact of making this Report, proves
that in their own minds they
were persuaded they had only done their duty, and
were
unaware
they had committed
a Crime. It also
appears hard that
their story
only that part of
which criminates them
should be believed, and that their account of
the
F Chinaman commencing
the attack should meet with disbelief.
3. That upon their Report the Coroner's Inquest found a verdict of Justifiable Homicide, upon