THE TIPPERARY ELECTION.
(To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPEOTATDR.")
Sin,—Your article on "The Tipperary Election," in common with all the other comments I have read, treats the question of John Mitchell's fulfilment of his sentence as involving a paradox, the paradox being that he has not fulfilled his sentence, and that, nevertheless, there is no unexhausted part thereof which he can be made to undergo.
As a layman, pretending to no special legal knowledge, I cannot see the difficulty. Suppose a man were sentenced to be whipped within fourteen days from the date of the sentence, and that he escaped before the whipping was inflicted and was not recaptured until after the expiry of the fourteen days, surely it would be obvious that he had not fulfilled his sentence, and also that the lapse of time, by reason of the terms of the sentence, made fulfil- ment impossible. Would any one say that such conclusion in- volved a paradox? And is not the analogy with John Mitchell's case exact ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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