New-York tribune., 1871-11-15

/ trials took place hAa nnanlmOueiy reIneoo'
BuckhOut now has now chance Of getting
of-snd Judge Pratt L. held responsible for
it, After these exhibitions Of judicial COM
plaisance, Il Is not surprising that Judge Pratt
stould have been chosen Gf public rumor can
be trustedD special bench-agent Of the Erie
Railway Company, ViOs Barnard, absent on
leave. Mr.. James Fisk, IT,, In his amatory
hours, is understood to be garrulous person,
| who chatters imprudenty about business Sc
| creta. and writes rash letters to the Temporary
partners of his Joys. 1t happened that in the
| cOurse of a suit between Fisk and his too sue
cessful rival, Stokes some Of these letters were
about to come to light. There was consterna-
ton in the Erie Directory, Shameful devices
of railway management and politics were dis
closed in those letters from James to jose
phine, and their publication menaced the Ring
with utter ruin. Judge Pratt was hastily
called in. He enjoined Miss Mansfield from
publishing, causing to be published, or in any
manner divulging the contents of those
| letters, and appointed day to hear
! argument why the injunction should
| not be made perpetual. Properly speaking, a
Brooklyn Judge had no business with this suit
at all, and when Miss MansHeld's counsel
moved to have it transferred to this city, on
| the ground that all the parties to it lived
| here, Judge Pratt could hardly refuse. We
| do not know what he supposed would be done
with it in New York but the Erie Ring seem
to have been sadly distressed when they found
| it was to come up before the Hon. John X.
| Brady, so they ran to Judge Pratt again. This
| obliging jurist thereupon issued a stay OF pro-
ceedings in the case which had already been
I sent out of his district, and called it back
| again,-the effect of which order, if sustained,
would be to defer action till the next term,
and save Fisk and Gould from exposure for
at least three months longer.
Probably the issue of this particular case Is
of no particular consequence to the public, for
even the suppression of the Mansfield letters
altogether would not postpone a great while
the fate which has hung over the Erie Ring
since the downfall of their Tammany allies
| But it reVives an old scandal of our judiciary
which is likely to attract considerable atten-
| ton during the present reaction against public
abuses. There are thirty-three judges OF the
| Supreme Court in the State of New-YOrk, and
| each one of them has certain equity powers
which run throughout the State. Many lndi-
| yiduals may be concerned in O single suit; /;
each of them may institute proceedings before
any one of the thirty three judges; each judge
may forbid OF stay proceedings before every
other Judge; and in the course of the Erie
htigations we have repeatedly seen judges
enioining one another and dissolVing one an
others injunctiOns. The present condition Of
our practice in regard to ex parte orders is
disgraceful. The Bar Association ought to
devise plan of amendment, and submit TO
the new Legislature a bill which will strip
the Barnards, Pratts, and Cardozos of much
of their present power for mischief. And when
the reform is pressed, as pressed it must be,
life will be made extremely uncomfortable for
the Judges whose misconduct has rendered it
necessary.