New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-08-20

IN bis own court by one of the leaders OIL tne
Nav Yor,, her. he presided with composlre
over n trial in which witnesses were questioned
about proposal to impeach HIM ior corruP-
ton he seolded, bullied, joked on the Dench
about the ruin of his own character He
brought into the courtroom the language anu
manners of the drinking saloon, ana inter-
rnnted causes that he might go from the seat
IF inst;ce 10 the tavern, and amuse bar-r0om
Ioafars with the Infamous story OF his Judicial
x,;lIainv. He has the distinction of making
Now-York notorious in two hemispheres as the
one city where the Supreme Court occasionally
sits in the couIisses of q theatcr and the cham
Der of a courtesan, and where railroad corpor-
otions not only fee standing counsel but buy
their private and particular Judges.
The wrong done to suitors by his abuses OF
the law was less serious evil than his per-
sonal influence. corrupt bench never
lourishes long without making dishonorable
bar. for the canker surely eats downward;
and when it has infected one of the foremost
| of the liberal professions the tone of general
| society must he alarmingly relaxed what
Barnard and his fellows could do we saw long
| since to our sorrow and amGzement. FIVE
wears ago member of the New-York bar
scourged Judge Barnard in the pages OF me
| North american RerieU so fercely and e1ec-
lively that the Judge writhed in public under
the blows, and made an indecent exhibition OF
his wounds in the Supreme Courtroom. FIVE
wears ago n counselor who stood in the very
front of the profession and eipoyeu an
enviable reputation as law retormer DOM III
England and America, drew up articles OF I'M
parchment for the purpose OF securing Juuge
Barnard's removal. To-day those two lawyers
are the principal legal associates OF the Us-
eraced magistrate, and their names are con-
nected inseparaby with the scandal of Fisk,
GouId. Barnard Mansfield, and Erie. When
such men fall who shall stand firm
| When Fisk and Barnard could control the
| services of one of tho most distinguished
LAWYERS in America, was 1t to be eX-
pected that young and ambitious practitlon-
era should be over nice in their sense OF
honor, or jealous of the dignity of their call
iugq 1t was better after ALL many rising
LAWYER must have thought.-tO make friends
of the mammon of unrighteousness, give up
bushes and scruples, laugh at judicial vulgari-
ties, share in judicial revels, buy mandamuses
and iniunctions, beg for references, take what
share they could get in the universal free
| booting, and laugh honor TO the winds.
Our gratitude, therefore, to the members OF
the Bar Association who have borne the heavy
labor of this prosecution and faced the danger
of a possible failure, the personal consequences
of which to them must have been disastrous,
can hardly be overstated. They have rid the
profession of its greatest scandal and society
of one of its worst sources OF decentralization
They have taught cynical and unbelieving
world, too, that even in RiBg-ridden Newly DIRK
there is a punishment for corruption and there
are crimes which all the powers of fraud,
money, and political influence are powerless
to protect. Only year ago Barnard was the
most joval and perhaps the most powerful
member of a league of tyrants who seemed
beyond the reach of the law. Fisk and Gould
plundering the stock market; Tweed, Con-
molly, and Sweeny, sitting silently around the
| municipal money chest, and filling their
pockets with the public taxes dark-eyed
Cardozo and roaring McCunn dividing their
time between larceny and the manufacture of
voters and Barnard, as the protector OF the
unholy cabal, issuing DEGREES and lettreS do
cachet for their exclusive benefit, and riOting
with them in resorts of infamy over the pro-
ceeds of extOrtiOn,-that was picture of New
York government in the Summer of 1871. 1t
is all gone now. Two of the band are dead.
One is fugitive. Another is trying to stave
off a trial till he can bargain with the Custom
house Republicans for his liberty and his
plumber. Barnard was the last in clinging to
his Office, and with his removal their power
for mischief is finally destroyed. There is still,
however. duty to be done. What little pun
ishment we can inhict upon Barnard has been
imposed but there are others upon whom
the strong arm of justice must be laid, and to
them all eyes will now be turned.