New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-04-16
TIE LEGysLA7URE AND TIE JUDGE

1t is about four years since tDa scandals o,
Judge Barnard'S administration of injustice
wee made the subject of a petition for i'm
parchment, drawn up Gf we are not misin-
formeD under tho supervision of Mr. David
Dudley Field for presentation to the LegiSla-
ture. 1t is nearly five years since Mr. Fields
partner, Thomas G. Sherman, exposed the
iniouities of Barnard and his colleague
Cardozo in Tae North american Rorie'o. Ever
since that time tho people of the State OF
Ncw-York have watched the proceedings in
the Supreme Court with increasing anger
and alarm. They have seen both these
Judges growing daily holder in their
misconduct; but, while Tammany was
strong at Albany, and Tammany and Erie to-
gether were almost uncontrolled masters of
New-York, it was useless to look for change.
at last, the Tammany Ring was broken to
pieces. An Overwhelmingly Republican Legls-
lature was elected on professions of Reform
the Bar Association went to work to prepare
cases against the accused officers; and those
sanguine citizens who believed q political
millennium was at hand looked for an imme-
date publication of the bench and summary
punishment of the men who had disgraccd it.
Three months and half have elapsed, and it
is not yet determined whether the Legislature
will take any steps in the matter at all.
Our Reform Legislators have disappointed
the hopes Of their constituents in almost every
important case that has come before them.
They have allowed the leaders of the Tam
many Ring to remain in office they have de-
cided that man does not disqualify himself
for seat in tho Senate by taking brides from
Gould and Tweed they have failed to give
us a new Charter they kept the Eric Ring in
power until the task of destroying it was sud
denly taken ont of their hands by Gen. Sickles.
But we do not think they can afford to shirk
action upon the case of the accused Judges.
The matter is very serious one. 1t is intOl-
cradle that these men, if half of what is told
about them is true, should be allowed to preside
another day in court, tampering with the good
name of the nation and putting the property and
liberties of honest citizens in peril. We would
have the proceedings against them conducted
with all possible fairness and all proper delib-
Grafton, but there must be no needless delay.
And of course there must be no talk of an
adjournment without final action either one
way or the other. If Barnard and CardOzO
have done nothing to justify removal, let them
be relieved at once from the stigma that
now rests upon them, and let respectable
members of tho bar no longer feel the shame
of pleading before bride takers. II they are
guilty, punishment cannot be too quick. There
would be peculiar danger i'll leaving them
upon the bench until another session of the
Legislature. The members of the Bar AssO
citation who undertook the prosecution, and the
witnesses who appeared before the Committee,
acted under an implied pledge that the people
and their representatives would support them;
and to be left at this stage of the proceedings
facing the anger of the Infatuated judges
would be for most of them q severe profess
sional disaster. We call, then, for an imme-
date report by the Judiciary Committee,
and immediate preparations for impeachment.
The trial in any case must involve delay, and
time just now is precious. Try, just for once,
gentlemen, to act promptly.