New-York tribune., 1873-07-22
JUDGE MoCUES PRECEPTS AND PRACTICES

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Unhappily for Brooklyn, Mr.. Alexander Nc
Cue is its City Judge. He has all the power
of Judge of the Supreme Court, and possibly
all his dignity, and we are sure, since
Barnard and Cardozo are extinct, he
has more than the average shrewdness of that
Bench. He is addicted, however, to the utter
ance of some singular moral Dreeepts, and to
some extraordinary judicial practices, to Which
we call attention that others may not adopt
them.
Mr. McCue is q counselor, too, as well as
iudge-a practice which in itself is not es-
pecially commendable-and it happens that he
is counsel, principal stockholder, and chief
Spokesman in its present difficulties of the
Brooklyn Trust Company. He had occasion
lately to speak of the defalcation of Mr..
Mills, and was called upon to char
acterize in fitting words what one
of his associates called downright
"robbery.n We do not know whether he
spoke as stockholder, counsel, or judge, but
he stated in the coolest manner imaginable
that che did not consider that Mr. Mills had
"been dishonest in the business, but that he
chad committed the too prevalent error of
"using other funds than his own."
Accept this utterance as counsel and address
it to Mr.. McCue's clerks or the banks officers,
and it encourages the crime it condOnes Mr..
Mills, before he became known as O defaulter,
could MT have put it more delicately. Its ex-
treme neatness almost suggests the notion that
fellow-feelng makes Judge McCue so very
charitable and unjudicial. Accept it as de-
cision from the Bench which Judge McCue
adorns, address it to any criminal whom he
has ever condemned, and it makes his every
sentence an outrage in the name of justice.
We have no condemnation to utter of the
Court which, on the application of the most
criminal director of the Brooklyn Trust Com
pany, appointed as Receiver the most careless
and ignorant. AS it was unopposed the
motion had perhaps to be granted by the
Court, and yet the judge must have known
that it was o clearly unwise proceeding, and
against the public interest. By this act
Judge McCue has secured control of
! the banks books and funds as against the
other stockholders and depositOrs He can re-
veal or conceal what he chooses, and the
affairs of the bank can be cleared up to suit
himself and his associates We do not care to
waste words in pointing out the manifest i'm
propriety involved in an application by the
originator, principal stockholder, counsel and
actual manager Of the bank to have the
next most active and involved of his as
sociates put in absolute control. Bat it
is time the other stockholders and depositors
thought of the probable consequences. Sup
pose, for instance, that Mr.. McCue and Mr..
Chauncey were themselves large debtors to
the bank,-and the rumor is current that Mills
and Rodman were not the only ones in
volved,-what is to prevent them from bal
ancing their overdrawn accounts with such
securities as they find convenient This is a
serious question for stockholders to consider.
Mr.. McCue is very much panied, as appears
by his card, at the intimatiOns of THE TRB-
UNE that he seeks to escape responsibility.
WE'LL we can imagine the author of such SEN
timents and the originator of such sharp prac-
tice as we have quoted and described, to be a
painfully sensitive man. But we reflect also
that nearly all the men who undermined the
Ring bank in this city were, in their own opin-
ion, much wronged and patient folks. And
now we remember further that the most of
them are either under bonds or in Jail.