Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-01-23
Eancaster frltelligerrer.
FRIDAY EVENING, JANUARY %, 1890.
The Noble Judge.

The Noble Judge.
Judge Patterson says he has no
feeling against us and that he
would not let his own father say
to him what we said without
calling him to account for it. That is just
right. We are very glad that Judge Pat
terson has laid his foundation SO straight,
but it increases our surprise that he has
got his superStructure so crooked. Very
clearly the Judge is very noble in refusing
to permit any personal feeling against us
to animate his judicial action. We credit
bis word to this effect, as we have no
reason to discredit it; our personal rela-
tions have always been friendly and our
editorial criticisms upon the judges Of
fetal conduct: have ever been free from
any taint of prejudice or malice. We
concede to the judge the motives we
claim for ourselves. We are acting in
this little affair, on both sides, from high
sense of duty. SO far, we deserve credit
and applause. We start with good motives.
The Judge is certainly right, too, in his
refusal to let even his own father tell
him that the criminal court of which he
is a member has permitted an = lmposl-
ton practiced upon it and disgrace
attaching to it," through the conduct OF
its prosecuting officers, to pass unnotlced
because g all the parties implicated, as
well as the Judges, belonged Othe Repub-
Iican party that is, provided the Judge
feels that he is innocent, as he does feel,
since we have had his own assurance to
us in this Office that Judge Livingston,
having tried the Snyder case, is entirely
responsible for the failure to call District
Attorney Eshleman and Mr.. Brown to
account for their imposition upon the
court.
The judge naturally felt that he did
not want to be blamed for what he con-
sidered to he Judge Livingston's fault.
lie loves Judge Livingston as one de-
scendant of Adam may love another, If
he is a good member of the church, pray
ing daily for full endowment of all the
Christian graces but not any more.
We say once more the judge was
right. Every tub ought to stand on its
own bottom. Judge Patterson's tub
thus far had good bottom; but his
next movement knocked all its hoops
loose, and made it just the leakieSt tub
that ever was. What we said was quite
aggravating to a just judge. Such one
had a right to complain that we charged
the leniencv of his court to deeply OF
Tending members of the bar to political
influence That is Just about what we
did charge and if Judge Patterson had
sat himself down and .opened his law
books to find out the remedy for his
wrong provided by the law, he would
have found that it lay in an action
arains: us for libel-thc same remedy
that is provided for the aspersed reputa-
tions of people who are not judges. The
law does not make judges any better
off than common people i'll this regard.
And SO, in truth, the judge, being.;l
Judge, ought to have known without
consulting his law books. And if the
Judge knew that he didn't know much
law-as the people may suspect-he made
Il very bad step indeed when he stepped
into the Office of Lawyer Hay Brown
to get posted: because the people that
Lawyer Hay Brown posts SO very often
-somehow-come to grief, and because
Lawyer Hay Brown happened to be one
of the lawyers who perpetrated the i'm
position upon the court which we
criticised it for permitting, and which
Judge Patterson said that Judge Living
stOn was responsible for not reScnting
And then TO hear that this innocent, high
minded, independent judge, so jealous OF
his reputation, had been in council will
one of the offending lawyers on the night
before and the night after he thundered
his anathema against us for charging
him with being anything less than EN-
bodied judicial purity. zeal and honor
we declare astonished us a very little
We advise the judge to drop Brown
lest he be done brown, as Browns pOliti'
cal friends are apt to be done. Let him
trust to the noble impulses that he tells
us animate his own bosom, and then he
will not think it right to prosecute us, ties,
tify against us, render a verdict against
us, and sentence us, all by lis lone self.
Judge, we submit that this is ''going it
alone" little too strong. Let us have
ajury on it, Judge, to whom you will
Show the resplendent whiteneSs of your
judicial ermine and prove that Judge
, Livingston is the niger in the wood-pile
who has made all the mischief.