New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-09-14

lawlesS feelings OF the mop. here 10 ono VII
cumstanoe which makes the people OF New
York indignant and ashamed.
The terms of Judge Barnard's temporary re-
straining order were such as, under the exl-
penoes of the case. TO make it, In intention,
practically permanent injunction. The relief
which was sought By the Health Officer OF the
Port and by the Governor of the State-the
relief for which private citizens gave money
without stint or question, for which the officers
of the General Government cut through the
knots of red tape that make action slow-thls
relief was the speedy succor OF the passengers
who were being detained in quarantine only as
a measure of extreme care. Sick at heart ana
in body, without sufficient food or adequate
shelter those men, women and children were
tossing on the waters, cheered only by the faint
hope of tardy help, when Judge Barnard issued
his order ret,irnable on Thursday. What wer
they to do in the mean time? The question
was never asked by the Judge. He was ready
and willing on an ex parte hearing, Tor the
sake of the men of Isip who were destitute OF
compassion, and equally destitute OF right to
condemn them to an indefinite Imprisonment
under appalling circumstances The stamp OF
illegality has been placed on his act by his
brother judges sitting in General Term, but the
people deserve to know that the act was mex
cusable on other grounds also. The legal rights
Of the inhabitants of Islip township might have
been protected without risk to them and with
out adding to the hardship Of the Quarantine
by methods familiar enough to Judge Barnard.
Had the passengers first been housed in the
Surf Hotel and made comfortable, the question
of the right Of the State to use it indefinitely
as retreat for persons who had been liable
70 infection might have yet been tried. IL was
the same intelligence and sense OF duty to the
community at large that kept the passengers
isolated and under medical supervision that
also selected ire Island as place of temporary
refuge. The local Board of Health at lslip
and the other authorities Of the township dis
played ignorance which ought to make them
the objects of general ridicule and contumely
when they pleaded that the health OF the peo-
pie under their jurisdiction would be endan-
eered by the presence OF passengers who had
been ten days in quarantine without developing
the faintest trace Of cholera What a com
mentary upon either their knowledge or their
honesty is that implied by the certificate on
the subject signed by some of the most eminent
physicians in the city. which is printed this
morning, 1t is well always to be charitable
in Judgment but in this case it is impossible
10 believe otherwise than that for sordld and
wicked motives these men were willing to com
pcl the Health Officer of the Port Of New York
either 70 continue the torture Of the unfortu-
nate passengers on board the Cepheus or re-
lease them from Quarantine regulations alto
gethcr In the latter a fearful calamity
might have resulted, but possibly values in the
vicinity of Great South Bay might not have
deprecated at once.
Ne do not believe that the decision upon
which it Is said Judge Barnard based his rea-
sons for granting the writ on an OK parte APP
pcation has any bearing on the question in
yolved here Ii was his own decision, made
in 1866 when the Commissioners attempted
10 build a retreat on Staten Island though the
statute which commanded them TO erect GER
tain specified buildings in terms said they
should not build them on Staten Island, Coney
Island or Long Island. But it is unnecessary
to argue that matter now. The General Term
has said that Judge Barnard acted without juris-
diction. The restraining order, backed up by
a demonstration of mob violence, accomplished
the shameful feat Of adding twenty four hours
TO the misery and danger Of several hundred
suffering human beings. That cannot now be
helped. but the men who obtained it illegally
and the Judge who issued it can be remembered
bv Inundated and indignant people.