Year: 1872




Tho Bar Association-The Legal Fro.


fundity or some Of It's Members.


The Bar Association. as il is called, may be
a very useful and proper institution, and tha
gentlemen of whom it Is composed may bs
highly respectable in character if some of them
are not very brilliant legal luminaries. They
are said to have rendered good service in rid
ding the Bench of undesirable judges, although
rumor attributes to q portion Of them such
motives as professional jealousy, abortiys
efforts to obtain remunerative references from
the impeached judges and lack of other en-
ployment. However this may be, the action
of some of the members of the asso-
citation in regard to the nominees
for the Judiciary does not show
in very favorable light At .
recent meeting resolution in favor of OPP
posing the reelection of the present City
Judge having been introduced, Mr.. John
McKeon. with the candor natural to him, do
nounced it's adoption, unless some one had
tho courage 10 specify charges as reason
for the proposed action. Thereupon Mr..
Price rose, and. after declaring that he pos
sessed the requisite amount of courage for ths
task, charged that the City Judge had refused
to admit William M. Tweed to bail on the
criminal indictments found against him some
ten months ago, and hence was unfit to sit on
the Bench.


II scarcely required this episode to expose
the fingers of Tweed and his associates in
crime in the crusade against the present City
Judge, but the charge made by this member
of the Bar Association should have come from
some one not claiming to belong to the legal
profession. In the civil suits against Tweed
and the others implicated in the alleged frauds
an amount Of bail so large as to be almost q
refusal of bail was required. In ex-Comp-
trollor's Connolly's case it was really equiva-
lent to o refusal for the defendant was unable
to furnish it and remained in prison until
the amount had been reduced. When Tweed
was taken before the Court Of Sessions the
District Attorney moved his commitment
without bail, the avowed reason for the mo-
ton being that the amount Of plunder and
the certainty of conviction rendered it proba-
BILE that the accused would forfeit amy
bail likely to be required rather than
stand trial. 1t is discretionary with
the Judge whether prisoner SO charged shall
be admitted to bail or committed without bail.
In this case the counsel for the accused did
not oppose the motion Of the District Attorney
to commit without bail, for the reason that il
was known the City Judge would re-
quire an amount commensurate with the
offences alleged against the accused, while
more friendly Judge could be found who
would Immediately fix the bail at compare
lively inconsiderable sum. The counsel there
fore desired that his client should be COM
mitted by the City Judge for the purpose Of
taking him before another Judge for
bail, which was subsequently done. The
City Judge had but an unopposed motion be-
fore him, to commit without bail, and he very
properly granted the motion Of the District
Attorney. This may be good cause for the
enmity of Tweed, but it can be no good reason,
in the opinion of any lawyer Of ordinary abil-
ity, why the committing Judge should be pro.
nounced unfit to sit upon the Bench.


FRENCH EMIGRATION TO CANADA-A Paris
telegram conveys the intelligence that large