and ludicrous as it was, unanimously reported that Hastings’ memorial should be laid upon the table and the committee discharged from any further consideration of the subject.  The House adopted the report, and, so far as Congress was concerned, there the matter dropped.  But in the meanwhile it had been telegraphed all over the country that articles of impeachment were pending against the judges, and sensational newspaper articles appeared in different parts of the country.  Some expressed regret that the conduct of the judges had been of a character to necessitate such proceedings.  Others said it was not to be wondered at that the judicial ermine should be soiled in a country of such loose morals as California.  Still others thought it no more than proper to impeach a few of the judges, in order to teach the remainder of them a salutary lesson.  These articles were paraded in large type and with the most sensational headings.

When the action of the House on the memorial was announced, Hastings and Julian became furious.  It then appeared that the only charge which had made any impression upon the minds of the committee was that relating to Moulin, the Frenchman.  Three, indeed, of the members, (Messrs. Voorhees, of Indiana, Potter, of New York, and Peters, of Maine,) said it was a shame and disgrace that such ridiculous and monstrous twaddle should be listened to for a moment; but a majority considered it their duty, under the order of reference, to hear the matter patiently.  They had, therefore, allowed Hastings the widest latitude and listened to everything that his malice could invent.

As a comical conclusion to these extraordinary proceedings, Hastings commenced a suit in the U.S.  Circuit Court for the State of New York against the Judiciary Committee for dismissing his memorial.  Being a non-resident he was required by that court to give security for costs, and as that was not given the action was dismissed.  This result was so distasteful to him that he presented a petition to the Chief Justice of the U.S.  Supreme Court, stating that Judge Hunt had too much to do with churches, banks, and rings, and asking that some other judge might be appointed to hold the court.  The petition was regarded as unique in its character, and caused a great deal of merriment.  But the Chief Justice sent it back, with an answer that he had no jurisdiction of the matter.  After this Hastings took up his residence in New York, and at different times worried the judges there by suits against them—­Judge Blatchford, among others—­generally charging in his peculiar way a conspiracy between them and others to injure him and the rest of mankind.

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