An ex-Judge of California has just been shot dead by
Mr. Nagle, the marshal of a present Judge of the U.S. Supreme Court, the murder having been provoked by a slap in the face given to Judge Field by the ex-Judge Terry. This slap in the face was a mode of avenging the action of Judge Field in order- ing Mr. Terry into arrest for contempt of Court, in a case in which a lady was interested who afterwards became Mr. Terry's wife. Mr. Nagle has been arrested, and, though told off expressly to protect Judge Field, will, we may hope, be tried and punished for revenging a slap in the face by a fatal shot. But it is said that popular feeling justifies the murder on account of Terry's violent character, and certainly the oftener popular feeling is allowed to interfere with the course of justice, the more liable we shall be to the condonation which public opinion pronounces on offenders like Mr. Nagle.
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