This is an appeal from a judgment of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, which refused to make an order on a writ of habeas corpus relieving appellant from the custody of the appellee, who, it is alleged, held the appellant in restraint of his liberty unlawfully. Upon the decision of the supreme court of the district, adverse to petitioner, an application for an original writ of habeas corpus was made to this court by counsel for appellant, but on a suggestion from the court that an act of congress, at its session just closed, had restored the appellate jurisdiction of this court in habeas corpus cases over decisions of the circuit courts, and that this necessarily included jurisdiction over similar judgments of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, counsel, on due consideration, withdrew their application, and, appealing from the judgment of that court, bring here the record of it for review.
Section 846 of the Revised Statutes of the District of Columbia, which makes the jurisdiction of this court over judgments and decrees of the circuit courts of the United States the measure of its jurisdiction (except as regards the sum in controversy) over judgments and decrees of the supreme court of the district in similar cases, justifies the exercise of our appellate jurisdiction in the present case. The original petition for the writ was addressed to Mr. Justice COX of the supreme court of the district, and alleged that on the second day of March, 1885, the petitioner was arrested and imprisoned, and ever since has so remained in arrest and imprisonment, and restrained of his liberty in the District of Columbia, illegally. The petition sets out an order of the secretary of the navy, under which this restraint is exercised, which order is in the following terms:
'WASHINGTON, February 28, 1885.
'SIR Transmitted herewith you will receive charges, with specifications, preferred against you by the department. A general court-martial has been ordered to convene in rooms numbered 32 and 33, at the navy department, Washington, D. C., at 12 o'clock noon, on Monday, the ninth proximo, at which time and place you will appear and report yourself to Rear Admiral Edward Simpson, United States navy, the presiding officer of the court, for trial. The judge advocate will summon such witnesses as you may require for your defense.
'You are hereby placed under arrest, and you will confine yourself to the limits of the city of Washington.
'Very respectfully,
'WM. E. CHANDLER,
'Medical Director
Secretary of the Navy.
'PHILIP S. WALES,
'U.S. N., Washington, D. C.' It also makes an exhibit to the petition a copy of the charges and specifications accompanying this order. It is unnecessary to say more of these charges at present, than that they relate to derelictions of duty on the part of the appellant while he was surgeon general of the navy, and as such had charge of the bureau of medicine and surgery in the navy department, which office he held from August 20, 1879, to January 26, 1884. He had therefore ceased to be surgeon general, and was in the exercise of his functions as medical director of the navy when this order was served on him. Judge COX issued the writ directed to William C. Whitney, secretary of the navy, who had become such by succession to Secretary Chandler. To this writ Secretary Whitney made return, stating the ction of Secretary Chandler, and the history of the appellant's connection with the navy since he was appointed medical inspector in June, 1873; the charges preferred against him as chief of the bureau of medicine and surgery, and the order of arrest of Secretary Chandler, and closes his return as follows:
'Your respondent respectfully submits that the said Philip S. Wales is not now, nor was at the time of issuing the annexed writ, in the custody or possession of, or confined or restrained of his liberty by, your respondent, other than as appears by the papers marked A, B, and C, attached hereto and made part of this return, and that the cause of such detention, if any there be, is fully shown in said exhibits.
'And your respondent further answers that neither he, nor any one by his authority, has exercised any physical restraint over the said Philip S. Wales before or since the issue of said writ.