Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 8.djvu/917

 EX PARTE HOUGHTON. 903 �constitution, or of a law or treaty qi the United States. Rev. St. I53. The law of the United States was, and is, that the relator should be tried by the courts of the United States, and not by those of the litate, and if guilty that he should be punished according to the la-WB of the United States, and not under those of the state under which he is in^ custody. This court bas jurisdiction of the relator under these provisions by this writ. �The inquiry into the cause of his confinement is not a review of the proceedings of the state court. If the attention of that court had been called to this aspect of the case, probably this proceeding would have been wholly unnecessary; but the record shows that it was not. The point here is not at all that the relator was not proceeded with in a proper manner by the state court, but that the court had no jurisdiction over hioi for this offence. In such oases the remedy may be by habeas corpus. Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall. 163. �Brown v. U. S. 14 Ain. Law Reg. 566, before Erskine, J., and afterwards before Mr. Justice Bradley, is an authority that section 711 gives exclusive jurisdiction to the courts of the United States over offences cognizable under the authority of the United States, and that habeas corpus froni a federal court or judge is a proper remedy. �This is not a proceeding for relieving criminals at all from just punishment. It is intended to relieve persons from punishment con- trary to the laws of the United States, but not from liability to be punished according to those laws. If the relator was still liable to punishment according to those laws, he would be held by order of court until the district attorney could proceed againet him; but the ofience for which he bas already sufiPered considerable punishment is now apparently barred by the statute of limitations of the United States. Therefore, further detention would be unavailing. �The relator is discharged from this imprisonment. ��� �