NEW YORK-Acting on the request of Attorney General Frank Murphy, a federal grand jury today began an inquiry into the affairs of Judge Martin T. Manton of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, whose resignation was accepted by President Roosevelt.

A state grand jury which had been investigating the case since last July adjourned its hearing to March 2. Chairman Hatton W. Sumners of the House Judiciary Committee announced at Washington that the resignation terminated the committee's consideration of the case