upon plains subject to the continued heats of summer. There is no species nor amount of vegetable production, however, which cannot be obtained from the soils of California by attention to drainage and irriga tion. As long, however, says the Report, as laborers can earn 15 dollars or more per diem, in collecting gold, they can very well afford to import their supplies from countries where the wages of labor are only 50 cents, or one dollar; and this brings us to the most important part of the report, namely the commercial considerations and prospects suggested by a view of the present and future aspects of California, as a country to be supplied by the products and manufactures of the Atlantic States. The cultivatible land, south of latitude 39°, and west of the valley of Sacramento and San Joaquin, is claimed by such persons as are reputed proprietors of it, under what purport to be grants from the Mexican government. The boundaries of some of these properties, contain two or three times as much land as the grant conveys. In most of the grants the minerals and metals are reserved to the government, which will perhaps explain the reason why larger discoveries of the metallic riches of the country were not made previous to its possession by Americans, and gives a hint of the true policy to be pursued by the government of the United States. It will be necessary to depart in some measure from the old established customs of government in regard to precious substances found in the earth. The Mexican law requires that grants made by a provincial government shall be confirmed by the supreme authority in Mexico. Very naturally this requisition has been disregarded; not only because of the distance from California to the Capitol of Mexico, but because the claimants or proprietors, having no particular value for the soil except for grazing purposes, did not think it worth their while to examine into their land titles. There was room enough, says Mr. King, for all. These grants are enormously extensive; bounded by mountains, bays, and promontories, and since the discovery of the precious metals, they have become consequently, of enormous value. "By the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the United States purchased all the rights of Mexico to and in California ;" a purchase which includes not only the land, but the rights of mining, and all that might accrue from the forfeiture of grants of which the conditions were not fulfilled, or through imperfection in the grants. For the adjustment of these complicated affairs Mr. King suggests the appointment of competent Commissioners, with a power to confirm all rightful titles. The gold region, which is the same with the foot hills of the Sierra Nevada, some 500 miles long and 60 broad, requires also to be brought under a general system for use and settlement. The report suggests the necessity of a new survey as a matter of very great importance, both to the miners and agriculturalists, and, in general, to all land owners and purchasers. The public are not generally aware, that in the interior, even of the Atlantic States, millions of property and years of litigation are lost through the uncertainty of boundaries. We venture to say that an expenditure of $10,000,000 upon an accurate trigonometrical survey of the entire Union, would, in a very few years, save the expenditure of much more than that amount in law suits, and the bungling work of county surveyors. Much more then, is a complete and thorough scientific survey needed of a country like California, where the entire value of property is in land. In this part of the Report Mr. King suggests the employment of a system of drainage and irrigation for the great plain of Sacramento and San Joaquin, which, he says, when agriculture shall have become a pursuit in California, will make this valley one of the most beautiful and productive portions of the Union; but while the hire of a day laborer is 3 dollars per diem, and grain can be procured from Oregon at 50 cents the bushel, there is no likelihood that the people of California will expend any capital in drainage or irrigation. Under the head of" commercial resources," Mr. King takes notice that the precious metals are the only products of California; a state of things that must remain as long as the pursuit of gold continues profitable. The gold, as it is taken from the earth, weighed in ounces, is the medium of domestic and foreign exchange Vessels departing from all other ports bring food and manufactures to the Cali- | mitted by the India merchant to New York. fornians, who pay for them in gold. These It cannot be sent to China, gold in China vessels, says the Report, will estimate the being not used as currency, and valued at profits of their voyages by the sale of their only $14 the ounce by the silver standard. cargoes in California. On the arrival and The China trade will, therefore, still centre discharge of cargoes, they will be- in New York. Manufactures and procome willing carriers of goods sent from ducts of India, carried to San Francisco California, at very moderate freights. Mr. for the supply of South America and the King supposes that these tendencies will Islands, will be paid for in gold; the gold make San Francisco a ware-house for the will be sent to New York, (according to supply, to a certain extent, of all the ports our report, which is founded on the best of the Pacific-American and Asiatic mercantile authority,) and, with it, there and for the Islands. He adds that the es- will be purchased sterling bills, payable in tablishment of a mint in California will London. "These bills, sent to London, bring thither more than ten millions of sil- will be placed to the credit of the firm in ver bullion, from other parts of the Pacific China, from whom the merchandise had coast, to be assayed and coined. been received, and who, on learning of the remittance having gone forward to their agents, will draw a six months' sight bill for the amount, which will sell, in China, at the rate of four shillings and three pence, or two pence, the dollar." The reader unacquainted with mercantile transactions need only understand that by an imperative necessity of trade, founded on permanent differences of prices in the precious metals, the greater part of the Gold is worth a dollar more the ounce measured by the standard of silver, in New York than in San Francisco; if, therefore, a merchant of Valparaiso receives in payment for lumber, or other produce, ten thousand ounces of gold in San Francisco, and desires to purchase goods from the United States or Europe, he will gain $10,000 by sending this gold to New York, and purchasing with it there. To carry this illustration farther than it is car-gold of California employed in striking the ried in the Report, let us suppose that goods are sent from New York to California, to the value of $17,000,000 of gold, paid for them at San Francisco. This $17,000,000 of California gold will purchase in New York $18,000,000 worth of goods in that market; a process to be repeated indefinitely in favor of the exporters, so long as the abundance of gold in California shall continue to reduce its price, and the rapid increase of population keep up the demand for foreign products. Our Report shows conclusively what we have always contended for, that it is not the gold diggers of California who reap the advantage of the mines. "Those who purchase and ship gold to the United States," says Mr King, "make large profits; but those who dig lose what others make." The Report argues that San Francisco will become the mart of all exports from the countries on the west coast of America; these finding no markets in China or other ports of Asia. The products and the manufactures of India, which are required in exchange for them, have to be paid for, chiefly, in gold; but this gold must be re balance of the Chinese and India trade, will flow through New York, and from that port to Europe; saving what remains, through superiority of demand, in the United States. If the reasonings of Mr. King and the experience of the New York merchants are here correctly given, the harbor of San Francisco will have the control of the commerce of the Pacific, and the merchants of New York will become in future the principal operators between Europe and Asia. A full examination of this part of the Report would have to be accompanied with a treatise on the laws of trade. The Report dwells, especially, upon the importance of that commerce which is growing up between California and the older States of the Union. Every necessary and luxury has to be imported into California, a country which produces nothing but gold. The ports of the Pacific can supply only a small portion of these. Every species of manufacture that requires an expenditure of capital and ingenuity must come to California from the older States of the Union. The great distances over which they have to be carried already give employment to a fleet of merchant vessels. The public have heard enough of California prices; we need not dwell upon them here. In the sole article of lumber, in consequence of the demand for houses, it is supposed that the demand will not be less than 20,000,000 feet per annum, at a not less price than $40 the thousand. With a population of 200,000, that is to say before the close of the present year, California will require near half a million of barrels of flour to be supplied of necessity from the Atlantic States; and allowing only $20 worth of clothing to each person, which is not half enough, she will require four millions worth. These estimates are exceedingly rude. The entire value of the trade between the States east of the Rocky Mountains and California will not, says Mr. King, fall short of twenty-five millions, and in five years may reach an hundred millions per annum, at the present rates of emigration. We give the following quotation from the report without comment. "It is difficult to imagine or calculate the effect which will be produced on all the industrial pursuits of the people of the State of the Union by this withdrawal from them of half a million of producers; who, in their new homes and new pursuits, will give existence to a commerce almost equal in value to our foreign trade. Let no one, therefore, suppose he is not interested in the welfare of California; as well may he believe his interests would not be influenced by closing our ports, and cutting off intercourse with all the world." Mr. King shows, conclusively, that even the article of coal will be powerfully affected. He supposes that the coal from the United States will compete successfully with the coal from Vancouver's Island and from New Holland. That the construction of a railroad across the Isthmus of Panama will secure the market for these articles against all competition. With the railroad, communication between New York and San Francisco can be effected in twenty days. Mr. King's description of the gold region agrees very nearly with the information which has already been conveyed to the public through the news writers. He supposes that the average earnings of the gold diggers are about an ounce, or seventeen dollars the day; which will give an amount of $40,000,000, collected during the gold digging season of '48, '49; one half of which was probably collected and carried out of the country by foreigners. Mr. King advises that a system of licences to gold diggers be adopted, the property of the soil remaining in the nation that; each man, on the payment of a certain sum, say $16, be permitted to dig for one year: a tax which would give a revenue from 50,000 miners of $800,000. The entire country will have to be surveyed and laid out; the system will involve the establishment of a military force and a police with sufficient regulations for its enforcement. During the mining season of 1849, more than 12,000 foreigners, mostly Mexican and Chilénos, came in armed bands into the mining district, bidding defiance to all opposition, and finally carrying out of the country some $20,000,000 worth of gold dust, which belonged by purchase to the people of the United States. We are glad to perceive in the above. language of the Report, a clear recognition of the true and only title by which these territories are held. By whatever right, to use the word 'right' in the technical sense, a possession may have been acquired; by that same right it must be held. If the acquisition is a conquest and founded upon force, it must be maintained by force; and there is no violation of any right or title in it, by the attempt of its former possessor to reconquer it. It is barely possible that these armed bands of Mexicans are as ignorant of the true foundation of our title to California, as these Democratic Senators and Representatives who publicly speak of it as a conquest. We conceive that neither the Mexican invaders who have carried away the gold from the mines, nor their democratic orators have a right appreciation of the means by which the territories of California and New Mexico came into the possession of the United States. According to our understanding of the matter, the war with Mexico was gotten up for the express purpose of wresting these, and as much other territory as might be seized upon, from their ancient possessors, without even the pretext of a bargain or equivalent. Their grand attempt to involve the entire nation in the disgrace of so deliberate a piece of wickedness met with a most signal failure. Public opinion rose against them, and by the steady opposition of the Whigs, they were obliged to cover their retreat out of this villainy by offering such terms as Mexico might reasonably accept, and without disgrace to herself. The new territories, it is to be eternally remembered, are by no means a conquest, but a purchase; and the right and title of the people of the United States to these territories is founded upon value received, and is good in the eyes of the law. Mexican and Chilinean invaders, have therefore no pretext nor precedent, thanks to Whig influence, for carrying the gold, by main force and arms, out of the territories which have been purchased by the people; and if the Mexican government itself abets such proceedings, we shall by and by have a casus belli for the war faction, which they will doubtless enforce, as becomes them, with the arguments of a very hightoned morality. The report continues: "They may with as much right gather the harvest in the valley of the Connecticut, the Ohio, or the Mississippi. No other nation, having the power to protect its treasure would suffer it to be thus carried away. I would not allow them (the foreigners,) to purchase permits, or work vein-mines, because the contributions, proposed to be required, are so moderate they will not cause the slightest inconvenience to the miners, and are not designed as an equivalent to these privileges. Foreigners, therefore, would willingly pay their small sums for permission to collect and carry away millions of dollars in value. The object is not only a suitable revenue, but to preserve, for the use of our own fellow citizens, the wealth of that region. The system of permits will make all who purchase them police officers, to aid in excluding from the mines all who are not entitled to, or who do not procure them, and to prevent deserters from the army and navy from being protected in the mines. Sailors belonging to the mercantile marine would be thus prevented from violating their engagements, and the commerce of the country preserved from the disastrous consequences of the abandonment of ships by their crews." | The report concludes with several important suggestions. Mr. King shows the necessity of a powerful military force to be established in California with the least possible delay; of an efficient harbor defence, in case of war; of the establishment of a mint; and completion of the rail way across the Isthmus of Panama. The establishment of the mint he regards as of great importance to draw to San Francisco the 10,000,000 of silver bullion which are annually sent from Western Mexico to Europe. At San Francisco it would then be advantageously exchanged for gold coin, or would be coined itself to fit it for the Chinese and American markets, to aid in substituting Chinese and American manufactures for those of Europe. Mr. King estimates that 50 millions of gold will be dug during the current year. He supposes that the entire difference in the price of gold between New York and San Francisco, will be saved to the miners by the establishment of a mint; but it is clearly impossible that mere coinage should make gold at $16, worth $18 the ounce, or that the coinage should add even five per cent. to its value. At the very lowest estimate, the increase of emigration in California will create there a population of at least 100,000 of American citizens during the year 1850, if, indeed, there is not already as great a number to be found there. It is not too large an estimate if we allow for each man an outfit and expenditure of $500; by which it will appear that more than 50,000,000 of personal property have been carried out of the United States into that colony. An equal amount must be added for the sustenance of the population during the year 1850; and as much more for the expenditure of the previous year. The expenses of the colony have then already reached the enormous sum of at least 150,000,000. It will be safe to add at least 5,000,000 more for the employment of sailors and shipping, and the various contingencies and losses attending such an expensive adventure. If the entire cost of the war, including the purchase money of the territories be estimated 75,000,000, and one third of it put to the account of California, the price of that colony has risen, within two years, to 180,000,000. But if the 100,000 citizens at who have gone to California, had remained at home, they would have remained here as producers. Let us suppose that each of these would have earned $200, during two years, which is certainly not too high an estimate; that is 20,000,000 of actual production, lost in time and labor; and the new colony of California will now have cost the United States, in the brief space of two years, 200,000,000. The remittances of gold to the United States have not, if we are rightly informed, much exceeded 15,000,000, and that sum is, by many, thought to be too large an estimate. Let us suppose, that in addition to this, 5,000,000 of profit have been realized by exporters and traders; there is 20,000,000 for the first year, to the credit of California. Now, by Mr. King's estimate for the current year, 50,000,000 of gold will be dug in California during the year 1850. There is 70,000,000 to the credit of California. But no, this estimate is too large; it is not to be supposed that more than 30,000,000 of the proceeds of the current year will be sent to the United States; leaving only 50,000,000 to the credit of the new colony for the proceeds of two year. It is impossible to come to any other conclusion than this, that this new colony of California has cost the United States 150 millions in personal property and the labor of its citizens, for which no return or profit has been received; that is to say the colony has cost $1500 per man. We have sent away 100,000 men, and with each one of them $1500. It is impossible to escape from the conclusion. A great deal has been said and written in ridicule of English colonial economy. It is a fair subject of doubt, however, whether England ever sent out a colony more costly for the time of its duration than our Californian one. We are, therefore, to conclude, and our conclusion is well fortified by facts which have been communicated to us through several adventurers who have sought their fortune in California, that the rapid fortunes made there are, by no means, as some have imagined, taken out of the earth with spade and pick-axe, and by strength of hand. In newly settled countries more than in any other, sudden augmentations of the value of land, and of professional services, give opportunities unknown in other countries for the rapid accumulation of wealth. This accumulation is by the transfer of the wealth of many into the hands of a few. The usual causes of inequality existing with far greater intensity than in other communities, their effects are increased by the carelessness and ignorance of new comers, whose property slips easily through their hands and falls into the purses of those who stand ready to appropriate and use it. It is only after severe losses and bitter sufferings, for the most part, that the poor and inexperienced colonist is able to establish himself in tolerable comfort. As California is described to us by eye witnesses, nothing can exceed the waste and reckless profusion of those who meet with a sudden turn of luck in the great lottery of the mines. Their fortune is shared with them by their brother adventurers, who have had the wit to engage in easier but more ingenious kinds of speculation. Let us suppose that, by a kind of miracle, the entire population of California, together with the one hundred and fifty millions which have been sunk during the two years enterprise of that colony, could have been converted into an agricultural community, and transported to the interiorlet us say, of Ohio, or Pennsylvania. One hundred thousand farmers, with each a capital of $1500! Each one of them might safely undertake to put the one-half of one hundred acres of wood-land in good order for cultivation, and in five years to convert fifty of those acres into rich and full bearing cornfields and meadows. Five millions of cultivated acres, producing each $20 worth of produce. There would be already created an annual income, to this agricultural colony, of 100 millions; needing only to have suitable roads to convey the surplus of their products to market, and the establishment of manufactures with a portion of that surplus among themselves, to convert them into one of the wealthiest communities in the Union; living, not as our unfortunate Californian brothers now live, in danger of malaria, murder, starvation, and every species of natural accident; deprived of home, comforts, and all the aids and consolations of a peaceful society; but living, as men should live, civilized, organized, and in peace. |