The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-20 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 20, 1857.

CALIFORNIA.

SAN FRANCISCO, OCT. 4.
Business has not improved much since the depar-
ture of last mail, but there has been a fair demand
for general merchandise. The near approach of the
wet season and the short supplies in the interior in-
duce strong hopes of a speedy activity in goods of
all sorts, while the moderate number of arrivals in
the last fortnight affords a reasonable hope of an
improvement in prices of foreign goods. Only three
vessels have arrived in that time from Atlantic
ports, one from Bordeaux, one from Batavia, one
from the Sandwich Islands, one from Hamburg,
one from Sydney, and 64 coasters.
The grain of California growth is now found to
be much more than will be required for home con-
sumption, in consequence of which fact the prices
of breadstuffs have declined, and unless an unfore-
seen demand for exportation spring up prices must
continue low for the rest of the year. indeed the
necessaries of life, instead of being, as formerly,
fabulously high, are now obtaimible in great abnnd-
ance at very moderate rates in San Francisco, awl
at still lower prices throughout the rest of the
country.

There is a slightly improved feeling manifest in
real estate, which is likely to increase. The lending
of money at ex,)rbitant interest is now fast ceasing,
owing to the large accumulations of capital iii the
hands of the industrious classes, of the resident
capitalists, and of the agents of -foreign Capitalists
so that the mouey formerly loaned is now invested
in the purchase of land and houses.

Upon the whole, there is such a degree of im-
provement visible in mercantile .and financial mwt-
ters of late as warrants a hope that our " bad times"
are slowly pa-sing away.
A judgment has been obtained against the late
Stag, treasurer and his sureties for 100,000 dols.,
the defalcation being 245,000 dole., of which there
is a prospect of a portion being recovered. The
other r %tie, his coadjutor, is still in prison for con-
tumacy in refusinglo answer questions touching the
" stealit.gs."
The amount of gold exported in the last nine
months was 35,162,047 dol. 46e., which shows a de-
crease upon the export of the same period of last
year of $1,960,836 68c., a fact which goes to prove
that the country is getting rich by producing and
manufacturing so much as enables her to dispense
with a large amount of imports f.irinerly paid for in
gold, which she now keeps or saves.
The supply of golddust has lately been short, as
was to be expected towards the end of the dry sea-
son, when the diggings are limited to such rare
localities as have a supply of water throughout the
year.
We have been edified for some time back with
accounts of a warlike nature from Mariposa, of
Anglo-Californian gold mining notoriety. It appears
that since the confirmation of Col. Fremont's claim
to land somewhere (the decree being indefinite as
to locality) in that district his agents here have run
a-muck of the old miners, who had acquired rights
in and possession of the mineral lands before Col.
Fremont's claim was adjudicated upon ; and as
these old ruiners cont and that the Colonel bas no
legal or equitable title, either by the terms and con-
struction of his grant or its confirmation, to the
mines possessed by thew for many years, a series of
operations, offensive and defen,ive, peculiar to Cali-
fornia has been inaugurated, which has already pro-
duced much ill-feeling and a mass of litigation,
which are pretty certain to end in bloodshe t.

The hostility is general iu the district, for a Mad-
posa paper of the Ist of this month warns the Colo-
nel that a persistence in his present course will be
ut'er ruin "to h's prospects in Maripos i county,"
and that " the vista of ftrurity presents an inter-
minal)lo contest for supremacy fatal to the peace
and best interests of all, for where the people feel
that injustice has been done them, ct c., nothing re-
mains for them but the maintei.auce of their rights
at pit risks."
We know what "all risks" mean here quite well.
"All risks," paraphrased, "open a vista in futu-
rity," as the Maripo.ra editor would construe the
phrase, of six-shooters and rifles wielded by reck-
less miners and Western Hoosiers, all good shots,
and unscrupulous in the use of their weapons in
defence of their legal, equitable, or fancied rights.
The more direct conflict is with the. Merced
Mining Company of California for the mines for-
merly leased of it by the Nouveau Monde Com-
pany of London. The former has published in the
dan Francisco newspapers, and in handbills the
following notice :

4. To THE PUBLIC.
"Through the medium of the press here and in the
East, rumours have been circulated to the effect that
the controversies heretofore pending between John C.
Fremont and a large portion of the people of Mariposa
county. involving the right of the people to work the
mine., have been settled by the omits in favour of
Fremont; the undersivned deems it his duty to the
public, here and elsewhere, to declare the said state-
ments to be fake.

" The company represented by the undersigned in the
year 1851 (being four years anterior to any claim of title
by Fremont), and under express emotion o' State legis•
latinn, took peaceable possession of the veins known as
the Josephine and Pine Tree, and have since continued
to work the acme, and, to make the preperiy availabl-,
have expended upon the sante and other contiguous
mines near $1 000,000.
"Meanwhile the Supreme Court of California have
repeatedly determined that the precious minerals, whe-
ther in public or in private lands, were the property tai
the State, and that the occupation and working of the
Male is subject alone to State legislation, as a necessary
corollary of State ownership.
"The Merced Mining Company are in possession of the
mineral veins referred to under a license from the State,
which the Supreme Court has solemnly adjudged to be
the true owner. So long as this license continues, which
the State is bound in equity never to revoke, the rights
of thi se holding mineral 'veins in Maripesa are vet!
againrt Fremont and all the world ; and it is the fixed
determination of this company to maintain its posses-
sions and to avail itself of the license of the State by
working the veins in future on a larger scale than here•
tofore.
"The undersigned having also been informed that
said Fremont, by a trespass upon said veins, has obtained
possession of several tons of quartz rock for shipment
abroad, representing the Fame to be his property,
hereby notifies to al whom it may concern that the
rock aforesaii;, was quarried from the veins owned and
possessed by the company.
" GEORGE N. SHAW,
President of the Merced Mining Company."

The special grievances of the Merced Company,
although they are not set forth in their card, are
that their mines are not within Fremont's boundary
—that they are attempted to be brought within it
by a trick of a bribed surveyor ; that they were
allowed to possess 'heir mines in peace while they
were being developed by themselves and their
lessees at great cost, Fremont looking on without
expressing any demur to their possession while
they were improving the mines, and while the
property was yielding no profit; but that now,
when they are beginning to yield a return and pro-
mise to be very rich, they have excited his cupidity,
or rather, perhaps, that of his co-owners and credi-
tors ; and the object of the notice is to warn the
whole world, and the public of Europe chiefly,
that if they purchase this " debateable land"
possession will beresista, and purchasers will act
with full notice of what they may expect if they
attempt " to cast their lines in the pleasant places"
of Mariposa.
This manifesto has been prompted by the re-
port that a purchase or a loan is about to be
made either in England or France, or both. Surely
not iu England, for John Bull cannot have forgot-
ten the fate of the gold companies got up in 1851-
52 to work mines in " the mineral region ' of this
same Mariposa. This is an investment which might
find favour in France at present. It would just
suit the Credit Mobilier, which, it is said, is to
advance a large amount to construct a canal in the
district. This would have some merit, for it would
circulate money in San Francisco, if it did not
circulate water in Marip^sa.
Her Majesty's ship Havannab, 19, Capta'n J.
Harvey has been here for a fortnight, and left to-
day for the coast of Mexico, intending to touch at
Magdalena Bay, in Lower Cqifornia, and to call
in at Sans Blas, Mazatlan, and Guaymas. Officers
and crew all well. _ _ _

OCT. 11.

The mail steamer Golden Gate, which left thi*
place on Monday last, the sth inbt., broke her
centre shaft, which disabled her starboard engine
and wheei, so that she put back and made San
Francisco yesterday afternoon. Her passengers and
treasure are being transhipped to the Golden. Age,
whick leaves this evening for Panama. The acci-
dent occurred on the night of the 6th, when 350
miles south of San Francisco and the vessel worked
her way back with one engine and one wheel. No
casualties occurred to any of the passengers, who
numbered 658 persons. The treasure amounted to
1,953,390 clols., to which a small addition has been
made to-day.
Nothing of importance has occurred here during
the week, except the official declaration just pub-
' fished by the Governor, that the returns of the late

elections show the vote to pay the State debt was
triumphant.

Some of the newspapers express an, opinion that
this debt will still, notwithstanding the ratification
of the people, become the subject of litigation; and
I confess I concur in this opinion.

"sprung" so badly that it became imperatively
necessary to abandon t' e attempt. Almost at the
same moment one of the large 3-inch mooring chain.,
securing the double sheaves which hauled upon the
stem of the vessel, parted somewhere or other in
the river, so that even had the piling been capable
of immediate repair and strengthening, the latter
accident alone was sufficient to put a stop to further
efforts. Hardly had the orders been received to
discontnue the attempt when the men were all at
full work again to repair the causes which had led
to the failure. Gangs of 100 navies or so carried
down huge pile-driving machines, which in an hour
were erected and at work, driving in fresh piles be-
hind those which had yielded. These men will
work night and day if necessary, so that in a few
days at most all will be ready again for another
effort. The supports for the rams will now be made
of immense strength, not only by a great addition
of new piles, but by the whole mass being bolted
together with iron tie-rods, and again secured in
the same manner to the launching ways themselves.
Thus strengthened, it will become quite a mechani-
cal impossibility that they should yi4d under any
pressure which the dead weight and friction of the
whole vessel can offer. When lye say that repairing
the mooring chain, and having that gear ready, is
in Captain Harrison's department, we have said
quite enough to vouch for the certainty of that not
being found wanting on the next occasion, when .we
sincerely hope we shall have to announce that the
Great Eastern is at last at the water's edge.