The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-12-04 00:00:00

CALIFORNIA.

The steam-ship Empire City reached New York on the
11th November, with late intelligence from California.
She left Chagres on the 29th of October, and Kingston,
Jamaica, on the 4th of November. She had on
freight to New York about 750,000 dollars worth of gold
dust, or, according to other accounts, 1,000,000 dollars.
The convention at Monterey was still in session. It
had been agreed to prohibit slavery, and free negroes
were not to be permitted to enter the state. Pueblo San
Jose had been agreed upon as the seat of government.
The right of suffrage was to be extended to all free
white male citizens of the United States, after six months'
residence in the state. Banks of discount were to be
prohibited, and banks of deposit were to be strictly pro-
tected. The boundary agreed upon includes all Alta Ca-
lifornia, but an effort would be made to confine it to the
Sierra Nevada on the east. The districts had been
arranged in the following order :-1. San Diego, Los An-
gelos, Santa Barbara, and San Louis Obispo ; 2. Monte-
rey and San Francisco, ; 3. San Jose and Sonoma ; 4.
Sacramento and San Joaquin. The legislature was ap-
pointed to meet in December next to elect senators to
congress, and to proceed to the complete formation of
the state government.
The correspondent of the New York Tribune says :
" The southern mines have in a measure failed, or been
literally upheaved by the thousands who daily re-dig and
wash the soil abandoned by scores before them. Still,
where gold is found, it is oftener revealed in large lumps
than on the northern diggings. On the Micosma and
Micalma, miners have been restricted, on account of the
numerous tribes of warlike Indians ! but the poor Indi-

ans are fast being driven into the mountains. The North
and Middle Forks have produced more gold than any other
portion of the whole mines ; but it is not so much from
the richness of the mines as that they have been tho-
roughly worked. But the great theatre of mining is to
be on Feather and Yuba rivers, during the winter; and
thousands are only waiting the close of the fever season
to wend their steps thither for winter quarters, and these
are undoubtedly the richest mines in the whole of Califor-
nia. Immense dry diggings are reported to have been
found in the mountains, and the rainy season will develop
new and fruitful sources of wealth."

The New York Herald gives a less favourable view of
the intelligence from the mines. It says—" The intelli-
gence from California is interesting, but by no means so
favourable as generally anticipated. The Oregon at Pa-
nama, from San Francisco, brought about 400,0000 dol-
lars on freight, and the passengers have about 200,000
dollars in their trunks. This makes a total of about
4,000,000 dollars received from the gold mines of Cali-
fornia. Our advices from San Francisco are to the Ist of
October. The digging season at that time was nearly
.over, and the miners were flockibg into San Francisco in
large numbers, on their way to the Atlantic ports. We
learn that steamers for Panama, which are to leave Cali-
fornia during the next four months, have been already
filled up, and that tickets command a large premium. It
appears tby this that there is as much anxiety to get
away from, as to get to San Francisco. The mine

s have

.
not made out sowell this season as they did last, or as
they expected. It is estimated that about 100,000 have
gone in the mines this season, and that the average pro-
duct of gold dust has not been more than 4 dollars per
head.

One of the most extraordinary results of this wonderful
discovery is the impulse it has given to the enterprise of
the Celestial Empire. Chinamen, hitherto the most impas-
sive and domestic creatures of the universe, have started
into new life at the tidings from the mines, and have
poured into California by thousands. Besides importing
several suburbs, complete, they have constructed, erected
and furnished nearly half the houses in San Francisco.
They swarm in the settlement like Scotchmen in India, or
Maltese in the Mediterranean towns. They have even
seized upon the most profitable trades, and the best rest-
aurants in the place are kept by adventurers from the
flowery land. Kong-sung and Wang-tong especially,
have acquired by their chow-chow, curry, and tarts, a
prodigious reputation, and, for the first time in the annals
of the world, Frenchmen appear to have been superseded
in their hereditary capacities of maitres d' hotel.
A letter dated San Francisco, Sept. 29th, 1849, and
written by a young man who was brought up in Liverpool,
and whose statements may be relied on, says, This is
a most wonderful country, every stream having abundance
of gold in it, and I believe, from what I have seen, there
is plenty of work for any number of men for fifty years to
come, at from ten to twenty dollars a day. I and my
party took out of one small place, about twenty feet
square, upwards of 6000 dollars in a very few days. In
one place, a small hollow in the rocks, not a foot square,
I took out 175 dollars in two hours. If you would like
specimens, I will send you them from all the rivers—one
dollar's worth froze each. It passes here us current
money, every store having scales to weigh it. We are
here a nation of males, there being in this place about 40
women to 10,000 men • a petticoat is such a rare thing,
that if one appears in the streets every one turns round to
have a look. We have all to do our own washing, and as
I have a small cottage with four others, we do our own
cooking, and keep the house clean besides—but it is the
cheapest way of living, and I have come out here to make
money, not to spend it. Money is very scarce here, and
10 to 12 per cent. per month, is easily obtained on the
best security. Rents are also very high. 60,000 per an-
num being paid for a place, that in Liverpool or New
York, would not bring half that sum. There have been
large fortunes made here, but there will be as much lost,
as speculation runs to a fearful height, particularly in
land, which sells higher than in New York. Things
cannot last in this way long, and there will be a grand
crash soon. lam waiting patiently, and put the little I
have out to interest, on good security. Our store is to be
ready in about a fortnight. In the meantime T am re-
ceiving twenty dollars a day from * * * and Co., to
look after the ships consigned to them. _ _

. _
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows opened a lodge
on the golden shores of California, on Saturday, the 22d
of September last.