The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-07-13

oui HiSnus III ShlHOIuld are lux VI SplIlt'
They have no sooner topped over in general
bankruptcy than they are up again and talk of
their prosperity as though the world had never
seen the like. Our letters publishei elsewhere
are samples Of raw elasticity Of mind, consi-
dering that it is only few weeks since the
largest bankers in the State suspended payment,
and the cry was that the evil day had come On
this side Of the continent it takes years to heal
the wounds caused by a commercial revulsion.
The distress produced by the crash Of 1887
lasted far into 1912 and ls43; and no one save
the most thoughtless believes that the crisis
which began last year is over yet. The gradual
diminution in. the railway receipts the impaired
business Of the hotels and generally the curtai-
profits ofretaiI dealers-would give them the
lie if they ventured to hope that the good time
has come already. But in California, month
or six weeks seem quite ample to cure any
amount Of suffering. They find new placer
they grub up one or two Jumps of gold worth
hundreds of dollars-some wild New Yorker
sends them cargo or two to be knocked off
for anything it will command-and. they are sa-
tisfed they are all right again and the storm
is over happy people at all events!
Just now they are rejoicing-the best part of
them-at the decision Of the Land Commission
ers in the case Of Bolton VS.. the United States.
The question involved in this case was the title
to tract Of land in the city of San Francisco,
containing some three square leagues, and
valued, so it is said, at the Incredible sum of
forty millions Of dollars. It appears are
the wonderful changes even in such solid unre-
mantle objects as lots Of land-that nine years
ago, the Roman Catholic mission of Dolores
was hard pressed by duns, and run some risk
Of having the breviary of the priest and the
other paraphernalia of the mass sold by the
sheriff. Under these circumstances and moved
by pious regard for the church, Senior Pho
Pico, then Governor Of the Territory, gave
tract Of land, so many leagues long and SO many
wide-they had no use for shorter measures
than leagues then--to Jose Prudential Santillan,
on condition that he was to pay the debts Of the
mission. It appears that Santillan paid the
debts and became owner Of the land After
ward--when the country passed into the hands
of the Americans-Santillan sold his claim, for
and his title was as yet naked one--to
james r. Bolton, the plaintiff in the present
case. Bolton is said to have re-sold to others,
whose names are given, and who are said to have
bought it on speculation. With this, however,
the public has nothing to do. The only point
of interest is the decision rendered in June last
by the Commissioners, confirming Bottoms
title. By this judgment the owners of the
claim, whoever they are, became milionaires;
for, though the squatters on the tract have held
meetings and reviled the Commissioners round
ly, there seems very little reason to question
the solidity Of the judgment. What is gilmore i'm
portance still, the decision establishes prece-
dent for the Authorization of old Mexican
titles to land. Not the least-possibly the
greatest-of the difficulties under which Califor-
mia has labored, has been the uncertainty that
has attached to land titles in the State The
holder of the title has in ever SO many cases
found himself at issue with squatter, who
had nine points Of the law and very often ten
on his side. Now, it would appear, the Bolton
case has given the death-blov to squatter
tyranny. AT all events, the San Francisco
people seem so to regard it, and hail the judy
ment as the first omen of new era of solidity
and confidence in matters pertaining to real
estate.
1t is not the only substantial symptom of
better state of things in the Queen State Of
the Pacific. Far away at the mines, vaga-
bonds have been astonished by the publica.
ton of laws against gambling, laws against
the proclamation Of the Sabbath laws against
Illicit trade. Such thing was never
heard Of before. A country where men
made fortune by stumbling on q lat lump Of
gold between breakfast and dinner, to sit down
quietly and adopt the laws Of the Puritans.
so it is. The people Of California have not
only passed every law which is demanded to
ensure as moral and orderly state of society
as one may find in New England, but they
have set to work vigorously to carry them out.
Their laws are not to be mere paper laws, it
appears. Men who have been accustomed to
turn out and hunt down a thief like a wild
beast with rife and revolver, are not likely so
soon to relapse into the civilized custom OF let.
ting their laws become dead letter. Gamblers,
vagabonds and pickpockets will soon find that
California is not the place for them. More
than this, we notice that agriculture is bidding
high against mining for the first rank among
the interests Of the State. Men are raising
cattle in droves and opening farms by the
thousands OF acres at time; it is being dis.
covered that fortunes are to be as easily made
in this way as by mining, These are symp-
toms which, though they may not intercept
the results Of fcregone causes, win certainly
operate to secure for California a substratum
Of prosperity and well being that no CONNER
cial crisis can take away.
AMERICAN OFFICERS IN The RUSSIAN SERVICE!
"A SALvE FOR FRENCH ALARNs.-Thc Paris
papers make some curious mistakes in reference