The Placer herald., 1855-11-03
AUBURN, NOVEMBER 8, 1855.
The County Indebtedness and the Remedy

The County Indebtedness and the Remedy.
The present aspect of our county affairs is
sufficiently gloomy to set the interested citi-
zen at work in devising ways and means to
liqudate the debt and provide permanently
for the future.
With but little public property, 40 bridges,
or mile of highway constructed at county
expense, with revenue that we might con-
slider magnificent, we are nevertheless in
volved at this time in county debt of about
one hundred thousand dollars, and this in
connection with the fact that the revenue
derived from the tax on foreign miners is
daily decreasing at rapid rate, renders our
financial affairs truly alarming Our scrip is
valueless almost Something must be done,
or the machinery of government stops. 1t
is not our province at this time to say to
whom the fault lies for this state Of affairs.
Without doubt individuals might be justly
charged with some blame if an Investigation
were instituted into the causes, but we ap-
prehend the great evil is rooted in the cum
brous machinery Of our system Of courts.
For present purposes we have heard but one
remedy. and that seems to present itself to
every mind. as the most practicable mode Of
relief. We alude to the practice so COM
mon in corporate bodies of the kind-the
funding system. This may be considered a
bitter pill to swallow, but it is the best rem
edy we have heard suggested.
If however, the policy established by our
Legislature in relation to the mass of the
foreign miners, from whom our revenue has
been drawn, shall be persisted in, we cannot
expect anything more to result from funding
than the procrastination of the evil day If
our expenses continue as they now are, for
ordinary and current purposes, from whence
are we to derive the revenue to sustain us in
the iuture' Certainly, not from the Chi
nese! The tax on property and for the diff
ferent classes is now as high as the people
can afford Our school aud hospital funds
cannot be drawn from their present sacred
purposes;-they should rather be increased
1t must, therefore, be apparent that, some
plan must be adopted to materially decrease
the current expenses.
And now we come upon ground that we
feel to be quite uncertain. Reforms are pro-
verbally slow, but when a plan is presented
which clashes with old habits of thought
prejudices made sacred by the usage of many
ages, the work becomes the labor Of giant.
However, in this matter we have the in
terests not only of this, but all the mountain
counties; for whether they are involved at
this time as we of Placer are, will not alter
their interest in future, if it is apparent that
the current revenue is inadequate to meet
their current expenses. The same causes eff
feet them that do us, and upon this level we
meet. Complaints are already made in 9th
or counties of the alarming decrease in their
revenue.
In order to reduce these expenses, a thor
ough change must take place in our judicial
system; and we feel certain that no intelli-
gent lawyer who has resided here for the past
three years, will be found who will not pro-
nounce the existing system most lame and
impotent one, for the circumstances of the
people. These courts are SO numerous that
gentlemen not in the profession are confused
with the multiplicity of the classes and sub
divisions Of their jurisdiction.
We can see no good reason why the Court
ofSessions, County Court and District Court,
should not be combined into one and placed
under the charge of Judge corresponding
to the county Judge Of the county.
We shall thus dispense with the salary OF
one iudge-a matter of four or five thou
sand per year. Keep this court constantly
open as magistrates courts are now, and 1t
will then become Of more practical benefit to
the suitor than the whole three are now.
Criminals will not then lay in Jail from term
to term on expense to the community they
have so deeply wropged, and the innocent
will not suffer in long imprisonment for a
crime they have never committed.
The advantage to the citizen would be, in
speedy justice, in not having the business
junlbled into term Of from five to ten days
duration, where he meets with twenty others
in the same state Of anxiety and excitement
as himself, each with train Of witnesses
discontented and grumbling at the claws de-
lay" and eating out the substance of the
principals in the suit Each cause would
then have its stated day for trial, and witnes
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