The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1858-12-16
THE NATIONAL ERA: WASHINGTON D. c. DECEMBER 49, 1858.

if not specifically With the proposed addition
to the examining corps, a thorough scrutiny of
the claims to novelty which every application
presents-a scrutiny demanded alike by the
interests of the inventor and of the public
will be secured.
1t is believed that the effort now making to
obtain information in regard to the several
varieties of the tea plant, the soils and climates
best adapted to their growth, and the methods
pursued in their culture and subsequent prepa-
ration for commerce and consumption, is the
most earnest, and likely to prove the most de-
cisive, that has ever been made in this country
or in Europe.
CRIME AMONG OUR CoLoRED POPULATION
Ne,o York, Nor 1910 the Editor oftte N T..
Times Sir-in your paper Of 18th inst, find
Retrospect of Years Crime" taken from
the First Metropolitan Police Report" in
which the " total number of arrests is stated
to have been 60,885 )" and, after a statement
of the nativity of those arrested" it is added,
"among these were 566 colored persons"
Now, since the colored people are so fire.
quently spoken of as degraded and vicious
portion of our population, it is natural to inquire
into the comparative number of arrests of col
ored persons for crime, in proportion to the rel
alive number of the white and colored popula-
ton of our city. ] have no means of knowing
the present number of either. But in the cen
sus Of 1850, p. 278, the whites are stated to be
50l, 1872; the colored, 1885; total, 5l5,547.
This if mistake not, shows that the colored
people, at that time, were about 2.69 per cent. of
the entire population.
Assuming that the present population does
not greatly vary from that of 1850, the colOred
people would compare favorably with the whites,
in 1878, if 268 per cent of the arrests should
L., Io, 81 ll,,k /
correctly the First Metropolitan Police Re
port shows that considerably less than one per
cent. (about .93 of per cent? of those arrested
were colored.
To state the matter in another form. If the
colored population (nOw, as in lS50) be 2.6S
per cent. of our population, then their arrests
for crime, if in the same proportion, would have
been ,63l whereas, by the Metropolitan Po-
lice Report it was only sec, a difference of O65
in their favor. Ought not this to be noticed
and recorded to their credit?
Yours, respectfully, WILLIAM GoODELL.
! CALIFoRNIA GOVERNMENT CLAMs-IMPoR
TANT DECISIONS Washington, Dec. l.--Gov
eminent has received from California full Off
cial accounts of the judicial proceedings in the
! Limatour and Almedan land cases, which have
been decided in favor of the United States. The
former claim is located in the vicinity of Sar
Francisco, and with improvements supposed tC
cover forty millions of dollars worth OF property
while from the Almedan mines it is stated thai
eight millions of dollars worth of quicksilvel
were taken during six years.
The present Attorney General of the United
States, with the view of bringing these long
pending cases to a close, employed Mr.. Stan
ton, of Pittsburgh, to prosecute them. In the
course of the trials, most stupendous frauds
rbo Of
and other distinguished Mexicans were obtain
ed to apparently genuine titles, but the docu
ments were ante-dated as necessary to consum
mate the ingeniously contrived deception. Al
! though much skill was shown in the forged
seals the cheat was successfully established.
Eminent iurists consider these the most re
markable cases on record involving titles Il
land, while the extent of the forgery, all thing
considered, is uApreceden associated Press
VIRGINIA NJ L. CoSFERExcE.-Th body, il
session at Portsmouth, has determined to make
| the Richmond Christian AdUOcdte the organ o
the NJ. +. Church South, and to establish
Book Depository in connection with it. ID. s
Doggett. n. Head and G. w. Motley, have been
appointed the publishing committee. 1t is pro
posed to raise within the bounds Of the Virginia
Conference one hundred thousand dollars, in
shares of one hundred dollars each Fifty thou
sand dollars OF this fund is to be appropriated
to the capital fund of the general publishing
house. The remaining fifty thousand is to con
sttute the capital for the operations of the Book
! Depository at Richmond. The shareholders
are to receive copy each of an elegant genoa
logical Bible, worth between thirty and fifty
dollars. Each shareholder also receives in
| perpetuity five dollars worth of books annually
the books to be furnished at catalogue prices
7 he members of the Conference have subscrib
ed $4,000, and they have requested Bishop
Kavanaugh to appoint II. II. Gary and B. K
Duval agents of the Book and Tract Deposito
ry of the Virginia Conference, to raise the one
hundred thousand dollars