The Sun. — 1856-06-21 (London, England)

LITERATURE.  California, its Gold and its Inhabitants. By the Author of " Seven years on the Slave Coast of Africa." 2 vols. Newby.  These volumes present an entertaining panorama of the first gold diggings, though it does not leave a very favourable impression on the reader's mind as to the morals and manners of the inhabitants. It is true that the writer informs us that since the period he refers to matters have in some degree improved, and that in speaking of the American, it must be remembered that he is represented as he appears in California, where, of course, the restraints of law and civilisation are but little felt. The work before us is compiled from a journal kept by the author in 1852, during his residence in California. He begins his records at San Francisco with the arrival of the European and Atlantic mails. On these occasions crowds of people rush to the Post-office and take their stand in single file. Two or three hundred wait sometimes in this manner, the first comer having the first place. Sometimes a Yankee who expects no letters secures a good place early and sells his place in the line to an impatient later corner. The characteristic shrewdness and sharpness in striking bargains of the Americans, is frequently alluded to. " There is no childhood in the American children," he says further on ; " here children are sententious, crude, and premature." The recklessness with which human life is destroyed is somewhat startling to more orderly societies. If a man rushes into a tavern and stabs another to death, or shoots him in the street, the jury do not consider the crime itself, but the inducement to it. "It is not whether he killed a man or not ; it is whether they think he had a right to kill or not." In speaking of shooting he gives us an account of the singular way in which General Ross met his death before Baltimore, in the last war with America. Three boys, the eldest only sixteen, went out to see the soldiers, after the retreat of the Americans into the city. They crept along ',in the brushwood fearing to be taken pris mers. The eldest carried a rifle as most American boys do. They heard the tramp of horses, and, looking out from their place of concealment, saw three officers riding up an open space in the wood. They were General Ross, Admiral Cockburn, and Colonel Mullins. They fired the rifle and the general fell. They immediately stole back to Baltimore quite frightened at what they had done till praised for it. There is a curious account of the first discovery of gold at Captain Sutler's fort, near Sacramento, with the main facts of which our readers are doubtless familiar. During the three months of March, April, and May, 20,923 emigrants arrived at San Francisco. The imports of bullion during the same period were 10,120,828 dollars, the exports 9,533,970. When it is remembered that it has now been a city less than three years these statistics are somewhat remarkable. Few persons, however, would feel tempted to try their fortune among such desperadoes, the descriptions of the murders, robberies, and executions in the second volume being really frightful. However, the volumes contain some pleasant light reading, and give us a picture of California life as it was a few years since, and doubtless to a great extent it is still the same.