Year: 1859

The Present Immigration to California.


1t is not to be doubted that the immigra-
ton to this country which has been going on
since the gold fever has abated, has been of
a higher character than that which prevailed
while that fever lasted and the world shook
with the burning throes of delirious thirst
for wealth. That immigration is now more
American in its character it consists moie OF
ready y.made and native born citizens; and
what its tide has lost in volume from the


want of foreign, Spanish and Asiatic acces-


sons, it has more than gained in purity and


in the elements of a valuable and permanent
population. Men are no longer allured here


by those dazzling hopes of sudden fortune


which, in the earlier days of California, at


tracted so many to her shores from every
cline, to try their luck; and the name OF
| California has lost its magnetism for all those


loose and restless elements of every popula-
ton. which, experiencing no high incentives
to industry or effort are ever ready for any


desperate throw to redeem their bankrupt
]


state. But those who come here now, come


with more reasonable and better founded ex-


pectations of competency acquired as the


legitimate fruit of steady industry and wise


economy and with a view to a heightened or
continued residence.


The old Californian comes back with his
family to settle down for the remainder of his
life beneath his new roof-tree, without one
returning thought for the scenes of his youth.
And the sensible man of business, who has
fully apprized himself, beforehand, of the nc-
tual improved condition of the country, its
resources of every kind, its facilities for edu-
cation, and the health of its religious and
moral tone, comes here with his wife and
children to share in the prosperity of this
new land, and to entrust his offspring,
without misgiving, to the new influences un-
der which they will grow up.


And thus the country fills up with heal
thy growth of population, which is stined
to no disappointments, because it has formed
no extravagant antieipations; and which has
come fully prepared to better its condition
by its best labor of hand and brain; and
thus our towns and cities expand and grow
in wealth and beauty, and thus our valleys
are made to bloom with the glories of plant,
and tree, and vine


Every steamer that arrives here brings us
new proofs-the strongest that the world
can give-in the number Of women and
children that form her most precious cargo,
and that at once grace and gladden. her decks.
That immigration is now settling in here for
permanent homes and life time devotion to
all the useful arts of life And when we
look abroad over our State for other eviden-
ces, and behold the beauty, stability, and
costliness of ourpublic buildings warehouses
and private residences we are challenged to
believe that these are the works of tran
sient people, and that all this care has been
bestowed, and all this wealth has been Law
shed, thus to adorn and enrich this land, by
4 population that did not intend to make it
| permanent abiding place.


No; though this is new land, it is unlike
very other new country in the world, and |
has all that appearance of stability visibly |
upon it which is given to other
countries only in their age. Sprung up, as it
were, in night, like the palace of Aladdin,
even Time, the magician, cannot rob it of the
magic lamp of its power; for apart from the
wealth of its mines, there is, in the fruitful
ness of its soil, the salubrity and delightful
ness of its climate, and in its position as
commercial centre of the trade of great
part of the world assurance that ii has with
in itself everything which can compel the
genii of progress, and make its growth per-
petual