The six great fires successively destroyed nearly all the old buildings and land-marks of Yerba Buena. We extract the following pleasantly written lamentation on this subject from the "Alta California" of 21st September, 1851 :-"The fires of May and June of the present year, swept away nearly all the relics of the olden time in the heart of the city. The old City Hotel [corner of Kearny and Clay streets], so well known and remembered by old Californians, after standing unscathed through three fatal fires, fell at the fourth. How many memories cling around that old building! It was the first hotel started in San Francisco, then the village of Yerba Buena, in the year 1846. When the mines were first discovered, and San Francisco was literally overflowing with gold, it was the great gaming head-quarters. Thousands and thousands of dollars were there staked on the turn of a single card, and scenes such as never were before, and never again will be witnessed, were exhibited in that old building during the years 1848 and 1849. In the spring of '49, the building was leased out at sixteen thousand dollars per annum, up into small stores and rooms, and underleased at an enor cut mous profit. Newer and handsomer buildings were erected and opened as hotels, and the old 'City' became neglected, deserted, forgotten then it burned down, and this relic of the olden time of San Francisco was among the things that were. Then the old adobe custom-house that had been first built for that purpose, and then used as a guard-house and military office by the Amer icans, and then afterwards as the American custom-house, was also burned. The wooden building directly back of it, with the portico, was also one of the old buildings-erected and occupied by Samuel Brannan, Esq. in 1847. [In this house were exhibited the first specimens of gold brought from the placeres.] This also was burned, and all that remains of 1847, in the vicinity of the plaza, is the old adobe on Dupont street. This building, in the latter part of '47 and '48 was occupied by Robert A. Parker as a large trading establishment. This has stood through all the fires, and it is hoped that it may remain for years as a relic of the past." That hope was vain. In the following year the adobe on Dupont street was pulled down to make way for finer houses on its site. So has it been with all the relics of six or eight years' standing. What the fires left, the progress of improvement swept from the ground. JULY 11th.-Trial and execution of James Stuart. AUGUST 24th.-Recapture from the legal authorities of Whittaker and McKenzie, and their execution by the "Vigilance Committee." SEPTEMBER 3d.—Annual election for the County of San Francisco. The following were the officials chosen :— The new city charter had provided that the first general election for municipal officers should be held on the fourth Monday of April, 1851, and "thereafter annually at the general election for State officers." Under this section of the charter it was understood by some that the second city election should take place in September of the year named, when the usual annual election of State officers occurred. Another construction was put upon the section in question by the parties already in office and by a large number of the inhabitants, to the effect that the second election under the charter could only take place in September, 1852. Thus one party would give the existing common council and municipal officers only half a year in power, while another party, including the present incumbents, claimed a year and a half. So dignified, or so satisfied with the legal strength of their position, were the existing city officers, that they took no steps to order a new election in September, 1851. Their opponents, however, relying on their own interpretation of the words of the charter, proceeded to act without them, and, unopposed in any way, elected the whole parties on their ticket. The general public took little interest in the matter, and most people seemed to believe that the new election would end in nothing. So little did the citizens concern themselves, that some of those newly elected, polled but a very few votes. When the election was finished the new officers made a demand upon the old ones for a surrender of the public books and documents. This being refused, the new mayor elect, Stephen R. Harris, immediately raised the necessary legal action against the old mayor, C. J. Brenham, for a declaration of his own rights and the ejection of the latter from office. In the district court a judgment was given to the effect that the present incumbents should hold office till April, 1852, and that then those elected in September, 1851, should enter upon and remain in office for one year. The result of this decision would have been that six months would always intervene between the election and the entering upon office of the municipal authorities. This decision was unsatisfactory to most people. Mr. Harris next carried the case into the supreme court, where a majority of the judges (24th December), after able arguments were heard from the parties, reversed the judgment of the court below, and found Mr. Harris entitled to enter upon office as in September, 1851. Mr. Brenham promptly acknowledged the weakness of his position, and at once yielded to his legal successor. Party feeling prevented the other city officers from surrendering their seats so readily. Those already in power consisted of men of both of the great political parties-whig and democratic; and had been originally selected chiefly from among the independent candidates, as men who would earnestly work for the common good and the purification of the city from official corruption and wide-spread crime. On the other hand, those newly elected were altogether of the democratic party. The old council offered to resign, if the new one would do the same; when both could appeal a second time to the people. But the latter council refused to do this. Meanwhile, the legal courts had adjourned, and it would have cost much time and expense to drive out the old council from the places which they persisted in retaining; and their year of office would probably expire before this could be managed. In the end, however, the old council thought it best for their own honor and the interests of the city, to quietly retire from the unseemly contest, and make way for their unexpected successors. The names and offices of the latter were as follows: Mayor.-Stephen R. Harris. Recorder-George W. Baker. Street Commissioner.-Theodore Payne. City Attorney.—Chas. M. Delaney. City Assessors.-James C. Callaghan, David Hoag, Arthur Matthews. SEPTEMBER 16th.-The "Vigilance Committee" agreed to suspend indefinitely farther operations regarding crime and criminals in the city. The old extensive chambers in Battery street were relinquished, and new rooms, "open at all times, day and night, to the members," were taken in Middleton and Smiley's buildings, corner of Sansome and Sacramento streets. During the three preceding months this association had been indefatigable in collecting evidence and bringing the guilty to justice. It had been formed not to supersede the legal authorities, but to strengthen them when weak; not to oppose the law, but to sanction and confirm it. The members were mostly respectable citizens, who had, and could have, only one object in view-the general good of the community. They exercised an unceasing vigilance over the hidden movements of the suspected and criminal population of the place, and unweariedly traced crime to its source, where they sought to stop it. They had hanged four men without observing ordinary legal forms, but the persons were |