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who were ready at all hazard to defend one another in their rightful possessions. It was not designed, however, like the Vigilance Committee of old, to oppose in any way the legal authorities, although the police had more than once sided rather obviously with the squatters. It was rather hoped that the moral effect of the decided and united action of so many reputable citizens would be sufficient to check any further disturbances, and incite the authorities to something like action. They had had ample premonition that some such rencontres would occur, and were repeatedly told that owners of land would not suffer themselves to be tamely plundered of their property. Promptness and energy on their part could have prevented every outbreak. As we close, inquests are being held over the murdered bodies, and various rioters are detained for trial in the hospitals and prison.

JUNE 6th.-Interest of the State in twenty-two lots in the square bounded by Pacific street and Broadway, Davis and Front streets, sold for over $100,000.

JUNE 8th.-Capt. Adams, U. S. N., arrived en route for Washington with the treaty concluded between Com. Perry and the Empire of Japan.

JUNE 12th.-Dr. J. W. Van Zandt was elected Alderman of the Third Ward, to fill the vacancy occasioned by the resignation of R. M. Jessup, Esq.

CHAPTER XXXII.

1854.

Commercial depression.-Reduction of prices of merchandise and real estate.-Fall in rents.-Improved character of the buildings.-The plaza being improved.-Government fortifications of the harbor commenced-Immigration and emigration.-The population.-Yield of the gold mines.-Labor profitable in California.-The quicksilver mines.-Agricultural resources.Fisheries.-Telegraphs and railroads.-Ship-building.-Foreign relations.-Ice and coal trade.Mail steamers between San Francisco and Shanghae.-The international railway.-San Francisco water front extension.-The proposed new city charter.-Claim of the city to pueblo lands.-Increase of sources of domestic comfort.-Immoralities continue to prevail.-Duels and duelling.-Theatrical entertainments.-Daily newspapers.-Means of moral and educational improvement.

JULY. It is not very necessary to say much more upon the general physical and moral aspect of San Francisco, than has already been said in reviewing its appearance and characteristics at the close of the year 1853. During the six months immediately preceding the date of the present notice, the city passed through a period of great commercial depression. At this time, the extreme mercantile distress is beginning slowly to disappear; and the best judges hope that soon again prosperity will visit commerce and all connected with it in San Francisco.

The prices of real estate may, in some few instances, have rallied, but generally they continue much below those readily obtainable at the close of 1853. Many years must pass, and our population be much increased, before those high rates can again be witnessed. While prices of real estate have fallen from twenty to fifty per cent., and in some cases still lower, rents, particularly in the lower or business part of the city, have likewise been considerably reduced. Rents may, perhaps, continue to fall for some time, and yet a fair profit will be left to the owners of house property. The wages of such classes as are employed in building, and the cost of building materials, have both been materially reduced; so that houses can now be erected at much less expense than formerly.

Arising no doubt partly from this circumstance, and notwithstanding the continued and steady fall in rents and the prices of real estate, a great deal of fire-proof and costly building has been carried on since the beginning of the current year. In Stockton, Montgomery, California, Battery and many other principal streets, the old buildings of frame are being gradually pulled down, and magnificent granite and brick structures are rapidly rising in their stead. Vacant lots in the line of streets over all the business part of the city are being covered with substantial buildings. The new Merchants' Exchange and new U. S. Custom House will be massive and beautiful public edifices. These material improvements are particularly observable upon the northern extremity of Montgomery and Battery streets, at the base of Telegraph Hill. The great depth of water at the wharves in the neighborhood of Clark's Point, which depth, from the character of the shore and tides, will probably long, if not always, exist, will necessarily make that quarter a peculiarly shipping and mercantile part of the city. Accordingly huge hotels and stores, of the most beautiful and substantial character, are rising up in all parts of the district.

At the same time the spirit of improvement is visible over all the other parts of the city. Many new and elegant buildings of brick and stone, within the fire-limits, and chiefly of frame beyond them, are continually being constructed. New streets are being graded and planked, and new public cisterns formed for the use of the fire department. Even the plaza, the long-neglected, miserable plaza, the standing reproach and mockery to the boasted "progress" of our world-renowned city, is being at last, after many years of public agitation, just a little "improved" by its unkind guardians, the city fathers. While we write, it is being graded, and is about to have an iron fence erected around it. The wondrous fabrics of iron and glass, which were to have turned it, as assuredly they would, if properly designed, into a Crystal Palace, or rather into a veritable "Palais Royal," the centre of Californian taste, luxury, fashion and folly, have been all left to the next generation, or perhaps only to the still hopeful projectors and the speculative common council of the next year.

The long-desired fortification of the harbor of San Francisco has been at last commenced by the government. The system proposed consists of two lines of batteries inside the entrance to

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the harbor. Works are already in process of construction on Fort Point and Alcatraz Island. Point San José and Angel Island will, probably, be selected to complete the line of defence. The fortress at Fort Point, which will be the strongest position, will present one hundred and fifteen guns of eight and ten inch calibre, in four tiers. Directly opposite, on Lime Rock Point, a battery of one hundred guns will complete the outer line. The second point of fortification on the inner line is on Alcatraz Island. The shipping battery here will consist of about fifty guns, with batteries on other points yet to be selected. Majors Barnard and Turner, Capt. Whiting and Lieut. Prince are directing the works, which are estimated to cost not less than two millions of dollars. Much doubt is expressed by officers of high rank as to the sufficiency of water defence-many believing that

an invading army could readily land any where between San Francisco and Monterey.

The arrivals for the last six months from the Isthmus, exceeded the departures by several thousands. The immigration of Chinese from their own country during the same period, amounted perhaps to five thousand persons of both sexes, while their emigration was slight. The incomers generally departed, after a short sojourn in San Francisco, to the mines; so that the general population of the city may still be estimated at the supposed number inhabiting it at the close of 1853, viz., something over fifty thousand of both sexes and of all ages and nations. The bulk of the great overland immigration does not appear till the fall of the year. The immigration by land for the approaching season is expected to be very great.

The gold mines, the prime source of prosperity and wealth to California, have not for many years yielded better returns to the labor applied to them, than they have done during 1854, so far as the year has elapsed. Every day new and rich auriferous fields are being discovered, while it is found that the old ones, by the application of more careful and scientific methods of extracting the precious metal, continue to supply an ample reward to the miners. But it is not gold alone that has filled up the replete coffers of the State. The quicksilver mines of Alameda County are the largest yielding and most profitable in the world. The only ones that at all compare with them, are those of Almaden in Spain, and Idria in Austria-the latter, one of the old monuments of Roman revenue.

But if the success of the miner has been great, how shall we term the unexampled prosperity of the less romantic tiller of the soil. Crops, throughout the State, have been immense, and have had the effect to reduce the prices of articles of food to a very low figure-far lower than they at present are on the Atlantic. The splendid agricultural resources of the country are only beginning to be understood. A new and equally profitable source of employment has been found in the fisheries on the Sacramento and its tributaries. Salmon, sturgeon, pike, perch, dake, chub, suckers, hard-heads, narrow-tails, &c., are being caught in large quantities. The salmon fisheries are the most important—the

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