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The judges of the Supreme Court are elected by joint vote of the General Assembly for six years, and until their successors are elected and qualified. The Supreme Court now holds four sessions, the State being divided into

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The judges of the District Court are elected, by the voters in their district, for five years, and until their successors are elected and qualified.

FINANCES.

The value of the productive property held by the State is $ 11,277,139. The absolute State debt is $55,000, on which the interest is $5,500 per annum. The revenue is derived from taxes upon real and personal property. The expenditures are the salaries of State officers and court expenses, and for the year ending Nov. 30, 1848, were:- for the Legisla ture, $10,181; Executive, $2,500; Judiciary, $7,020.92; public buildings at Iowa City, $3,200; interest, $2,552.37; miscellaneous, $7,059.45. Total, $32,513.74. As the sessions of the Legislature are biennial, the ordinary annual expenditures, exclusive of debts and schools, is about $ 19,000.

The aggregate valuation of taxable property (according to the assessors' returns for 1848) is $14,449,200, being $2,769,075 more than in 1847. The following are the various items :Acres of land, 2,316,704,-value, with improvements, $ 8,031,698; value of town lots and improvements, $2,008,812; value of capital employed in merchandise, $645,917; value of mills, manufactories, distilleries, carding-machines, and tan-yards, with the stock employed, $237,655; horses over two years old, 27,980, value, $992,946; mules and asses, one year old, 145, value, $6,543; neat cattle over two years old, 72,840, value, $723,326; sheep over six months old, 114,623, value, $ 131,338; hogs six months old, 170,445, value, $215,361; pleasure carriages, 5,298, value, $ 181,588; watches, 3,112, value, $ 36,722; piano-fortes, 33, value, $ 4,595; value of capital stocks and profits in any company, incorporated or unincorporated, $3,748; property in boats or vessels, $18,126; all other personal property over $100, $110,417; value of gold and silver coin and bank-notes in actual possession, $183,426; claims for money or other consideration, $ 378,323; value of annuities, $7,128; amount of notes, mortgages, &c., $491,808; number of polls, 23,937. Levy for State purposes, 2 mills on $1; amount, $ 36,129.

Common Schools. It is provided by the constitution, that a Superintendent of Public

Instruction shall be chosen by the people for three years, and that all lands granted by Congress to this State, all escheated estates, and such per cent. as may be granted by Congress on the sale of the public lands in Iowa, shall constitute a perpetual fund, the interest of which, and the rents of the unsold lands, shall be applied to the support of common schools. The Assembly shall provide for a school in each school-district, for at least three months in each year; and all moneys received for exemption from military duty, and for fines imposed by the courts, shall be appropriated to support such schools, or the establishment of school libraries. The money arising from the lease or sale of public lands granted for the support of a university shall remain a perpetual fund to maintain such an institution. Permanent School Fund, Nov. 1st, 1848, $ 132,908.52.

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The judges of the Circuit Courts are elected in circuits by the people, for six years. Judge Stow belongs to the 4th circuit; and Judges Jackson, Hubbell, Whiton, and Larrabee, to the 5th, 2d, 1st, and 3d, respectively. The Circuit Courts have appellate jurisdiction from justices of the peace and inferior courts, and original, in all cases not excepted by the constitution or the law. The judges also sit as a Supreme Court to try cases upon appeal, without a jury. Four constitute a quorum, and a majority of those present is necessary for a decision. The Supreme Court has two sessions at Madison, on the second Tuesdays of January and June. In most of the counties there are two terms of the Circuit Court each year; in some there is but a single term.

County Courts.

There is established in each of the counties in the State a County Court, having jurisdiction concurrently with the Circuit Court in all civil actions arising within the county, and in all transitory actions where the amount claimed does not exceed five hundred dollars (excepting actions of ejectment), and exclusive appellate jurisdiction in cases of appeal or certiorari from a justice of the peace, and with jurisdiction in civil cases, by consent of parties, unlimited as to amount. The County Court has also probate powers, the office of Judge of Probate being abolished. Times of holding, first Monday in every month. The judge of the County Court is elected by the people. Term, four years.

Congressional Districts.

1st. Counties of Milwaukee, Waukesha, Walworth, and Racine. 2d. Counties of Rock, Green, Lafayette, Grant, Dane, Iowa, Sauk, Richland, Crawford, Adams, Portage, Chippewa, La Pointe, and St. Croix.

3d. Counties of Washington, Sheboygan, Manitowoc, Brown, Winnebago, Calumet, Fond du Lac, Marquette, Dodge, Jefferson, and Columbia. Internal Improvements. — The only improvement of magnitude undertaken in this State is that of the navigation of the Wisconsin and Fox Rivers, under a grant from Congress of about half a million acres of land. This work is under the immediate direction of a Board of Public Works, consisting of five persons, the Governor of the State having the general control and supervision of the whole work. The construction of the Canal, and the improvement of the Fox River, to Lake Winnebago, is under contract to be completed the first of June, 1850. When this is done, it will open steamboat navigation between Lake Michigan, by the way of Green Bay, and the Mississippi River, nearly through the centre of the State.

Common Schools. --The number of school sections in the State is 2,200, and the estimated number of children in the State between 4 and 20 years of age is 46,000. The school fund is thus stated. The sixteenth (or school) sections of land contain 1,408,000 acres. To these are to be added the lands ceded by Congress for internal improvements, but by the assent of Congress diverted to the school fund, 500,000 acres, - making in all 1,908,000 acres. Of this about one seventh, 272,571 acres, is in the surveyed portions of the State, and near settlements, and is safely estimated to average $3 per acre, which gives a fund of $817,713. To this fund there will be added the proceeds of all lands that may hereafter be granted to the State by Congress for educational purposes, all moneys and the clear proceeds of all property that may accrue to the State by forfeiture or escheat, all moneys that may be paid as an equivalent for exemption from military duty, the clear proceeds of all fines collected in the several counties for any breach of the penal laws, five per cent. of the net proceeds of all sales of United States lands in the State, and all moneys arising from any grant to the State where the purposes of such grant are not specified.

XXXI. OREGON TERRITORY.

Government for the Year 1850.

JOHN P. GAINES, of Oregon City, Governor and Superintend

Knitzing Pritchett,

Term expires. Salary.

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XXXII. MINESOTA TERRITORY.

THIS Territory was organized by act of Congress of March 3, 1849, a full abstract of which act, containing boundaries, constitution, &c., is in the Titles and Abstracts of the Public Laws, No. 52, ante, p. 145.

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Henry L. Moss,

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of Stillwater, Attorney,

Alexander M. Mitchell, of Ft. Snelling, Marshal,

The Territory of Minesota embraces an area of 150,000 square miles, and by the census taken in June, 1849, there were about 4,500 free white male inhabitants in the Territory.

Associate Justice,

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XXXIII. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

THE District of Columbia is under the immediate government of Congress. The city of Washington became the seat of the government of the United States in 1800, and it is the residence of the President, and the other chief executive officers of the national government. By an act of Congress, in 1846, which was subsequently accepted by the people of Alexandria, the city and county of Alexandria were retroceded to the

State of Virginia, and the District is now confined to the Maryland side of the Potomac.

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CALIFORNIA has not yet been made a Territory of the United States. The bill to extend the revenue laws of the United States over the territory and waters of Upper California (See "Titles and Abstracts of the Public Laws," No. 43, p. 144) passed the last Congress. The bill to establish a territorial government in California failed. Brevet Brigadier-General Bennett Riley is the Military Governor of California. According to the proclamation of General Riley, on the 1st of August, the following officers were elected for the district of San Francisco, to hold office until January, 1850, when their places will be filled by those elected at the regular election in November, 1849:

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The population of California in July, 1846, was about 15,000, exclusive of Indians. In July, 1849, according to the account of Thomas O. Larkin, formerly U. S. Consul at Monterey, and a good authority, it was between 35,000 and 40,000, of whom less than one half are Americans. Mr. Larkin also estimates, that from July to January, 1850, probably 40,000 Americans will reach the country; that by January, 1850, the population will number from 80,000 to 100,000, and that in 1851 it will amount to from 175,000 to 200,000. Four fifths of the imports into California arrive at San Francisco, and are mostly sent up the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers.

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