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and deep the foundation of Christ's kingdom in the mighty nation now springing up on the Pacific coast.

The foregoing article was prepared more than a year ago; but circumstances at that time unforeseen by the writer, have delayed its publication until the present time. It is well known that since that date extraordinary changes have taken place in California. A nation has grown up in a year; and every mail brings us tidings of which the truth is the most remarkable feature. Never in the annals of the world was a parallel case seen. The wildest extravagances of Arabian fiction are stale and common-place, compared with the unadorned truthful reports which have reached us from California. Aladdin rubbed his wonderful lamp, and straightway a palace reared itself before him;-the sand of the Sacramento was shaken in a basin, and cities and villages sprang up as it were in a single night. We have scarcely time to recover from the surprise of one piece of intelligence, before our credulity is taxed to the utmost with one more extravagant. First it was dust, then grains; the grains increased to pennyweights, the pennyweights to ounces, and the ounces to pounds: who will dare to assert that the pounds will not increase to tons?

Under this aspect of affairs, it would at first sight appear that the foregoing article should have been essentially modified, if not totally re-written; and this was, at one time, the intention of the writer: but, after further reflection, the idea was abandoned. The arrangements of this journal are such, that a complete summary of the condition of affairs on such a subject as California, at the date of publication, is out of the question. It is therefore deemed best to publish the article as written, first, as a contribution to the history of California; and, second, as showing the impressions created in the minds of men by the remarkable condition of affairs in that distant region: for although many will doubtless disagree with the writer in his opinions, it is more than probable there are many others who have deduced similar conclusions from the same premises. How far our predictions have been already verified, our readers can judge; how accurately we have judged of future events, time alone can determine.

We design, in conclusion, to present our readers a very brief summary of the present condition of matters in California; not as a matter of news to them, but in order that they may have important information in a shape better adapted for preservation than the newspapers of the day. There have been already taken from the

mines from fifty to seventy millions of dollars. Of this amount a large proportion-perhaps two-thirds-has been carried away by foreigners. It is difficult to make an estimate on the amount that will be obtained during the present year. It may be fifty millions, it may be much more. The gold-bearing quartz of which we have latterly had information has not yet been thoroughly examined, or its value definitely determined. New diggings are being discovered constantly, and any estimate that might seem reasonable now, may be rendered ridiculous by the arrival of the next

steamer.

A constitution has been formed and adopted, a State government organized, and, after a long struggle in Congress, the new State has been admitted into the Union, with a constitution prohibiting human slavery forever. The population of San Francisco is probably nearly fifty thousand, and its harbour is constantly crowded with shipping from all parts of the world. The emigration to California during the present year will not probably fall short of a hundred thousand. There are now ten steamers plying from Panama to San Francisco,-thus rendering the voyage by the isthmus the most desirable route to the gold regions. There is a steamer plying from Oregon to California, and three are running on the Sacramento and San Joaquin. It is in contemplation to establish another line to China, via the Sandwich Islands. One of the most difficult matters still unsettled in California is the title to lands. Agriculture is now growing profitable, and many who went to dig gold, have turned their attention to cultivating the soil. The peculiar method of granting lands, under the Spanish and Mexican governments, renders our admirable system of survey and entry inapplicable to a large portion of the country; and the carelessness with which records have been kept, together with the endless series of revolutions and confiscations with which the country has been heretofore afflicted, has rendered it in a great many instances difficult, if not impossible, to trace titles with anything like certainty. Mr. Halleck, who was, and is still, we believe, Secretary of State, has applied himself with great acuteness and industry to this question, and we hope his researches may result in devising a mode of settling this very important matter.

As may be well supposed, the standard of morals in California is not high; although grave crimes are much less frequent than was anticipated. The Church has not been idle, as the following extract, clipped from the columns of the New-York Commercial Advertiser, will testify:

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. II.-42

"CALIFORNIA WATCHMAN.-We have before us the first number of this paper, published in San Francisco, April 1st, under the supervision of the Rev. Mr. Williams, of the First Presbyterian Church. It is a neat little sheet, and is, for the present, to be published once a month. The terms are fifty cents a number.

The first page of this paper contains a list of the several churches in San Francisco, with their pastors, as follows:

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In the Roman Catholic Church there is service in the Spanish, French, and English. In all the other churches service on Sundays at 11 A. M., and 4 and half-past 7 P. M.

We find also notices of the following institutions:-San Francisco Bible Society; Pacific Tract Society; Methodist Book Concern; Bible Society of California, (Baptist;) Free School; Strangers' Friend Society.

Under the head of "Protestant Churches in California," in addition to those in San Francisco, we notice the following:

At Benicia, First Presbyterian Church, Rev. S. Woodbridge.

At Monterey, Presbyterian, supplied by Rev. S. H. Willey, chaplain to the military post.

At San Jose, Presbyterian Church, Rev. J. W. Douglass; Baptist Church, Rev. J. D. Briarly; Methodist Episcopal Church, supplied by local ministers. At Sacramento, Methodist Episcopal Church, Rev. Mr. Owen; Congregational Church, Rev. J. A. Benton; Baptist Church, Rev. J. Cook.

At Stockton, Presbyterian Church, Rev. J. Wods; Methodist Episcopal, by local preachers.

In addition to the ministers of our Church above mentioned, Rev. Mr. Sarber, of the Pittsburg Conference, has joined the California Mission, and many local preachers are engaged more or less actively in the work of the ministry; and their labours have been in many instances accompanied with good results. The whole work is under the supervision of Rev. W. Roberts, the effective superintendent of the Oregon and California Mission Conference. And within the last month our Church has increased the number of her labourers within the bounds of that Conference by sending out five missionaries, three of them with their families. Of these, the Rev. F. S. Hoyt was sent to Oregon, as Principal of the Oregon Institute, at Salem city; Rev. Edward Bannister to California, to found an Academy in that new State; and Rev. S. Simonds, Rev. J. Flinn,

and Rev. M. C. Briggs, to join the Mission Conference, and enter the regular work as pastors. These ministers will increase the force of the Oregon and California Mission Conference to eighteen members. The Board of Managers have advised the superintendent of the Foreign Missions of the Church to appoint three other missionaries for the Pacific coast as soon as practicable.

We have thus glanced hastily at the more important topics connected with California. A full detail would carry us far beyond our prescribed limits, and would, perhaps, be only a repetition of matters familiar to our readers. We therefore conclude with the hope that this article, if it possess no other value, may hereafter be interesting as a contribution to one of the most stirring and eventful chapters in the world's history.

ART. VII.-SHORT REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS.

(1.) "Elementary Sketches of Moral Philosophy, delivered at the Royal Institution, in the Years 1804, 1805, and 1806. By the late REV. SYDNEY SMITH, M. A." (New-York, Harper & Brothers: 12mo., 1850.) After a cursory glance at the table of contents prefixed to this volume, we turned again to the titlepage, to see if we had read it aright. Here are lectures, or fragments of lectures, on Conception, on the Memory, on the Imagination, on Wit and Humour. What have they to do with Moral Philosophy? Truly, nothing at all. Such, we venture to suppose, was the opinion of him to whose lot it fell to edit this volume, so long after the death of the lecturer. He speaks of them as “Lectures on Moral (or Mental) Philosophy." Whether he meant to synonymize the adjectives, or to imply a doubt as to which was the more appropriate, we cannot say. The lecturer, however, defines his own terms; and if, by any means, a hint might have been conveyed upon the title-page as to what the purchaser of the volume might expect, we should have no cause to object to this novel use of the word. It is moral philosophy, he tells us, in contradistinction to physical philosophy; and thus the phrase is made to "include everything which relates to the human mind."

The volume is replete with good sense, forcibly expressed; and we are thankful that, although at the eleventh hour, Lord Jeffrey recanted the hasty judgment passed upon it when submitted to him in manuscript. We extract a few passages, a perusal of which may induce the reader to place the volume in his library. In his lecture on the conduct of the understanding he says:

"The first thing to be done in conducting the understanding is precisely the same as in conducting the body,-to give it regular and copious supplies of food, to prevent that atrophy and marasmus of mind, which comes on from giving it no new ideas. It is a mistake equally fatal to the memory, the imagination, the powers of reasoning, and to every faculty of the mind, to think too early that we can live upon our stock of understanding,-that it is time to leave off business, and make use of the acquisitions we have already made, without troubling ourselves any further to add to them. It is no more possible for an idle man to keep together a certain stock of knowledge, than it is possible to keep together a stock of ice exposed to the meridian sun. Every day destroys a fact, a relation, or an inference; and the only method of preserving the bulk and value of the pile is by constantly adding to it. "The prevailing idea with young people has been, the incompatibility of labour and genius; and therefore, from the fear of being thought dull, they have thought it necessary to remain ignorant. I have seen, at school and at college, a great many young men completely destroyed by having been so unfortunate as to produce an excellent copy of verses. Their genius being now established, all that remained for them to do was, to act up to the dignity of the character; and as this dignity consisted in reading nothing new, in forgetting what they had already read. and in pretending to be acquainted with all subjects by a sort of off-hand exertion of talents, they soon collapsed into the most frivolous and insignificant of men." It would be an extremely profitable thing to draw up a short and well-authenticated account of the habits of study of the most celebrated writers with whose style of literary industry we happen to be most acquainted. It would go very far to destroy the absurd and pernicious association of genius and idleness, by showing them that the greatest poets, orators, statesmen, and historians,-men of the most brilliant and imposing talents,-have actually laboured as hard as the makers of dictionaries and the arrangers of indexes; and that the most obvious reason why they have been superior to other men is, that they have taken more pains than

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