EFFECTS OF THIS DISCOVERY ON THE UNITED STATES.—­The following remarks upon the influence of this immense discovery, which appeared in a popular New York journal on the 23rd January, proves the extent of impression produced upon society in the States by the intelligence of this new source of natural wealth:—­

“The news (February 12) from California will attract the observation of the whole community, A spirit is generated from those discoveries, which is more active, more intense, and more widely spread, than that which agitated Europe in the time of Columbus, Cortez, and Pizarro.  There seems to be no doubt that, in a short time—­probably less than two years—­those mines can be made to produce 100,000,000 dollars per year.  The region is the most extensive of the kind in the world, being 800 miles in length, and 100 in width, with every indication that gold exists in large native masses, in the rocks and mountains of the Sierra Nevada.  But these vast gold mines are not the only mineral discoveries that have been made.  The quicksilver in the same region seems to be as abundant as the gold, so that there are approximated to each other two metals, which will have a most important effect and utility in making the gold mines more valuable.  Heretofore the gold and silver mines of Mexico and Peru have been valuable to Spain, because she possessed a monopoly of the quicksilver mines at Almaden in the Peninsula.  This is surpassed by California.  According to the last accounts now given to the public, emigrants were crowding in from every port in the Pacific to California—­from Mexico, Peru, the Sandwich Islands, Oregon; and we have no doubt by this time the British possessions in the East, China, and everywhere else in that region, are furnishing emigrants to the wonderful regions of California.  In less than a year there will probably be a population of 100,000 to 200,000 souls, all digging for gold, and capable of producing from 100,000,000 dollars to 300,000,000 dollars worth per annum of pure gold, to be thrown on the commerce of the world at one fell swoop.

“What is to be the effect of such vast discoveries on the commerce of the world—­on old communities, on New York, London, and other great commercial cities?  Such a vast addition to the gold currency of the world will at once disturb the prices and value of all productions and merchandise to a similar extent to that which we see in Monterey and San Francisco.  The prices of every commodity will therefore rise extravagantly during the next few years, according to the produce of gold from that region.  Now, in a rising market everything prospers; every one gets rich, civilisation expands, industry increases, and all orders of society are benefited.  As soon as the first crop of gold from California reaches New York, the impulse which it will give to commercial enterprise, and the advance in the price of everything which it will cause, will be tremendous.  The bank currency will be expanded,