it; and its streets presented a scene of bustle and activity.  Trains of wagons and animals were constantly leaving it with goods for the mines.  Its merchants were generally prosperous; some of them were wealthy.  Its bankers were men of credit throughout the State.  Steamers plied daily between it and Sacramento, and stages ran to all parts of the country and arrived every hour.  Two daily newspapers were published in it.  Schools were opened and fully attended.  Churches of different denominations were erected and filled with worshippers.  Institutions of benevolence were founded and supported.  A provident city government and a vigorous police preserved order and peace.  Gambling was suppressed or carried on only in secret.  A theatre was built and sustained.  A lecture-room was opened and was always crowded when the topics presented were of public interest.  Substantial stores of brick were put up in the business part of the city; and convenient frame dwellings were constructed for residences in the outskirts, surrounded with plats filled with trees and flowers.  On all sides were seen evidences of an industrious, prosperous, moral, and happy people, possessing and enjoying the comforts, pleasures, and luxuries of life.  And they were as generous as they were prosperous.  Their hearts and their purses were open to all calls of charity.  No one suffering appealed to them in vain.  No one in need was turned away from their doors without having his necessities relieved.  It is many years since I was there, but I have never forgotten and I shall never forget the noble and generous people that I found there in all the walks of life.

The Supreme Court of the State then consisted of three members, the senior in commission being the Chief Justice.  David S. Terry was the Chief Justice and Peter H. Burnett was the Associate Justice.  Both of these gentlemen have had a conspicuous career in California, and of both I have many interesting anecdotes which would well illustrate their characters and which at some future day I may put upon paper.  They were both men of vigorous minds, of generous natures and of positive wills; but in all other respects they differed as widely as it was possible for two extremes.  Mr. Terry had the virtues and prejudices of men of the extreme South in those days.  His contact and larger experience since with men of the North have no doubt modified many of those prejudices, and his own good sense must have led him to alter some of his previous judgments.  Probably his greatest regret is his duel with Mr. Broderick, as such encounters, when they terminate fatally to one of the parties, never fail to bring life-long bitterness to the survivor.  A wiser mode of settling difficulties between gentlemen has since been adopted in the State; but those who have not lived in a community where the duel is practiced cannot well appreciate the force of the public sentiment which at one time existed, compelling a resort to it when character was assailed.