Court of the United States.  An appeal was also taken by the United States, but was subsequently withdrawn.  The case remained in the District Court without being disposed of until September, 1864, nearly ten years, when, under the authority of an act of Congress of July 1st of that year, it was transferred to the Circuit Court of the United States.  Whilst the case was pending in the District Court, the population of the city had increased more than four-fold; and improvements of a costly character had been made in all parts of it.  The magnitude of the interests which had thus grown up demanded that the title to the land upon which the city rested should be in some way definitely settled.  To expedite this settlement, as well as the settlement of titles generally in the State, was the object of the act of July 1st, 1864.  Its object is so stated in its title.  It was introduced by Senator Conness, of California, who was alive to everything that could tend to advance the interests of the State.  He felt that nothing would promote its peace and prosperity more than giving security to its land titles, and he labored earnestly to bring about that result.  In framing the act, he consulted me, and at my suggestion introduced sections four, five, and seven, which I drafted and gave to him, but without the exception and proviso to the fifth section, which were added at the request of the Commissioner of the Land Office.[4] The fourth section authorized the District Court to transfer to the Circuit Court cases pending before it arising under the act of March 3d, 1851, affecting the title to lands within the corporate limits of a city or town, and provided that in such cases both the District and Circuit Judges might sit.  By the fifth section, all the right and title of the United States to the land within the corporate limits of the city, as defined by its charter of 1851, were relinquished and granted to the city and its successors for the uses and purposes specified in the Van Ness Ordinance.  The exceptions incorporated at the suggestion of the Commissioner of the Land Office related to parcels of land previously or then occupied by the United States for military, naval, or other public purposes, and such other parcels as might be subsequently designated for such purposes by the President within one year after the return to the land office of an approved plat of the exterior limits of the city.  The holders of grants from the authorities of the pueblo and the occupants of land within the limits of the charter of 1851 were thus quieted in their possessions.  But as the claim of the city was for a much greater quantity, the case for its confirmation was still prosecuted.  Under the fourth section it was transferred to the Circuit Court, as already stated; and it was soon afterwards brought to a hearing.  On the 30th of October, 1864, it was decided.  For some reason I do not now recall, the District Judge was unable to sit with me, and the case was, therefore, heard before me alone.