judicial circuit (which is composed of Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois,) and forms one judicial district. It has one collection district, one port of entry (Milwaukee,) and five ports of delivery, viz.: Southport, Racine, Sheboygan, Green Bay and Depere.

The capital of the State is Madison. The Legislature meets on the second Wednesday in January. The State election is on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

The enacting clause of her laws is as follows: "The people of Wisconsin, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows."

Is said to have been visited by the Spaniards in 1542, and by Sir Francis Drake, a celebrated English navigator, in 1578. The first mission was founded by Spanish Catholics in 1769. It was sparsely settled by Mexican rancheros, who occupied themselves chiefly in raising cattle. In 1846 Fremont, who had been conducting an exploring party across the great plains and the Rocky Mountains, defeated, in conjuncion with Commodore Stockton, the Mexican forces in California, and took possession of it in the name of the United States; to which it

was definitely ceded by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Feb. 2nd, 1848; the United States government paying Mexico for that territory and New Mexico $15,000,000, besides paying $3,500,000 indemnity, due from Mexico to citizens of the United States.

Scarcely had this arrangement been made, when it was published that California was rich in gold, and adventurers from all sections of the Union, and various countries of the Old World, rushed in like a flood. For some years, society there, composed in large part, of the wildest and most ungovernable elements of old communities, was like a seething volcano; but, to the immortal honor of American citizens, it was subdued by the superior resolution and summary vigor of the better class of emigrants from the States, and was admitted into the Union on the 7th of Sept. 1850, with a clause in its Constitution pro. hibiting slavery. The discussion in Congress on this point came near precipitating the Civil War that broke out ten years later. The difficulty between the slavery and anti-slavery parties was adjusted by compromise measures, for the time, but only served to allay the agitation produced by conflict of interests and opinions, which was irreconcilable.

California "The Golden," proved extraordinarily rich in precious metals and other minerals, as quicksilver, platinum, asphaltum, iron, lead, and rare qualities of marble. Its gold mines alone from 1858 to 1868 produced over $800,000,000.

It is a broken country, traversed by two ranges of mountains. The valleys are exceedingly productive. They are unexcelled for wheat; all kinds of fruit grow in the greatest perfection; and the grape culture promises to equal, if not to excel, the products of the most famous vineyards of Europe. Surprising as is her mineral wealth, her agricultural possibilities are far greater, and her commerce is already immense, and bids fair, from her position and relations to Eastern Asia, and the western parts of South America, to rival that of the Atlantic States.

The world was ripe for the discovery of these unparalleled

treasures, and civilization was prepared to use them for the good of mankind. The ready passage across the vast and inhospitable deserts of the American continent, by means of railways, has already changed (and will probably change still more in the future) the course of commerce; and San Francisco and New York may hope to rule, in large part, the commerce of the world.

California is remarkable for the salubrity of its climate, where the rigors of winter (save on the mountains), and the excessive heats of summer are equally unknown, and for the variety and magnitude of its natural curiosities. Of the last the Yosemite valley and the Big Trees are the most prominent. She has near 1,000 miles of railroad, and has made ample provision for education.

Calfornia was the thirty-first State. It has an area of 188,982 square miles, equal to 120,948,480 acres. The population in 1870 was 560,247, entitling her to four Representatives in Congress.

By act of 1866, this State, with Oregon and Nevada, constitutes the ninth judicial circuit, and forms two judicial districts. California has seven ports of entry, viz.: San Francisco, Monterey, San Diego, Sacramento, Sonoma, San Joaquin and San Pedro; also, one port of delivery, Santa Barbara. California was obtained from Mexico by conquest in 1846. The capital is Sacramento. She holds her State election on the first Tuesday in September. Her Legislature meets on the first Monday in December, but meets only once in two years. The enacting clause of her laws is: "The people of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows."