MEXICAN GRANTS. 457 



had dispatched all the cases. The trials had been fair, the 

 hearings deliberate and public, the opposition on the part of 

 the United States law agents stubborn. All the law agents 

 were competent men, and no one can justly complain that the 

 interests of the United States were neglected by any one of 

 them. The claimants had been kept in litigation three years ; 

 they had been compelled to bring numerous witnesses from 

 remote parts of the state, to pay for interpreters, to fee law- 

 yers, at rates unheard of before in the world, to dance atten- 

 dance upon the court, and to leave their homes and their busi- 

 ness for months at a time ; but this was not enough. In eveiy 

 case where the land commission confirmed a claim, the United 

 States government ordered an appeal to be taken to the 

 United States District Court. This was nominally an appeal, 

 but really an order for a new trial. Every question of fact 

 and law was opened anew. Witnesses were again examined ; 

 the whole case was tried as in the original proceeding. There 

 are two United States District Courts ; one for the northern 

 and another for the southern part of the state ; each being the 

 appellate court for all the lauds within its own jurisdiction. 

 Each of these two courts had other business besides land 

 suits ; and in the northern district, where the most important 

 cases lay, the court had almost as much admiralty business 

 alone as the judges of federal districts in the Atlantic states 

 ha\*e to manage. Both these Californian district judges were 

 good men. In these courts, too, the " interests of the United 

 States" were protected by able and industrious lawyers, in- 

 structed to oppose the Mexican land claims to the utmost. 

 Seven years have elapsed since the fii"st case was appeale. 

 from the land commission, and there are now a number of 

 cases still undecided in the District Courts : but in most of 

 the cases decided, the claims of the Mexican grant-holders 

 were confirmed a second time. The federal government, still 

 not satisfied to let the claimants enter their lands, ordered ap- 

 peals to the United States Supreme Court at Washington. 

 This order was not accompanied by any proper provision to 

 20 



