LAW. 421 



Either party can have a jury in any case, and it may be waived 

 in civil suits or trials for misdemeanor, but not in felonies. The 

 judges of California have, as a class, been learned, able, and 

 upright men, and have been far superior to the legislative and 

 executive officers in learning, capacity, and integrity. 



The county officers are mostly elected for terms of two or 

 four years, and they are generally chosen on account of serv- 

 ice rendered to the successful party. The term of service be- 

 ing brief, reelection doubtful, ejection for incompetency un- 

 heard of, and punishment for malfeasance notwithstanding 

 the frequency of the offense very rare, there is no sufficient 

 motive to stimulate the officials to study their duties,, or to 

 comply very strictly with them, so far as known. 



The Federal as well as the State offices are the subjects of 

 scramble once in four years, or oftener, and success is not de- 

 termined by the public interests. The partisan system of the 

 United States is corrupt and corrupting everywhere, and in few 

 States has its influence been more pernicious than here. San 

 Francisco has fortunately repudiated it, and most of her offi- 

 cials have been chosen in defiance of the Republican and Dem- 

 ocratic wire-workers, and her administration has been in many 

 respects better than that of any other American city. 



348. Marriage. Marriage, by the law of California, is a 

 civil contract. No ceremonial form, publication of banns, 

 consent of parents, blessing of priest, seal of magistrate, or 

 presence of witness, is necessary to give validity to the con- 

 tract, if the parties be adults. Although the law does not 

 require a ceremony, yet custom does, and the priests and 

 preachers are usually called in to perform it. Divorce may 

 be granted for adultery, habitual intemperance, extreme 

 cruelty, desertion for two years, sentence to the State prison 

 for two years or more, and impotence. There has been much 

 complaint that the statute renders divorce too easy, but the 

 general opinion of California is favorable to the law as it is. 



