Sometimes he would change his position; but, whether warming his uncovered feet at the fire-place, or drawing on his boots, or replenishing his stock of tobacco, there was the same unalterable attention on his part. As soon as he comprehended a case, his authoritative voice was heard, closing the discussion, and dictating to a clerk the exact number of dollars and cents for which he should enter up a judgment. And then another, and another case was called up, and submitted to this summary process, until about nine o'clock at night, when the day's work terminated. All orders asked for by a responsible attorney were granted ex parte, the judge remarking that if the order was not a proper one, the other party would soon appear, and then he could ascertain the real merits of the case. The grand feature of this court was the facility with which an injunction could be obtained, and the rapidity with which it could be set aside.
CALIFORNIAN COURTS.
Crime was almost unknown until we got a state government and a code of laws, which, with misplaced philanthropy, had made the legal practice so easy upon criminals that a conviction was next to impossible. Then it was that crime stalked abroad in the face of day, and Sidney convicts plied their trade in San Francisco after it had become a city. Shops were entered and robbed in business hours; and by night, men were murdered in the streets; and thefts escaped punishment. Then it was that men, caught in the commission of crime, were hanged in the open streets, and combinations were formed for self-defense. But when a new Legislature gave efficiency to the laws, the community yielded a willing obedience to the magistrate. From an early day there had been "miners' courts," which, with their alcaldes, had conciliated differences. But when magistrates were elected, these courts disappeared. This was a change from bad to worse, for no condition is so deplorable as that of a people whose magistracy are powerless.