25 OCTOBER 1851, Page 7

farrign auh Colonial.

Fithwea.—There is nothing of substantial progress to record respecting the reconstruction of the Cabinet. M. Billault at the end of last week gave up the hopes he at first entertained of forming a Parliamentary Ministry—finding he had to deal with elements too conflicting ; he was recalled at the beginning of this week to renew the attempt ; but on Tues- day all chances of his success were at an end. The correspondent of the Morning Chronicle says, "It was understood that he found he could not take office without abandoning the principles of Democracy." According to another account, he could not get from the President the primary con- dition, that the President should formally withdraw all claim to be ille- gally reelected. But the Constitutionnel of Thursday declares that the various reports of negotiations abandoned, reopened, and finally broken, and of Ministerial lists ready for publication, are wholly without founda- tion.

"Up to the present moment, there has been neither any rupture of nego- tiations nor any Ministerial combination definitively fixed. The truth la, that the affairs march towards a speedy conclusion • and that the aid of mo- derate and firm men will not be wanting to the President of the Republic, who, in demanding the repeal of the law of the 31st of May, persists, we re- peat, in the policy of preservation and of energetical resistance to disorder."

Among the various lists was one given by the ilvenement, including M. Michel Chevalier as Minister of Marine, and M. Sallanclrouze as Minister of Commerce.

The Presse of Thursday reiterates the declaration which it has been constantly making throughout the crisis, that a Parliamentary Ministry is at present impossible, and that it will be necessary to appoint a tem- porary Cabinet of men not Representatives ; parties are so extraordi- narily broken up, and so hostile to each other. Among other features indicating the drift of party tactics, is a more confident feeling in all the Moderate organs, that the abrogation of the law of May 31, restricting the franchise, may be successfully resisted. The Ave'nement declares that the Prince de Joinville has written an address formally putting himself forward for the Presidency : it states that the Journal des Balla already has the address in type, ready to print it at a discreet moment. The assertion is contradicted by the Journal, "somewhat jesuitically." The officious interference of the Police With the Representative M. Sat, tin, at a private banquet in Sancerrel Department of the Cher, a week ot two back, led to a tumultuous rising of the inhabitants of Sanceite• , and another small village. The inhabitants resisted the ordinary ati.• thorities, and even placed themselvee armed before a military force ; in the course of a brief collision several were wounded, and some accounts .4 one or two were killed ; but other journals deity these details, end scenes

the Government organs of exaggerating the whole affair for its own pur-

poses. The Government alleges that the particular outbreak is a 000se- ouence of a general state of disaffection and club organization ; and on Tuesday last the Meniteur contained a decree placing the Departments of the Cher and the Nievre under martial law.

Palm:mt.—The King's birthday was celebrated on the 15th instant, with great festivities.

The Steals Anzeiger has published the statutes of the Order of Hohen- zollern founded by the Prince of that house in 1841, and perpetuated by the King of Prussia as a memorial of the origin and extension of his own royal house—" which, under the assistance of Almighty God, has extended its sway from the rocky peak of the Hohenzollern to the Baltic and the shores of the Northern Ocean." The motto is to be "Vora Fels zum Meer." The order is to be given to such persons as may contribute to the preservation of the power and splendour of the royal house, and-ex- hibit special devotion to the person of the King or to the Royal Family. It will be earned, says the royal patent, "more especially by courage in the battle against the never-resting enemies of all Divine and human order, who have sown revolt and disorder in the lands intrusted to us by the Most High."

The Minister of Justice has issued an order practically repealing the provisions of the Constitution of 1848 by which the Jews in Prussia were admitted to equality and the enjoyment of judicial offices. Those who have passed their examinations will be allowed to take employment in the administrative branches. The reason given for excluding the Jews again from law offices is, that a Jew cannot administer an oath to Christians.

Ausram—The Earl of Westmoreland reached Vienna, as British Am- bassador, on the 14th instant, and had an interview with Prince Scharer- zenberg next day. The Russian Minister Meyendorf gave a grand dinner on the occasion, to which all the chiefs of embassies were invited. The Emperor is in Poland, and the Archduke Albrecht has gone to his government in Hungary ; and the accounts describe the "joyful demon- strations" which equally greet each of them. The Cabinet crisis in Paris much agitates diplomatic circles in Vienna.

The Gazette of the 19th instant gave the financial statement for the six months ending April 30; the later accounts are still withheld. The receipts were 104,387,712 forms; the expenses 146,889,867 florins ; leaving a deficiency of 42,002,155 florins.

At the beginning of the week, the papers contained a paragraph from a Florence letter quoted in the Corriirc Mercantile of the 13th instant, stating that Tuscany was "as good as incorporated with Austria, and many Tuscan officers pensioned off" A day later' we were told by an electric message from Paris, le that Tuscany had been " infeodated to Austria." On Wednesday, the official Monitore Thscano of the 13th in- stant was received, containing official decrees which do practically sup- press the Ministry of War, and place the Tuscan army under entire con- trol of Austria. They repeal the ordinance of 1848 which abolished the separate office of the general command in chief, and added its functions to the Ministry of War ; they revive the office of the chief command in all its separate and supreme functions, and throw back the Ministry of War to its former merely administrative and subordinate functions they pen- sion off the late commander-in-chief, Lieutenant-General LLgier, and allow him to retire from military service ; and lastly, they give to the Austrian officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Federic Ferrari, the command in chief of the Tuscan army, with all the powers and perquisites of the resuscitated office and with the special commission of definitively organizing "the troops of the Duchy, in the manner most suitable to the future wants and circumstances of the state."

The Austrian Government has also obtained a convention to which the Pope, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, the Duke of Modena, and the Duke of Parma, are parties with the Emperor, for the construction of an ex- tension of the Austrian system of railways in Lombardy through Parma and Modena and across the Tuscan Appenines into the valley of the Arno. The parties agree upon the construction of what will be named "the Railroad of Central Italy." This railway shall commence at two points in Austrian Lombardy, Piacenza and Mantua; the two lines descending thence shall unite at Reggio, and the single line passing thence to Modena and Bologna shall cross the Appenines to Pistoja or Prata—according as the passage of the mountains shall be found "more easy or less expensive "—and be joined at one or other of these towns to the Tuscan lines of railway. Tuscany engages to finish her own railroads from Pistoja to Lucca, and from Pistoja to Florence, "if not previously, at any rate contemporarily" with the Central Railway of Italy.

CAPE or GOOD Hop.—.The war-steamer Birkenhead arrived at Ply-

mouth on Sunday, with the Cape of Good Hope mail which was due in London on the 9th of this month, by the Sir Robert Peel steam-packet. The Sir Robert Peel had not arrived at the Cape when the Birkenhead left it—on the 12th September—though three weeks over-due : it was supposed that she had met with an accident, and had gone to St. Helena. The news from the seat of war is about a month later than that brought on Saturday by the Stornaway merchant-clipper : it is more deeply dis- heartening than at any time since the war begun.

The operations of the antagonist forces are now extended over such a wide area that it is no longer possible to follow the details in newspaper limits. The general result is presented in a brief summary, printed separately, at the moment before the departure of the Birkenhead, for the Government journal, the Monitor.

"Monitor Office, 12th September, 10 a.m.—The ravages of the enemy

continue to be most distressing. Having dispersed themselves over an intra- colonial zone of a breadth varying from thirty to eighty miles, very little of farm-stock or produce has escaped destruction. Beginning at Tarka, whore the Cradock district approaches British Caffraria, we may enumerate the various places as we proceed Southward, by Somerset, Ihtenhage, and Eastward through Albany, till we arrive at Victoria, adjoining the posts maintained by hi i s Excellency n Caffraria ; and everywhere the same melancholy tale of wo has to be repeated. Flocks carded off, homesteads burned to ashes—the

most vigilant of the colonists barely. escaping with their lives, the incautious everywhere shot down by parties in ambush—are, we regret to say, the genera/ features of the narrative. The details, of course, vary slightly, ac- cording to the peculiar circumstances of each locality, and the bravery of the resident farmers. Colonel Eyre's promptitude in marching to Lower Albany, and the judicious arrangements which he made to check the trea- cherous marauders on all sides, have hem attended with the most encoe- raging success. The inhabitants, congratulating themselves on the &sap--

ralice of the ,enemy,. were everywhere turning out. to active agricultural labours. We regret General Somerset's moTemeats, from some unexpleino,j

cause, have been dilatory and unserviceable. His basis of operatioes was to, have been the tract of Albany conterminous' with Somerset and triton/ewe; where he could overlook, as it were, all three districts. We have not learued. whether his demonstrations have produced any effect on the invading and rebel bands. Indeed, we have long apprehended that he put too much con- fidence in his Hottrintot troops. His humanity, we fear, has led him to manifest an injudicious lenity towards these deluded creatures. Ile leans on a broken reed.

" Meanwhile, in British Caffraria, supposed to have been abandoned by the Galina, it is evident that a large force of the enemy is lurking on the watch for an opportunity to commit mischief.". The general picture is gloomy enough, even as drawn by the most

favouring pencil : the details may be judged from a condensed descrip- tion of results in one " action," which took place on the Fish River, an interior stream between our own colonial counties of Victoria and Albany. The Gralur»es Town Journal of the 6th September is the describer.

" The action took place on the lit instant, near Committee's Drift. The

detachment, under Lieutenant-Colonel Burne, Second Royals, encountered a body of Stock's, Seyolo's, aud Botinan's eaffres, with a number of Hotten- tots. Several desperate charges, it is said, were made by the MOD of the Second; who, though unused to this kind of fighting, are stated to have dis- playedgreat spirit. Two men of this regiment were killed (one sergeant and one private) and five wounded ; of the • Royal Sappers and Miners one was killed and one wounded; in the Cape Corps and Armstrong's Horse two men were wounded. In the whole, three men were killed and eight (or accord- ing to another account twelve) wounded. The dead and wounded were sent to Fort Peddle and the detachment returned to King William's Town. On their march the Caffres are said te to have attacked them again : very heavy firing was heard by persons at Fort Peddle, in the direction in which the troops had gone, but the result was not known." There is little additional light upon affairs in the Orange River Sove- reignty. As we stated on Saturday, Major Warden has published a "Government notice extraordinary," in which the people of Moshesh and Molitsane, the Basutos and l3ataungs, are denounced as enemies ; _and in which all the settlers in the Sovereignty are summoned to enrol themselves for military service. The resolution to take this mea- sure seems to have been adopted at a meeting of chiefs on the 4th of June, in Bloom Fontein, to which lioshesh, Molitsane, and Mo- roko were summoned, but at which only Moroko and a number of minor chiefs, including Adam Kock, Gert Taaiboseb, Hero= Batjie, and Sikonyella, were present. Major Warden presided at this meeting, as representative of our. Sovereignty ; and, after a palaver in which each person stated what he knew or had heard of against Molitsane, it was decided unanimously that "operations should commence against Molitsane tomorrow at daybreak." But the meagre accounts received at Graham's Town and Cape Town state that "the in- habitants have generally refused to obey" the summons for enrolment. "A public meeting of landowners and merchants has been held at Bloem Fontein at which resolutions were passed severely censuring the conduct of the Resident towards the denounced chieftains, as impolitic and un- just." However, a force of two companies of the Forty-fifth Regiment, with some native auxiliaries, had been sent from Natal by Lieutearuit- Governor Pine, to the assistance of Major Warden ; and it was said to he the intention of Sir Harry Smith to detach the Twelfth Lancers for the further assistance of Major Warden. The Cape journals say-

" The latest rumours from the Sovereignty, received through Caffreland,

are of a startling nature. It is reported that the two denounced chiefs, Moshesh and Molitsane, were about to join the hostile Caffres with all their forces, numbering 8000 or 10,000 fighting men : but the report needs confirm- ation."

Among the documents received by this mail, are a memorial presentea on the 19th July to Sir Harry Smith by the Board of Defence in Gra- ham's Town, and Sir Harry's reply. The memorial sketches graphically the alarming state of things in the upper frontier dLstaiets. "Within the last six weeks, the enemy has swept off from the district of

Somerset alone upwards of 20,000 sheep, 3000 head of cattle, and 300 horses : since the commencement of the war 200 farm-houses on the North-eastern border have been reduced to ashes, and a large amount of bread corn and other property has been wantonly destroyed. While the frontier colonists have become prostrated by the harassing events of seven months' hostilities, the enemy has received mithir the present week large accessions to his num- bers by the desertions of Hottentot servants, who up to this time had re- mained faithful to their employers ; and, being at the present moment in possession of more cattle than before the war, is not likely to be subdued by famine." From these causes, "the frontier is receding Westwards ; so that Burgher camps and hangers, which but a few weeks ago were regarded as oc- cupying secure positions, are now mere outposts ; and these too are, one by one, being abandoned, as too weak to resist the tide of invasion." "The Burghers of the frontier have been quite unable to protect their own property, which has been already carried off to the extent of several thou- sand pounds; and, therefore, could not afford our Excellency that personal cooperation In the field which seemed so. desirable, and which was 60 ur- gently prayed for. Even the population of Graham's Town, so reduced by contingents supplied for the field, for Government escorts of stores to out- posts, and by the patrol duties Of the Albany Rangers, the Farmer's Club, and lingoes, is, in the absence of any garrison force, regarded by all as un- equal to its own defence. The spontaneous and universal desertion of the Caffre servants was a serious misfortune to the Border 'Farmers ; and being followed by the defection Of the Hottentots, the property of their employers could not with safety be left to their sole care." Under these circumstances, and being at the same time not unmind- ful of Sir Harry Smith's expressed intention to maintain the Caffrarian Forts as a basis of military operatioes, they earnestly entreat his Ex- cellency to "take the present helpless-condition of the Colony" [proper, as distinguished from the Crown territory of British Caffraria] into his

"immediate consideration." - Sir Harry Smith made the followinereply.

" Xing William's Town, Ally 22.--Cfentlemen—Your 'memoir' of the 10th instant reached me yesterday. "2. I have always thought that any regular force at my disposal, which could be given for the interior defence of the frontier, would be Itut*_tate for the purpose, although I ordered there every available reinforc '*WL , My proclamations of the 25th of December and &I of February last the ' Onttal

disregard of which has led to the misfortuneifth predieted,Vdephifid

readily afforded, affairs at this -moment wi %lialt3tvi clia:loluelgdfanitthalbrar such being my impression. ' Had the levy en' their present disastrous aspect from maraud a.l'iriVaware that theYfr-le

now mach difficulty In the Farmers'on'the

owing to the desertion of Idieir'serveales;" ot the .case'biiewhat

tier tFrnin#W,

may be termed the second line ; and I -expect much from a commando now in the field under Mr. Cole, the Civil Commissioner of Albert.

"3. It is indeed melanchrily to Observe the awful state of the country, on which you so truly comment. Major-General Somerset is now detached into the Colony from the immediate frontier ; and his 'Frontier Orders' of the 13th instant show that he is ably exerting himself to meet the evil. "4. However much I admire the conduct of the Albany Rangers—and I base every reason to do so—I cannot admit that the inhabitants of Graham's Town have done as much as might have been expected to contribute towards the general defence; and I ground such an assertion upon their noble con- duct in 1835. "5. Your comments upon the defection of the Hottentots are most just. Lamentable is that defection, and equally unexpected by me as by yourselves. It has cramped my movements and protracted the duration of the war, which would otherwise have ere this been brought to a conclusion. "6. I am but too well aware, gentlemen, of the helpless condition of very many of the inhabitants of the colony. No one can more regret it than myself; and I feel additional pain because I know that the greater part of the evils which have assailed them might have been averted. Had the Burghers at once turned out at the commencement of hostilities, we should not have now to deplore all that you so truly and lamentably describe. In 1849, I proposed to the colony an improvement and modification of the system called the commando system,' which it most unthinkingly opposed. Had the force contemplated by that improved system been at my disposal, the state of affairs would have been indeed far different from what it now is within the colonial border.

"7. The course I have pursued in British Caffmria is the correct one. Had I swerved from a perseverance in it, however awfully the marauding parties have recently carried on their depredations, there would then have been a general rush into the colony of the whole of the Caffre tribes. In war that must be attempted which carries with it a prospect of the greatest general benefit to the whole. "8. I posted the division of the troops under Major-General Somerset at Fort Hare, as a second line for interior defence, and for the Burghers to rally round. Major-General Somerset has moved this division, with my sanction, into the most disturbed districts ; and this most active and enter- prising officer has my authority to establish posts of Burghers at every prominent point best calculated to repel banditti. "9. You are of opinion that the time has now arrived when every able- bodied man should be required to turn out. I think this time arrived seven months ago and I accordingly then called upon them by my proclamation to do so. But what was the result ? Whenever the Burghers will turn out for the occupation of posts, you are aware that I ration them and feed their horses, and their services are important. " 10. Two thousand of the Hottentot levies, as you know, returned to their homes. I am in daily expectation of further reinforcements from Eng- land; and on their arrival, if Major-General Somerset's operations should not have had the desired effect, and if the present demeanour of the Caffres, whisk from the recent and combined successes against them in British .1Daffraria is decidedly that of despondency, continues, I may be enabled to make a more extended disposition of the force under my command.

"11. I have thus entered into this subject with you, gentlemen, with a 'desire to show, that, while as a citizen I sympathize in the present calamity, as commander-in-chief I am exerting myself to the utmost to restore tran- quillity. "I have the honour to be, &c. H. G. SMITH. "The Gentlemen forming the Board of Defence, Graham's Town."

After perusing these authentic descriptions of the state of things with which the Imperial Government has to grapple, the English reader will entertain seriously the opinion expressed in the accounts now received from the Cape, that "additional troops to the number of ten thousand will be required to restore peace in the disaffected districts."

Cstaronbas.—The Californian papers of the end of August describe two remarkable eases of "Lynch law" execution which had been wit-

-nessed in the two chief towns of the state. - •

At. San Francisco, the Vigilante Connuittee had on some day about the 20th 'August, in their custody two "notorious scoundrels," well- known burglars and murderers,' whom they were proposing to try in 'their own way and bring to doom. The authorities of the state sent their o core, and by force took the men out of the custody of the Vigi- lance Committee ; , and thereupon the Committee resolved to recap- ture the men and hang them at once. The work was begun on the morninn.' of Sunday the 24th August. The Alta California of the 25th Augustdeseribes the acts.

"About a quarter-past two o'clock, the prisoners, as has been the custom for several Sundays past, were taken out of their cells for the purpose of lis- tening to Divine service; which was performed by the Reverend A. Williams. Soon after they were called out, the attention of Captain Lambert, the keeper of the gaol, was called to the gate by the sentry who was on the roof; and in a moment the doors were burst open, a rush made, and Contain Lam- bert thrown upon the ground and held. The prisoners, Whittaker and M'Kenzie, were at the same moment seized and carried out. - Two or three .pistol-shots were fired, but were fired in the air, and, it is said, merely as signal's. A carriage was outside, in which the prisoners were placed : it was driven, we understand, by one of the keepers of a livery-stable ; and a pair of fine dashing gray horses sprang. at the word in the direction of Dupont Street. At this juncture the bell of the Monumental fire-engine was rung, in quick, sharp strokes. 'The consternation in the streets can better be imagined than described. People -ran in all directions, but the crowd seemed hurrying towards the county-gaol. The excitement and uproar was terrific. As the multitude surged, now this way, now that, and finally drifted towards the gaol, a carriage might have been seen dashing fiercely down Dupont Street. In it were the capturing party and the prisoners. Pis- tols'Were held at the heads of the victims during the time they were in the carriage; and before the crowd were aware what had happened, Whittaker and Milienzie were safe in the rooms of the Committee. Thirty-six mem- bers were engaged in the rescue of these men, and it is said that they have :for several days been watching an opportunity to recapture them. Most of the party was composed of the room-guards on duty at the time the prison- ers, were taken from the Committee. It is said that Captain Lambert called on his men to fire„, and that pistols were presented with deadly aim on both sides. The prisoners were taken just as the sermon in the prison had been -oencluded,.and resisted to the utmost the strong arm of the capturers." In. a few minutes n vast assemblage of excited citizens crowded the space in front of the Vigilance Chambers, in California Street. "These chambers are two large framedliouses, ranged side by side, of two-story construction, their gable-;enda. fronting Battery Street, in the block between California and Pine Streets, The lower floors of these buildings are occupied as stores; the upper apartments are the Vigilance Chambers, and have each heavy double doors opening upon Battery Street, above which project timbers and pulleys, such as are used in store-lofts for the purpose of hoisting goods from the gmund. . . . . In the Southern chamber a rope had been reeved through

the block attached to the beam above the left door ; and several members, appearing at the fall, lowered the rope to their comrades below, and swung them up from the ground, thus giving them access to the Committee.

" Twelve minutes had elapsed since the alarm was sounded on the fire- bell, -when the door of the Northern chamber opened, and a few members appeared without their coats, and addressed a few words to the heaving, surging masses below. The din of human voices that arose completely drowned the speakers' words. It was understood that the capture of the prisoners was announced. Cries of ' Hang them up!" Now, and here !' ensued; and the tumult and noise each moment grew greater. A member of the Committee waved his band, significant of assent to the proposition ; and in a momentary lull we could catch the remark, hurriedir and ener- getically made, We have them—never fear—it is all right ! ' and a thunder- ing shout of wild congratulation announced that the people below were as fully bent upon witnessing justice done as their representatives in the cham- bers above. A few of the Committee then dashed out the glass above the door of the Southern chamber, and one of their number mounted into the opening, holding one end of a rope. Dexterously clinging to the clapboards on the outside, he managed to pass the rope through the block, and returned with the two ends to the floor. Both doors of the Committee-rooms were then closed, the fatal ropes inside.

" Two minutes only had passed after the ropes were drawn in, and already the crowd showed symptoms of impatience. The first murmur had scarcely arisen, however, when the doors of both chambers were simultaneously jerked open, presenting to view each of the prisoners, half-surrounded at each door by members of the Committee. A terrific shout rent the air. The multitude tossed to and fro ; above all, amid all, calmly but sternly, stood the band of the Brothers of Vigilance, and in their hands the fainting, drooping, gasping criminals, their arms pinioned, and their feet secured. The rope was about their necks, their coats having been removed ' • and they stood aghast and trembling in the brief second of lifetime allowed them to confront the stormy sea of human beings spread far out below them. [They bad confessed to " manifold crimes deserving death."] Another second of time, and they were tossed far out into space and drawn like lightning up to the beam's end. Both were executed at one and the same instant ; the signal being given throughout the chambers, and the members rushing back with the rope un- til the culprits each had been dragged to the block, and hung almost motion- less by the neck. Then a few convulsive throbs, and the names of M'Kenzie and Whittaker were but empty words. "While they were hanging; the crowd below vented in whispers, and some of the more thoughtless in shouts, their approval. One or two of the Com- mittee very indecorously appeared at the threshold from which the poor wretches had the instant before passed into eternity, and seemed to recog- nize acquaintances among the populace, exhibiting very little reverence for the sacredness and solemnity of death, to say the least." "The spectators turned away from the bodies while swinging in the air; and the great crowd began to disperse, slowly, silently, solemnly. Numbers of men were con- tinually arriving on the ground as the earliest comers took their departure. Over fifteen thousand people, probably, visited the place of execution during the afternoon."

The bodies, after hanging forty minutes, were taken down; and, it being found that life still remained in the body of Whittaker, it was again sus- pended from the beam. Twenty minutes thereafter it was a.gain cut down ; and then, we understand, the Coroner was admitted to hold his inquest. But two or three witnesses were examined at the inquest. The physicians present decided that the necks were not broken; and the Jury returned a verdict stating that Samuel Whittaker and Robert IPIlenzie "came to their deaths by being hanged by the neck, thereby producing strangulation by the act of a body of citizens styling themselves the Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, on the afternoon of Sunday, August 24, at about three o'clock, in front of the Vigilance Committee-room, on Battery Street, near California Street, from the second story thereof."

In the city of Sacramento, three highway robbers had been condemned to death, but Governor It'Dougal had respited one of the convicts. The "people" were deeply offended at the act of mercy' they burned the Governor in effigy, and at the last moment when the two prisoners left for execution had been hanged, an extemporized Committee took the other prisoner by force from the city-guard, carried him to the place of execution, and hanged him themselves. The Sacramento Union of the 23d August describes the execution of the two prisoners doomed to death by the Governor, Gibson,—of Belfast, Ireland, and M‘Dermott, of Man- chester, England; and then describes thus the hanging of Robinson, of New York, the criminal whom the Governor had respited. "At the moment the cord was cut a cry was heard, Now for Robinson ' The shout went up from the dense throng, 'Hang the scoundrel !' 'Bring him here!' ' Let him hang too !' The scene which followed was the most terrific we ever witnessed. The thronging crowds rushed for the station-house in the greatest excitement, and on all sides was heard the same thrilling cry, Hang the rascal!' A gentleman came forward upon the platform, and an- nounced that Robinson was on the ground, and as soon as the bodies of Gibson and Thompson were cut down, would be brought forward to meet his domn. Colonel Grant also addressed the crowd, and stated teat the prisoner richly de- served to die, and that he was happy to see that the public coincided with him. The muffled drum of the guards announced that the culprit Robinson woe approaching. The crowd gave way, the Committee with their prisoner slowly and solemnly ascended the scaffold, and the guards formed a hollow square around it below." Robinson confessed his guilt ; received religious

o ' ffices with the utmost self-possession and firmness bared his neck and ad- justed the rope ; and then, by the act of the President of the extemporized Committee, was hanged till he was dead. The Sacramento Union concludes with these remarks on the event- " It was the most exciting day we have ever passed in the city of Sacra- mento. The unprecedented and peculiar circumstances connected with the execution of the culprits, added to the high-wrought curiosity of the thou- sands assembled to witness the demonstrations of the legal authorities on the one hand and the greater and more potent authority of the people on the other, was enough in itself to excite the mind to its utmost tension. Business was entirely suspended, the streets were deserted, the city was at the scaffold. Every house, shed, or elevation from which a view of the scaf- fold could be obtained, was crowded with human beings; and there must have been 7000 or 8000 persons on the ground."