Numbers would be disappointed in the search for gold ;
but how many could return ? Few. California therefore will be colonized impromptu—settled by a community of gold-finders: a happy family ! There has been some talk of establishing a pro. per government over the territory; but a grave difficulty is sagely descried—such a population, SO Circumstanced, will for the present be ungovernable : at least, the Model Republic has no such re- sources in reserve as to be able to provide an efficient machinery of government. A respectable citizen in California, next summer, will be among the minority; and the new Dorado is likely to dis- play strange scenes.
Apprehensions respecting the golden discovery have not been limited by the American shores—even in this country speculative people have been vatioinating a total derangement of the cur- rency of the world, from the quantity of Californian gold to be thrown into the market. According to some calculators, there will be two or perhaps four sovereigns where one has been, prices will run up, and contracts will be all deranged. Inter alia, the burden of the English National Debt would be proportionately reduced. But let us secure our gold before we build much on these wild reckonings.
The question of slavery has been raised in a formidable shape by the recent acquisitions : the inhabitants of New Mexico, the Northern States of the Union, and the House of Representatives, are all for excluding slavery. In the Senate, Mr. Calhoun com- plains that the demand of the New Mexicans is "insolent," and he made a motion intimating as much; but he was beaten by 33 votes to 14.
The acquisitions of the Model Republic bring forth all its ava- rice, all its feebleness of political organization, and all the weak- ness inherent in the institution of slavery. In the end, Mexico will not have paid the dearest for the war.
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