The Most
Northerly Presidio Is San Francisco; The Next Monterey; The Next
Santa Barbara; Including The Mission Of The Same, St. Louis Obispo,
And St. Buenaventura, Which Is The Finest Mission In The Whole
Country, Having Very Fertile Soil And Rich Vineyards.
The last,
and most southerly, is San Diego, including the mission of the same,
San Juan Campestrano, the Pueblo de los Angelos, the largest town in
California, with the neighboring mission of San Gabriel.
The priests
in spiritual matters are subject to the Archbishop of Mexico, and in
temporal matters to the governor-general, who is the great civil and
military head of the country.
The government of the country is an arbitrary democracy; having no
common law, and no judiciary. Their only laws are made and unmade at
the caprice of the legislature, and are as variable as the legislature
itself. They pass through the form of sending representatives to the
congress at Mexico, but as it takes several months to go and return,
and there is very little communication between the capital and this
distant province, a member usually stays there, as permanent member,
knowing very well that there will be revolutions at home before he
can write and receive an answer; if another member should be sent,
he has only to challenge him, and decide the contested election in
that way.
Revolutions are matters of constant occurrence in California.
They are got up by men who are at the foot of the ladder and in
desperate circumstances, just as a new political party is started
by such men in our own country.
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