If Major Hardie's command cannot afford a proper clerk for the customhouse, you must hire one as a matter of course. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons U. S. A., Governor of California. Captain J. L. FOLSOM, Assistant Quartermaster, San Francisco. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 20, 1847. SIR: I am in the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant. The prac-. tice has been to sentence persons convicted of horse stealing to a fine and a certain length of time to hard labor on any sort of general or public work, the length of service to be according to the nature and degree of the offence; and in very aggravated cases, I think, in addition to the im prisonment and hard labor, a sentence of fifty lashes would have a salutary effect. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons U. S. A., Governor of California. Alcalde, San José. JAMES W. WEEKS, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 20, 1847. SIR: A copy of the quarterly account current of funds derived from the customs, which you are required to make direct to the Secretary of War, will be promptly forwarded to this office by the first mail after the expiration of the quarter. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Lieutenant H. S. CARNES, Acting Assistant Quartermaster, Santa Barbara. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: The quarterly account referred to in my letter of the 28th Novem- R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Lieutenant J. N. DAVIDSON, Acting Assistant Quartermaster, Los Angeles. P. S. Say to the collector at San Pedro, that a copy of his monthly statement of revenue collected, and a copy of his quarterly account, must be sent to this office. R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: As you are required to account direct to the Secretary of War for all funds coming into your hands from the customs, you will forward to this office by the first mail, after the expiration of each quarter, a copy of your quarterly account current, showing the receipts and expenditures during the quarter, together with the balance on hand that may not have been turned over to Lieutenant Davidson. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Lieutenant ROBERT CLIFF, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 20, 1847. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th instant. Your own certificates of election to the gentlemen composing your town council will be all sufficient. The powers of the council are the same as those given to the town council at San Francisco, which you will find in my letter of the 15th July last, published in the California and Star of the 4th September, and my letter of the 1st October, published in the California of the 6th, and the Star of the 16th, of the same month. I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. L. W. BOGGS, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 21, 1847. SIR: I have received your letter of the 9th instant. Although it would afford me at all times much pleasure to extend to Mr. Forbes, the British vice consul, all courtesies and civilities in my power, I cannot find that he can claim as a matter of right to be exempt from the payment of duties on articles imported by himself into the country: on the contrary, ambassadors, and even sovereigns themselves, are subject to them. Vattel, page 484, paragraph 105, says: "The independency of the ambassador exempts him, indeed, from every personal imposition, capitation, or other duty of that nature, and in general from every tax relating to the character of the subject of the state; but as for duties laid on any kind of goods or provisions, the most absolute dependency does not exempt him. from the payment of them; even sovereigns themselves are subject to them." I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons U. S. Army, Governor of California. Captain Wм. RICHARDSON, Late Collector, San Francisco. CIRCULAR. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 21, 1847. You will use every effort in your power to carry into full effect the proclamation of the 29th of November last, prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors or wine to Indians. R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. To the ALCALDE and INDIAN AGENTS, California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 22, 1847. SIR: I am in the receipt of your communication of the 20th instant, and its enclosure. In cases where a jury cannot come to a decision, after being out a reasonable time, the practice is to empannel a new jury to try the case. I return to you the papers enclosed in your letter of the 20th instant. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. JAS. W. WEEKS, Alcalde, Pueblo de San José. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: I have received through Major Hardie, at San Francisco, a petition from the people of your town, to have a military guard stationed at the pueblo. Before making up my mind on the subject, I wish to know whether proper quarters can be obtained for them, and at what cost; also, at what price beef can be had. I will thank you for any information you can give me on the subject. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, JAS. W. WEEKS, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Alcalde, Pueblo de San José. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 22, 1847. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 25th November, enclosing an account of $171, for services rendered in rescuing emigrants from the California mountains. It would give me much pleasure, I assure you, if it were in my power to order the account paid. I hoped before now to have received from our government at Washington full instructions in relation to all outstanding debts and claims against the United States in California, that will enable me to have them settled and paid off, but at present it is entirely out of my power to touch them. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Mr. M. D. RITCHEY, HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, I beg leave to remind your reverence that I have not received the document you hold, which you informed me authorized you to sell the mission lands, and which you were to send me. Upon examining such laws as are within my reach, I find them so particular in forbidding the sale of mission lands, that I fear you labor under some misapprehension as to the legal powers you possess to sell those lands. I hope to be favored by the return of mail with the document you promised to furnish me. I am, reverend father, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. To the Rev. Father Jose M. REAL. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 24, 1847. SIR: Your letter of the 17th instant is before me. The first part of it is already answered by previous instructions. For your information and guidance, as well as that of Captain Lippett, I enclose you a copy of a post order (No. 54) of November 1st, that I found necessary to issue here, relating to the officers and soldiers purchasing articles from vessels in the harbor. That the revenue may not be defrauded, soldiers must be restricted in their purchases to a reasonable amount. It is not reasonable to suppose that a private soldier could or would buy for his own individual use $400 worth of comestibles; and the natural inference is, that they were bought for other purposes. This subject must in future be clearly looked to; and, whilst the soldier is permitted to purchase any imported article for his own individual use and consumption, and not intended for sale or transfer to others, free of duty, the revenue must be guarded by not permitting him to buy in larger quantities than his own personal comfort and wants may seem reasonably to require. 1 am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Lieut. H. S. CARNES, R. B. MASON, Col. 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Act'g Asst. Quartermaster, Santa Barbara. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 26, 1847. SIR: I yesterday received your letter of the 21st instant, in relation to the goods seized from the schooner Mary Ann. I did not view your letter of the 28th October as presenting the case for decision, but merely as mentioning the occurrence of the seizure, &c. I do not deem it at all necessary that every seizure should receive confirmation from me before the goods are sold: the regulations are plain, and explicitly point out when the collector is authorized to seize and sell goods. He may with propriety suspend the sale when the owner of the goods protests against the seizure, and wishes himself to refer the matter to higher authority; though, strictly speaking, the regulations do not appear to have looked to higher authority, but to have made the collector the sole judge. I have no recollection of receiving any letter from Captain Patty on the subject, and cannot find that one has been received. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Capt. J. L. FOLSOM, R. B. MASON, Col. 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Asst. Quartermaster, San Francisco. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 26, 1847. SIR: I enclose you, herewith, Captain Marcy's receipt for $250, it being the amount paid on the invoice of goods brought from San Francisco in the brig Henry, and landed at Santa Cruz, which was exacted from the brig (because there was no evidence that the duties had been previously paid) under a promise to refund, upon satisfactory evidence being produced from you that the duties had been paid. Your certificate, upon the invoice enclosed to me by Mr. C. L. Ross, |