P. S.-Since writing the foregoing I have overhauled the manifest and invoices of the brig Henry, from San Francisco. Her invoices show no mark or number of the boxes, packages, &c., which constitute her cargo, nor the value of the articles; neither does her manifest show the number of any box or package. This informality in her papers gives us a great deal of perplexity here. I wish that in future you will suffer no manifest to pass from your office without seeing that marks and numbers are properly expressed thereon, and that the marks and numbers on the invoices correspond with those on the manifest. Give no vessel a clearance until the master presents to you the manifest and invoices properly made out and authenticated. R. B. M., Colonel 1st Dragoons. DECEMBER 7. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: In your account current with the civil government of California for the month of October. 1847, you credit yourself with two sums— forty-two dollars and six dollars-and enter them as disbursements per voucher No. 1, and do. per voucher No. 2. These vouchers are not to be found among the papers received here relating to customs, &c., collected at the port of San Diego for the said month. As it is necessary that these accounts should be perfectly explicit, and that all vouchers referred to in the account current should accompany that document, you will be pleased to take the earliest opportunity to transmit to this office the vouchers for the above stated sums. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 10, 1847. SIR: There are some three or four vessels, under foreign flags, that are owned by resident citizens of California. Such vessels will be permitted to continue in the coasting trade, from port to port, on the coast of California, until the pleasure of the President of the United States can be known-subject, however, in the mean time, to the concurrence of the 'officer commanding the United States naval forces in the Pacific, who is at present absent from the coast of California. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, ornia. To the COLLECTORS OF CUSTOMS in the ports of California. Know all men by these presents, that I, Richard B. Mason, colonel Ist regiment dragoons United States army, and governor of California, by virtue of authority in me vested, do hereby appoint Stephen C. Foster alcalde for and in the town and jurisdiction of Ciudad de los Angeles, to take effect on the 1st day of January, 1848. Given at Monterey, the capital of California, this tenth day of December, A. D. 1847, and of the independence of the United States the seventy-second. Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Know all men by these presents, that I, Richard B. Mason, colonel 1st regiment dragoons United States army, and governor of California, by virtue of authority in me vested, do hereby appoint Robert Cliff alcalde for and in the town and jurisdiction of San Diego. Given at Monterey, the capital of California, this 10th day of December, A. D. 1847, and of the independence of the United States the seventy-second. R. B. MASON, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 10, 1847. SIR: I have this day appointed Mr. Stephen C. Foster alcalde for the district and pueblo de los Angeles, to take effect on the 1st day of January, A. D. 1848. You will, therefore, on that day deliver over to him all the books, papers, and records, appertaining to the office of alcalde, as also any property or funds that may properly belong to the same-taking care to give the proper inventories of all that you deliver over to your successor in office. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, ALCALDE, R. B. MASON, Ciudad de los Angeles, California. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, COLONEL: I enclose herewith the appointment of alcalde for Mr. Stephen C. Foster, and also a letter to the present alcalde at Los Angeles, which be pleased to hand to him. I transmit by the same mail which takes this, the appointment of alcalde to Lieutenant Cliff, at San Diego. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Col. J. D. STEVENSON, Commanding Southern Mil. District, Los Angeles. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, Monterey, California, December 11, 1847. COMMODORE: I have the honor herewith to enclose to you some printed copies of extracts from the instructions received from Washington, for collecting the military contributions in California, prepared for the information of ship-masters and merchants, in which are included the additional items and alterations agreed upon between us before you sailed from this port, as also some additional items of my own, made since your departure. Your absence from the coast must be my apology for giving instructions to the collectors upon matters which the President has confided to you; but I deemed them of sufficient importance to justify me in giving the orders, and hope they will meet your approbation. I also enclose you a copy of my letter to the Adjutant General of the 12th of November, as a part of it refers to the subject of duties, &c., and changes which I have made upon my own responsibility. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, R. B. MASON, rnia. Colonel 1st Dragoons, Governor of California. Commodore W. BRANFORD SHUBRICK, Commanding U. S. naval forces off Mazatlan, and in the Pacific. HEADQUARTERS TENTH MILITARY DEPARTMENT, SIR: Your two communications of the 29th November and the 12th December are before me. The moneys arising from the customs must be kept and accounted for separate from the other public funds. A copy of your quarterly account current to the War Department, now that the funds from the custom-house are settled there, need only be sent to this office. The monthly statement of revenue collected, intended for the War Department, comes through this office, that it may be entered in a book kept for that purpose, so that the amount collected in all the ports may be known here monthly. You speak of your custom-house accounts being setted at the treasury. Perhaps it has escaped your observation (see page 4 of the printed regulations) that these accounts are settled at the War and Navy Departments, according as funds collected by army and navy officers, and not at the treasury. . I have carefully read over my letter to you of the 6th instant: I cannot see how you can construe it into a censure of your conduct; surely, none such was intended. It was only meant to impart such information as I had been enabled to gain during the short time I have been discharging the duties of custom-house officer, and to point out the errors of shipmasters and merchants in making out their manifests and invoices, and showing you that the only way to compel them to make them out properly was to withhold the clearance until they did so. 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 practice 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 imprisonment 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, Monterey, California, December 20, 1847. SIR: The quarterly account referred to in my letter of the 28th November, need only be a copy of the one you make direct to the Secretary of War, in accordance with the printed instructions from Washington. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, 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 |