$4,000. Green had refused to abide by the decision of the appraiser, and so brouglit the suit. The trial ended, the jury brought in a verdict of $8,000 for the plaintiff, stipulating that no imputation of unfairness should lay at the door of the appraiser. The judge told them that the hitter clause of their verdict was superfluous, and must be stricken out. The jury atrain retired, and in a few minutes broutrht in a verdiet for the defendant, with some $500 costs which the plaintiff must pay, whereat the court and all present smiled audibly.
A Sacramento court-room was the scene of a somewhat undignified emeufe on the 16th of June, 1852, growing out of squatters' troubles, respecting which there were still many smothered feuds. No sooner was the court adjourned at noon than one McKune, of whom the associate judge, Wilson, had made some disparaging remarks, stepped forward and demanded an apology. This his honor refused to make, when McKunc and a friend of his, Caulfield, attacked the judge, and beat him over the head with a walkingstick. Judge Wilscm carried a sword-cane, which he drew, and plunged the steel into the body of his assailant. Pistols were then employed ; Caulfield fired once and the judge once. The jail-keeper rushing between the combatants received in his body the ball intended for the judge. There was great excitement throughout the city respecting the affair, and much talk of lynching.
A prosperous mining district always furnished the courts an abundance of business, and the lawyers fa,t fees. Titles and bounderies to claims were the chief causes of dissension, and if the contestants were able, their advocates had no difficulty in making them pay well for indulging in the luxury of law.
Jesse Niles, made magistrate of Donkey ville by an overwhelming majority of the people, was a long, sin
