e in the
Sacramento valley are claimed by two persons, who parcel it out to gambling speculators for the purpose of obtaining high prices from actual settlers, and this was but a sino^le instance.
There were not wanting men to espouse the cause of law and order, in its relation to squatterism, as elsewhere, and to cry loudly against the violation of the sacred principles that constitute the frame-work of society, whenever such violation stood between them and titles to lands held or coveted. On the other hand, if law and order stood between them and their interests, they were the foremost to espouse squatterism and brute-force title. The Herald, at first the great champion of reform, the leader of the people, and the instigator of committees of vigilance, was denounced by its contemporaries, as later it de- nounced the leaders of the reform of 1856, " Nothing more plainly proves the real opinion of many land- holders and speculators in the city," says one, writing in the autumn of 1850, "regarding the validity of their titles, than the reckless and desperate course they are now pursuing, as expressed through their hireling newspaper organs, at the head of which stands the Herald. If the present judges cannot, like most of our old alcaldes, be bribed to uphold the existing system of land-ownership, and in the face of all law, equity, reason, honesty, and common sense, decide that the beach and water lots, as well as the greater portion of the rest of the city, are in- disputable titles in the names of those holding them under such a system, I would ask the Herald and its supporters what they expect to gain by over- turning these courts, murdering the judges, and rais- ing a civil war to destroy the very government which, for the time being, alone gives any support and coun- tenance to the dishonest and fraudulent land robbery practised not only in this city but in all parts of California."
Low indeed lie the social sewers
