SOCIETV IN CALIFORNIA. [From the " Evening Picayune," September 2.]

New Zealander, Volume 6, Issue 489, 21 December 1850, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOCIETY IN CALIFORNIA. [From the " Evening Picayune," September 2.]

The " Gold Discovery"-in thia country hu probably produced a more Hidden and more general movement of mind and activity of enterprise throughout the whole civilized world, than any singular event that has ever occurred. It has seemed to lay ojen, within the grain of every man, the grand catholicon for healing all the miseries of want. It has promised to every poor man an abundance of wealth, and to the rich man, that desideratum so universally coveted — " a little more.*' Hetict there has been a general rush for our pincers, fiom all daises of men and from almost every station and avocation of life. Sacrifices of every degree and form have been *nade which no other motive could induce, but that arising from the probability of a quick and full harvest of gold. The tenderest ties of domestic life were broken, all the comforts and sweet asso* ciutions of HOME were abandoned, all the social attachments and relation* of good neighbourhood were severed, under the idea that the leiset was sacrificed for the greater good to be found in the possession of riches easily and rapidly to be acquired. Very few of the tens of thousands who have crowded on their way to this land of gold, < have had the remotest idea of remaining in the country more than one or two years within which time they have intended and expected to acquire a competency sufficient to enable them to return to their dearly beloved homes with the means of an easy and luxurious life through the remainder of their days. Almost none who have come into the couu.

try have brought with them the fixed determination, formed beforehand, to remain and identify their interests with the interest! and destinies of society here. Some few may have entertained the undefined, idea, that professional or politicarpreferraent might be mora easily gained here, than in the strifes and competitions that attended their aspiration! at home ; but the considerations that hate governed almost all, if not every one to repair hither, hare been personal and temporary. It is true that a very large population baa flowed in composed of men of maturity of chancier, and a large proportion of them possessed of natural abilities, finished education, and cu!tivatv'd 4 habiis of social life, that qualify them to adorn any sphere of life or circles of society. But they have not come with the purpoie of buiMiog up the permanent institutions of, the State, either in respect to domestic order, social organizations, or political dignity and efficiency. Their commanding interests and controlling affVctious cluster around the home* they have left, and the grand incentive to every effort they make, either for personal distinction or pecuniary gain, is the possible acquisition O' means to make that temporarily deserted home more agreeable to themselves, or more enviable in the eyes of their neighbours when they shall turn to them.. There is scarcean officer entrustrd with tb» execution of our State Government, scarce a legislator chosen to frame the laws under which our interests and the interests of those who are to come ifter us are to be regulated, scarce a judicial officer from the bench of the Supreme court, down to the clerks of a village justice of the peace, sesree a functionary belonging to the municipal administrations of our cities and incorporated towns, who has not entered upon his duties and responsibilities, as the meant of making money enough to carry him home, and restore him to the eni braces of the society he supremely loves. Hia devotion to the well-being and advancement of the commuuity whose confidence be hag sought and won, is measured by the dollars and cents to be acquired by fidelity and industry in his place, rather than by any prospective regard to the influence which his official career may have upon the destinies ' of the community in which he has no intention to become permanently concerned. He may for the present popularity of the thing countenance any propositions that are brought forward, for the establishment of churches, schools, associations for mutual improvement aud such like frame work and auxiliaries of all civilized socittks. tint his heart is not iv them as it «vould be r if his own family was surrounding him morning and nighf,and bis own children were taking their imprest of character from tne influences in which he moves. His real sentiment could be uttered in the language " what do I care, or why should I car* for the future of the miseiable country, which may God permit mo to abandon as soon as I have accomplished the sole object of my present exile. Let those who have no better home construct society for themselves as they list and make the most they can out of the dregs from the bottom of the hern of plenty, when I shall have satisfied my desires from the overflow of its brim." With iuch views not only on the part of public men but also pervading almost all minds that influence society, all become careless in respect to the mode* and usages of life to which they have been habituated in refined circles; they lose, practically, the tastes aud sensibilities that give light and life to the social and domestic relations and intercourse : almost none but the sordid jassions of the mind and heart are kept active aud developed, and in all. pervading selfishneia almost unqualified by iegrets, suffers society in all its) essential elemeuts^o tumble into chaos. , There is no cure' for this, as we can perceive, by any extraneous appliances. The remedy must be lougiit in Ihe determination of individuals to fix their per-t mnnent residences and building up their abiding interesti, pecuniary, political, social and domestic in the coun'ry which offers them an infinitely greater certain* ty of permanent success in the prosecution of all that gratify rational desires, than it does of acquiring, in ont or two years, the wealth that will tuffice for all future life. We art glad to perceive that some who have sup* posed that they had got enough, and have been home to enter upon the enjoyments which they had thought a fortune could purchase, have waked up to the delusion, and have come back to link their destinies to those of the country. And we are glad to know that other* are contemplating a return, and are to bring with them the chief objects of attachment that drew them away for a time, with the purpose of forming their domestic establishments and social alliances on these western shores. It is cheering to know also that many others now in our midst, and scattered through onr interior towns, have tent for their families and still others have formed the purpose to do to, to come out and join them where they are already beginning to feel at home. Shuuld this course become very general so that our leading men in official, professional, mercantile and other useful stations, should become permanently fixed us Californiais in all their sympathies, attachments and interests, we *hall soon have all the relations of private and social life, restored to the dominion of their appropriate laws • and we shall witness the rapid and vigorous growth of a generous and manly patriotism, that wouid preclude the probability if not the possibility of any of that prostitution ef politic*! preferment or official place to selfish ends. We should keir much less of the disgusting charges of judicial corruption and demoralizing intrigues, for which such strong motives may be supposed to exist ia the present state of society, and under the prevalence of the supreme selfishness which is professedly the governning pnci}>le among us.

A Quack Answered —A quack in Boston, Visiting bit patient one morning, was accoited thus: — " Doc tor, pray what is it that keeps the meat and drink apart in the stomach ?'• " I'll tell you," gayi the quick ; "in erery person's throat, there are tiro pipes and a clapper ; now when we go to eat, that clapper •huts the drinking pipe." " Well, doctor," replied the patient, " that clapper mutt play darned sharp wheu we eat pudding and milk !" More than hb wanted.— A gentleman in Philadelphia, intending to ridicule Peter Porcupine, (Cob- < bet) went to his store and enquired whether he had Porcupine's quills for aale ? The British wag replied in the affirmative, took from his shelf a bundle of common writing quills, and tendered them to the gentleman. The would-be wit immediately took the quills and paid for them ; then archly looked at Peter, inquired again whether they were Porcupine's quills ? "O no," replied Cobbet, '• they were indeed so once, but they are goose quills now." Thirty thousand landlords own England ; three thousand own Scotland; lix thousand own Ireland; leaving more than 25,000,000 inhabitants of thole countries without a foot of God's creation.