"
The Supreme Court of the State, without considering the reasons thus
assigned in the case in Plowden, adopted its conclusion; and as the
gold and silver in the British realm are there held to belong to the
Crown, it was concluded, on the hypothesis that the United States have
no municipal sovereignty within the limits of the State, that they
must belong in this country to the State. The State, therefore, said
the court, "has solely the right to authorize them" (the mines of
gold and silver) "to be worked; to pass laws for their regulation; to
license miners; and to affix such terms and conditions as she may
deem proper to the freedom of their use. In the legislation upon this
subject she has established the policy of permitting all who desire it
to work her mines of gold and silver, with or without conditions,
and she has wisely provided that their conflicting claims shall be
adjudicated by the rules and customs which may be established by
bodies of them working in the same vicinity."--(3 Cal., 220.)
The miners soon grasped the full scope of this decision, and the lands
of private proprietors were accordingly invaded for the purpose of
mining as freely as the public lands. It was the policy of the State
to encourage the development of the mines, and no greater latitude in
exploration could be desired than was thus sanctioned by the highest
tribunal of the State.
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