large numbers of felons found their way to California, from the convict islands of Van Dieman's Land and New South Wales, and there, under the existing laxity of law and audacity of crime, reaped a rich harvest.

Such, then, was the condition of affairs throughout the state, when, goaded and outraged beyond endurance, the well-disposed citizens determined to become a law unto themselves, and to administer that law in the interests of justice and self-protection, with promptness and decision. Examples were not long wanting for the execution of their purpose; and, in pursuance of the same end, the citizens of San Francisco soon found their wrongs being redressed by a powerful voluntary organization of the most influential men in the city, styled the Vigilance Committee, who, in the constitution of their association, declared that they thus united themselves together, "to preserve the lives and property of the citizens of San Francisco,binding themselves, each unto the other, to do and perform every lawful act for the maintenance of law and order, and to sustain the laws when faithfully and properly administered, but determined that no thief, burglar, incendiary, or assassin, escape punishment, either by the quibbles of the law, the insecurity of prisons, the carelessness or corruption of the police, or a laxity on the part of those pretending to administer justice."

The first, and one of the most exciting of the cases growing out of this extraor dinary organization, occurred in San Francisco, in June, 1851, when a Sidney convict was caught in the act of carrying away a small safe which he had stolen. The man, a desperate character, was seized by some members of the vigilance committee, who conducted him forthwith to their head-quarters, where he was tried in the presence of about eighty members of the association sitting with closed doors, by them convicted, and sentenced to be hung in Portsmouth Square, that night. During the progress of the trial, the citizens had assembled in large numbers about the

building and in Portsmouth Square, the bell on the engine-house at the latter locality having rung the pre-arranged signal, to give notice of the proceedings going on.

Though very much excited, the populace were not disorderly. Some disapprobation was manifested at the secrecy of the committee's doings; but when the result was known, there was a very general acquiescence, although there were many who deemed the punishment too severe for the offense, and others thought he should be executed in broad daylight. As soon as the sentence was passed, the bell on the California Engine House, near by, commenced to toll the funeral knell of the wretched man. This was at one o'clock, midnight. Captain Ray, of the police force, applied at the door of the committee's room, and demanded the prisoner, but was refused several times, and although others of the police force were on the ground, they saw it was of no use to attempt a rescue.

Some person climbed the liberty pole to rig a block for the execution, but a loud shout of "Don't hang him on the liberty pole," arose from all quarters. Voices screamed out, "To the old adobe," and a rush was made for that edifice, upon the corner of the square, formerly occupied as the custom-house. ing, a block was rigged, and a long rope run through it. In the meantime, a number of the police who were on the ground, made several attempts to obtain possession of the prisoner, whose arms were tightly pinioned and who was closely surrounded by an armed and resolute body of the committee, but they were sternly prevented; had they persisted, they would have been riddled with balls. Several citizens denounced the execution, and sought to aid the police.

At the end of the build

The prisoner by this time was nearly dead with fear and rough handling, when a rush was made toward him, a noose thrown over his head, the rope manned by twenty ready hands, who ran backwards, dragging the wretched man along the ground, until, raising him swiftly to the

rush made, and Captain Lambert thrown upon the ground and held. The prisoners were at the same moment seized and carried out. A carriage was outside, in which the criminals were placed, and a pair of fine, dashing gray horses sprang at the word in the direction of Dupont street. At this juncture, the bell of the Monumental was rung in quick, sharp strokes. The excitement and uproar were terrific, the multitude surging now this way, now that, as the carriage dashed fiercely along. Pistols were held at the heads of the captives while they rode along, and almost before the crowd realized what had happened, the prisoners were safe in the committee's chamber of judgment. The prisoners were taken by about forty armed persons, just as the sermon in the prison had been concluded, and resisted to the utmost the strong arm of the capturers, weapons being presented with deadly aim on both sides.

From every ward in the city, and from the most remote suburban parts within the sound of the Vigilance bell, people came flocking, breathless and excited, to the scene of execution. The streets presented a scene of furious, mad disorder. Living masses surged down the by-ways, through the thoroughfares, and over the planked roads, until the tramp and roar of the multitude sounded like the beating of the ocean waves upon a stormy shore. Montgomery street poured its tide of human masses into California street, and the latter emptied its living contents, like a mighty river, upon the spot where the prisoners had been taken by their captors, namely, the vigilance committee's chambers-two large frame-houses, ranged side by side, of two-story construction, their gable ends fronting Battery street, in the block between California and Pine streets. The lower floors of these buildings were occupied as stores-the upper apartments as the Vigilance chambers, each having heavy double doors, opening upon Battery street, above which projected timbers and pulleys, such as are used in store-lofts for the purpose of hoisting goods from the ground.

And now an outcry and huzza rent the air, and was borne up from the rooms of the committee far into the city, until ten` thousand throats seemed to join in a general cheer and shout of congratulation. The committee were preparing to execute justice upon the criminals! A carriage dashed round the corner and up California street. It was greeted with cheer after cheer. The driver stood up in his box, waved his hat, and huzzaed in reply. This was the carriage in which the prisoners had been carried off from the county jail, and which was now returning from the committee rooms. It was drawn by gray-white horses, whose sides were reeking with foam and perspiration.

In the southern chamber, a rope had been 'reeved' through the block attached to the beam above the left door. When the door of the northern chamber opened, a few members appeared without their coats, and addressed a few words to the masses below, announcing the capture of the prisoners. Cries of "hang them up!"

now and here!" ensued, and the tumult each moment grew greater. "We have them · -never fear—it is all right," responded the committee; and a thundering shout of wild congratulation went up from the surging mass. A few of the committee then smashed out the glass above the door of the southern chamber, and one of their number mounted into the opening, holding one end of a rope. Dexterously clinging to the clapboards on the outside, he managed to pass the rope through the block, and returned with the two ends to the floor. Both doors of the committee rooms were then closed-the fatal ropes inside.

Seventeen minutes had now been spent in rescuing the prisoners from the jail, conveying them to the rooms, and completing the preliminaries of their execution. The great, dense, agitated crowd that covered the roofs, and clung by dozens to the sides of all the adjoining houses, and packed the streets, darkened the walls, and filled the rigging and boats along the docks, presented an awful and imposing

spectacle of excited, impatient and resolute manhood. Ten thousand faces were upturned, when the doors of both chambers were simultaneously jerked open, presenting to view each of the prisoners, half surrounded at each. door by committee men. A terrific shout rent the air.

The multitude tossed to and fro-above all, amid all, calmly but sternly stood the band of vigilants, and in their hands the fainting, drooping, gasping criminals, their arms pinioned and their feet secured. The rope was about their necks, their coats having been removed, and they stood aghast and trembling in the brief second of lifetime allowed them to confront the stormy sea of human beings below. Another second of time, and they were tossed far out into space, and drawn like lightning to the beam's end. Both were executed at one and the same instant, the signal being given throughout the chambers, and the members rushing back with the rope until the culprits each had been dragged to the block, and hung almost motionless by the neck. Then a few convulsive throbs, and all was over. McKenzie was attired in gray pants and coarse shirt, and was hung from the beam in front

| of the northern room; while being dragged to the fatal spot from the further end of the room, he manifested the most overwhelming fright and terror, and the countenance he exhibited, when brought up to the door, was one never to be forgotten by those who looked upon ithis face was pallid, his eyes upturned, his hair appeared to stand out from the scalp, and every fiber of his flesh quivered and seemed to clutch existence. Whittaker was more indifferent and unmoved; but he was cleanly dressed, and was much the better looking man of the two.

Such terrible and repeated examples of swift justice at the hands of the committee, proved effective, to a great degree, in cleansing San Francisco from the horde of criminals with which it had so sorely been infested, and, for a long time after, the citizens ceased to live in terror of burglars, robbers, assassins, and incendiaries. In Sacramento, too, where similar scenes of retribution had been enacted, resulting in the summary execution of those noted felons, Roe, Robinson, Gibson, and Thompson, the work of reformation seemed wellnigh effectual. Indeed, the occupation of a vigilance committee appeared to be over