passage of an act concerning county
sheriffs, in which the duties and responsibilities of those officers,
not only in the execution of process and the detention of prisoners,
but as keepers of the county jail, were declared and defined; also
an act concerning county recorders, in which the present system of
keeping records was adopted. This latter act, though drawn by me, was
introduced by Mr. Merritt, of Mariposa, but he does not hesitate
to speak publicly of my authorship of it. I also prepared a bill
concerning divorces, which was reported from the Judiciary Committee
as a substitute for the one presented by Mr. Carr, of San Francisco,
and was passed. In this act, aside from the ordinary causes of
adultery, and consent obtained by force or fraud, for which divorces
are granted, I made extreme cruelty and habitual intemperance, wilful
desertion of either husband or wife for a period of two years, and
wilful neglect of the husband to provide for the wife the common
necessaries of life, having the ability to provide the same, for
a period of three years, also causes of divorce. I also drew the
charters of the cities of Marysville, Nevada, and Monterey, which were
adopted--that of Monterey being reported by the Judiciary Committee as
a substitute for one introduced by a member from that district. Other
bills drawn or supported by me were passed, the provisions of which
are still retained in the laws of the State.

But notwithstanding all this, when I turned my face towards Marysville
I was, in a pecuniary sense, ruined. I had barely the means to pay my
passage home. My ventures, after my expulsion from the bar, in June,
1850, had proved so many maelstroms into which the investments were
not only drawn but swallowed up. My affairs had got to such a pass
that before I left Marysville for the Legislature I felt it to be my
duty to transfer all my real property to trustees to pay my debts,
and I did so. And now when I stepped upon the landing in Marysville my
whole available means consisted of eighteen and three-quarter cents,
and I owed about eighteen thousand dollars, the whole of which bore
interest at the rate of ten per cent. a month. I proceeded at once to
the United States Hotel, kept by a Mr. Peck, who had known me in the
days of my good fortune. "My dear Mr. Peck," I said, "will you trust
me for two weeks' board?" "Yes," was the reply, "and for as long as
you want." "Will you also send for my trunks on the steamer,