the recovery of portions of such lands. Actions for the possession
of mining claims, water privileges, and the like, situated upon the
public lands, are matters of daily occurrence, and if the proof of
the paramount title of the government would operate to defeat them,
confusion and ruin would be the result. In determining controversies
between parties thus situated, this court proceeds upon the
presumption of a grant from the government to the first appropriator
of mines, water privileges, and the like. This presumption, which
would have no place for consideration as against the assertion of
the rights of the superior proprietor, is held absolute in all those
controversies. And with the public lands which are not mineral lands,
the title, as between citizens of the State, where neither connects
himself with the government, is considered as vested in the first
possessor, and to proceed from him."--(16 Cal., p. 572.)

The difficulties attendant upon any attempt to give security to
landed possessions in the State, arising from the circumstances I have
narrated, were increased by an opinion, which for some time prevailed,
that the precious metals, gold and silver, found in various parts of
the country, whether in public or private lands, belonged to the
State by virtue of her sovereignty. To this opinion a decision of the
Supreme Court of the State, made in 1853, gave great potency. In
Hicks vs. Bell, decided that year, the court came to that conclusion,
relying upon certain decisions of the courts of England recognizing
the right of the Crown to those metals. The principal case on the
subject was that of The Queen vs. The Earl of Northumberland, reported
in Plowden. The counsel of the Queen in that case gave, according to
our present notions, some very fanciful reasons for the conclusion
reached, though none were stated in the judgment of the court. There
were three reasons, said the counsel, why the King should have the