On the receipt of the treaty of peace with Mexico, doubt was entertained by a portion of the people here respecting what constituted the legal government and laws of the country. A few contended that all government and all laws in California were at an end, and that therefore the people, in their sovereign capacity, might make such government and laws as they should deem proper. Accordingly, in two of the northern districts, local legislative assemblies were organized, and laws enacted for the government of the people of these districts. The members of the Sonoma assembly, however, soon became convinced of their error, and that body was dissolved. But in San Francisco the assembly continued its sessions, making laws, creating and filling offices, imposing and collecting taxes, without the authority and in violation of law, and finally went so far as to abolish the office of alcalde, whose records and papers were seized and forcibly removed from his custody. On receiving official information of these facts, I issued my proclamation of the 4th instant. Since then I have made a personal visit to San Francisco, and find that the more respectable members of the so-called district assembly are convinced of the impropriety of the course pursued by that body, and in a very short time I think all the difficulties will be amicably arranged. These difficulties arose in part from a misapprehension as to what constituted the legal government of the country, and in part from the unpopularity of the first alcalde of that district, against whom serious charges had been made. Unfortunately, there was at the time no legal tribunal for investigating these charges; and, there being no other magistrate in that district, I could not, with propriety, remove him from office. A new election, however, will soon be held to supply his place; and on the organization of the "superior court," the charges against him can be properly investigated.