Application for discharge hy habeas corpus.

The petition alleges that the petitioner, John R. Corryell, is illegally detained in custody by the Sheriff of San Francisco County, and that the only authority for his detention is an order of commitment made by the Court of Sessions of that county, a copy of which is set forth in the petition. This order recites the finding of an indictment by the Grand Jury of said county against said Corryell, which is still pending and undetermined in said Court, and which it sets forth in full. The indictment accuses Corryell “ of the crime of altering and falsifying a document and record belonging to a public office within said State, committed as follows: The said J. R. Corryell, on the-did falsely, deceitfully, and feloniously alter and falsify a certain document, to wit: a certain record of and belonging to the office of the Secretary of State of the said State, the same being an engrossed copy of a bill which was introduced into the Senate of the State of California,” at the session of 1861, “ and which said bill was engrossed by order of said Senate at said session, and which bill was entitled ‘An Act to provide for the Sale of Marsh and Tide Lands of this State,’-the same being then, viz.: on the said" tenth day of October, 1861, a public document of the Legislature of the State of California, and by law a record of and belonging to the office of said Secretary of State,” and charges the altering to have been made by interpolating as an amendment the words: “ either tide or marsh—excepting Alcalde grants, which are hereby ratified and confirmed.”

The order then directs that said Corryell be committed to the custody of the Sheriff, and detained until he gives bail in the sum of |6,000, or be otherwise legally discharged.

The petition further alleges that a demurrer to the indictment was interposed by petitioner in the Court of Sessions, and overruled, and that he then obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the Judge of the Twelfth District Court, who, after an examination, remanded him again to custody.

On this petition a writ of habeas corpus was granted by Chief Justice Cope, returnable before -, and subsequently the case was argued before Cope, C. J. and Norton, J.