Cervantes

This case comes up on appeal from the decree of the board of commissioners to ascertain and settle private land claims in California. Could I have consulted my inclinations, I should have refrained from expressing opinions upon any of these eases, and would willingly have contented myself with affirming pro forma every decision of either the former or the present board, and remitted the case to that tribunal by whose decisions alone these questions will be finally determined. But 1 have not felt at liberty to shrink from this part of the duties imposed by law upon this court, nor to withhold the expression of its opinions, however immaterial, as regards the final results, its decisions may be. If these opinions shall, on some points, differ from *368 the conclusions to which the board of commissioners has in this case arrived, it is with the full knowledge that their opportunities for examination and consideration have been far greater than my own, and .that in dissenting from them I may fall into error. Were the consequences of my decision more serious, it would not be without great regret that I should find myself led to a conclusion differing in any respect from the opinions of…