The Clerk read as follows: “ It is not to be doubted that settlementon public lands of the U.S., no matter how long continued, confersno right againsttho Government. It only gives the settler under the preemption laws a right to enterthe land occu ied and improved when it is opento sale and when 0 hascompliedWiththe conditionsasto proof of settlement and improvement and paymentof the concideration prescribed by the statutes. It is in compliancewith those conditions that alone rests an interest in the land. "The land continues subject to the absolute disposing power of Congressuntil thesettler hasmade the required proofs of settlementand improvement, and has paid the requisite purchase money. Before those stepsare taken for t a designation and assertion of his claim.Congressma at anytimeintervcne, and either excmpt the land from entry, location, or appronation, or dispose of it bygrant to other parties. eforeproof and payment are made, the only right which the settler has is an inchoate right of entry. When proof and payment are duly made, his right of entry becomes chcate and he acquires (perhapi 7 before entry) a vested interest in the land. he question may be a delicateone, whether Congress can impair a vested right of entry; but there is no doubt that before the settler has taken the steps necessaryto convertthe privilege of preemptioninto a vestedright of entry, by establishing the fact, of his settlementand paying the purchase money)in the manner prescribed by law. Congress has absolute ower to place the land beyond the operation of o statutes under which the settlement wasmade." " “' “ this not necessaryto determine whether, immo diate y on the decision of the Supreme Court or at any time after, the landsin question, by operation of any statutes.becaiiicsubjcctto preemption; whether, in.other words.therewas any law under which persons not claiming undor gyants'from Vallejo or his assigns could have acawed by settlement proof thereof and payment 0 purchasemonc ', a right to enter the lands at the land office, if sue right had not been defoiited by the statuteof 1863. assumethat the lands embracedby the Vallejo claim fell upon the adjudication of the Supreme Court, under the operation of the generalprciimption laws. as other public lands, or worn subject to the o crution of special laws of that denomination. app icublu to public lands in California. But under thoselawssettlerscould acquire, as I have already Stated, ‘no interest, which it was not cometent for 'ongressto direct, until they had taken all the steps necessary to perfecttheir right to makeentriesof the landssettledand improved." "‘ “I have alreadysaid that a settler under the redemption laws acquiresand can acquire no veste interest in the land lic occupiesby virtue simply of settlement: and that no vested interest is obtained until the settler has taken all the leval steps necessary to perfect an entry in the‘lan office. liefore such slc s are taken he hasnothing but a contirigent personal privilege to become, without competition, the 1st purchaser of the property. which he may never exercise, or which he may waive or abandon.