Opinion of the Court. There can be no doubt that the decision of the Supreme Court of the State in this respect was correct. It is established by former decisions of this court, that, under the acts of Congress which govern this case, in order to except mines or mineral lands from the operation of a town-site patent, it is not sufficient that the lands do in fact contain minerals, or even valuable minerals, when the town-site patent takes effect; but they must at that time be known to contain minerals of such extent and value as to justify expenditures for the purpose of extracting them; and if the lands are not known at that time to be so valuable for mining purposes, the fact that they have once been valuable, or are afterwards discovered to be still valuable, for such purposes, does not defeat or impair the title of persons claiming under the town-site patent. Deffeback v. Hawke, 115 U. S. 392; Davis v. Weibbold, 139 U. S. 507. The principal ground on which the plaintiffs in error seek to reverse the judgment of the Supreme Court of California is that its decision in matter of fact was erroneous, and contrary to the weight of the evidence in the case. But to review the decision of the state court upon the question of fact is not within the jurisdiction of this court. In the legislation of Congress, from the foundation of the government, a writ of error, which brings up matter of law only, has always been distinguished from an appeal, which, unless expressly restricted, brings up both law and fact. Wiscart v. Dauchy, 3 Dall. 321; United States v. Goodwin, 7 Cranch, 108; Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 410; Пemmenway v. Fisher, 20 How. 255, 258; In re Neagle, 135 U. S. 1, 42. In the first Judiciary Act, the whole appellate jurisdiction of this court was limited to matters of law. While an appeal lay from the District Court to the Circuit Court in admiralty cases, neither the judgments or decrees of the Circuit Court, whether in law, equity or admiralty, nor judgments or decrees of the highest court of a State, could be reviewed by this court, except by writ of error. Act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, $$ 19, 22-25; 1 Stat. 83-86. Opinion of the Court. Under that act, it was held that a decree in admiralty could not be reviewed by this court in matter of fact; and Chief Justice Ellsworth, after laying down the rule that the appellate jurisdiction of this court could only be exercised within the regulations prescribed by Congress, said: "It is to be considered, then, that the judicial statute of the United States speaks of an appeal and of a writ of error; but it does not confound the terms, nor use them promiscuously. They are to be understood, when used, according to their ordinary acceptation, unless something appears in the act itself to control, modify or change the fixed and technical sense which they have previously borne. An appeal is a process of civil law origin, and removes a cause entirely, subjecting the fact, as well as the law, to a review and retrial; but a writ of error is a process of common law origin, and it removes nothing for reëxamination but the law." Wiscart v. Dauchy, 3 Dall. 327; The Perseverance, 3 Dall. 336; The Charles Carter, 4 Dall. 22. In 1803, Congress substituted an appeal from the Circuit Court to this court, instead of a writ of error, in cases in equity and in admiralty; and upon such an appeal the facts as well as the law were open to review in both those classes of cases until 1875, when the appeal in admiralty was restricted to questions of law. Act of March 3, 1803, c. 40; 2 Stat. 244; The San Pedro, 2 Wheat. 132; The Baltimore, 8 Wall. 377; Rev. Stat. § 692; Act of February 16, 1875, c. 77, § 1; 18 Stat. 315; The Francis Wright, 105 U. S. 381. Judgments of the Circuit Court in actions at law have remained reviewable by writ of error only. Jones v. La Vallette, 5 Wall. 579; Act of July 4, 1840, c. 43, § 3; 5 Stat. 393; Rev. Stat. § 691. Upon such a writ of error, this court, as is well settled, cannot review a decision of a question of fact, even if by the local practice, as in Louisiana, the law and the facts are tried together by the judge without a jury. In such a case, Mr. Justice Story said: "We have no authority, as an appellate court, upon a writ of error, to revise the evidence in the court below, in order to ascertain whether the judge rightly interpreted the evidence or drew right conclusions from it. That is the proper province of the jury; or of Opinion of the Court. the judge himself, if the trial by jury is waived, and it is submitted to his personal decision." Hyde v. Booraem, 16 Pet. 169, 176. In a petitory action, in the nature of ejectment, to recover land in Louisiana, the subject was fully explained by Chief Justice Taney, who (according to the original opinion on file, misprinted in some particulars in the official report) said: "According to the laws of that State, unless one of the parties demands a trial by jury, the court decides the fact as well as the law; and if the judgment is removed to a higher court for revision, the decision upon the fact as well as the law is open for examination in the appellate court. The record transmitted to the superior court, therefore, in the state practice necessarily contains all the evidence offered in the inferior court. And as there is no distinction between courts of law and courts of equity, the legal and equitable rights of the parties are tried and decided in the same proceeding. In the courts of the United States, however, the distinction between courts of law and of equity is preserved in Louisiana as well as in the other States. And the removal of the case from the Circuit Court to this court is regulated by act of Congress, and not by the practice of Louisiana; and the writ of error, by which alone a case can be removed from a Circuit Court when sitting as a court of law, brings up for revision here nothing but questions of law; and if the case has been tried according to the Louisiana practice, without the intervention of a jury, the decisions of the Circuit Court upon questions of fact are as conclusive as if they had been found by the jury." The Chief Justice stated that, upon the first argument of the case at a former term, the court, its attention "not having been drawn to the difference between an appeal in the state practice, and the writ of error from this court," and being of opinion that the weight of evidence was against the authenticity of an instrument under which one of the parties claimed title, and which the Circuit Court had held to be authentic, therefore reversed the judgment of that court; but that this court, upon reconsideration, was "unanimously of opinion that the decision of the Circuit Court upon this question of fact Opinion of the Court. must, like the finding of a jury, be regarded as conclusive; that the writ of error can bring up nothing but questions of law; and that, in deciding the question of title in this court, the paper referred to must be treated and considered as authentic and sufficiently proved;" and had therefore ordered the case to be reargued. United States v. King, 7 How. 833, 844, 845. Upon the final argument, while four of the justices. dissented from the opinion of the court upon the principal question of law presented by the record, none of them differed from the Chief Justice on the question of practice; and Mr. Justice Wayne, who delivered the principal dissenting opinion, said: "No point has been more repeatedly and authoritatively settled, than that this court will not, upon a writ of error, revise or give judgment as to the facts, but takes them as found by the court below, and as they are exhibited by the record.” 7 How. 865. See also Parks v. Turner, 12 How. 39, 43; Arthurs v. Hart, 17 How. 6, 12; Lanfear v. Hunley, 4 Wall. 204, 209; Generes v. Campbell, 11 Wall. 193; Jeffries v. Mut ual Ins. Co., 110 U. S. 305, 309. The only appellate jurisdiction which has ever been conferred by Congress upon this court to review the judgments or decrees, at law or in equity, of the highest court of a State, has been by writ of error. Cohens v. Virginia, 6 Wheat. 264, 410; Verden v. Coleman, 22 How. 192; Act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, § 25; 1 Stat. 85; Act of February 5, 1867, c. 28, § 2; 14 Stat. 386; Rev. Stat. § 709; Act of March 3, 1891, c. 517, § 5; 26 Stat. 827. Such a writ of error can be sustained only when the decision of the state court is against a right claimed under the Constitution and laws of the United States. Montgomery v. Hernandez, 12 Wheat. 129; Missouri v. Andriano, 138 U. S. 496. And if the decision of the state court rests on an independent ground of law, not involving any Federal question, this court has no jurisdiction. New Orleans Waterworks v. Louisiana Sugar Co., 125 U. S. 18; Eustis v. Bolles, 150 U. S. 361; California Powder Works v. Davis, ante, 389. The reasons against its jurisdiction are as strong, if not stronger, when the decision of the state court proceeds upon matter of fact only. Opinion of the Court. When, indeed, the question decided by the state court is not merely of the weight or sufficiency of the evidence to prove a fact, but of the competency and legal effect of the evidence as bearing upon a question of Federal law, the decision may be reviewed by this court. It was accordingly said by Mr. Justice Catron: "The powers of the Supreme Court are limited in cases coming up from the state courts, under the twentyfifth section of the Judiciary Act, to questions of law, where the final judgment or decree draws in question the validity of a treaty or statute of the United States, &c., or where their construction is drawn in question, or an authority exercised under them; and as the admission of evidence to establish the mere fact of boundary in regard to the extent of grant cannot raise a question involving either the validity or construction of an act of Congress, etc., this court has no jurisdiction to consider and revise the decision of a state court, however erroneous it may be in admitting the evidence to establish the fact. But when evidence is admitted as competent for this purpose, and it is sought to give it effect for other purposes which do involve questions giving this court jurisdiction, then the decisions of state courts on the effect of such evidence may be fully considered here, and their judgments reversed or affirmed, in a similar manner as if a like question had arisen in a Supreme Court of error of a State, when reversing the proceedings of inferior courts of original jurisdiction." Mackay v. Dillon, 4 How. 421, 447. The only questions of evidence considered in that case arose upon a bill of exceptions to the legal competency of evidence relied on to prove a title under an act of Congress. Again, in Almonester v. Kenton, Mr. Justice Catron said: "Now that this court has no jurisdiction, under the twentyfifth section of the Judiciary Act of 1789, to reëxamine the decision of a state court, which drew in question the mere fact. of where a dividing line between two tracts of land was, is too plain for discussion. Had the decision of the Supreme Court of Louisiana stopped here, then certainly jurisdiction. would be wanting." 9 How. 1, 7. And this court assumed jurisdiction of that case solely because the state court had |