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Show GENERAL. Iuiportuut I,a u 1 Decisiou. Washington, 23. On the oth iust. Secritiiry Dolano reversed the decision deci-sion of the commissioner of the general gen-eral land office in the case oE Robert M. Stewart v.i, tlio Western Pacific railroad company, involving land in the limits of the claimed Mexican grant Moquelomas, rejected in lSb'o, prior to the definite location of the road, but suh.j.equ-nt to the withdrawal with-drawal upon a map of tho general route. Stewart was a settler prior to the withdrawal and prior to the passage pas-sage of" the railroad act. The secretary secre-tary follows the lato department decision in tne case oi jmnngnam a al,t holding that the act of March 31, 1873, granting rights to settlers set-tlers on rejected foreign grants, had no application to California, but that lands in that state are governed by a special act, subsequently passed, on tho same day. Extending preemption pre-emption rights are expressly excluded from attaching upon lands held or claimed under any Joreign grant or title, Stewart's settlement, therefore, is merely po.-scssory, giving htm no legal rijjlit at the date of the withdrawal, with-drawal, or subsequent. The rejection of Mexican claims found the land set apart by the this sid withdrawal for the purposes of the railroad grants, and thus excluded from legal settlement settle-ment The decision, although it will work hardship to many settlers, is in harmony with the current decisions of the supreme court of the state and circuit court of the United States for that district, and unltss overturned by the supreme court of the United States must be regarded as the settled law of the case. |