alleged to be pending before him, was denied by that court at special term, on the ground, among others, that no appeal lay to the commissioner of the general land-office from such decisions, and that he did not appeal from said judgment because he was advised by counsel that no appeal would lie from such a judgment. The bill further alleges that, after the dissolution of the injunction, the commissioner of the general land-office delivered to Craig an approved plat of the survey of the lands according to the area allowed to him by the register and receiver at Pueblo. The bill reiterates the charges of corruption and fraud as against Craig and the register and receiver in the original bill, and further shows "that, for the reasons hereinbefore stated, said duplicate plats of defendant Craig are intrinsically illegal and void ab initio, and that Craig had or has no title to said lands, St. Vrain having sold his interest before Craig purchased; that the order of the president, which said plats are intended to enforce, is also, for reasons hereinbefore stated, intrinsically illegal and void ab initio, and was granted under the erroneous belief by the president that no controversy existed respecting the quantity of land embraced in said plats; that said plats were issued in mistake of law and fact, and leave no land applicable to the derivative claims of your orator and the other said appellants before the commissioner of the general land-office, and, in fact, prevent him from trying their appeals now lawfully pending before him, and are in the nature of a cloud on the titles of your orator and the said appellants to their respective derivative claims; and that your orator fears said duplicateplats, if left uncanceled, would cause irreparable mischief to him and to all the other said appellants before the said commissioner."

The prayer of the amended bill, therefore, is that "the approved plats of the derivative claim of defendant William Craig, signed by defendant Campbell, on the twenty-sixth of May, 1877, be decreed void from the beginning, and that said defendant William Craig be forever enjoined from prosecuting any suit in law or equity on said approved plat or plats as evidence of title, or that Craig be adjudged as holding the same in trust for plaintiff and other derivative claimants, and that defendant William Craig, and agents, and defendant William L. Campbell, as United States surveyor general of Colorado, and his successors in office, and all under them, be ordered, within a time to be limited by this court, to deliver the said plats to the court, and that the said plats. be thereupon canceled; and he prays for all other general and special relief applicable to the case.

To this amended and supplemental bill Campbell and Craig filed separatedemurrers. The demurrer of Campbell was sustained, and the bill as to him ordered to be dismissed. The demurrer of Craig was overruled, and thereupon, on the seventh of October, 1878, Craig filed his answer to the amended bill.

The answer of Craig denies the title of Leitensdorfer to any interest in the land, and asserts the title of Craig himself to the land awarded to him by the decision of the register and receiver; it denies all charges of fraud and corruption against them and himself, and claims that the award and decision of the register and receiver, under the act of congress of February 25, 1869, is final and conclusive, subject to no appeal to the commissioner of the general land-office, or to the secretary of the interior, and sets up the decision and judgment of the supreme court of the District of Columbia, dismissing the application for a mandamus, as a conclusive judgment on the question. A replication was filed to this answer, and, the cause being put at issue, a large amount of proof was taken, consisting of documentary evidence and the testimony of witnesses.

It further appears that after the fourth of March, 1877, when a new administration came into office, an application was made to the secretary of the interior on behalf of the complainant, asking for a stay of proceedings under the order of the president, and that the matter might be reopened for hearing be

fore the commissioner of the general land-office on the appeal from the decision of the register and receiver. This application was referred to the attorney general, who gave an opinion that the official acts of the officers of the preceding adininistration could not be reviewed by their successors in office. 15 Op. Atty. Gen. 208.

On the eighth of January, 1878, a patent was issued by the United States to William Craig, and to his heirs and assigns, forever, for the land included within the approved plat, in conformity, as it recites, with section 2447 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and with the stipulation that, in virtue of the provisions of that section, the patent "shall only operate as a relinquishment of title on the part of the United States, and shall in no manner interfere with any valid adverse right to the same land, nor be construed to preclude a legal investigation and decision by the proper judicial tribunal between adverse claimants to the same land." On January 30, 1879, before final hearing, the complainant dismissed the bill and amended bill so far as by the prayer it was sought to hold the defendant Craig liable as trustee for the complainant of the title to the lands conveyed to him.

The opinion and decision of the register and receiver in favor of Craig's claim recites the grounds of the award as follows: "His claim does not rest wholly upon the shadowy foundation of uncertain and vague promises, but is backed by conveyances which remove all suspicion or doubt from his asserted rights, and in our opinion cannnot be postponed to any other claim than those above recited. If his claim rested on promises to settle only, it might be said' that the promises dated as far back as 1855, and the month of March of that year; that he went on the land promised; that he offered his resignation in the army in consequence of it; that it was not accepted; that in December, 1862, he was appointed agent for the grant by St. Vrain, and then again resigned, and was refused acceptance; that in the spring of 1863 he began the improvement of his land, finally got out of the army in 1864, and moved on the land, where he has since resided continuously, and has expended $200,000in improvements thereon; the patent deeds of St. Vrain showing the extent of his rights,-deeds which appear to have been duly recorded soon after ex-ecution, thus preventing any one being deceived as to the property claimed: by him."

The decision of the register and receiver against the claim of Leitensdorfer is based upon these grounds, viz.: That there is no sufficient proof of the paper title by which he claims an undivided one-sixth of the original Mexican grant; that that paper title, even if proven, would not entitle him to anything as against actual settlers, but only to one-sixth of any surplus which might be ascertained after satisfying the claims of that class; and that Leitensdorfer was not entitled to claim as an actual settler, even supposing that he had taken possession of a particular location, for the reason that he does not show himself to have acquired that possessory interest from either of the original grantees.

The cause having proceeded to final hearing, a decree was entered July 2, 1880, whereby it was "ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the decision or award of the register and receiver of the land described in the bill and pleadings of date the twenty-third of February, 1874, in favor of the defendant William Craig, is fraudulent and void; and it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed that the patent for the said lands issued to defendant William Craig on the eighth day of January, 1878, be, and it is hereby, declared and decreed to be null and void; and that the approved plat or plats delivered to defendant William Craig, as evidence of title to the land described in the bill by William Campbell, surveyor general, be, and the same are hereby, declared and decreed to be null and void.' From that decree this appeal is prosecuted. Pending the appeal in this court, both parties having died, the cause has been revived in the names of their respective personal representatives.

B. F. Butler and O. D. Barrett, for appellant. R. H. Bradford and C. W. Hornor, for appellee.

MATTHEWS, J. By reference to the provisions of the act of twenty-first of June, 1860, (12 St. 71,) and of the act of the twenty-fifth February, 1869, (15 St. 275,) it will appear that after the survey of the exterior lines of the Las Animas grant, the claims first to be provided for were those of all actual settlers holding possession under "titles or promises to settle" made by Vigil and St. Vrain, or their legal representatives, prior to the passage of the act. It was required that those claims, within one year from the passage of the act, should be established to the satisfaction of the register and receiver of the proper land-district, when they were to be adjusted according to the subdivisional lines of survey so as to include the lands so settled upon or purchased. It follows, of course, that these were to be surveys of distinct locations, which might be widely separated from each other in different parts of the original Mexican grant, but, of course, within its exterior limits. The grant itself, however, having been confirmed only to the extent of 22 square leagues, it also follows that these surveys in their aggregate areas were not to exceed that quantity. If, however, there were other actual settlers within the limits of the original grant to Vigil and St. Vrain, not ciaiming title from or under them, but merely by reason of their actual possession, their several settlements might be established either as pre-emption rights or homesteads, according to law, but the quantities were not to be deducted from the 22 square leagues. If any part of this quantity of 22 square leagues should re main unexhausted by the claims of actual settlers holding possession under "titles or promises to settle" made by Vigil and St. Vrain, and therefore called in this record "derivative claims," any such surplus was to be located in two equal tracts, each of square form, in any part of the tract covered by the original grant, for the benefit of Vigil and St. Vrain, and their assigns or representatives.

It is conceded by all parties to this record that, in point of fact, the claims of the first class, including Craig's, being those of actual settlers holding possession under titles or promises to settle made by Vigil and St. Vrain, exhausted the whole quantity of the grant as confirmed and reduced to 22 square leagues. The controversy now, is therefore confined to the conflicting claims of this .class.

It is further to be observed that the complainant Leitensdorfer lays no claim to any part of the lands embraced in the survey and plat, and covered by the patent issued to Craig. He does not allege or complain that any lands belonging in equity to him were awarded to another. He admits that he was not an actual settler upon, and held no possession of, any part of that tract. On the contrary, the possession which he does allege, and the title which he asserts, have reference to another and distinct tract of land, which, as he alleges, lies within the exterior boundaries of the original Las Animas grant, but several miles distant from any part of the tract allotted and patented to Craig. He, therefore, does not claim as a part of his case in equity that Craig holds the legal title to any lands in trust for him. The prayer of the amended bill, so far as it asserted any right to such relief, was expressly withdrawn, and has been abandoned by counsel in argument.

The case presented, therefore, by the complainant, is not one of that class of which many instances may be found in the reports of the decisions of this court, where a defendant holding the legal title under a patent from the United States has been declared to hold that legal title merely as trustee for a coinplainant with a superior equity, and decreed to hold for or to convey to the true owner. The right of the complainant in this case to relief is supposed to rest upon different grounds. The injury which he alleges is that Craig wrongfully obtained from the register and receiver an award of lands to which

he had no rightful claim, whereby the whole quantity of the confirmed grant has been reduced and absorbed so as to exclude the complainant from that share to which he was entitled. The wrong of which he complains is that Craig fraudulently and corruptly procured the award and decision of the register and receiver in his own behalf, and against Leitensdorfer, and that the latter has been illegally cut off from his right to appeal from the decision of the register and receiver in favor of Craig and against himself, by the illegal and unauthorized issue and delivery to Craig by the surveyor general of the approved plat of the survey of the lands awarded to him, confirmed by the subsequent issue of a formal patent relinquishing the title of the United States to the same tract. This is a short but accurate statement of the complainant's case as he presents it for examination and analysis, and for which we are to seek a rule of decision.

The fraud and corruption alleged against Craig, and which, for the purposes of the case, we are at present to assume to have been proved, as it was in fact found by the decree appealed from, do not necessarily vitiate Craig's claim of title, nor establish that of Leitensdorfer. The charge is that Craig bribed the register and receiver to make the award which they did in his favor. It may, nevertheless, be true that the award ought so to have been made upon the merits. So the register and receiver may have been right in rejecting the claim of Leitensdorfer. This possibility is tacitly admitted, for the bill does not ask a declaration and decree that Craig has no valid claim, nor a decree establishing the claim of Leitensdorfer; and it is plainly not within the jurisdiction of the circuit court to grant any such relief, even if it were asked.

The ascertainment of what persons came within the description of actual settlers under titles or promises to settle upon the Las Animas grant, and the proper limits of their actual settlement and possession, and the adjustment thereof by suitable surveys, were intrusted by the acts of congress on that subject in the first instance to the determination of the register and receiver of the proper land-district, and in case by law an appeal lies from their decision, then to those superior officers in the land-office and the department of the interior to whom such an appeal might be taken. The adjustment of these claims, and their definition by the prescribed surveys and plats establishing them in their appropriate locations within the limits of the original grant, and all questions of possession, of boundary, and of conflict, constitute a part of the administration of the law confided to that branch of the executive department. The free course of that administration within the limits of the law cannot be interrupted or interfered with by the judicial power. Undoubtedly, private rights of great value and importance may be involved, and the exercise of executive discretion may require decisions in favor of some and against others in a conflict of interests and claims. But, as all these claims and titles and interests arise under the law which refers their settlement to executive officers, that reference is itself a condition and qualification of the right, and the latter is altogether subject to its consequences. When the department has exercised its discretion, and exhausted its function, the legal and equitable effect of what it has done or failed to do may be drawn in question when necessary to the determination of conflicting rights between private parties in a judicial proceeding; but as long as the alleged rights which are the subject of contention are in the course of adjudication by the special tribunal, to which they are referred for settlement, the function of that tribunal cannot be displaced by courts of justice. And what the complainant in this case really asks for as his ultimate relief is that the way may be cleared for him to the exercise of the right of appeal, which he claims, from the adverse decision of the register and receiver, to the commissioner of the general land-office, by the removal of those obstructions which he alleges have been illegally interposed against him by the issue of the approved survey and plat by the surveyor general of Colorado upon the order of the president, in disre

gard and denial of his right of appeal, and the subsequent issue of the patent, in consequence of which the commissioner of the general land-office and the secretary of the interior have decided that they are precluded from now entertaining the complainant's appeal. It is supposed that these obstructions are removed by the decree of the circuit court, which adjudges that the decision and award of the register and receiver in favor of Craig is fraudulent and void, and annuls and declares void the approved plat delivered to Craig by the surveyor general of Colorado, and the patent issued to him for the same lands. The decree seeks to destroy the foundation and muniments of Craig's title to the particular lands described in the plat and patent, but it does not award those lands to any one else, and it does not assume to establish the title of Leitensdorfer to those which he claims. What is the effect of this decree? In any action brought by a stranger to this record against Craig for the recovery of the lands covered by his patent, this decree could not operate as evidence against him. It can only be effective by way of estoppel, and a stranger to the record cannot avail himself of an estoppel by which he is not himself bound. Nor can the decree be supposed to operate upon the record of the survey and plat and of the decision of the register and receiver as they remain recorded in the land department, so as to render them null and void as if they had never existed, and bind and oblige the officers of the department of the interior to proceed in the administration of the law with reference to these lands as if nothing of that sort had taken place. The decree operates only in personam and inter partes. The courts have no control of the public records of the land department, nor supervision over the conduct of its oflicers, otherwise than as it can be exercised in appropriate cases by the writ of mandamus; besides which, to annul the decision of the register and receiver, if that were possible, would be to destroy the foundation of the complainant's appeal, and restore the matter to the condition in which it was when all the claims were pending before the register and receiver. This result is not within the scope of the complainant's bill.

If, on the other hand, the operation of the decree is limited so as to cancel and annul the approved plat delivered by the surveyor general, and the patent issued thereupon, leaving the decision of the register and receiver to stand as the subject of an appeal to the commissioner of the general landoffice, supposed to be still pending, the case of the complainant for equitable interference does not seem to be bettered. For, in that event, what power has the circuit court, sitting in Colorado as a court of equity, to enforce and make effective the complainant's supposed right of appeal? The decree does not operate upon the officers whose action is invoked as necessary to secure the complainant's alleged rights. The process of a court of equity is not appropriate to the exigency, and the circuit court of the United States in Colorado has no jurisdiction, either at law or in equity, over the officers of the land department to compel them to entertain the appeal. Neither is there reason to suppose that the land department will on the basis of such a decree sua sponte proceed with the appeal as pending, or take such action on the application of the complainant.

The ground on which Mr. Schurz, as secretary of the interior, upon the advice of the attorney general, Mr. Devens, declined to reopen and rehear the case, was that the matter had been finally acted upon by his predecessor in office. 15 Op. Atty. Gen. 208. That fact remains, notwithstanding a decree in this case declaring the survey and plat and patent to Craig to be illegal and invalid. Such a declaration and decree operates only in the case and between the parties to this record. It does not operate, as has been already stated, upon the public records of the land department in which they are recorded, nor does it bind and oblige the executive officers of the government in control of that department. Such a decree, therefore, would grant to the complainant no practical relief; it would be vain and nugatory.