BUDDISM IN CALIFORNIA.—The following is taken from a late letter from San Francisco to the N. Y. Herald:
After the gigantic efforts of missionary and Bible societies to spread the beneficent influence of Christianity throughout heathenish lands, the people of San Francisco are witnesses of the inauguration of Buddhism on American soil, attended with unusual pomp and magnificence. The Chinese population have at last, after many disappointments, imported a wooden god and all the paraphernalia of their worship, for the purpose of erecting them as a permanent institution in our midst. They have in past years celebrated annually funeral feasts, visiting the graves of departed relations, to offer articles of food for their spirits to feast upon. This year the same observances were gone through the day before this deity was installed. The ceremonies on the occasion lasted through five days, and the building in which they were performed was visited by upwards of twenty thousand people.