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blackened the sacred pages of its country's history with the records of a mock court; shook its shaggy mane in disappointed wrath, and rushed with rapid strides over the mountains to its orient den.”—(XIV. 524.)

President Fillmore, however, wisely forbore to take up the quarrel of his nominees, and made new appointments, which appear to be more acceptable to the Mormon population. Thus the danger has passed over for the time; but such symptoms show the precarious character of the existing peace.

Meanwhile, the Mormon leaders are taking every measure which is calculated to secure themselves against a repetition of the exterminating process to which they have been so often subjected. They keep their militia in constant drill, and its discipline is said to be excellent. Every man capable of bearing arms is enrolled, and the apostles, bishops, and elders appear in military uniform as majors, colonels, or generals, at the head of their troops. They could already oppose a force of 8000 men to an invading enemy. And the standing army of the United States only amounts to 10,000, which must march for three months through a wilderness before they reached the defiles of the mountains,. where they would find themselves opposed, under every disadvantage of ground, with all the fury of fanaticism. Indeed, Lieutenant Gunnison intimates that, in his opinion, the Mormons might already defy any force which could be sent against them.

The causes above mentioned fully account for the eagerness manifested by the heads of the Church in

pressing upon the saints throughout the world the duty of emigrating to Utah. Their power of resisting hostile interference must of course be proportionate to their numerical strength. If they can double their present population, they may defend their mountain fastnesses against the world. Moreover, they will have the right, according to the practice of the Union, to demand admission as a State into the Federation, when their population amounts to 60,000. Hence the duty most emphatically urged upon all Mormon proselytes is immediate emigration. They must shake from their feet the dust of "Babylon," and hasten to "Zion." "Every saint," says a recent General Epistle, "who does not come home, will be afflicted by the devil."(XIV. 20.) And again, "Zion is our home, the place which God has appointed for the refuge of his people. Every particle of our means which we use in Babylon is a loss to ourselves."-(Ibid. 210.) And the elders are exhorted" to thunder the word of the Almighty to the saints, to arise and come to Zion."-(Ibid. 201.) Nor are their efforts confined to words of exhortation. They raise annually a considerable sum, under the name of the Perpetual Emigration Fund, to pay the outfit and passage of those who are willing to emigrate but unable to pay their own expenses. This fund amounted last year to 34,000 dollars.-(XV. 439.) Most of the emigrants, however, pay for themselves. In 1853, the number of saints who sailed from England was 2609— (Ibid. 264); among whom 2312 were British subjects, and 297 Danes. Only 400 of these had their passage

paid by the fund. The whole Mormon emigration from Europe has hitherto been considerably under 3000 annually. Even including the converts from the United States, only 3000 settlers arrived in Utah in 1851. These details, which we have collected from the official statistics published in the "Star," will show how grossly the Mormon emigration has been exaggerated by the press. The American papers, with their usual grandiloquence, are constantly telling us that hundreds of thousands have arrived on their way to Utah; and these fables are copied on this side of the Atlantic, and go the round of Europe. In reality, during the fourteen years from 1837 to 1851, under 17,000 Mormons had emigrated from England. In future, however, while the Emigration Fund continues in operation, the rate will probably be not less than 3000 a-year. We may therefore suppose that, including the proselytes from the Union, the census of Utah will be increased by 3500 annually. Besides this, we may allow, perhaps, 1000 per annum (considering the nature of the population) for the average excess of births over deaths during the time that the population is rising from 30,000 to 60,000. On this hypothesis, it will have reached the required number by 1859.

This emigration, though very insignificant when compared with the exaggerated statements above mentioned, is surprisingly great when we consider the enormous difficulties by which it is impeded. In fact, if we except the capital of Thibet, there is perhaps no city in the world so difficult to reach as the metropolis of

the Mormons. Emigrants from Europe must first undertake the long sea voyage to New Orleans; thence they must proceed by steamer up the Mississippi to St. Louis, a distance of 1300 miles. From St. Louis, a farther voyage of 800 miles brings them to the junction of the Missouri and the Platte. From thence they must proceed in waggons across the wilderness, a journey of three weary months, before they reach their final destination. The appearance of these trains of pilgrims must be highly curious and picturesque. Captain Stansbury thus describes one of them, which he passed: "We met ninety-five waggons to-day, containing the advance of the Mormon emigration. Two large flocks of sheep were driven before the train; and geese and turkeys had been conveyed in coops the whole distance, without apparent damage. One old gander poked his head out of his box, and hissed most energetically at every passer-by, as if to shew that his spirit was still unbroken, notwithstanding his long confinement. The waggons swarmed with women and children, and I estimated the train at a thousand head of cattle, a hundred head of sheep, and five hundred human souls." (S. 223.)

"The waggon," he tells us elsewhere, "is literally the emigrant's home. In it he carries his all, and it serves him as tent, kitchen, parlour, and bed-room; and not unfrequently also as a boat, to ferry his load over an otherwise impassable stream."—(S. 26.)

The deluded proselytes, who, in the mere act of reaching the parched valleys of Deseret, expend an amount

of capital and toil sufficient to establish them with every comfort in many happier colonies, are by no means drawn from the most ignorant portion of the community. More than two-thirds of their number consist of artisans and mechanics. Out of 352 emigrants who sailed from Liverpool in February 1852, Mr. Mayhew ascertained that only 108 were unskilled labourers; the remaining 244 consisted of farmers, miners, enginemakers, joiners, weavers, shoemakers, smiths, tailors, watchmakers, masons, butchers, bakers, potters, painters, ship-wrights, iron-moulders, basket-makers, dyers, ropers, paper-makers, glass-cutters, nailors, saddlers, sawyers, and gunmakers.-(M. Illust. 245.) Thus the Mormon emigration is drawn mainly from a single rank of society; and the result is, that the population of Utah presents an aspect singularly homogeneous, and has attained (without any socialism) more nearly to the socialist ideal of a dead level than any other community in the world. There are no poor, for the humblest labourer becomes on his arrival a peasant proprietor; and, although some have already grown rich, yet none are exempt from the necessity of manual labour, except, indeed, the prophets and chief apostles of the Church. And even these seek to avert popular envy, by occasionally taking a turn at their old employments; following the example of the President, who was bred a carpenter, and still sometimes does a job of joiner's work upon his mills.-(G. 141.) Such a state of society combines the absence of many evils and much misery, with the want of those humanizing influences which result

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