The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1855-10-02 00:00:00

122 subsequently, we enjoyed a tolerable degre era freedom, but the reins gradually tightened, until it 'nerved that our very thoughts were under a strict surveillance. And the worst feature of the case was the deep and unfathomable mystery attending it. Punishments were inflicted for words lightly spoken, long after the words and the occasion of them were forgotten. Lynch laws were summarily exe cuted on helpless victims, entirely ignorant of the crimes of which they were accused. Few women thus punished ever recovered from the effects of it; and many were ren dered nervous, and half insane, from apprehension of the like. The secret and mysterious punishment and dis appearance of individuals supposed to be inimical or dangerous to the leaders of this obnoxious sect form frequent subjects of observation, and con stitute fertile themes for remark by our authoress, mingled in not a few instances with apprehen- i mons and misgivings of a serious nature on her own account. She thus pointedly summarises the GENERAL POLITY AND WORKING OF THE MORMON SUPPLEMENT TO THE LIVERPOOL ST returned with ardour by the lady, whose band had been demanded by a Mormon elder, already the husband of nine wives. Ignorant of danger, and intent only on the gratification of Lis passion, the lover remained in Utah while his friends prosecuted their journey. Arabel, from the commencement of his attentions, had been strictly watched ; yet love laughs at locksmiths, and they had concerted a plan of escape. This, by some unaccountable means, was betrayed, and the eloping lady leaped from the window of the room in which she was confined--not into the arms of the youth, but those of the man she loathed and hated. But where is the lover? To this day no one knows—that is, if their words are regarded as the truth;. but there are those who blench at the mention of his name. Several women disappeared in the same manner—generally disaffected wives. Brigham very laconically explainedt the matter in a newspaper published by his direction, and under his supervision, by stating that Indian Walker was passionately fond of the Mormon women, and that unless husbands were more careful of their wives in future,, they would lose yet more of them. But Mormon husbands• are careful of their wives with a vengeance : and it seemed• remarkable that the Indians should only meddle with: such as had become obnoxious to their husbands. From the preceding extracts, it is sufficiently evident that the working of the Mormon. system is socially as dangerous and wicked as itsreligious teaching is blasphemous and degrading. The expose contained in this little work is earnest, and seemingly executed with a scrupulous attention to fidelity. It ought to be valuable as a means of opening the eyes of the unsuspecting and credu lous, who are apt to be led away by the artful tales of those practised in the ways of deceit. The pictures of misery and degradation contained in this delineation of female life among the Mormons are so hideous and revolting that, as warning beacons, they must prove salutary.. The Poetical Works of Charles Churchill. With Memoir, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes, by the Rev. George GiMan. Edin burgh : James Nichol. The volume before us is, it many respects, the crowning wonder of the series of which it consti tutes a part. It is the last lut one of the third year's issue, and in point of quantity of matter it exceeds all the previous volunes, without having, in any degree, deteriorated in quality of paper or printing, or being enhancel in price. Such liberality on the part of the spirited publisher is. deserving of the highest comnendation, and must serve still further to estabish the well-earned popularity of the work as a whole. The poems of Churchill, although "narked by extraordinary vigour of diction, and a manly independence of_, thought, have been less generally known than the writings of many a less giftel son of the Xuses ; and on this account will be, to many, a more welcome gift than the repubicatinn of the works of others, with which the public is mare exten sively familiar. An obstacle to their general popularity has no doubt existed in the ephemeral character which usually attaches to works of satire ;. but in the case of Churchill there is so, much generalization in the style of treatment, that the object satirised, although fleeting in its indi vidual interest, is still as valuable as ewer, when looked on as the medium hr conveying merited censure., Folly as folly,, vies as vice, are assailed with so truculent a style of battle, that the vigour of the combat and the glory of the victory re main as striking and as valuable as ever, although the objects of the satirist's castigation and disdain have long faded from recollection. Like the other volumes of the series, the pre sent is prefaced with a bi)grapical essay by the Rev. George Gilfillan, in which that gentleman displays his wonted fearlessness of investigation and his customary independence of opinion. In the beginning of this essay we have the annexed ESTIMATE OF CHURCHILL'S CHARACTER AND WRITINGS. Possessed of powers and endowments which might have made him, under favourable circumstances, a poet, CHURCH. Since my residence among the Mormons (says our author) I had as little general intercourse with them as possible, rarely went to their meetings, and knew nothing of their political business or Church affairs, except such information as circumstances threw in my way. I was not, and never had been, a believer in their doctrines, and unless I had absolutely closed my ears and eyes and understanding to all passing events, I could not fail to perceive that the whole system was founded on arrant jugglery and imposture, and that all sorts of secret arts were employed to entrap , the weak, the unsuspecting, and the unwary. But there was one thing I could not fathom, one mystery utterly unresolvable, and though I am not naturally suspicions, or prone to indulge unreasonable conjectures, I found it impossible to banish all thoughts of foul play from my mind. Indeed, several circum stances, all light and trivial, taken separately, yet of considerable importance in the aggregate, had inspired me with a sort of vague indefinable suspicion, that the Mormon Church was the centre of a secret organization, whose plots and plans were of the blackest description. I had known for many years that the scum of society, the refuge of prisons, and criminals hoary with all sorts of sin, were freely admitted and registered in its ranks. I had been aware of political machinations, and plun dering expeditions against the helpless and unsuspecting emigrants, and yet had fondly imagined that such things arose rather from the turpitude and evil dispositions of the Mormon leaders, than from the absolute and unchangeable nature of the principles of the Mormon Church. I knew, that a thing pure and heavenly in itself, might be per verted to favour the purposes of designing men, but after a while I began to suspect and ultimately discovered that the root of the evil was in Mormonism itself; that a Mormon, if he acted out the principles of his Church, must be hypocritical, sensual, devoid of all conscience, and devilish. Was my husband of this class. "Speak well of a bridge that carries you safe over," is an old adage, and so far at least he had always treated me with kindness and affection. Then I remembered the disclosures of Mrs. Bradish, and the deception he had employed in our first acquaintance, which only seemed an additional proof—but no matter. It is not becoming in a' woman to speak ill of her husband. I had noticed on several occasions the mysterious and unaccountable dis appearances of several persons, not my particular or in timate friends, or those belonging to the circle in which I was accustomed to move, but people that I knew by sight and reputation, whose faces I had encountered in the street, and whose names were familiar. Yet these sudden disappearances never elicited remarks or inqui ries ; that is, among those who should, have taken the matter in hand. They were gone, and that comprised the sum of the matter ; but where they were or who had spirited them away, was quite another thing. In all cases, however, the persons thus mysteriously removed, were enemies of the person or administration of Brigham, and sometimes it appeared that they had been aspirants to supplant him, or share his rule. Lawrence and Irene had been two of this, number. They had dwelt together in a small house, and Irene might be seen daily walking with him in their little garden. But all at once the door of their cottage was closed, the garden was solitary, their domestic animals ran wild to be reclaimed by order of the Church, but the Church made no order concerning their owners ; Mr. Ward said they might be off on a journey. He didn't know why any one should ask him where they were, as he was not their keeper. This was the language of Cain, but I banished the thought. Equally mysterious had been the disappearance of others. An aimiable young man, who had visited Utah in company with an emigrant train, became deeply en amoured of a young girl belonging to a Mormon family, hough not a daughter of the house. His affections were ►ARD. partly, thr°?_!: a hero, a man, and a saint, he became, his own fault; and partly through the force of . d a esn e a satirist, an unfortunate politician . died early ;- n must approach his-corpse as •men cl 7 o those of Enloe, Byron, with sorrow wonder, admiration, and 0 1 blended: into one strange, eom'pler • and yet not 111111atil, emotion. Like them, his life was'..s. ho rt and unhaPPid, his career triumphant; yet chequered-- his Powers un it , tivated—his- passions -unchecked —his -poetry- onlY roe or tial discovery of - his genius—his- end sudden and f isto ri choly—and his reputation and future , place in the of letters- hitherto somewhat uncertain. natAiognaians i t s th • n e e - ce in as ju a s ry tic t e o o p f r s o o t . : t e . contrasts, and. tolerably turned sentencci-7; tempting matters, when placed iu the path e btit man greedy of popularity as a literary oracle ; Bss they ought not-to induce one already lc-O wn t he critical commentator, to slightly etimatedod, beesleimilaecel: character and achievements of the migbi rt Y j oio The parallel sought to be drawn by Mr. ui Sep among the three mdividuals„.will not between any. two of them. Barns an d though powerful in the use of their of scalpels, were more than - mere sathists_;iit,e, greatly like-each other, and-they are geneT ver K, lieved to have had considerably cultivated Pa to/ ol that reputation and future place in tha it iO,, letters is by no means so dubious as Idri would have his readers to believe ; and r as b - e ioo,' concur with us in thinking that sometbigrt ,f 0 cool judgment and strictijustice has bet t a i s e in the mind of him who could stig,St" o, author of " The Cottae.s. Saturday, the " Advice to a Young. Friend" ao l s iciatell not a few will also question the dicta: that who somewhat ostentatiously tells u S ieseee l , s l poetry of him who wrote " The lges_j .° ,, - 1 bor',4 and enbalmed in undying song the 17 - disel' of "-The Shipwreck,' is but a risr 4s- pstw; of his. genius. In glancing over tfufilitb.: which we have just- referred, and M i e ts * analyse its meaning or to es ti m ate .e , t ot curious inquirer might find in the s il iosela .:° e opinion expressed by Mr. GROW '',4re;', t he wholly inapplicable to the- subject. ' 0 or private pique," says he, " alwaY3-All/$l/. vaeL i t bottom of such reckless assaults, al/P.O the long run: feel so." Amen, say w e ' t it - opinion. fr o Ess s a t y ud o y n oftheHAisd History._ 0 7; ~a geß s Advantages: . be lt d .. e a rie . ed if e t c ri c° ' : E. Howell. The popular feeling of the presOt °ollsisi little in favour of that wisdom whicildece'l gathered from the experience of our Pr e ,. t oy" and so much devoted to an exhibition . t to 1J sufficiency which finds its chief suPPoloso„01 weening self-conceit, that one feels Phoitiv" meet with an individual who, som ewhat a t in his belief of knowledge created speed, and dubious of the fulness of tit which is flashed through society wi th g a like rapidity, falls back upon the stc' re . i l lated and arranged before mere eell'h: d oll ' the be-all and the end-all of limos'' " be fot! ambition. The author of the brochil u o with much cogency of reasonings ari,%019 amount of skill, encounters the p rer " ,„ norance and presumption included in,t7,;ty which teaches us to believe that "h ' s ", - 0 1 as an old almanack," of no pres ent 'ts' ai e He appeals,, in felicitous terms, t° OP' examples of magnanimity and ivisa°l3l,metof for our advantage in the lives and Co so d Feat men of old, and traces, throur`"etio incidents, striking illustrations of ther 0e1 ;. value of such lessons taught by Wire,'" ~0 so far done well, but might have d!,' 1 ", 1 , - e cre . ,;',e' had followed the course of events tll L ' t - 1 3 'e ~" the all-absorbing incident of our tinley e ceti war. He might have shown that [OeTOBEit 2 113'55.