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

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