The Express.
London, England, 1851-08-28 00:00:00

honoured and sympathised with. Noe is ,it for
the !mike of GEORGE STEPRENSON himself that we
would urge the resumption of the plan of erecting a
monument to him; our railway aystem is his monu-
ment. We wish to ACC such a structure Sated bysitle
the monument of WArr, as a proof that the nation
appreciates its great men and beticfactots, and as an
additional incitement to the genius of coming gene-
rations to emulate their beneficial careers.

A BRIGUTON paper the other day announced that
preparations were goin.• on there for the departure „
of a party of Sussex Mormons to the City of the
Great Salt Lake, beyond the Rocky Mountains; and
on taking up a Calcutta journal just received, we
find it stated that a Mormon Missionary had ma.e
his appearance in the Cooly Bazaar of that capital.
American journals speak of the rapid growth of the
settlement of Deseret, u the Mormons fondly call
their new found home, or Utah, as United States
legislation jealously designates its new territory; ac-
counts published in this country early the total
numbers, wherever spread, of *these I.attcr Day
Saints up to 3110,0141; some 10,000 or 12,000
of our emigrants arc said yearly to join Mr. BRIO-
-11131 YOUNG and " the Church"in their Pacific
paradise; still leaving,however, it is added, not fewer
than from 30,000 to 50,000 believers in JOE SMITH'S
pretensions awl revelations behind them in this
country. Strange and provoking as this delusion is.
nevertheless it is one that on many accounts deserves

passing attention.
The difficulty in getting at authentic information
on the subject is, however, very great ; and to that
difficulty is probably owing a part of at least the
numerical importance of Mormonism. Fur with it,
as with other things, it is more than likely we exag-
gerate that which we do not know with accuracy.
At all events, we can find no sufficient voucher for
the numbers assigned, either in America or here, to
the sect. In America it seems probable, for several
reasons, that the great majority of Mormons have
already crossed the Rocky Mountains. The
present head of " the Church" has urged in the
strongest manner the union in Deseret of all
the Saints; he has painted the fertility of the coun-
try and the happiness of the community in
glowing colours; and, with no little skill and elo-
quence, he attracts all who have faith in the New
Revelation to the city of the Salt Lake by enthusias-
tic assurances of the spiritual advantages to be gained
by "a Communion of Saints." "There," he tells them,
" the wicked cease to trouble, and the weary find
rest." On the other hand, public opinion in the
Union still runs with unabated prejudice against the
Mormons; and their presence in any numbers in any
State would, it is to be presumed, lead again to the
dreadful persecutions they before suffered in Mis-
souri and Illinois. Assuming, then, that the
great bulk have fled beyond the bounds of
American civilisation into Deseret or Utah, there is
no authority that we can discover for any such
number as even I(X),000 there or even half of it.
The city of the Salt Lake appears, according to the
best statistics, to contain in its lumber huts and
scattered houses some 15,000 01.20,000 Ile* ut most,
probably, not more than 12,000; and, if to them, be
added the scattered population of the sect through-
' out both hemispheres on the handsomest scale that
reason will Is emit, it is clear that in talking about
300,000 Mormons, the world is largely and hugely

•
impotent on.
That they are a growing sect is, however, clear
enough. Twenty years base not passed away since
Jog SMITH professed to dig up under inspiration
the Golden Tables ;yet his followers now constitute a
great fad ; which not even the persecutions he and
his early disciples suffered can wholly account fur.
They built an important town in Ill' • , Nauvoo;
and, driven from at they are founding a State beyond
the Rocky Mountains, to be wholly inhabited, as
they hope, by Latter Day Saints. Apart from its re-
ligious interest, the growth of such a society towards'
the shores of the Pacific has considerable political
importance.
As yet the Mormons affect to be loyal citizens at
the American republic. When called on to assist in
the Mexican campaign, they forgot their expulsion
from Nativist, and, aeknowledging its claims of alle-
gianee on their part, scut thither a Marmon legion
4islstron-: they still consider Deseret part of the
Union, and, with no little practical wisdom, the fe-
deral lamer has apt cinted Burman Youxu, the sue-
ty-wit of Small, Governor thereof, judiciously re-
straining, however, the limits of the territory of
Utah foam c • g down so far as the
coast of the Pacific. But, notwithstanding
this present connexion, ambitious designs du
necasionally pap out about a great -Marmon
Empire, having a commission to conquer the world to
the New Revelation; and it is quite certain that any
further interference with or jarsceution of the Mor-
mons in their pnsent location will induce them to
shed the republic for ever, to disclaim its citizenship,
and to id rep ainnewhere for themselves a distinct
and separate nationality, as well as a new religion.
" We have salt enough here to pickle the Union, if
that would preserve it," wrote, on one occasion,
Biwa; fuser,; but a wish for its preservation
does not prevent that Ilictnrch preaching against
its inhabitant,. •• • ; Sabbath, or trying to render
Utah independent of supplies from the rest of the
world.
There, at all events, in the basin of the Great
salt Like, on a fertile plain, under a temperate sun,
and inclining towards the Pacific, religious enthu-
siasm. delusion, and imposture are forming a State.
Ilundreda, it may be said thousands, of our choicest
artisans are annually flocking thitherwards, careless
of the distance, indifferent to the severities of the
endless journey; and missionaries have gone forth,
penniless and ignorant, to all Europe, to India, and
to China, summoning mankind to adopt the new
religion and to proceed there and swell the new
community. The murder of JOE SMITH has nut,
then, destroyed his imposition ; on the contrary, it is
confessed that in BRIGHAM YOUNG a greater man
than JOE has been found to preside over the com-
munity ; that man the Federal Government of the
United States has honoured by its confidence ; and
crowds are responding to his summons. All this is
strange—stranger than lied Republicanism or Social-
ism in this boasted nineteenth century.
Miserable an imposture as Mormonism was in the
hands of Jot! Ssirrit ; and frightful a delusion as it
must ever remain, its attractions are plain and
ob-
eivas enough. 'the pretended Revelations do not
shock all the traditions and feelings of Christians:
fur they profess to be supplementary to what even
Mormons admit to be the inspired word of God.
Mormonism accepts the Bible and the scheme of
salvation therein disclosed; it only claims to add
thereto means for its speedier and better fulfilment
in America. It elevates SMITH and his successors to
a position coequal to that of the Prophets; treats
them as inspired writers and teachers; but only to'
carry out more effectually and completely and securely
the intentions and objects of the earlier inspirations.
It holds forth an easier, a more vulgar, more'
material access to keaven; and to that it adds a
species of communistic and socialist, or co-operative
and associative scheme of subsistence, enjoyment
and happiness here on earth. In its mundane rule
it is at once democratic and sacerdotal ; it gives free-
dom of action to the people ; but, conferring super-
natural communications on its hierarchy, enables it
to direct and control that freedom; and these com-
munications are used very freely and unscrupulously
by the sacerdotal party. Such is Mormonism in
tfscory.
In practice, it is no doubt self-indulgent, though
oat that point the evidence against it is, we must
admit, meagre and insufficient. But at the
same time there seems to be proof that
in its results, there has as yet been con-
siderable material success. Fur the Salt Lake
is already the third desert they have brought
under cultivation ; at uo little coat of labour and of
money they built Nauvoo, and being driven thence,
another city and another temp'e arc rising under
their hands. Though the first discoverers of the
golden sierrasof California, few have been tempted to
the" diggins;" and already manufactures are spring-
ing up in Deseret. All this is doubtless the conse-
quence chiefly of superior organisation, disdpline,
division of labour, and of the marked characters of
the enthusiasts. Some little, however, of this credit
mast be assigned to the immense importance as-
signed to labour, and enterprise, and industry by the
Creed itself.
This, of course. is the bright side of the picture.
To reach Deseret. what endurance, what fatigue.
what illness, what fever, what heat, what cold,
what ruin, what attacks from hostile Indians, what
even worse quarrels with mbre savage Americans,