The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-11 00:00:00

Congress is treated with contempt. The saints
of Utah repudiate submi.ssion to the American

Govertrrnent. The verdicts of juries are over-

ruled, criminals set free, and murder and assas-

sinations are dictated by order of the Mormon
high priest
Such js the awful and horrible state of things
which , has grOwn up in Itvublican America,
with schools and popular education extending,
and ChriStianity in the nineteenth century of its
promulgation. There arem ore incredible things
in history than ever fiction drew. Had any
one, fifty years ago, prelicted this as a possi-
bility, he would have been set down as a dreamer
and a libeller of the march of intellect. We had
heard `; stray reports of the enormities of Mor-
monism for some considerable time past, but
this new intelligence awakens us like a fearful
dream, which we were unwilling to believe. We
should be glad to know that things are not so
bad as they have been represented, but we fear
there is not much ground for hope. Nothing
can, palliate what we understand to be Mormon
, ciodtrinps and practices. And we advert to them,
because the ranks.of American Mormonism are
fed by our own countrymen. Many deluded
people are going out from Scotland and England,
to immersc`thedisplvesin that moral pestilence,
to commit ,theinielveSlo th Ise dens of iniquity,-
aiid-rniserably to perish in the wilderness, sepa-
rate from sympathy and morality. The com-
munity is said, now to number something
approaching to a hundred thousand people.
The c_,nverts, or rather victims," are principally
from protestant England and Scotland, with few
or no prOselvtes from -Roman Catholic Ireland.
This is anything but flattering to us ; it gives
sad evidence how large a 'portion of our people
is lying in the, region and shadow of moral
death.

We would lift up a voice of earnest warning
to our countiymen, and we would call upon all

good people to help us in our crusade against
social pollution. It -comes under an allfiring
form, promising freedom, but eventuating in
licentiousness, and the slavery of the passions

Now, can any good come of that which implies
.
ii desecration familylife, and the dishonoar
of women. It is marvellous to us how any
woman 'could jOin such a society, or commit
herself to such a life. We should hope it is chine
through ignorance, not through inclination. They
must be Misled by"false pretences. Few women,
surely, could surrender themselves to what is so
atrociously unholy and unjust. If for a moment
we could suppose a plurality of wives to be an
argument defensible, then, for similar reasons, a
plurality of husb Inds would be defensible.
'Women might claim the same immunity of
licentiousness; and they ought at once to see
that the male profligates take the lion's share for
themselves. To appeal to no higher:feeling, if
only the self-regard and self-interest of women
could be aroused against the system, it would
have received its death-blow. Women can stop
the supplies, and then plurality of wives becomes
impossible, even to the Latter Day Saints. Tw.,
are necessary to that bargain, and if one forbid
the banns, of course there is no result. We are
grieved and ashamed to say that Liverpool con.
tains a depot for affording information, and for-
warding recruits to this most undesirable service.
We would counsel no violent action, no physical
force, to he applied in this country, though such
collision seems ineviable in America. Let only
Mormonism be known for what it really is, and
we need no other antidote. Let all who wish
well to their country and to the human race,
diffuse correct information on the subject, and
by every fair means make known the facts as
they are. We brand it not only as a tissue of
errors which may spring from a weak head
leaving the heart light—but we denounce the
whole thing as an organized immorality, adapted
expressly to defile and degrade society ; and no
plea of conscience or religious conviction can be
listened to for a moment. This is a moral pest
and nuisance, inconsistent not only with
Christianity but with civilization. Society must
be rid of it for its own defence. Opinions of
every hue are to be tolerated—vice, immorality
moral pollution, are to he exterminated.