The Sun.
London, England, 1862-01-16 00:00:00

MORMON POLITY.

The Mormon polity is, in my humble opinion,—based
upon the fact that liberty is to mankind in mass, a burden
far heavier than slavery—the perfection of government.
It is the universal suffrage of the American States, tem-
pered by the despotism of France and Russia : in moderate
England men have nothing of it but that tory-radicalism
to which the few of exiremest °pi: ions belong. At the
semi-annual Conferences which take place en the 6th
April and 6th October, and last for four days, all officers,
from the President to the constable, are voted in by direc•
lion and counsel; i.c., of the Lord through His Prophet ;
consequently, re-election is the rule, unless the chief dic-
tator determine otherwise. Every adult male has a vote,
and all live under an iron sway. His poor single vote—
from which even the sting of ballot has been drawn—grati-
fes the dignity of the man, aad satisfies him with the
autocracy which directs him in the way he should go. Ho
has thus all the harmless pleasure of voting without the
danger of injuring himself by his vote. The reverse duly
carried out frees mankind from king and kaiser, and sub-
jects them to snobs and mobs. Mormon society is modelled
upon a civilised regiment ; the prophet is the colonel-com-
manding, and the grades are nicely graduated down to the
last neophytelor recruit. I know of no form of rule supe-
rior to that of pt. S. L. City; it might supply the author
of "Happy Years at Hand" with new ideas for the " Out-
lines of the Coming Theocracy." It exerts its beneficial
effects equally upon the turbulent and independent Ameri-
can ; the sensible and self-sufficient Englishman ; the
Frenchman, ever lusting after new things; the Switzer,
with his rude love of a most problematic liberty; the out-
wardly cold, inwardly fiery, Scandanavian ; the Italian,
ready to bow down before any practice, with the one proviso
that it must be successful ; the German, who demands to be
governed by theories and Utopianisms, " worked" by pro-
fessors" out of the depths of their self-consciousness."

The most painful portion of the history
of these strange people is the blasphemous perver-
sion of the Scriptures, which the cunning founder
of this worse than heathenish fraud (we cannot call
it religion), contrived by pandering to the
basest and most sensual instincts of mankind,
to gain proselytes. But passing over the im-
morality of Joe Smith's doctrines they become
ridiculous. For instance, we find on examining the
extracts taken from the Mormon Bib!e, on the laws
of polygamy, that under its benign authority there
are two kinds of marriages, viz. the one temporal
and the other spiritual ; the former terminates with
life, but the other endures for eternity. A pleasant
prospect this for a man blessed with a scolding
wife, or a woman with a " brute of a husband." A
woman cannot enter heaven unless introduced by
her husband, and a virgin is lost for ever. So
much for the cheat which has seduced thousands of
our countrywomen to become the property of men
equally the slaves of elders and prophets. Poly-
gamy is staunchly supported by the Mormons ; one
of the chief reasons advanced in its favour is
economy. Servants are scarce and wages propor-
tionately high at the Salt Lake, and the provident
Mormon finds it far cheaper to marry as many
women as he requires to do his household and other
work than to pay wages for hired labour. After
relating the various vicissitudes of the Mormons
and their wanderings, he shows how unintentionally
this scouted colony became of the highest impor-
tance to those crossing from the United States to
California : _

half
.way statione—maisTsiasedimppoireinna thethe wilderness—betweenlveeterns
The principal value of U. T. is its position as a great
the Valley
andaneyoregon of ;
it has thus proved a benefit to humanity.
The Mormons " flying from civilisation and Christianity,"
tates Cali-
fornia
attempted to isolate themselves from the world in a moun-
tain fastness ; they were foiled, by an accident far beyond
human foresight. They had retired to a complete oasis,
hblaobciktaehdleupdwesiexthts,snaonwd, guinrtapbpyrovacahstahwleatferrolmess
aannyd
defended by sterile volcanic passes, which in winter are
swettilned"
country, save by a painful and dangerous march of 600-
1,000 miles. Presently, in 1850, the gold fever broke out on.
the Pacific seaboard ; thousands of people not only passed
through U. T. but were also compelled to remain there and
work for a livelihood. The transit received a fresh im-
pulse in 1858 by the gold discovered at Pike's Peak, and in
1859 by the rich silver mines found in the Carson and
‘‘, asho Valleys, on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
Carson Valley, which was settled by Colonel Reece in 1852,
and colonsed in 1855 by 500 Mormons, was soon cleared of
Saints by the influx of prospectors and diggers, and the
other El Dorados drew off much Gentile population, which
was an incalculable boon to the Mormons. They thus rid
themselves of the " thriving lawyers, gamblers, prostitutes,
criminals and desperadoes, loafers and drunkards," who
made Jerusalem a carnival of horrors. The scene is now
shifted to Denver and Carson Cities, where rape and rob-
bery, intoxication and shooting are attributed to their true
causes, the gathering together of a lawless and excited
crowd, not to the " baleful shade of that deadly Upas Tree,
Dl ormonism."
Besides the very full accounts furnished of the
Mormons and their country, Captain Burton's work
relates to the Far West ; whether it be the social
is highly interesting and instructive in all that
and zoology of the country, or the peculiarities
condition of its people, the geography, geology,
of Uncle Sam's Government. The work on the
whole is a success, and may well take its stand with
Captain Burton's other interesting productions.

Captain J. R. Ward, R N., Inspector of Life-
boats to the National Lifeboat Institution, will deliver a
lecture on lifeboats at the United Service Institution 3 Scot-
land-yard, to-morrow (Friday) afternoon.