The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-17 00:00:00

SOCIETY AMONG THE MORMONS.

(Prom the New Fork Times.)
The following items of news will serve to illustrate to
the minds of the people in the States the situation in
which the United States' officers and the " Gentile" resi-
dents in Utah are in, and also the importance of imme-
diate action in respect to the state of affairs in this ter-

ritory.
In the first place, when the United States' mail was
preparing to leave this place on the 2d of this month,
we were much astonished to see a body of 14
horsemen, with arms secreted about their persons,
among whom were Bill Hickman, Hiram Clau•
son, J. C. Little, and Brigham Young, jun., ride
down to the United States' mail carriages and
follow them wherever they went, and forming in
a lino alongside of them whenever they stopped. They
escorted the mail in this manner until it reached the
mouth of Emigration Kenyon, when Mr. Maxwell, the
conductor, stopped the carriages, and, riding back to the
posse, told them that he would proceed no further until
they gave him the reasons for their unwarrantable con-
duct. They gave him as an excuse that when the mail
came into the city the mail carriers had shouted and
made a great noise, and that to prevent them from doing
so in going out they had been ordered to escort them.
They then returned to the city and the mail proceeded
on its way. It was, however, rumoured in the city,
and generally believed, that there were persons who in-
tended to go in the mail carriage whom they wished to
prevent from leaving the country.
The following Sunday Brigham Young told the people
in the tabernacle that any man who would sell a bushel
of wheat to a " Gentile" would have to give the same
amount for the benefit, of the Church, and that if he per-
sisted in so doing his property should all be confiscated.
Again he said, "If you owe anything to the Gentile mer-
chants, suffer yourse:vem to be sued, and your horses,
cattle, lands, &c., to be taken from you, before you allow
a bushel of wheat to go from your granaries." Thus simply
telling them that if they did not pay the merchants the
wheat, which many of them are under bonds to
deliver for debts which they have incurred i❑ anticipa•
tion of the harvest, he would see that they would lose
nothing by being sued. Also, in speaking of the Gen-
tiles he said that he bated the very sight of them, "and
if you were all," said he, "real good Mormons—such
Mormons as I should like to see you—net a single Gen-
tile would remain i❑ the place a minute. It would be
too hot for them here. You would make it hotter for
them than the south-east corner of a Methodist hell."
But the event which has created the greatest excite-
ment in this city was a most outrageous attempt at
assassination which was made upon a United States'
officer in the public streets under the sanction and
countenance of the authorities of the Mormon church.
The facts are these :—About dusk one evening Mr.
Joseph Troskolawski, a United States' deputy surveyor,
went to the store of Messrs. Hooper and Williams to
make a few purchases. Here he met Bill Hickman, a
notorious member of the "Danite Band," who engaged
in conversation with him in a friendly manner, no one
having any suspicion that he had the least unkind feel-
ing towards him. Mr. Troskolawski then left the store
alone to go to his lodgings. He had gone but a few
steps when three men, asssciates of Hickman, stepped up
behind him and knocked him down. One of them
then commenced beating him about the head with
the butt of a heavy loaded whip, and the others
stamped upon and kicked him, being assisted by Bill
Hickman, who had followed him up from the store, and
who cried out to the other villains, " Kill the -- son
of a ! kill him quick, I'll stand the consequences!"
Messrs. Hooper and Williams, hearing a cry in the
street, ran to their door, and seeing these fellows
beating a man rushed to the spot just in time to
save Mr. Troskolawt-ki's life. Mr. Hooper seized Hick-
man by the collar, when the latter drew a knife upon
him. He, however, succeeded in throwing him off. Mr.
Williams in the meantime throwing the other two fellows
off liberated Mr. Troskolawski, who staggered, blind
and strangling in his blood, towards the office of the
mail agent, and was caught by Mr. Dotson, who carried
him in. Hickman and his associates then jumped on
their horses and rode off unmolested, yelling and shout-
ing like Indians.
On examination Mr. Troskolawski was found to be
very seriously hurt, having received a severe internal in-
jury and being dreadfully cut up and bruised. He had re•
ceived heavy blows behind each ear and on his forehead.
He passed four days in the greatest agony, his friends
expecting every moment that he would die ; but under
the care of Dr. Lee the intammation was arrested, and
he is now slowly recovering. No cause was assigned
for the attack, except that Mr. Troskolawski had used
too great freedom of speech in expressing his views of the
Mormon religion. Bill Hickman was in town the next
day boasting of what he had done, and saying that toe
was not afraid ; that he could pay damages and stand a
trial, for his counsel was a high one. Towards the
middle of the day Brigham Young, the governor of the
territory, sent for Hickman, who remained with him
some two hours. There was a great deal of excitement
in the city, and the sympathy of the mass of the
people was for Mr. Troskolawski, although many of
the leaders said they were sorry the -- Gentile
had not been killed. Hickman was in town every day
that week, and no effort was made by the authorities to
bring the offender to justice. It is useless for the Gen-
tiles to make complaint, for there is not the least shadow
of law or justice in Utah. Brigham Young is absolute
monarch, and his word is the only law acknowledged.
On the Sunday afternoon folio wing Jedediah M. Grant,
the second counsellor of Brigham, made the following re-
marks in the tabernacle, rebuking the people for the sym-
pathy which they bad evinced for Mr. Troskolawski.
He said —" I am sick of this sympathising spirit which
you, as individuals, have with the Gentiles and apostate
Mormons. I abhor this sympathetic feeling you have
towards the wretches who would cut your throats, and
of whom I can say, as I have said, of Martin Van
Buren, that they should be winked at by blind men,
they should be kicked across lots by cripples, they
should be nibbled to death by young ducks, anti be
drawn through the keyhole to hell by humble bees.
Because a pour scoundrel will come into our
streets drunk and fall into a ditch, and some of our
shaupip' brethren happened to stumble over him,
you should sympathise with him ! lam ashamed of
you " "We ask no odds of the Gentiles ; we care not
what they say or do, nor fear what they can do."
(Brigham repeated, " Yes ;we a-k no odds of any of
them.") He spoke in this manner for an hour, using
language which would net be tolerated amongst the
lowest and most degraded class of persons any where in
the world.

After Jedediah bad finished speaking, licher C. Kim-
ball, Brigham's first counsellor, rose and remarked that
he agreed with all that Jedediah had said, and then
added—" This occurrence, alluded to by brother Grant, I
never heard of until a day or two ago ; ar.d if another
such occurrence takes place you'll not hear of it at all ;"
and then continued in about the same strain as the pre-
ceding speaker. They then finished by ordering Thomas
S Williams to go on a mission, as a reward for his in•
terference in the affair.

The above are the passages which are fit to be publish.
ed, for some were too indecent to be repeated. The whole
rift of the afternoon discourses was that the church ap-
proved this deed and upheld the " shanpip br,threti"
(not Danite, as formerly) in what they had dune; that the
people had no bu.onesa to be surprised ; that they re•
proved them for the excitement which had been created,
and that the next time such a deed was committed there
would be no occasion for any noise to be made about it.
Bill Hickman was sent out to Green River the week
after with a couple of wagvon loads of goods for Wash-a-
keek, the Chief of the Snake trite. Why he was sent
instead of Armstrong, the Indian agent, remains to be
ascertained ; but probably it is part of the excellent
peace policy which Brigham has found to work so well,
and in pursuance of which he distribute i presents to
the Indians in the name of the Mormons (taking care to
make the distinction broad between Americans and
Mormons), which presents are paid for by the United
States' Government. The immediate cause of these
presents being sent is that news has been received from
the upper country that the Snako and Bon nook Indians
are all ready at a moment's warning to make war upon
the Mormons, and that they are only waiting to hear
the saccess of the war in Oregon to .commence

SHIELDS, Thursday .Night.—We have experienced a
very favourable eliange of the weather in the north to-
day, and this afternoon the steamships for London,
Scotland, the continent, and other parts, which had been
detained in harbour all the week by the' north-east gale,
have proceeded to sea. About 60 sail of laden colliers
also got to sea by the afternoon tide. We have fortu-
nately had no losses to record iu our neigilbourhood, oc
casioned by the violent gale which prevailed from Mon
day until this morning, but some Tyne Nressels are re-
ported as wrecked further south. Some) damage has
been done to the wurks at the Tyne Piers by the heavy
sea that broke on the coast, which was tto violent ou
Wednesday morning that it swept away a, considerable
quantity of gearing in Tynemouth Have) a, and hurled
two waggons heavily laden with stones a• considerable
distance.