The Sun.
London, England, 1857-09-07 00:00:00

LONLON, MONDAY EVENING, SEPTEM.BEIt 7, 1857.

EXTRAORDINARY GATHER rNG OF THE
MORMON APOSTLES AND ELDERS.

Yesterday a very extraordinary " Conference"
of Mormon apostles, elders, and priests, some of
whom are fresh from the Salt Lake Valley—the
Mormon "Zion," to which all these "Latter-day
Saints," as they style themselves, are eventually to
be gathered—was held in the Adelaide Gallery
Casino. On the platform were Pastor Russ, tkeo
President of the London Conference, who presided,
and around him were Elder Orson Pratt, Elder
Benson, the presidents of the various provincial
conferences, and a number of Mormon celebrities.
The services commenced at ten o'clock. After the
opening devotions, the various provincial presi-
dents addressed the meeting.
Elder KiesEY, President oftheKent Conference,
Mated that there were about 50 "saints" in his
district, which was " the most pleasantest part of
the country," and prosperity attended the labours.
The people paid tbeir tithes and other offerings
cheerfully, al.hoUgh they were very poor. They
supported no fewer than 13 elders, who "saw high
to high, in hall matters, hall the time." The
audience gave faint moanings of approbation, and
every now and then buret forth into a loud
" Amen," when the speaker uttered hopes and
prayers for the prosperity of their society. He com-
plained, however, of some of his people that they
were not what they ought to be, and had "given
the elders rotten eggs instead of fresh ones." He
referred to the opposition they had had to encoun-
ter, but expressed his gratification that the Govern-
went -of this country would secure to them the free
'dem of vionhip.
Elder DAVIS, president of the Essex district,
slid his people paid-their tithes and offerings cheer-
fully, and had contributed 301. towards the ex-
pense of the tracts (601. worth) which had- been'
sent them for_ distribut'on. They supported nine
travelling elders. and they had preached in 86 dif-
ferent places. He rejoiced in persecution, because
it " caused the work to roll forth."

Elder JOHN HYDE, president of the Reading As-
ti ict, gave but an indifferent account of the "saints"
in his district.- They numbered, he said, between
350 and 400, of whom, however, only some 250
were, in- his opinion, "saints of a high order," and
the rest fell under his- severe condemnation. He
gave a touchily:, description of the poverty of his
people, who, he said, had only 11s. or 12s. a-week,
yet they paid their tithes .and other offerings cheer-
fully. They -were very " obedient" to the com-
mands of the Church, and had contributed, in spite
of their poverty, about 501. for the purposes of emi-
gration to the Silt Lake Valley, the Mormon State
of Utah. He complained of a number of them that
they had refused to be re-baptised, acco•ding to
some recent "command of God" (that
.is, an order
from Brigham Young and Co.) to that effect. He
said that those who bad fallen off from the Church,
now spent more in a week than their tithes and
offerings would have come to in a fortnight. He
concluded by regretting" that they had net been
able to " establish new causes"—that is, to gain
new societies—in any place within his district ; but
they would go on in faith, and he hoped they would
have better success. (Loud cries of "Amen.")
Elder Ross said he could testify that these repre-
sentations as to the state of the districts were cor-
rect. He was glad to see those people, although
so very poor, contributing of their scanty earnings
towards the Emigration Fund, and he said " God
bless them." (Loud cries of " Amen.") He hoped
they would all strive to get to -the land which God
had appointed for his people. (" Amen !") •
The audience then sang a hymn to one of those
fine old psalm tunes which have been for ages the
admiration of the Christian Church. We cannot,
however; compliment the Mormonites on the pecu-
liar poetry of their psalmist, or upon their ideas of
time and time, for the Chairman had to request
them to follow the "leader " of the singing—a
country lad of 18.
Elder BEINARD &vow, of the Southampton Con-
ference, next addressed the meeting. He rather
complained- of some of his people as being " half-
hearted," but said :there was a very general dispo-
sition amongst them " to go home to Zion" (i.e.
the Mormon State of Utah). He complained bit-
terly of the newspaper press of this country for ex-
pesing, the villany, profanity, and licentiousness
which prevail at the Mormon head-quarters, but
he did not condescend to disprove any single state-
ment which has been made. He contented him-
self merely with a general denial. He did not
enter at all into the question of polygamy—
a question in this country reserved only for the
fully initiated.

Elder HATcII. a juvenile Yankee orator, president
of the Sheffield district, delivered a lengthened ha-
rangue on the advantages of Mormonism, and con-
demned, very severely, every other sect of religion-
ists as being "iu darkness," ke. He described
London as the " Babylon" of the Scriptures, and
dwelt touchingly on the self-denial of the Mormon-
it's, who, he said, had " throwed away their pipes
and pots, a d were a temperate people." He- said
several times that he felt "fust-rate," and that the
Mormon doctrines made them all feel " fust-rate,"
and made tliem "g od-looking people"—an asser-
tion that was s'rikingly contradicted by the coun-
tenan-ces of a great number of the saints present.
Touching the emigration, he said that those who
stayed in " Babylon" (London) would partake of
the plagues which were sore to fall upon it, or elee
he was a f4l-e prophet. (Moans:of approbation from
the saints, ant smiles from the general auditors.)
Seeing the incredulity of some of the audienc-, the
speaker invited those who disbelieved him to "stay
here and try it on," an invitation which many
seemed perfectly willing to accept.
A service of a similar kind was held in the after-
noon, but the principal meeting was in the evening.
The " saints" re-assembled at half-past six, in
full force. The room Was nearly full. In the M-
tt rim the apost'es, elders, priests, and members had
partaken of refreshments, in the shape of tea, Arc. ;
and as the room was exceedingly warm, most of tl-.e
men, including one of the apostles on the platform,
preferring "ease before elegance," appeared in their
shirt-sleeves. There was a number of babies in the
room, who took a very active part in the proceed-
ings. Judging, however, from the complacency
with which both speakers and hearers seemed to
regard their interruptions, it would seem that their
presenc3 was not unusual in Mormon gatherings.
A large number of the mothers were young girls
apparently under 20. The youngsters contributed
materially to enliven the proceedings, some by
laughing and others by crying. Several lads in
their shirt-sleeves were occupied during the "ser-
vice," if service it can be called, in circulating large
white jugs, apparently containing water, among
the auditory, which were handed about, each tak-
ing a he try poll, and then returned to the juvenile
"saints" in the shirt-sleeves to be replenished and
circulated again. The whole affair bad a " free-
and easy" kind of air, quite foreign to English no-
tions of religious services, or even of public
meetings on week days of an ordinary character.
The celebrated, or rather the notorious "Orson
Pratt," occupied the whole of the evening in a detail
of the history of the Book of Mormon, the Bible of
the Latter-day Saints. He described how the angel
of the Lord appeared to Joe Smith, or, as he called
him, Smeth, when he was quite a lad. How the
said angel pointed out to Smith where he would find,
in a mountain three miles away from his residence,
a box of plates of a metallic substance on which
were engraven the records of tire ancient inhabi-
tants of America, who were descendants of the
Israelites, and had come over miraculously to the
American continent 600 years before Christ, and he
described the miraculous " translation: of the re-
cerds. The speaker, however, did sot go into all the
details ; he did not, for instance, tell the people,
what the Book of Mormon affirms, that they went
over from Asia to America in a vessel which was
"like unto a dish," and which had " a hole at the
top thereof," and "likewise a hole at the bottom
thereof." The speaker might well say that the con-
veyance was a "miraculous" one. We cannot fol-
low him into all the absurdities of this oft refuted
story ; suffice it to say that his principal point was
the necessity of a further revelation, such as the
Book of Mormon ; and in urging this point ho re-
ferred to the " various readings" of the differen`
versions of the New Testament, and, calling them
" errors," he argued therefore the necessity of a
more complete revelation of the Divine will, which
he contended was the Book of Mormon. He forgot,
or purposely ignored, what every one now admits,
that these " various readings," though very nume-
rous, affect no vital point either of fact or of doc-
trine. In notrcing the various parts of the world to
which Mormon missionaries had been sent, he said
that the only country in which they had been un-
able to make any impression was India. Their
missionaries there had been persecuted severely,
and had been forbidden to preach at any of the
military stations. But the "voice of the Lord' had
recalled all the missionaries from India before the
recent out break, which he regarded as a " retribu
tion" of Providence ; and he predicted, although he
was very sorry for what had occurred in India,
similar calamities for England, if she refused to ac-
cept the Mormonish missionaries.
The " service" concluded with a hymn, and a col-
ection was made on each occasion.

THE INDIAN INSURRECTION.

duces some discontent, for Hindoos as well as Bud-
hists dearly love the countenance of the sovereign
power to their religious ceremonies. All this time
education is beginning to making itself fit. The
wonders of truth become:more and mere irresistible,
and then comes slowly impinging upon Brahmi-
nical consciousness the rapid spread of new idols
and opinions among the hitherto b'goted Bengalec s,
and their consequent secession' from Hindooiem.
The Brahmin has become more ready to fraternise
with the Moslem. But hitherto the Government
has kept itself rigidly aloof from teacher and dis-.
ciple. Its 'apparent want of sympathy with co-nverts
has attracted animadversion in England, and it is
at length forced to interfere by enacting two
laws—one to release the Hindoo widow from the
cruel fiat of perpetual celibacy, the other to pro-
tect the convert from Hindooism from the spolia
tion of his property. The Hiudo law, it must be
remembered, prohibited the marriage of Hindoo
widows, and •disinherited the seceder fionr the
Hindoo faith. These last acts caused, doubtless,
a deep sensation, and formed assuredly a strong
argument for the Moslem to bring forward iu
urging the.Hindoo to repel the threatened down-
fall of his creed ; and when the unfertimate cart-
ridge affair occurred the match was ail-died to a
mine which had been long silently loading, and
the Mussulman was enabled to put his diabolical
machinery into movement, se-Are of the co-opera-
tion of the flindoo. That his p'ots have not suc-
ceeded in phaking the Government is cause of
thanksgiving to God.
I do not think that the true character of the
Alatiomedan has ever been duly appreeiated in
India. Whereier this infernal sect has-teen suf-
fered to congregate hatred and disaffection towards
Christianity and the British rule have been kept
alive, and simmering, as it were, like a cauldron over
a fire. Moorshedabad (comparatively clo,e to Cal-
cutta) his always been a nest of lurking traitors,
Patna and Dacca hotbeds of fanatic discontent,
and in Delhi and Lucknow at no time has it been
safe for an unarmed European to be found alone.
Et is ferVently to be hoped that Government will
now see to the utter dispersion of this dangerous
crew. At the best they are but usurpers in Hin-
dostan, and it behoves us to destroy every trace of
royalty or nobility to which they ley claim, and
which they ever have made and ever will snake a
nucleus for bloody murders and rebell!on.
That the Government of India will be all the
stronger for this temporary derange ment, I feel cer-
tain. Its (Bengal) officers will have learnt the true
value of " high-caste" men, and we shall have regi-
men's formed of really hard-working and useful
soldiers, instead of the conceited scoundrels whom
we have been for years pampering and spoiling—
villains who refuse before the enemy to dig a trench
because the shovel is an ignominious tool for the
" Khetree," and who make themselves useless from
inanition on service because a Brahmin may not
eat cooked food with his accoutrements on. Away
with the rabble ! and in enlisting Sikhs, GlioorlEas,
and Doshads, let us get that Anglicised feelin.:, into
our reginients which makes the Bombay and Ma-
dras armies more really useful than the Bengal
troops, though inferior perhaps in both physique
and morale. And, finally, let Government, heed-
less of mob orators in England, refrain from extend-
ing to the dark, designing Hindostanee the same
liberty and equality that it confers on th British
subject. Moat especially I refer to the " li'eerty of
the pre-is"—an act of Sir C. Metcalfe, which was a
real boon when limited to the English newspapers,
but a most pernicious error when extcnied to men-
dacious natives.

The assertion that these disturbances arise from
the inefficiency of the Bengal military officers is
founded apparently on the fact that they were ori-
ginally restricted to the native soldiery, but those
who reason thus seem blind to the fact that for
treason to. prosper it must do so through the army.
No human being would be so rash as to commence a
revolution through the instrumentality of-unwar
like peasants ; and, in the same way, no Zemind tr,
Nawab, or Rajah was prepared to raise the standard
of rebellion till he had seen Government stripped
of the means of immediate retaliation by the d'saf-
fection of its native army. That only a few have
now done so is probably owing to the fact that the
most powerful among them are the best informed,
and foresee in the vast resources of the British Go-
vernment an effectual barrier to their secret wishes
It has struck some also as a significant proof of
inefficiency in the Bengal Government th it Bom-
bay and Madras have not joined in the mutiny.
That the reins of discipline have been held tighter
in those presidencies than in Bengal, where too
much consideration and forbearance have been prac-
tised to all classes, cannot be denied, but it is
quite unfair to attribute to that alone the tragedy
which is now ena ting. We must make allowances
for the difference of materiel of the several armies.
Time Madras and Bombay men are not equal in
physique or in morale to the up-country llindos-
tanee, and would probably under no excitement
have shown the daring wh;ch the Bengal mutineers
have evinced in the face of Europeans. Atrocities
certainly wore once committed by the first-named
in Vellore, but the outbreak there was quite unlike
the organised resistance shown at Delhi. Me'reover,
the seeds of disaffection may not probably have
been cast to the south of Bengal, where the machi-
nations of treason have been restricted for r« aiolla
time alone can divulge. And, lastly, it alone can
reveal whether foreign. Powers have had any hand
in this dreadful but impotent outbreak. But God
forbid that the blood of the innocent children and
the helpless women that has flowed so wantonly
from the unpitying knife of the Mussulman shou'd
hereafter be laid at the door of the Christ an. Blood
of the innocent Uselessly as lavishly has it
streamed to the feet of the se who never knew
mercy ! But, praise be to Heaven, we can with
the Psalmist exclaim, "Thou halt girded me with
strength unto the battle ; Thou shalt throw down
mine enemies under me." Vengeance is Thine,
Oh God ; uplift Thine arm for the orphan, the
childless, and the widow ! MAJOR.

DEATH BY MISTAKE.—An inquest was hell on Satur-
day by Mr. Carter, at Rotherhithe, on the body of T.
Mills, who was in the employment of Messrs. Curling,
wholesale druggists. The deceased on Saturday last
poured some tincture of colchicum that was in a large
stone bottle into a jug, and drank it, supposing it to be
Caps wine. He was attacked a ith symptoms similar
to diarrhce t, and a medical man who was called in treated
him for that comp'aint, not having been informed that
he had drank the tincture. He died on Sunday morn-
ing. Verdict, accidental death.
EXTENSIVE FILM—An extensive fire happened in the
premises belonging to Mr. J, R. Atltnd, on Saturday,
situate at No.ll, llolywell-row, Worship-square, Shore-
ditch, and which destroyed a vast amount of valuable
property. )The Royal Society's escapes, under the com-
mand of Mr. Inspector Baddel-y, and the pariah engines
attended, as well as those of the London Brigade, from
Whitecross-street, Watling-street, Jeffeey-square, glad
Farringlon-street. A supply of water was procured, from
which the; firemen at once went to work, but in
spite of their exertions the fire could not be subdued
until a very serious amount of property was destroyed,
which is thus officially returned to the "different
men-
f companies forming the brigade :—" No. 11, Holy-
well-row, Worship-square, Shoreditch, J. R. Aglatd,
chairmaker ; cause of fire not known ; the contents
ware insured in the Phoenix fire-office, the building was
insured in the Sun office ; the premises used as work-
shops, warerootns, &c., burnt out and roof off No 10,
ditto, W. Cutbill, private ; stairs on ground floor, first
floor, and second floor damaged greatly by fire, water,
and removal ; insured in the County fire-office. Wor-
ship-square (opposite) Mr. J. L. Minton, licensed vic-
tualler and proprietor of the Bald Face Stag tavern ;
side front severely scorched and glass broken in windows,
&c. ; insured in the Sun fire-office. No. 8, Holywell-
row, Mr. D. Barra!et, cabinet plumber ; front of pre-
mises seriously damaged by fire and window glass
demolished ; insurance unknown."
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