The Sun. — 1870-04-15 (London, England)

BRITISH AIND AN AMERICAN DIFFI.  CULTY.  (From the Anglo-American Times)  Both the United States and the United Kingdom have a little affair of Territories on hand, which, however small, are as much calculated to fret these great nations as the spiteful proceedings of an incorrigible, weak individual, acting spitefully against his wealthy neighbour, may puzzle him how to get rid of the nuisance. Of the two, the United States difficulty is much the greater ; still we cannot I redid, with certainty, what the result may be of the Red River insurrection. We have now the particulars of the debate in the House of Rrpresentatives on the Utah Polygamy Bill, reported six weeks ago by thc Committee on Territories. Mr. WARD, a member of that Committee, addressed the House in support of the Bill on the 22d of March, assaulting Mormonism furiously, as well as Mr. FITCH, who had upheld it in a speech made a month before. Though Mr. WARD'S power of imagination did not carry him to the spot where he could see any one on the floor of the House and in the face of the country, in the last half of the 19th century, with the effrontery to defend the Mormons, yet Mr. HOOPER, the Delegate from Utah, boldly stood up for the rights of the Territory and its people. For the first time, the Delegate said, in the history of the American Government,. a proposition had been made to punish citizens for their belief or disbelief. " The bill declared that the social system which MOSES taught, which GOD allowed, and from which CHRIST had sprung, was a crime, and that every one not simply practising it, but believing in it, was to be—not tried, but convicted ; his wife turned out on the world, and his property confiscated for the benefit of the moral reformers who were the instigators of the bill." It is curious to contrast this language with that of Mr. IVARD, Mr. BLAIR, and Mr. PO3IEROY. JOE SMITH, Mr. WARD described " as a vagabond, drunkard, and thief, who, 40 years ago in 'Western New York, got around him a little crew of 30 persons in Seneca County, and instituted the religion of the 'Latter Day Saints.' He spoke of BRIGHA3I YOUNG as having become disgusted with the honourable occupation of digging potatoes, and joined the Mormon, becoming their chief after the death of JOE SMITH, when he readily fell into the doctrine that polygamy was apart of the religion of the Mormons.'' Having thus discussed the chiefs, he sketched the system of missions by which Mormonism had increased its followers in Utah from 4,000 to 100,000, and he went on to remark that instead of the railroad and the colonization of the adjacent districts sapping the foundation of Mormonism, Mormonism was demoralizing all in contiguity with it. The " saints" were religious fanatics, ruled by an unscrupulous demagogue, to whom clung all degrees of crime, from paltry theft to monstrous murder. Was the great Republic to arise from its struggle against the oppression of the black man, stained with pracs tices within its boundaries so unhallowed, F.O Goddefying, so dishonouring? Was the country, which at such a fearful cost had removed the stigma of slavery, to have the finger of Christendom pointed at it in scorn as nursing so hateful an institution ? Was the dream of the Mormon prophet to be realized that the American nation was to be broken into fragments, and Mormonism was to become supreme. It was the duty of the American Congress at least to make an effort to vindicate the majesty of the 'aw. An attempt was made to have the bill laid on the t ,ble, but defeated by a majority of -3 to 1 ; and Mr. SCHENCK, who desired to get it postponed to proceed with his Tariff and Funding Bills, had to withdraw his motion. In the course of the debit.: Mr. BLAIR scouted the notion of serious redstance, alluding in proof to the report that BRIGHAM YOUNG was at that moment selecting a new locality in Arizona, In answer, Mr.