the Gospel, and administer the ordinances thereof. They believe in the same organisation that existed in the primitive Church-namely, apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers, evangelists, &c.; in the gift of tongues, prophecy, revelation, visions, healing, interpretation of tongues, &c.; in the Bible as the Word of God, so far as it is translated correctly; and also in the Book of Mormon. They believe all that God has revealed, and all that He does now reveal; and they believe that He will yet reveal many great and important things pertaining to His kingdom. They believe in the literal gathering of Israel, and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes ; that Zion will be established on the Continent of America; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth, and that the earth will be renewed, and receive its paradisal glory. They claim the privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of their conscience; and they allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may. They believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, and in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law. They believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, and virtuous, and in doing good to all men. 66 Indeed," concludes this statement of faith, "we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul-we 'believe all things,' we hope all things,' we have endured many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report, or praiseworthy, we seek thereafter." It may here be added that Smith, according to his own statement, was miraculously enabled to translate the Bible (though this translation has never been published); and that he gave a version-whatever may be its worth of the writings on certain Egyptian papyri.

Although Smith declared his readiness to subject himself to rulers and magistrates, and his alacrity in obeying, honouring, and sustaining the law, he frequently came into collision with the civil authorities of Illinois. He was arrested several times on various charges; but nothing was ever proved against him. He had his own views of government, which he published in the early part of 1844, in a treatise unfolding a kind of socialistic scheme, of which honesty and love were to be the moving forces. At this period (towards the close of Tyler's Administration), he put himself forward as a candidate for the Presidency-a fact showing how much, in his case as in that of Mohammed, the love of secular dominion had arisen out of the first enthusiasm of the religious reformer. But a tragical catastrophe

was near at hand. The nonconforming inhabitants of Nauvoo had lately been increasing in numbers and in boldness. They established an opposition newspaper, called the Expositor, which after awhile published a very plain attack on the morals of the Prophet. The town-council, regarding the statement as scandalous, ordered the publication to be stopped, and the office to be pulled down. A mob assembled, broke into the house where the paper was printed, and destroyed the presses. Some Mormon leaders were charged by the proprietors of the journal with inciting the mob to this act of violence; and for a moment they were arrested, but were at once set at liberty on the public prosecutor entering a nolle prosequi. The Governor of Illinois was next appealed to, and from him a warrant was obtained, on the 24th of June, 1844, for the apprehension of Smith on a charge of treason and sedition. He had long desired to put an end to this strange theocracy and its presumptuous leader; and he now seemed to have a good legal opportunity for carrying his wishes into effect. After a brief show of resistance, maintained only while the enemy was still at a distance, and a flight towards the west, from which he was soon recalled by his wife, Smith offered to surrender, on condition that Governor Ford would guarantee his safety until the trial could take place. The Prophet and the leading members of his council were imprisoned in the jail of Carthage; and here, on the 27th of June, more than a hundred armed ruffians, with their faces disguised, forced a way into the prison, overpowered the inadequate guard by whom the captives were surrounded, and fired into a room in which some of the Mormons were confined. Two of the Saints were wounded--one slightly, the other dangerously. Hyrum Smith, the brother of the Prophet, was shot dead; and Joseph, in attempting to escape from the window, after firing with a revolver at the assassin of his brother, was struck by two balls, and fell, a height of twenty feet, into the hands of his enemies. He was then seized, carried into an open place, and killed. His body

was given up to his friends; but there is too much reason to fear that his assassination was connived at by the authorities. The unfortunate man was placed in the hands of those who were known to be his enemies; and the resistance to the attacking force was nothing better than a pretence. The life of Joseph Smith was full of low and ignoble facts; but his death, though it may not be worthy to be called a martyrdom, enlisted sympathy on his side, and made many forget the sham prophet in the murdered man.

1844.]

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THE death of Joseph Smith, and its attendant circumstances, showed that the Mormons were no safer in Illinois than in Missouri, or any other settled part of the Union where they had attempted to establish their peculiar society. It was clear that they must move again, and endeavour to find some locality where persecution might be avoided, and the new religion be permitted to develop itself in peace. In the first outbreak of very natural rage at the slaughter of their Prophet and his brother, the Saints talked of revenge; but their leaders prudently restrained them, and the excitement presently calmed down. Smith had for some time been losing popularity with his followers: his rule was certainly despotic, and by many he was suspected of moral laxities, to which the Mormons as a body were not yet addicted. But his cruel death placed him on a higher pinnacle than he had ever before attained. He was now the glorified martyr of a rising faith; his death was regarded as the consecration of his life, and the spirit of his followers was quickened by the example which he left.

A successor to Smith was speedily elected; yet the choice of the council did not fall on Sidney Rigdon, whose activity, zeal, and force of character might seem to have pointed him out for the post, but on a man named Brigham Young. Rigdon had made himself disliked by some heresies. He had been denounced by Smith as a schismatic in 1838; had afterwards made his peace with the church, and was now again excommunicated on refusing to abandon his unorthodox views. This was at the time when the succession to the chief office was still vacant. At that date, Brigham Young was about three-and-forty years of age. He had for some time been the trusted friend of Joseph Smith, by whom he had frequently been sent on distant missions; and to him the council confided a power which required great natural abilities for its successful exercise. He succeeded

to an office full of grave responsibilities, at a time when it was doubtful whether the saintly association would not be violently extinguished by its foes. Full powers were not conferred on him until the 24th of December, 1847; but, practically, he was at the head of the church from October 7th, 1844.

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Brigham Young came, like Smith himself, from Vermont, and was endowed with a large share of the shrewdness which is held to be characteristic of the people in that part of America. ceived that the fairest chance of success for the Latter-day Church was in removal to some region entirely unoccupied by civilised men, where there would be less danger of coming into collision with implacable enemies. The country he fixed on was that now called Utah, situated far off in the western deserts, beyond the utmost ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This territory is bounded on the south by Arizona; on the east by Colorado; on the north by Idaho; and on the west by Nevada. It forms part of a great basin lying between the Rocky Mountains to the east, and the SierraNevada to the west. Through these mountains there are but few passes, and those very difficult. Other mountain-chains run through the land, parallel with the two main ranges; so that the country is divided into a number of valleys, of greater or less extent. The largest of these is the Great Salt Lake Valley, a hundred and twenty miles in length, and from twenty to forty in width. The only part of the valley capable of culture is that which lies to the east and south-east of the lake in all other directions, the ground is either sandy and barren, or involved in marshy swamps. A large portion of Utah is covered with thick incrustations of salt, which forbid vegetation, and present in all seasons the semblance of vast wastes of snow. Trees are rare, and the cultivation of the soil is rendered difficult by the insufficient supply

of water. The Colorado is the only river which flows out of the Great Basin; but, although an important stream by the time it has reached more southern latitudes, its dimensions are slight while it is still traversing the plains of Utah. Great quantities of snow are accumulated in the mountains, and these, when melted by the heat of summer, supply large streams of water, which in some cases flow into the lakes, but more frequently are either absorbed by the arid soil of the mountains, or lost in the sandy deserts at their base. The most remarkable of the lakes is the Great Salt Lake, which is about seventy miles long, and from twenty to thirty wide. Its waters are impregnated with saline particles, and have been described, after exact scientific analysis, as presenting one of the purest and most concentrated brines in the world. The surface of the lake is broken by several islands, and the mountains on each side give geological evidence of the valley having at one time been the bed of a great inland sea, of which the lake is a small fragment, left behind when the main body of water quitted its ancient seat. Although the larger part of the country is quite uninhabitable, owing to the sterility of the soil, the more favoured regions are extremely productive, and will grow wheat and other crops in more than ordinary abundance. These fertile tracts run for the most part into mere ribbon-like strips at the bottoms of the mountains -strips so long, and yet so narrow, that in one instance the breadth is not above a mile or two, while the length is more than three hundred miles. Iron mines are found in many directions, and vast beds of coal underlie the Green River Basin. The climate in the valleys is mild and dry, but at higher altitudes the heat is oppressive. The dim enchantment of the mirage hangs over the distance when the warm season has set in, and a sky of intense blue winds among the stony peaks of the mountains, and invests even the sandy deserts with the splendour of pure air and light.

When Brigham Young resolved on carrying the whole body of the Saints into this secluded region, the province was nominally a portion of the Mexican Republic; but no rights of sovereignty had ever been exercised, and the land was a desert, inhabited only by a few scattered tribes of Indians. Except by occasional scientific investigators, the great solitude was seldom entered by white men, who shrank in dismay from its rocky fastnesses, its sterile plains, its lonely valleys and unfertilising streams. But these very qualities made the territory all the more attractive to a band of enthusiasts whose object was to shun the company of other people, and to build up a new heaven and a new

earth, undisturbed by Governments and by mobs. To Utah, therefore, Brigham Young directed the hopes of his flock; but it was necessary first to make arrangements for so arduous a pilgrimage. A sort of truce was concluded with the authorities of Illinois, and the Mormons were permitted to tarry till they could finish and dedicate their temple at Nauvoo an object which, under the circumstances, seems to have been hardly worth accomplishing, except on the supposition that the Saints were sincerely convinced that they would soon return, and prevail over all their enemies. The first band of pioneers, under the personal command of Brigham Young, set forth in February, 1846; but it was not until July in the following year that they reached the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. They numbered sixteen hundred, including women and children, and their sufferings on the route were terrible. Crossing the Mississippi on the ice, and travelling with ox-teams and on foot, they passed through Iowa, and made their first halt of any importance near Council Bluffs, on the Missouri, beyond which lay the wild Indian country. Here they turned up the soil, and planted; for it was a part of their plan to render the way less irksome to the succeeding body by providing oases of cultivation in the heart of the wilderness. These resting-places were termed "Tabernacle Camps," and they proved of immense service to those who followed the pioneers, but who nevertheless, like their predecessors, left many dead along their track. In this progress of about three thousand miles, it was necessary to traverse enormous wastes of barren land, to make temporary bridges over streams, and to climb prodigious mountain barriers. Every ten of the waggons was under the care of a captain, who obeyed a captain of fifty, who was responsible to some member of the High Council. Thus order was maintained, and the work of each day quietly performed. The way was beguiled by preaching and singing, by memories of the past, and by the hope which shone for all over the far horizon, like sunrise in the west. The Mormons cannot be denied the possession of an earnest faith. They had faith in their cause, faith in their leader, faith in the principles which had led them forth into the desert, and which would rear for them a city and a temple to which multitudes should flock from many nations of the earth.

The second band of emigrants left Nauvoo in September, 1846. Their departure was hastened by the action of the Illinois State troops, who are accused of breaking the truce that had been entered into, and with whom a prolonged collision occurred, which was not unattended by bloodshed. The old

feud burst out afresh at the very moment of parting, and it became more obvious than ever that the Saints would not be permitted to live in harmony with any community which differed from their own. After the exodus of the Mormons, the city of Nauvoo fell into the hands of another set of enthusiasts. It was purchased by the Icarian Socialists, and became the seat of a model colony, under the leadership of M. Cabet, which was as unsuccessful as such experiments generally are. The Mormon temple was destroyed by an incendiary in 1848; but by that time the followers of Smith were contemplating a much grander edifice in the City of the Salt Lake. The plan of that city was laid out immediately on the arrival of the immigrants. An advantageous site was selected on the east bank of the strait connecting the Great Salt Lake with Lake Utah, some twenty miles southeast from the former, and at a height of 4,300 feet above the level of the sea. The elders set about organising a regular government, at the head of which they placed Brigham Young. A constitution was framed, and a body of laws drawn up; but in all things the presence of a sacerdotal element was distinctly visible. The governing body was divided into a series of hierarchies, the principal of which was the Presidency, consisting of Brigham Young himself and two assistants. Next came the twelve apostles; then the quorum of seventies, each of whom had seven presidents and sixtythree members; lastly, quorums of high priests, elders, priests, teachers, and deacons. One of the offices of this theocracy was that of Patriarch, which at one time was held by John Smith, son of Hyrum, and nephew of the first Prophet. When the original settlement was divided into several parts, a high council was appointed for each colony, composed of twelve members and a bishop for each ward; and thus the power of the State-a power rather religious than political, though necessarily clothing itself in forms which had something of a political character was spread over the whole community, from the upper to the lower ranks.

The cultivation of the soil was pursued with much industry by these settlers in the wilderness, Owing to the small amount of rain which falls in Utah, it was necessary to resort very largely to the practice of irrigation, for which the streams of melted snow flowing from the mountains were made to afford facilities. On some of the streams, mills for grinding corn and sawing wood were erected. At other places, iron-foundries were set up, manufactories were opened, and coal-mines were worked. In a surprisingly short time, canals were dug, bridges built, and mails established from

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Salt Lake City to San Francisco in one direction, and to New York in the other. An university was endowed, for the propagation of knowledge according to Mormonite interpretations; and a flourishing community rose up on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, under the shadow of mountains which seemed to exclude the world. Captain Howard Stansbury, of the United States Topographical Engineers, who made a survey of Utah for the Federal Government in 1849, and who afterwards published a work giving an account of his expedition to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake, speaks with admiration of the colonising habits of the Mormons. relates that when it was determined to found a new town, an expedition was sent out to explore the surrounding country, with a view to selecting the best site. An elder of the church was then appointed to preside over the band which was to make the first improvement. This company was composed partly of volunteers, and partly of such as were selected by the Presidency, with due regard to a proper intermixture of artisans, to render the expedition independent of extraneous help. Everything was managed with mechanical exactness; every man's place was assigned to him, and the work was apportioned amongst the several emigrants, so that there might be no waste of labour by inefficient hands. In this way towns were speedily built, while the fenny country was drained by the digging of wide ditches. The houses were constructed either of pine-logs, or of sun-dried bricks; and the towns, or rather villages, thus hastily made, proved sufficient for the immediate requirements of the emigrants. With so much industry, intelligence, and self-reliance, it is not remarkable that the Mormon settlements progressed with a rapidity which is astonishing even for America. In righam Young the Saints had a commander whr, whatever his errors or his crimes, possessed real ability as an organiser, and the rare power of inspiring confidence in others. His project of complete isolation, however, was defeated by circumstances which he could not have foreseen. Not long after the formation of his settlement, the discovery of gold in California was made known; and this, as we have related, caused such an immense rush of population towards the shores of the Pacific that the neighbourhood of the Great Salt Lake, which lay in the direct line of the overland route, was invaded by "Gentile" intruders. It was at first attempted to shut them out; but the endeavour was a complete failure. The con

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Exploration and Survey of the Valley of the Great Salt Lake of Utah. By Howard Stansbury. 1852.