to the constitutional number (60,000), which | Great Britain, of whom about 17,000 have joinwill entitle them to a sovereign State govern- ed their brethren in America. A large portion ment. To this end they have sent emissaries of them land at New-Orleans, and others go abroad to invite the Saints to the new Zion, and around Cape Horn to California, and thence to a sum exceeding a quarter of a million of dollars Deserét, where, according to Elder Pratt, there has been provided, for the purpose of defraying are now about 30,000 Saints. They have misthe expenses of poor pilgrims thither. The sionaries in every quarter of the globe-even pens of Orson Pratt (who has recently establish- the Celestials of China have heard their preached a monthly publication called The Seer, at ing, and the sect numbers at the present time, Washington City) their great expounder, and not far from 200,000 souls! Should permanent others, are busy in the promulgation of their prosperity attend the commonwealth of Deserét, peculiar views, and in encomiums upon the beau- the great bulk of these converts will doubtless ty of the country, the peacefulness and purity of be gathered there. What will be the result of society, and the general happiness of the people the consolidation of such a people, one in interof Deserét. est and faith, in the heart of our continent, whose acknowledged head is supreme in all things, spiritual, temporal, social, and political, is a question worthy of the profound attention of statesmen and political economists.

In Great Britain their converts are very numerous, amounting at the present time to not less than 30,000. In the three kingdoms of England, Wales, and Scotland, they had, in 1851, 12 high priests, 1761 elders, 1590 priests, 1226 teachers, and 682 deacons. Since 1838 more than 50,000 converts have been baptized in It consists of a series of extensive valleys and

The country inhabited by the Mormons is one of the most remarkable on the face of the globe.

*

rocky margins, spread out in an immense basin, | whole region. The country along the Jordan surrounded by rugged mountains, out of which from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake is very no waters flow. It is midway between the States on the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean, perfectly isolated from habitable regions, and embracing a domain "covering sixteen degrees of longitude in the Utah latitudes." On the east are the sterile spurs of the Rocky Mountains, stretching down to the vast plains traversed by the Platte River; on the west, extending nearly a thousand miles toward the Pacific, are arid salt deserts, broken by barren mountains; and north and south are immense mountain districts unsusceptible to habitation by man.

According to Kane, Stansbury, Gunnison and others who have visited that region, the Great Basin is more than four thousand feet above the ocean, between the Nevada and Wasatch ranges. The Great Salt Lake is on the eastern side of an interior basin five hundred miles in diameter; and its southeastern shore, where the Mormons have sett'd is the most fertile portion of the

beautiful, and the numerous streams which gush from the hill sides, are cold, fresh, and sparkling. The valleys afford perennial pasturage, and by early irrigation they are made to yield abundant crops. Sixty to seventy bushels of wheat to the acre is an average yield, and potatoes and Indian corn grow luxuriantly. It is estimated that the Great Valley is capable of giving sustenance, from each square mile, to four thousand persons, and that the Territory of Deserét will maintain, with ease, a million of inhabitants. Wild game abounds in the mountains, and the streams are filled with excellent fish; the climate is delightful at all seasons of the year, and "breathing is a real luxury."

*Lieutenant Gunnison says of the Great Salt Lake: "The water is perfectly saturated with salt, and so dense that pended with ease, with the shoulders exposed above the persons float, cork-like, on its waves, or stand sussurface"-The Mormons, etc., p. 18.

Southward, over the rim of the basin, is a fine | sessed by a people of such indomitable energy cotton-growing region into which the Mormons and perseverance as the Mormons, we see the are penetrating. The vast hills and mountain- vital elements of a powerful mountain nation, in slopes present the finest pasturage in the world the heart of our continent, and in the direct for sheep, alpacas and goats. The water power pathway from the Atlantic to the Pacific States, of the whole mountain region is immense. Iron that may yet play a most important part, for mines every where abound; and in the Green good or evil, in the destinies of our country and River Basin are inexhaustible beds of coal. In of the world. these great natural resources and defenses, pos

The Mormons hold to the Sacrament of Bap

tism, but teach that it is not only efficacious in the salvation of the recipient but that a person may be baptized for the unregenerated dead-that a man may become a saviour for a friend already in the spirit-world. They profess to adhere to the primitive forms of church government and have the several orders of officers. The efficacy of Confirmation, or laying on of hands for the impartation of the Holy Ghost, is taught, but this, like other rites, is variously interpreted by different teachers. In all their ministrations the Mormon teachers are liberal latitudinarians. Like the Epicureans they teach the enjoyment of all the pleasures of this life. Their church worship is opened and closed by the performance of lively airs by a band of music; the revered elders join in the dances, feastings, and sports of the people, and the whole College of Apostles are what pleasure-loving folk would call "jolly fellows." The bosom of the church of Latter

Day Saints offers the joys of a Mussulman's
Paradise to its children.*

Polygamy has doubtless been practiced by the chief men of the Church, ever since the revelation on that subject to Sidney Rigdon, at Nauvoo. It was given the soft appellation of "Spiritual wife doctrine," and they sought to give the impression that its practice betook of the purity of Platonic love. But the world would not believe it, although the inspired Prophet himself declared it. They still asserted the purity of the relation, even after they had founded their isolated city in the wilderness; but intelligent Gentiles when visiting them, discovered the materiality of the doctrine. "I was not aware before" says a recent writer, "that polygamy was sanctioned by their creed, beyond a species of ethereal Platonism which accorded to its especial Saints chosen partners, called spiritual wives; but I now found that these, contrary to one's ordinary * The reader, if desirous of becoming acquainted with tles of the Presidency in Deserét are acknowledged as the details of Mormon theology, faith and practice, will authoritative commentaries. The most reliable "Genfind them in the following books: The Book of Mormon- tile" accounts of the Mormons may be found in Kane's The Gospel Reflector-The Times and Seasons-Doc- Discourse already alluded to; Bennet's History of the trines and Covenants-Voice of Warning, and The Mil-Saints; the Narrative of Catharine Lewis; The Mor lennial Star. These are canonical, and the writings of Joseph Smith and the two Pratts, and the General Epis

mons, London, 1851; Stansbury's Expedition to the Great Salt Lake, and Gunnison's Mormons or Latter Day Saints.

notions of Spiritualism, gave birth to cherubs, character of the Mormons offers a dark picture. and unfledged angels." No longer able to con- To the American patriot, the philanthropist, and ceal the monstrous fact from the world, they the Christian philosopher, the political and social now openly avow and defend the practice of aspect of the sect awakens fearful apprehensions polygamy. They even give it the sanction of a concerning the future. The Mormons are, osreligious duty as a means of greater happiness tensibly, loyal to the Federal Constitution, and in the future world. They teach that no woman profess great purity in their social relations. can attain to celestial glory without a husband to Will their loyalty survive the day of sufficient introduce her into paradise; nor can a man arrive power to avenge the wrongs they have suffered, at full perfection without at least one wife; and provoked or not, at the hands of American citithe greater the number he is able to take with him zens? Is their allegiance to the Head of their the higher will be his seat in the celestial city! In Church as Supreme Pontiff-"prophet, priest, a recent number of The Seer, Pratt, the great and king," spiritual and temporal-insignificant expounder of their doctrines, boldly advocates and without meaning? Will polygamy, now this practice, at the same time explaining the vari- openly avowed and practiced, be productive of ous guards which they profess are thrown around no social evils, which may menace the stability the "peculiar institution" to prevent immoral of public virtue and the best interests of society? results. Polygamy is now openly practiced in These are questions of vast importance, and the Great Salt Lake City, and the dignitaries of command our most serious attention. The fire the church have each as many wives as they are of persecution is quenched, we hope, forever. able to support. It is said that President Young, The puissance of public opinion, formed on the the Sovereign Pontiff, has at least thirty wives in basis of public virtue and supported by public his household! Yet we must not unfairly with-law, must enter the lists as champion of social hold the acknowledgment that, as a people, they practice many social virtues. They are temperate, industrious, frugal, and honest. They are kind and hospitable to strangers; and many a half-starved and weary emigrant on his way to California, has had reason to bless the Mormons for their charity. The surface of society there exhibits the aspect of the highest degrec of public and private virtue and sound morality But the poison is at work secretly, and not many years will elapse before its effects will be seen on the surface of the body politic.

purity and uncorrupt republicanism. The sooner the trumpet of the herald is heard, the better. The sect is rapidly increasing in numbers, power, and influence. They really assume political, social, and religious independence of all the world. They will not tolerate public officers among them, who are not of their faith. They enact laws, regulate commerce, coin money, and do all other things which an independent state claims a right to do. Asserting their saintship par excellence, and consequently the whole earth as their patrimony, they look for universal dominion, temporal and spiritual. The Great Salt

Marshal

Lake City-the New Jerusalem-is to be the he accepted the proffered advances. central capital where the glory of the earth is to Kalkreuth appeared, in behalf of the Prussians, be displayed. The walls of a magnificent tem- to implore the clemency of the conqueror. Naple are rapidly rising, and soon the most gor-poleon received him with great courtesy, and

geous flag that ever floated upon the breeze is to be unfurled upon “Ensign Mount," a lofty pinnacle overlooking the city, as a symbol of universal dominion. It is to be constructed of the banners of all nations and peoples, and to be a signal of the speedy verification of the decree of the Lord, as saith Isaiah: "All ye inhabtants of the world and dwellers upon earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign upon the mountains. And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth. And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the tops of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it."

said, "You alone, of the Prussian officers, have treated the French prisoners humanely. On this account, and as a mark of my esteem and gratitude, I consent to a suspension of arms, without requiring the delivery of the remaining Prussian fortresses."

We are not prophets of evil, but deem it wise to keep the sentinels upon our towers awake by frequently inquiring, “Watchman, what of the night?"

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

BY JOHN S. C. ABBOTT.

THE PEACE OF TILSIT.

The Niemen alone now separated the belligerent armies. But Napoleon, with characteristic caution, concentrated his forces, reared an intrenched camp, collected immense stores, and posted the divisions of his army just as if the war had not been interrupted. The two vanquished sovereigns were now in great haste to open negotiations. The first interview was appointed for the 25th of June.

It is not often that the mathematical and the poetic elements combine in the same mind. They did so, in the most extraordinary degree, in the mind of Napoleon. No one ever had a more rich appreciation than he of beauty and of sublimity. He felt the impress of moral grandeur, and he well knew how to place that impress upon other hearts. The two most powerful sovereigns in the world were to meet, in friendly converse, to decide whether war should still desolate Europe. For a year their mighty armies had been engaged in one of the most sanguinary conflicts earth has ever witnessed. These hosts, consisting in the aggregate of more than two hundred thousand men, were now facing each other, separated but by a narrow stream. The eyes of all Europe were riveted upon the astonishing scene. Napoleon fully realized the grandeur of the occasion. With his accustomed tact, he seized upon it, to produce an impression never to be forgotten.

He ordered a large and magnificent raft to be moored in the middle of the Niemen, equi-distant from both banks of the river. The raft was carpeted, and ornamented with the richest decorations. Upon one part a gorgeous pavilion was erected. No expense was spared to invest the construction with the most imposing magnificence. The two armies were drawn up upon each

PON the banks of the Niemen, which separates the rest of Europe from the boundless | wastes of the Russian empire, Napoleon arrested the march of his triumphant columns. But twenty months had now elapsed since he left the camp of Boulogne. In that time he had traversed the Continent, and conquered all the armies of combined Europe. The storms of winter had passed away. The beauty of summer was blooming around him. His soldiers, flushed with vic-shore. Thousands of people from the neighbortory, and adoring their chieftain, were ready to follow wherever he should lead. But his enemies were incapable of any further resistance. Alexander and Frederic William, in the extreme of dejection, were upon the northern bank of the river, with about 70,000 men, the broken bands of their armies. These troops, having lost most of their artillery and munitions of war, were utterly dispirited. On the other bank the eagles of Napoleon fluttered proudly over 170,000 victors.

ing country had thronged to the spot, to witness the extraordinary spectacle. God seemed to smile upon this scene of reconciliation. The sun rose brilliantly into the cloudless sky, and the balmy atmosphere of one of the most lovely of June mornings invigorated all hearts.

At one o'clock precisely the thunders of artillery rose sublimely from either shore, as each Emperor, accompanied by a few of his principal officers, stepped into a boat on his own side of the river. The numerous and gorgeously ap

Upon the left bank of the Niemen there is the little town of Tilsit. It contains about ten thou-pareled suite of the respective monarchs followed sand inhabitants. Napoleon had just arrived in this place when a letter was placed in his hands from Alexander, proposing an armistice. Napoleon had now been absent from the capital of his empire nearly a year, enduring inconceivable toils and hardships. With the utmost cordiality

in a boat immediately after their sovereigns. The main raft was intended solely for Napoleon and Alexander. Two smaller rafts, also of most beautiful construction, were anchored at a short distance, for the imperial retinue. Napoleon reached the raft first, and intmediately crossed it