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    354 T H ? & £ A P E R. [No. 316, Saturda...

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    A LADY AMOM THE MORMONS. The Mormons at ...

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    Colonial Constitutions. Colonial Constit...

    but the vicious organisation of her empire that sapped its basis , and led to its prostration . Arbitrary force , monopoly , and bigotry , were the principles of Portuguese rule : and as long as the world was satisfied with bigotry , monopoly , and arbitrary force , less than forty thousand soldiers of Portugal held in subjection the whole coast of the ocean from China to Morocco , and extorted tribute from a hundred and fifty sovereign princes . Now , the Azores and Madeira , Angola and Mozambique , an Indian and a Chinese factory , and a few slave-depots in Africa , are the relics of that corrupt ' dominion . Spain , at first more politic , but as absolute , as avaricious , and as

    fanatical , was not enfeebled by the expansion of her forces , or by the possession of the South American territories , but by the decay of her political faculties , which struck a lethargy into the limbs of the Empire . The French and the Dutch have both lost their principal colonies ; but they never adopted a policy like that which is now the recognised basis of tie British Colonial system . They treated their Colonists as subjects , without the claims of citizenship , and the Colonists , amid the collisions of the maritime powers , did not adhere to the parent State with that tenacity with which almost every British dependency , during the last general war , adhered in content and tranquillity to the British Empire .

    Thirty-eight Colonial Governments are subordinated to the Colonial Office , three in Europe , three in Asia , eighteen in Africa , seventeen in America , six in Australia , in addition to others peculiarly constituted . They are distributed into dependencies possessing representative institutions under grants or Charters , as Jamaica , and all the older West Indian Colonies , the North American Colonies ' , excepting Canada and Newfoundland , the Cape of Good Hope , and Malta , dependencies obtained-by conquest , known as Crown Coloides and governed by the Crown , as Gibraltar , Heligoland , Labuan , Ceylon 3 Maritius , Natal , K af Fraria , Trinidad , St . Lucia , and dependencies provided by Act

    of Parliament with separate constitutions , as Canada , Newfoundland , the Australian colonies , New Zealand , the " Western African Settlements , St . Helena , the Falkland Isles , Hong Kong , and the territories of the East India Company . Mr . Mills devotes to each of these Constitutions a separafce ' chapter or explanatory section , enabling the student of colonial politics to understand , at a glance , the results of'all the legislation that has taken place , for the establishment of local assemblies and executives , either grafted upon the privileges conferred by ancient Charters , or conceded to young communities , animated by a popular spirit , conscious of their importance and disdainful of arbitrary control .

    354 T H ? & £ A P E R. [No. 316, Saturda...

    354 T H ? & £ A P E R . [ No . 316 , Saturday

    A Lady Amom The Mormons. The Mormons At ...

    A LADY AMOM THE MORMONS . The Mormons at Home ; with some Incidents of Travel from Missouri to California , in 1852-53 . By Mrs . B . G . Ferris . Sampson Low , This is a genuine , graphic book , a real glimpse of Mormon life and manners . Mrs . Ferris is a lady with strong monogamic principles , who abhors the many-wived citizens of Utah , and utters her abhorrence , at times , in an amusing , and not in a " n impressive fashion ; she is unable to judge the Mormon , community from any but this single point of view ; she loathes polygamy as sbe would loathe eannibalism , and her unvarying topic is the depravity of that institution . She is certainly right . Polygamy , wherever practised , defiles society , and degrades women ; but Mrs . Ferris cannot understand , even though she describes , other aspects of Mormonism which

    redeem it from the charge of being no more than an organisation of sensuality . It is a morbid social development representing some of the dissatisfaction , the unrest , the mental perturbation of the age . But Mrs . Ferris sees in Utah only the Alsatia of prohibited passions , and it is not a little curious that her observations , narrowed bj her incessant contemplation of one obnoxious habit , should be on general topics candid and agreeable . But she is ,, in many senses , a clear sighted traveller , and her narrative , intrinsically attractive from its close view of Mormon civilisation , owes much of its interest to her lively style , and her fresh and pleasant sketches by tlie way . Her husband was appointed , in 1852 , to be the United States Secretary at Utah , and she , being unwilling to trust liim alone in that city of ambiguous fame , undertook a journey to the Great Salt Lake , wintered amonor the

    Mormons , and m the spring of 1853 returned , by way of California , to Missouri . So here is an authentic description of the Salt Lake society , written by the wife of an American official , who professes to have penetrated into more harem secrets than she chooses to disclose . A prejudiced woman , she i 3 , assuredly , and strong in pious implacability ; but we have had so many forged stories of residences in Utah , that an authentic history of the city and the people , the plain , the Lake , the houses , streets , tents , tabernacles , and festive saloons , is welcome indeed . Mrs . Ferris started from St . Louis , on the Missouri river , and , at Independence , struck off by land , westr ward , for her journey across " the Plains . " At first the route lay over flowery undulations , diversified by open woods and a few settlers' plantations , and ever and anon enlivened by troops of mounted Indians , or camps of the

    Shawnees , the men with the traditional scalp-tufts and scarlet blankets , the women with red leggings , embroidered mocassins , and beaded girdles . Round their evening fires , flickering in the dark , they looked like the shadows of Wish-ton-Wish ; indeed , rumours floated on the Plains that thq Shavvnees were not too degonerato to come " with uncouth gallop through the night " upon unprotected travellers . Mrs . Ferris says that the mules were prodigiously frightened when an alarm arose , and thronged to the bell-pony for protection . " You must know , " she adds , " that mules look upon lioraes as superior beings , and will follow them with humble submission . Across the Big Vermilion , across the Big Blue , with flocks of antelopes coursing over tne

    plain , to Fort Kearney , where Mrs . Ferris—imaginative lady !—expected to see a massive front of granite walla , n moated fortress , bastioiiod and parn .-pettcd , and where she found a two-storeyed house , a low range of barracks and magazines , and a gentlemanly officer arrayed in civilian modesty . Up the valley of the Platto , among the villages of the Cheyennos , over n country variegated by bright red rocks , by cedars nnd firs , by white and coloured alkaline eflfloreBconcea , to the Sweet Water , to the WimLRiver Mountainsgigantic nnd piled with snow—across the Rocky Range to the Pacific Springs , flttU yWestward over n maze of streams , to the Big Mountain , amid a wilderness ofc cragB , chasms , and defilisa—tho travellers pushed on j and at length , gaming a high point in the descending pass , the Mormon territory came in

    view . There was the wide , glittering lake , with a mountain in ; centre—there was the low-bosomed valley , beyond and around the frame of runs * We had not travelled far from the mouth of the canon , before Captain Phoi ported to the right , and cried out , « There is the city 1 " What a simmlar 2 tacle ! We beheld what seemed a thickly settled neighbourhood , fppareS about a mile distant from us , composed of low , lead-coloured dwellings ^ th single white building occupying a prominent position—no steeples , minarets I cupolas ! Could that really be the Mormon capital ? Was that to constitute \ Z home for the nest six months ? Our party were in high spirits ; and the verv animals seemed animated with a premonition of approaching rest . Imagining herself in " a prison-house of mountains , " seated on a loftv wilderness between the Atlantic and Pacific , Mrs . Ferris began to dread the coming winter ; but an open door , a blazing fire , a well-spread table cheerful family , welcoming her husband and herself , made some differe nce in the prospect . Still , she had misgivings . Polygamy was not to her as vet an undoubted reality , but a dread rumour . Therefore , when Judge Snow and Judge Shaver , Gentile residents of the valley , came in , she listened attentively for hints of Mormon manners . They were , however , she complains , clothed in " non-eommittalism , " and disclosed nothing .

    A month ' s residence brought some revelations . First , Mrs . Ferris discovered that , barbarous as the Mormons were , they had a well-selected public library . But she discovered , also , that polygamy did exist , and vague terrors of an abduction by Brigham Young seem to have been engendered in her fancy : — We are unquestionably in the midst of a society of fanatics , who are controlled "by a gang of licentious villains , and it will require all our circumspection to get along smoothly . Moreover ,

    The very day after we arrived , while wholly absorbed in reading the news from home , I was suddenly startled by a pair of eyes glaring in at the west Avindow , belonging to a malignant looking man who was engaged in training some vineBad that side of the house . Of course he desisted when he found himself observed ; but I detected , him , afterwards , repeating the same thing in a very furtive manner . If this man has not cojaainitted murder , it has been for want' of opportunity . I have since learned thathelives but a short distance from us , upon the same lot , in along , low , underground log hut , covered with thatch and earth . The " Gentiles" axe the residents who are not Saints—the Saints bein ?

    the Elect , rebels against the monogamic law . No sooner did Mrs . Ferris see one of these than she longed to know the number of his wives ; no sooner did she see a wife than she asked timorously , "An only wife ? " It may be conceived , then , how mucli she has to say of eight-wived men , of a man who had married a whole family of daughters , of families in which one mother was quelling a revolt among Tier children , while her colleague was quelling a revolt among hers , and of Brothers who flogged their fair consorts into polygamic docility . But she must sketch the Mormons ' town : —

    The mass of the dwellings are small , low , and hut-like , and generally a little back from the street . Some of them literally swarmed with women and children ; and had an aspect of extreme want of neatness . The streets and sidewalks are very broad . One thing is peculiar ; at nearly every street-crossing is a little stream of water , pebbly , clear , and sparkling , with usually a plant for the foot-passenger . These little streams have been conducted from a mountain creei of some size , for the purpose of watering the city . There are two classes of wives , the Sealed and the Spiritual , but Mrs , Ferris was unable to comprehend the distinction . She was principally concerned in reckoning the wives of her Mormon acquaintance , among others , a man "by the name of Clawson , " who took as his supplemental bride " a girl by the name of Judd ;"Punishment will no doubt come in duo season ; but justice , in this instance , seems amazingly slow . I would have it swift and terrible .

    The little confidences poured into Mrs . Ferris ' s ears by the Mormon ladies revealed to her the existence of a system of discipline as well as a system of pleasantry , in the harems , which she refrains from describing . But her illustrations are suggestive . Elder Snow , calling , talked with her . fie seemed a polished , liberal man , too refined and too moral to be a polygamist . But Mrs . Ferris was too easily deceived . This wretch had two houses , six wives , and twelve children : — In the principal hut , the real wife sits at tho head of the tahlo , and pours out tea and ooffee for tho rest of tho bevy .

    Next came a climax . She saw a man returning from a religious service in the Tabernacle , with his four wives , * ' all lovingly locking arms . " " The male animal , " she says , " was in the centre , and the two thnt were sealed lately were nearest his person , the other two were outsiders . " Another Saint was followed by his " three Spirituals , " in Indian file . Within tho Tabernacle itself she heard Mormon discourses . When she cross-examined the Saints , they argued for polygamy ; when she touched the spirituals , they blushed . In the Social Hall she saw a Mormon festivity : — We wont sufficiently late not to be among the first arrivals , and were uRhored into an ante-room , to be divested of oloake and fihawls . From tbiw , a nhorb flight of stops brought us into a long saloon , where six ootilliona wore in uotivo motion . Another sliort flight landed us on a raieod platform , which overlooked tho dancing party , and hero a band of music wan in the full tide of performance . Tho dnie was woll accommodated with Heats , including two or three hoI ' iih , on which wore elders and apostles reclining , with « few of : their oonoubinoH . B » g " ham wan there , and had bin hat on , according to his usual habit .

    The moat shocking " feature " was tho impudence of Mr . Parley Fruit : ¦—Parley Pratt marohod up with four wivoB , an < l introduced tlioin HuooonHivoly ns Mrs . Protts . Besides , she says , each man danced with two women at ai time . One Mormon , known lo Mrs . Ferris , ofl'crcd to sell ono of his wives to nn Indian chief for ton horses . On such points , however , she ia evidently credulous 5 but her narrative ia variously entertaining , and will undoubtedly find many English readers . *

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 12, 1856, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12041856/page/18/