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No. 390, September 12,1857.] THE LEADER....
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TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE EAST...
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(l^lTPtT (JTfllTTiTfl vv-piU vvl UUtU.
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IN THIS DKPAIITMKKT. Ad ALL OPINIONS, HO...
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There is no Learned man but will confess...
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BORESTERS' TAWDRY. ( To the Editor of th...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Mormons. The Mormon Delusion Ia A Wo...
was occasionally treated with a specimen of Lynch law , was even tarred and feathered ; but he had established a mill , a store , and a farm , at Kirtland , and also the growing colony in Zion . If any of his own followers proved troublesome , ' he shook them off with the readiest ease ; he had a . * special mission , ' declaring that they were degenerate or corrupt . Thus a special mission told him that one of his trustees could not be trusted with moneys , and that he must keep the cash himself . His followers learned to consider the unbelievers
as incapable of possessing property ; a virtual extension of their own rights which they exercised grandly after they had moved to their new Zion—Nauvoo , in Illinois . A state crusade drove them from their fine temple and city ; schisms arose amongst themselves ; some of their leaders were seised and executed before conviction by Lynch law ; and at last they again gave way and marched off to the Great Salt Lake Valley , to found the new Zion of ' Deseret , ' recognized by the Gentiles as the capital of Utah .
Here they carry on a greater controversy than any that they have yet engaged in . The Grovernment of President Buchanan insists that the laws of the lederal ^ Republic must extend over the whole face of the federated territory ; while Bbigham Yoxjng , the successor of Smith , maintains that the JBooTc of Mormon is superior to the Bible or Congressional statute book , and that Deseret is more sacred than Utah . The controversy has approached the point of warfare with sword and
gun . The city of Deseret is torn with intestine discord , numbers of the believers finding that they were mistaken , but being prevented from deserting their home by the armed tyranny of Young and his colleagues , who are not at all willing to give up so rich a farm . " While this civil war is going on , awaiting settlement only until the Government at " Washington can organize a . force , pass the
desert , and reduce the rebels , certain leaders of the Mormons , headed , by the well-known Oeson Pratt , are over in this country collecting converts , —sheep to stock the farm on which BitiGHAM Touno and his partners are making hay while the sun shines ; and they are succeeding . Emigration to Deseret across the republic continues on an immense scale , and emigrants carry with them large stores of money and goods .
The success of the Mormon propagandism remains a mystery only until wo refuse to look at sufficiently obvious causes . In the first place , there are immense numbers of the people uneducated ; not only unable to read or write—many can do that who are uneducated—but unacquainted with facts , or with a sufficient number to draw practical conclusions . Some j udge only too practically from limited facts . The Mormons have raised ji
groat city ; they have established themselves in the desert ; they continue to sitbract men and revenue ; they send their representatives to Congress , and maintain themselves ; and the army which the United States is raising delays its departure , as if Heaven forbade an attack upon the sacred , people . " These are facts , " as our newspaper writers say ; and English men and women judge by them . If ¦ vv e think the religion of the Mormon absurd , cannot every sect point to the monstrous absurdities of all the rest ? If we hoar of
crimes committed in Doseret , do wo not know that all religions have instigated crimes ? The sarcasm of the Roman accptic— " Tuntum relgio potuit suadere malorum" —such boundless evils could religion teach , — still holds good all round . if tho apostles ot the Mormons aro laughed at lor preaching even within hearing of an ass ' s bray , the ridicule might 1 ) 0 checked by very
ancient historical parallels . But there are still stronger reasons than any of these which may be called negative . If there are horrors in Mormonland , are there not horrors in our own ? If polygamy affrights the moralist , the Mormons tell our humbler classes , fathers and mothers , and girls who find it difficult to earn their bread , that there is not in Mormonland that monster which stalks our streets , fed by the poor for the delectation of the well-to-do - —prostitution . There is freedom in Mormonland , plenty of it—and not tliat .
There is something besides—there is adventure , excitement . With the growth of our large towns , with the rapid gathering in of enclosures , with the difficulty of retaining space for sport , or the means for it amongst those that cannot purchase land and amusement , there is a growing dulness in this our own land—a something which the inborn instincts and energies of mankind rebel against ; and Mormonism is a vast monstrous rebellion against the spirit of enclosure , whether it take the form of commons-enclosure or of bitter
Sabbath observance . The success of the Mornions has its birth in the triumph of class government .
No. 390, September 12,1857.] The Leader....
No . 390 , September 12 , 1857 . ] THE LEADER . 881
Telegraphic Communications With The East...
TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE EAST . The Hast India Company have offered to guarantee—under conditions not likely to be accepted in their present shape—the working expenses of a company established to lay down telegraphic wires between Alexandria and Aden . The Government , we should have thought , would have immediately added its sanction , so that little would have remained but to give the project a practical realization
So late as March last we pointed to the facilities offered by the Ifced . Sea route . From Alexandria to Suez there exists a series of structures lookiug from horizon to horizon , which have hitherto been used for the transmission of signals . It is proposed to follow this line , setting up intermediate posts , so that it will be a comparatively trifling business to conduct the wires so far . Thence they will be laid down along the bottom of the Red Sea to Aden , a distance of about twelve hundred
miles , one . of the most important stations being in the territory of the firm friend and ally of the English , the Iraaura of Muscat . Beyond , in the open waters , the Kooria Mooria Islands are British possessions . The necessary soundings have been taken all the way ; the East India Company have been satisfied as to the feasibility of the scheme ; the coral reels have been surveyed ; Sir Francis Beaufort and Mr . Buigiit , - the engineer of the Atlantic telegraph , are of opinion that the difficulties suggested are chimerical ; in fact , the sub marine cable
would be laid down , in all parts , entirely beyond the reefs . Nowhere need it be swung across deep sea chasms ' measureless by man , ' or exposed to friction upon sharp rocky edges . From Aden , also , to JKui'rachee , the essential soundings and surveys have been completed , and it is not pretended that any serioua obstacles exist . Thus , with the two hundred and forty miles hung between Alexandria and Suez , and the four thousand one hundred and sixty miles sunk between Suez and Kurrachco , we have an instantaneous communication established between tho
shores of the Mediterranean and those of India . The capital is forthcoming ; the East India Company have ofibred a guarantee , and it is scarcely possible that they will persist in appending to it a set of impossible stipulations . " W"lmt , then , is the main cause of delay ? Tho Treasury . Tho British Government has had a pet project in hand—the Euphrates telegraphic
line . Now this , no doubt , is a practicable line—from Kurrachee to Bagdad , through shallow waters , and from Bagdad to Constantinople , twelve hundred miles by land . Within five months the sea portion might be constructed , and from Bagdad relays of horsemen , without riding more than eight miles an hour , might bring despatches to the Turkish capital in less than a week .
Meanwhile , the works on land might be proceeded with ; the suggested difficulty being the danger to which the wire would be exposed from the predatory Arabs . The predatory Arabs , if properly paid , would be its natural and best protectors . They form faithful escorts ; and why not faithful police ? The estimated cost of the Red Sea line is 700 , O 0 OZ . ; that of the Euphrates line 400 , 000 Z . Why not encourage both ?¦ Here is the Red Sea
Company ready to commence operations , and positively , while every home in England ia filled with an anguish of expectation , a discrepancy of opinion between the Treasury and the Court of Directors is allowed to stop the way . Suppose the Euphrates Valley telegraph finished , and the communications accidentally interrupted—a hundred miles of the cable swept away ? With the Red Sea line in working order no inconvenience would be felt . And vice versa . There would
be a distinct advantage in having two companies . We should escape a monopoly . Competition would quicken , the directors , and the public service would gain proportionately . But would two telegraphs pay ? A glance at the Indian Shipping-lists and Directories is enough to satisfy us on that point . On the one route we have Alexandria , Suez , Cosseir , Jeddah , Moka , and Aden —all places of commercial importance — as stations . On the other , the line would follow the greatest land routes between Europe and Asia . We believe that the Government will adopt this view , and that , although delay may arise from its previous engagements with the Euphrates Company , it will not' long before the lied Sea Telegraph is an established fact .
(L^Ltptt (Jtfllttitfl Vv-Piu Vvl Uutu.
dDueti ( Cfltinnl .
In This Dkpaiitmkkt. Ad All Opinions, Ho...
IN THIS DKPAIITMKKT . Ad ALL OPINIONS , HOWEYKIt KXTRKMK , AI ! B AI . I . O \ Vi : i > AN KM'ICttSStON , TUB E 1 II 1 OK NECESSARILY IIOXDS HIM . si : i . f nitsroNsmr . K fok nonk . 1
There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...
There is no Learned man but will confess h . e hath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then . it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at 1 e as t , be tolerablef or his adversary to write ? — Milton
Boresters' Tawdry. ( To The Editor Of Th...
BORESTERS' TAWDRY . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —You may rely upon it thab by a large number of our society your recent remarks have been read with unreserved approval . Wlint you have said echoes an opinion which has long been held by intelligent Foresters—that it is foolish on the part of the members to bedizen themselves with childish and theatrical finery , and that it is wrong on the part of the Society to encourage them . Now , you are perfectly right in saying they do encourage them . The executive council not only sell , regularly , green , white , and red fringe , at 2 a . a yard , and medals from 1 / . to 5 / ., but horns , costing from 5 s . 6 d . to Oa . 6 d . each ; ribbon for district and court officers , red ribbon for members , and black nnd green sashing . Is not this a positive encouragement of such exhibitions as you most properly condemn—I must Bay in a friendly although caustic manner ? Why , I find in the cash account for one quarter , 271 . paid for ribbons , and nearly 140 / . for sashing . Would it not be better to add this to the mutual benefit fund , instead of squandering the money upon absurdity ? 'Sick pay and levies'for tho quarter , <;/ . Us . lid . ; ribbon and sashing , 1 GG / " , lls . •>(! . ! I agree with you , tluifc the Foresters form a noble and valuable Society ; but with you , Iain altogether of opinion that these fantastic and undignified displays should bo discontinued . I am , Sir , your obedient servant , A FoiiKsricn .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 12, 1857, page 17, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_12091857/page/17/
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