[The Post]

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☞On Sunday, the 6th of September, the sixth anniversary of the English Mormons was held in London, when an audience, varying in the course of the day form six hundred to a thousand perosns, was addressed by Ezra Benson and Orson Pratt. There is nothing formidable in the number of these converts; but the mere fact of Mormon men and women, sitting in the open light of an English Sabbath, with their arms about each other's waists, eating confectionery and drinking beer, and hearing with delight of emigration to a community in a distant land, where all the restraints of social order and all the bonds of domestic morality are set aside, is profoundly humiliating to an Englishman and a Christian. When the Mormon superstition was first preached in this country, those principles subversive of society and morality, which now constitute its chief charm to the vulgar, were not announced, and in proportion as they have been developed, its power of proselytism has diminished. That a change which has made the sect universally odious in this county should strengthen it in Great Britain, indicates some peculiar defect in the constitution of English society, or some great neglect on the part of the government and the church.—[Evening Post.¹

The Post, in a long article, takes exception to the holding up of this country alone as entirely responsible for the shameful excresence of Mormonism, and holds that the remedy must be applied where the movement originated, at the sources of Mormon emigration in England and on the continent of Europe; and that the responsibility lies, in this matter, quite as much with the trans-Atlantic governments as with our own. The mass of these people are not Americans, but natives of the British Isles. Their apostles are busily at work in those quarters, and the streams of Mormon Emigration to the Holy City, via our eastern cities, show with what results.

From the first, the leaders in this system of imposture have been playing a deep game, and some of their late movements show that they are venturing into still deeper water. Hitherto, they have been blatant and brazen, proclaiming their abominations from the housetops, as it were. They had their established organs which defended their cause vigorously and were as loud-mouthed and abusive as Brigham Young² himself. Within a very short time they have suddenly changed their policy. Secret proselytizing has been discovered to be after all, the best mode of disseminating their peculiar doctrines. Their organs have been suffered to die out—the one in New York, called The Mormon, died only a few days since; and another significant fact which should not be omitted in this mention of their recent movements, is the preparation of a Mormon alphabet, of which one or two morning journals present the public with specimens. A portion of the characters are Phonetic , others similar to the Arabic, others something like the Ethiopic. The total number of characters is forty. Thus, the Mormons having furnished no key to their cryptographs, it will be impossible hereafter to get any information as to their movements or designs, as heretofore, from their acknowledged organ, the Deseret News,³ which is to be printed entirely from this new type.

In every respect this Mormon business is assuming a new and more serious aspect. It is all very well for people to smile contemptuously and look upon the matter as merely a temporary vagary—an erratic offshoot of our Western fanaticism. The fact is, it is no such thing. It is, in fact and in reality, a new religion and before long it will turn out a Church Militant. Its apostles are in every land and work as earnestly and indefatigably as did ever Jesuit missionary. We have no faith that it will die out before it runs its course, like all other great heresies; and, as yet, it is only in its vigorous infancy. Let no one depreciate the importance of the question. The time will come when it will claim our most earnest and serious attention.

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