a religious creed, the tenets of which have been taught throughout the length and breadth of America. The Prophet's virtues have been rehearsed and admired in Europe; the ministers of Nauvoo have even found a welcome in Asia; and Africa has listened to the grave sayings of the seer of Palmyra. The standard of the LatterDay Saints has been reared on the banks of the Nile, and even the Holy Land has been entered by the emissaries of this wicked impostor. He founded a city in one of the most beautiful situations in the world, in a beautiful curve of the 'father of waters' of no mean pretensions, and in it he has collected a population of twenty-five thousand, from every part of the world. He planned the architecture of a magnificent temple, and reared its walls nearly fifty feet high, which, if completed, will be the most beautiful, most costly, and the most noble building in America.

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"The acts of his life exhibit a character as incongruous as it is remarkable. If we can credit his own words, and the testimony of eye-witnesses, he was at the same time the vicegerent of God, and a tavern-keeper—a prophet of Jehovah, and a base libertine- —a minister of the religion of peace, and a lieutenant-general—a ruler of tens of thousands, and a slave to all his own base, unbridled passions—a preacher of righteousness, and a profane swearer—a worshipper of Bacchus, mayor of a city, and a miserable bar-room fiddler-a judge upon the judicial bench, and an invader of the civil, social, and moral relations of men; and, notwithstanding these inconsistencies of character, there are not wanting thousands who are willing to stake their souls' eternal salvation upon his veracity. For aught we know, time and distance will embellish his life with some new and rare virtues, which his most intimate friends failed to discover while living with him. Reasoning from effect to cause, we must conclude that the Mormon Prophet was of no common genius: few are able to commence and carry out an imposition like his, so long, and to such an extent. And we see, in the history of his success, most striking proofs of the gullibility of a large portion of the human family. What may not men be induced to believe?"

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Joseph Smith was indeed a remarkable man; and, in summing up his character, it is extremely difficult to decide, whether he were indeed the vulgar impostor which it has been the fashion to consider him, or whether he were a sincere fanatic who believed what he taught. But whether an impostor, who, for the purposes of his ambition, concocted the fraud of the Book of Mormon, or a fanatic who believed and promulgated a fraud originally concocted by some other person, it must be admitted that he displayed no little zeal and courge; that his tact was great, that his talents for governing men

were of no mean order, and that, however glaring his deficiencies in early life may have been, he manifested, as he grew older, an ability both as an orator and a writer, which showed that he possessed strong natural gifts, only requiring cultivation to have raised him to a high reputation among better educated men. There are many incidents in his life which favour the supposition that he was guilty of a deliberate fraud in pretending to have revelations from heaven, and in palming off upon the world his new Bible; but, at the same time, there is much in his later career which seems to prove that he really believed what he asserted-that he imagined himself to be in reality what he pretended—the chosen medium to convey a new Gospel to the world— the inspired of heaven, the dreamer of divine dreams, and the companion of angels. If he were an impostor, deliberately and coolly inventing, and pertinaciously propagating a falsehood, there is this much. to be said, that never was an impostor more cruelly punished than he was, from the first moment of his appearance as a prophet to the last. Joseph Smith, in consequence of his pretensions to be a seer and prophet of God, lived a life of continual misery and persecution. He endured every kind of hardship, contumely, and suffering. He was derided, assaulted, and imprisoned. His life was one long scene of peril and distress, scarcely brightened by the brief beam of comparative repose which he enjoyed in his own city of Nauvoo. In the contempt showered upon his head his whole family shared. Father and mother, and brothers, wife, and friends, were alike involved in the ignominy of his pretensions, and the sufferings that resulted. He lived for fourteen years amid vindictive enemies, who never missed an opportunity to vilify, to harass, and to destroy him; and he died at last an untimely and miserable death, involving in his fate a brother to whom he was tenderly attached. If anything can tend to encourage the supposition that Joseph Smith was a sincere enthusiast, maddened with religious frenzies, as many have been before and will be after him--and that he had strong and invincible faith in his own high pretensions and divine mission, it is the probability that unless supported by such feelings, he would have renounced the unprofitable and ungrateful task, and sought refuge from persecution and misery in private life and honourable industry. But whether knave or lunatic, whether a liar or a true man, it cannot be denied that he was one of the most extraordinary persons of his time, a man of rude genius, who accomplished a much greater work than he knew; and whose name, whatever he may have been whilst living, will take its place among the notabilities of the world.

The perpetrators of the shameful murder of the two brothers were never discovered. Several persons were arrested on suspicion, but

there was not sufficient proof to convict them, and possibly no re efforts were made to bring them to justice. The event was greatly deplored. The sincerest opponents of Mormonism were those who were most grieved at it. Joseph Smith murdered was a greater prophet than Joseph Smith alive; and it was predicted, both by friends and foes, that, however rapid the progress of the sect might have been in past times, it would be still more rapid when fanaticism might point to the martyrs of the faith-when the faults of the Prophet would be buried in the oblivion of the tomb, and when his virtues would be enhanced by the remembrance of his unhappy fate. The prediction was verified; but not, however, until the Mormons had passed through another long period of persecution and suffering.

THE PROPHET'S FUNERAL-ADDRESSES AND PROCLAMATIONS TO THE SAINTS-APPOINTMENT OF BRIGHAM YOUNG AS SUCCESSOR TO JOSEPH SMITH-TRIAL AND EXPULSION OF SIDNEY RIGDON-TRANSIENT PROSPERITY OF NAUVOO-NEW TROUBLES AND HOSTILITIES-SIEGE OF NAUVOO-FINAL EXPULSION OF THE MORMONS FROM ILLINOIS.

THE news of the death of Joseph, and of his brother, was announced to the Prophet's widow, in a letter signed by John Taylor and Willard Richards, the two "Saints" who were present in the prison at the time of the catastrophe, and by Samuel H. Smith,* a younger brother of the murdered men. This letter, written in great haste, implored the citizens of Nauvoo "to be still-and to know that God still reigned over the world." It entreated them not to rush out of the city to attack Carthage, "but to stay at home, and be prepared for an onslaught of the Missouri mobbers." It added that the people of Handcock county were greatly excited, fearing that the Mormons

* Samuel H. Smith died in less than five weeks after the assassination of his brothers; the Mormons say of a broken heart. He is also claimed as one of the martyrs of the faith.

would come and take vengeance, but that the writers had pledged their words that no reprisals should be made. To this letter were appended two short postscripts. The first bore the signature of Thomas Ford, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Illinois, and recommended the Mormons to defend themselves until protection could be furnished. The second postscript bore the signature of M. R. Deming, Brigadier-General of the army of Illinois, acting under the Governor, and was addressed to Mr. Orson Spencer, one of the twelve apostles of the Mormons, and urged him and the citizens of Nauvoo to deliberate earnestly, “as prudence might obviate material destruc. tion." It added that the writer was at “his private residence when the horrible crime was committed, and that it would be condemned by three-fourths of the people of Missouri.”

Early on the following morning the Nauvoo Legion was called out and addressed by Mr. Phelps, the editor of the Mormon paper, and other leading members of the community, who severally urged the legion and citizens to be peaceable. The legion remained under arms from ten in the morning until three in the afternoon, awaiting the arrival of the bodies of Joseph and Hyrum. “About three o'clock,” says the Times and Seasons, published in Nauvoo three days afterwards, “the bodies were met by a great assemblage of people, east of the Temple, under the direction of the City Marshal, Samuel H. Smith, the brother of the deceased, Dr. Richards, and Mr. Hamilton of Carthage. The waggons in which the bodies were conveyed were guarded by three men. A procession was formed behind them, consisting of the City Council, the staff of the Lieutenant-General, the MajorGeneral, and the Brigadier-General, of the Nauvoo Legion, the cominanders, officers, and men, and the citizens of Nauvoo, to the number of from eight to ten thousand." These followed the bodies to the Mansion House, "amid the most solemn lamentations and wailings that ever ascended into the ears of the Lord God of Hosts to be revenged of their enemies!" An oration was pronounced over the bodies by Dr. Richards, and addresses were also delivered by four other Mormons, in which the multitude were strongly urged to remain peaceable. "That vast assemblage, with one united voice," said the Times and Seasons, "resolved to trust to the law for justice for such a igh-handed assassination, and if that failed, to call upon God to avenge them of their wrongs. Oh, widows and orphans !" it concluded, Oh, Americans, weep! The glory of freedom has departed!"

As the conduct of the Governor was much impugned in this melancholy transaction, Mr. Ford deemed it necessary to issue the 'ellowing address to the people of Illinois in explanation of his conduct: