THE MORMON PROBLEM.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5165, 11 October 1877, Page 3

THE MORMON PROBLEM.

(From the San Francisco News Letter, Sept. 8.) It is very apparent, as we predicted last week, that the links which held the Mormon Church together are not to be buried with Brigham Young’s bones. To have thought otherwise was to read history amiss, for nothing does it more certainly teach than that no vitality surpasses that which, ia all eras, and among all races, has attached to forms of religious faith. Even in spite of persecution, any faith that is religious lives on. The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church. No ! creeds, unfortunately in some cases, do not die. The creed to which Joe Smith gave a skeleton shape, and to which Brigham Young added flesh and blood, vitality and strength, is not likely to fall to pieces. That danger which was said to be the rock upon which the Church was to split has already passed. The occasion came which was to work such dire mischief, but it passed by as harmlessly as a gentle ripple under a buoyant ship. The “ twelve apostles ” are to govern the Church until the next annual conference. There were no disputes, no grasping for power, but everythinga went off as if it had been prearranged' Polygamy is, of course, the one great problem which is in doubt. Whilst touching upon this subject, we are bound to confess that wo are not quite sure whether men in their inner consciousness , reprobate that system as much as they pretend to do by their lips. Is there not a lurking feeling in the minds of many not altogether bad people that whilst they would not like the system to come close home to them, they not only have no objections, but are rather glad, that the experiment should be tried elsewhere 1 It is certain that the thing excites interest far and wide. Travel in whatever direction you may, north, south, east, Or west; talk with even the Puritans of New

England, the dissenters of Old England, and the old maids of all the world, and you will find, the moment it is known you have visited Salt Lake City, that not all the other sights you may have witnessed put together equal in intensity the interest that is felt in the polygamic system of Utah. It is a never-failing topic, in all countries and iu all societies. Polygamy is practised by a very large majority of the human race. But nowhere does it come home so close to the Eng-lish-speaking people as in Utah ; hence it is that the practice of it there has an interest that is not felt in the doings say of the Shah, or even of the Grand Turk, to say nothing of the moTgonatically married crowned heads of Europe. As to how the system lias worked among the Mormons it is difficult to say with certainty. It is utterly impossible to obtain strictly unprejudiced statements on either side. Tins much is apparent ; that the Mormon women generally do not complain of it, that the wives and children have invariably been well cared for, and that pro titntinn, except in so far as polygamy may be call d that, is unknown. If the Mormon wives had been altogether free from the influence of early education, and from the effects of that public opinion which the neighboring Gentiles so persistently brought to bear upon them, the system would have had a fairer tidal. But that public opinion has undoubtedly become too strong for it, and it is probably doomed, though that by no means implies that the Church is doomed with it. It is not deemed a necessary article of faith. It was a favorite idea with Brigham Young to buy one or more of the Polynesian Islands, and to take a portion of bis people thither. His most influential son, John W. Young, not long ago was engaged in negotiations in that direction. If anything comes of them, polygamy may have another chance .for life. Its days in Utah aie numbered.