over the hills, valleys, rivers and ditches. In the morning the horn would blow for the people to rise; then, all would prepare and get breakfast, and about 8 or 9 o'clock the tents would be rolled up and put on the wagons, and out they roll on the road one after the other, the 'pilgrims' journeying on ahead, plucking the flowers, climbing the hills, or travelling on faster to sit down'and rest till the train arrives. The oxen travel from one and a half to two miles per hour. At noon the train halts about two hours for dinner; after which it jogs along till sundown, and then the wagons are placed round in a circle, the tents are pitched, men get the water and wood, women make the fire and cook, and the horn again sounds to repair to bed. All in a train are under the direction of one man placed as captain. Thus passes along some ten or eleven weeks of our journey here. The Indians were very scarce on the road this year. The emigration being so large they were all driven farther into the country to hunt. Stage coaches run backwards and forwards every day all the distance, and the stations are some ten miles, more or less, apart.

The first 500 miles of the journey is called the plains, and truly so called. We travelled about that distance, in nearly a straight line, by one river, the Platte; and at intervals we crossed numerous tributary streams. The land is exceedingly fertile; wheat, corn, water-melons, &c., grow in rich profusion when cultivated. Then we strike into the hills; and the rest of the way is over hills and through valleys, round and over mountains, till we reach the Valley. The journey through the mountainous country is not near so difficult as one unacquainted with it would think. The roads pass through the valleys, and when the mountains are approached the roads are dug round them, as you might dig out a path round a rising ground; and thus we escape having to climb the mountains. The journey over the plains is hardy and healthy. Of course, persons may make it pleasant or unpleasant to a great extent themselves.

The first sight you have of the city is only four miles away from it, just as you come out from the mountains; and the sight is splendid. You look upon a valley about 30 miles long and 20 or so wide. The position and arrangement of the city are beautiful. It is divided into square blocks,' with a stream of water running through every street. Each house is on a lot or piece of land with an orchard or garden round it. I have seen Presidents Young, Kimball and Wells. At the meeting in the Bowery there were over 5,000 persons present. I feel amply repaid for all the difficulties I had to encounter while coming here. The city surprises and pleases all comers. Building is going on all the time. Every kind of trade is carried on in it. Improvement is the order, independence the aim of the people; happiness and plenty are the results. The altitude of this valley is considerable, as it is over 4,000 feet above the level of the sea, embosomed in mountains, with valleys stretching beyond on the other side. It is summer yet with us; no signs of winter having made their appearance since we arrived. We enjoy firstrate health."

CORRESPONDENCE.

AMERICA.

We have been favored with the perusal of a letter from Elder G. A. Smith to brother John Fidoe, of Herefordshire, from which we extract as follows:

Great Salt Lake City, Nov. 15, 1862. Brother John Fidoe,-Yours, dated Golden Valley, Herefordshire, Sept.

29th, 1862, was duly received. It has been read to President Young, who was much pleased to hear that you are still alive and intending once more to gather with the Saints. On the occasion of reading your letter to President Young, many old reminiscences were called to mind, and among the rest your officiating as barber for us on board the ship Rochester, when she was rolling with a high sea so that a man could not sit

still. President Young remembers you when he was in Herefordshire.

It would be advisable for you to seek the earliest possible opportunity to gather with the Saints, as there is danger of the road being shut up for some time; and I can assure you that many old friends will be glad to see you again, if not to manage a piece of artillery, to enjoy the blessings and instructions which God bestows upon his people in the Mountains. The Saints generally have experienced an unparalleled succession of prosperity since they arrived in the Valleys, chequered only by a few seasons of scarcity of bread, Indian annoyances and Federal usurpations, which, however, have been thoroughly overcome so that no person has perished from want of food, or been destroyed by the Federal armies. A few have lost their lives in endeavoring to do good to the Indians, among them my son, G. A. Smith, jun., who was assassinated by Navahoes while on a mission to the Moquitch Indians.

A very large number of brethren are moving to Washington county, the extreme south of the Territory, where cotton, indigo, grapes, figs and sweet potatoes are raised, and bees are kept a distance of about 350 miles from this city, by the road.

everything we want ready made, and it is hard to learn to produce. Good flax and hemp can be raised in almost every settlement, and it is raised in small quantities.

The members of the Agricultural and Manufacturing Society are exerting themselves to disseminate information and encourage home productions. Branch societies have been established in various counties; fairs held in many places, where exhibitions of home-produced articles, many of them of a quality highly creditable to their producers, have been calculated to encourage emulation. One great blessing to the country is the cultivation of the Chinese sugar-cane. Thousands of barrels of excellent molasses (treacle) have been produced this season, greatly relieving the people from buying their sweets. Apples, pears, peaches, apricots, cherries, plums, strawberries, grapes, currants and gooseberries, are in successful cultivation, and all this in a country where everything has to be watered by hand, and where materials for fencing are to be brought with great trouble from the mountain tops, by a poor people who have made pieces of the desert to blossom like the garden of the Lord.

Brother Woodruff spends a considerable portion of his time in the Historian's Office; but he is also a very industrious farmer, sheep-raiser and molassesmaker, and by these means supports a numerous family by the sweat of his brow.

Brother John Benbow is a well-to-do farmer, and has been blessed with a family of several small children.

Granite is being hauled for the Temple for 22 miles, in large blocks, some of them weighing 9,000 pounds. Workmen are constantly engaged in fitting them for their places.

President Young, acompanied by Elders Taylor, E. T. Benson, L. Snow and myself, have visited nearly all the settlements in the Territory this summer and fall, travelling in the aggregate about 1,200 miles; and it was astonishing to see the large assemblies of people which met us at every place. Bread is abundant, and the country abounds in cattle; but money is scarce, so much so, that it has been impossible to pay the Federal tax to support the war. Almost anybody can pay wheat or flour for work, but cash and store goods are hard to obtain. About 100,000 pounds The Theatre is 144 feet long, 80 wide of cotton have been raised in Washing-and 46 high, 22 feet of which is rockton county this year, but there is no work, and will be ready for use in a machinery in the country to manu- few days. It is a highly creditable facture it; considerable, however, is edifice. being worked by hand. Notwithstanding the hard winter, every settlement in the Territory is raising sheep, and a great deal of wool is produced and worked up; yet it is insufficient to supply clothing to all; though a great obstacle is the old tradition-to buy

Elder W. W. Player, who laid the front course of the stones for the Temple in Nauvoo, arrived here this season with his family.

I remain your friend and brother,
GEORGE A. SMITH.

SUMMARY OF NEWS.

63

SUMMARY

0

O F NEWS.

ENGLAND -The distress arising from the cotton famine continues on the increase. Typhus fever has begun to appear in some of the suffering towns in Lancashire in an epedemic form, and serious fears are entertained that its ravages will be heavy, particularly among those who from long wanting many of the necessaries of life have their constitutions enfeebled.

FRANCE.-The French Chambers were opened on the 12th. The speech of the Emperor, which has been looked for with considerable interest, was vague and indefinite as to the future line of policy he intended to pursue. He indulged, however, in a eulogistic retrospect of the previous five years. The cotton distress is increasing in France also, the truth beginning to ooze out that many thousands are suffering severely, while the subscriptions for their relief are very inadequate to meet the wants.

GREECE. The throne of Greece is still a-begging. The Greeks have not lost all hopes of yet obtaining Prince Alfred, though the grounds for indulging in such hopes are extremely limited. England is withdrawing her protectorate of the Ionian isles. They will be united to Greece to increase her national importance. The Ionians view the measure differently, though the prevailing feeling is one of pleasure at the change.

PRUSSIA.--A sort of constitutional struggle is going on between the King of Prussia and his subjects. He is endeavoring to strengthen the monarchial privileges, while they view with suspicion the measures he is adopting. Thus far it has only manifested itself in expressions of dissatisfaction on the one side, and on the other an expressed determination to pursue the same line of policy. The Chambers were opened on the 14th instant by an unimportant speech from the throne delivered in the naine of the King by the President of the Council.

AMERICA. The news from the other side of the Atlantic by tne last two or three mails is very stirring. President Lincoln has issued his Proclamation, emancipating the slaves in the rebellious States on and after January 1st 1863. Mr. Seymour was inaugurated as Governor of New York on the 1st. In his inaugural address he said he should support the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of New York, enforce the laws, and maintain and defend the Sovereignty and jurisdiction of the State. The spirit in which he interprets the Federal Constitution may or may not cause more disunion in the already disunited States. The South, it is reported, is beginning to be exasperated against England for refusing to join France in her proposed efforts for mediation, The Eta brings accounts of two battles, both of which seem to have lasted two or three days, and to have been attended with an enormous loss of life. One of these battles was fought at Vicksburg on the 27th, 28th, and 29th December; the other was fought at Murfreesborough, near Nashville, on the 30th December and 1st and 2nd January. At Vicksburg the Confederates claim to have repulsed the Federals in a series of desperate attacks, continued on three successive days; whilst at Murfreesborough the Federals claim to have carried the position of the Confederates after two days' fighting and after enormous losses on both sides. We have scarcely any particulars respecting the battle at Vicksburg, and not enough respecting that at Murfreesborough to enable us to judge of the real results attained by either party.

VARIETIES.

"There's two ways of doing it," said Pat to himself, as he stood musing and waiting for a job. "If I save two thousand dollars I must lay up a hundred dollars a year for twenty years, or I can put away ten dollars a year for two hundred years! Now which shall I do ?"

BENEVOLENCE.-How easy it is for one benevolent being to diffuse pleasure around him, and how truly is a kind heart a fountain of gladness, making everything in its vicinity to freshen into smiles.

Contentment produces in some measure all those effects which the alchemist usually ascribes to what he calls the philosopher's stone; and if it does not bring riches, it does the same thing by banishing the desire of them.

SMART.-A gentleman, one evening, was seated near a lovely woman, when the company around him were proposing conundrums to each other. Turning to his companion, he said-" Why is a lady unlike a mirror ?" She gave it up." "Because," said the rude fellow," a mirror reflects without speaking, a lady speaks without reflecting." Very good," said she. "Now answer me. Why is a man unlike a mirror ?" "I cannot tell you." “Because the mirror is polished and the man is not.” There she had him.

A SOULLESS MAN.--An Iowa orator, wishing to describe his opponent as a soulless man, said—“ I have heard that some persons hold the opinion that just at the precise moment one human being dies another is born, and the soul enters and animates the newborn babe. Now, I have made particular and extensive inquiries concerning my opponent thar, and I find that some hours before he drew breath nobody died. Fellow citizens, I will leave you to draw your own inferences."

In Great Salt Lake City, Nov. 10, 1862, by Bishop Hoagland, Frank Pitman and Miss Sarah Elizabeth Seaton, the former from Southampton, England, and the latter of Great Salt Lake City.

DIED:

On Sunday, Dec. 7, 1862. at Big Cottonwood, of whooping cough, Betsey Eveline, youngest daughter of Thomas and Betsey Prudence Bullock, aged 14 months and 15 days. At Little Cottonwood, Oct. 9, 1862, of Consumption, Walter George White, aged 40 years, leaving a wife and seven children.

EDITED, PRINTED, AND PUBLISHED BY GEORGE Q. CANNON, 42, ISLINGTON.

LONDON:

FOR SALE AT THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS' BOOK DEPOT, 30, FLORENCE STREET, ISLINGTON; AND ALL BOOKSELLERS.

THE LATTER-DAY SAINTS'

MILLENNIAL STAR.

"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the Prophets... The Lord God has spoken, who can but prophesy?"-AMOS

No. 5, Vol. XXV.

Saturday, January 31, 1863.

Price One Penny.

A DISCOURSE

BY PRESIDENT AMASA M. LYMAN, DELIVERED IN BIRMINGHAM, ON SUNDAY EVENING, JANUARY 5TH, 1862.

I sincerely hope, my friends, that I may on the present occasion enjoy your undivided attention, so that what I advance may receive on your part an honest, candid and charitable consideration. I do not believe that we enjoy the blessings of life, of an existence in the world, for any but one great purpose, and that is, to realize through the enjoyment of that life that has been extended to us all, the advantages which our Father and God has so profusely spread around us; and to do this we should direct our efforts in such a course as should be consistent with the circumstances that surround us. To do good and to promote the happiness of humanity should be the object of every effort made by all mankind. Feeling this to be the leading motive in my standing before you on the present occasion, I only, in asking your charitable attention, ask of you that indulgence and that respect which I feel disposed to extend to you as circumstances demand it.

pression of opinions and conceptions in reference to it as well, we find that many errors and mistakes arise, as the results of a mis-conception of the truth and a want of a due consideration of the circumstances by which men are surrounded here in the world. This consideration leads me in giving expression to my opinions, to pursue a somewhat different course, perhaps, from what many would do. I desire to pursue this course with all the anxiety for and devotion to truth, and regard for its principles, that should characterize the most candid. I have thought that people indulged in reflection concerning religion, much as children do when they first look upon the world and begin to make their acquaintance with a state of being on the earth. They suppose that they are at the very day-dawn of all existence, and that everything that meets their eyes or ears, or in any other way forces itself upon their attention, had its existence with some direct relationThe subject of religion is one that is ship to themselves. It is for us to whose perhaps as variously treated as any lot it has fallen to live when ages have other that is made the subject of thought passed away, whose teeming millions and reflection by the thinking, reason- of human intelligences have been borne ing portion of the family of mankind; along on time's ever-rolling current to and when we view the manner in which the broad ocean of eternity, when we it is treated, not only in its application find around us the many things to be to intelligent beings, but in the ex-seen and appreciated which in some