Conferences, while these superintend the presidents of the 400 branches. The total of members in the whole European mission is not less than 40,000. I subjoin a list of the various places—kindly furnished to me by an influential Saint—which the Mormons have selected for worship in London.[1]
Two points in this subject are truly remarkable. The first is the difference between Utah Territory and all other Anglo-Scandinavian colonies, in which males are usually far more numerous than females. The latter, at Utah, by the census of 1856, are 1781 in excess of the former; almost as great a disproportion as the extra three quarters of a million in England. The second is the rapid growth of the New Faith, and the deep hold which it has taken upon Great Britain. Few Englishmen are aware that their metropolis contains seventeen places of Mormon worship, and their fatherland an army of 4000 volunteer missionaries. In the United States it is also the fashion to ignore the Mormons. The subject, however, will grow in importance, and it is easy to predict that before two decades shall have elapsed, Deserét, unless sent once more upon her travels, will have forced herself into the position of an independent state.
The Mormon polity is, in my humble opinion—based upon the fact that liberty is to mankind in mass a burden far heavier than slavery—the perfection of government. It is the universal suffrage of the American States, tempered by the despotism of France and Russia: in moderate England men have nothing of it but that Tory-Radicalism to which the few of extremest opinions belong. At the semi-annual Conferences, which take place on the 6th of April and the 6th of October, and last for four days, all officers, from the President to the constable, are voted in by direction and counsel—i.e., of the Lord through his Prophet; consequently, re-election is the rule, unless the chief dictator determine otherwise. Every adult male has a vote, and all live under an
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Latter-Day Saints' Meeting Rooms in London and vicinity:
- Somers Town—Euston Hall, 8 George Street, Hampstead Road.
- Holborn—148 Holborn, near Gray's Inn Lane.
- Goswell Hall—46 Goswell Street.
- Holloway—1 Cornwall Place, Holloway Road.
- Whitechapel—Pisgah Chapel, North Street, Sydney Street, Mile End.
- Poplar—28 Penny Fields.
- Barking—Latter-Day Saints' Chapel, North Street.
- Paddington—Hope Hall, Bell Street.
- Chelsea—Lloyd's Assembly Rooms, 1 George Street, Sloane Square.
- Shepherd's Bush—Latter-Day Saint's Chapel, Shepherd's Bush Green.
- Camden Town—Beulah Cottage, King’s Road, Camden Town.
- Walworth Common—Latter-Day Saints' Meeting Room, 2 King Street, Old Kent Road.
- Lambeth—St. George's Hall, St. George's Road, near the Elephant and Castle.
- Deptford—Latter-Day Saints' Meeting Room, Tanner’s Hill.
- Woolwich—Latter-Day Saints' Chapel, Prospect Row.
- Welling—Latter-Day Saints' Meeting Room, Wickham Lane, near Welling.
- Eltham—Latter-Day Saints' Meeting Room, at Mr. J. Baily's, Pound Place.
On the Surrey Side of the Thames.
