of their Gentile neighbor at at least twice as much as that of their brother in the faith. Thus far this people have succeeded in defying the laws and the Government of the United States. This is the result, partly of their pernicious jury system, partly of the unity and power of the Church, in some degree of their plan of intimidation of the weaker brethren, who incline to the right, and especially of the mysterious influence which they have exerted for years in the departments in Washington and in Congress. Bound together by oaths terrible to the ignorant mind, one Mormon will not convict another of a crime, except, as in the case of John D. Lee, when instructed to do so by the highest Church authorities! for the promotion of Church measures. Such is the sect, the members of which see in the act of Guiteau the fulfillment of some of their prophecies, and who congratulate each other that they have received further evidence of their being finally avenged upon all of their enemies. They liken Utah, with her lofty mountains, rich valleys, and great dead sea, not without reason, to the land of Palestine, and give to their own chief city the name of Zion. They greatly prefer the early faith of the Hebrews to the Gospel of Christ, and in their similes, customs, and belief approach nearer to the abominations of the Orient than to the virtues which should belong to an American and a Christian people. A little prompt legislation is required from Congress. Good juries can and should be procured in Utah the same as elsewhere. A few laws should be modified. The people of this nation should see to it that Congress does its whole duty. We advise no special legislation against the Saints; but we do desire such action as will Americanize Utah, and render her people as amenable to the laws as they are in the other Territories. Possessed of an educated, refined, and lawabiding people, Utah might well be regarded as an earthly paradise. FRANCIS BRET HARTE.' By M. S. V. DE V. Ir is constantly said that frontiers have ceased to exist, that oceans are bridged over, that steam and electricity have annihilated distance, and that every throb of the great human machine reverberates in both hemispheres. If this is true in matters political, financial, or commercial, how how much more in the domain of imagination, science, and art !-for we hail with fresh interest every new effort, triumph, or discovery, irrespective of the accident of its birth. It is, therefore, no wonder that we Europeans instantly responded to the double attraction exercised by so gifted an author as Mr. Bret Harte, when in his writings he not only gratified our taste for the beautiful, but likewise that innate craving of every mind for new scenes, new characters, and new emotions. Quite lately a new and complete edition of his works ("The Complete works of Bret Harte. 5 vols. Chatto & Windus"), classified and revised by himself, has enabled the public to appreciate the fertility of his talent both as an author and a poet, and to judge of his labors as a whole; while until now they had only drifted to us in the shape of contributions to magazines or isolated volumes. When, about fourteen years ago, the name of Bret Harte first became known in Europe his reputation was made, and we accepted it without protest, although it burst upon us as suddenly as we are told it blossomed full-grown in his native land, the United States. In his literary career he seems to have met none of the discouraging rebuffs which so often chill the efforts of beginners; he did not linger with wavering and timid footsteps on the up-hill road where so many slowly and tardily achieve success. The young author grasped his pen with no hesitating fingers, and before it was generally known that a new aspirant to literary honors had entered the lists, these honors were his, and he was proclaimed a master without ever having been a pupil. We do not mean to say that the critics did not fasten their fangs on some of his contributions, but they only added to his popularity by creating around his name that notoriety which is like the baptism of fire to the untried soldier. Through the whole of America and Europe his "Tales of the Argonauts," "Eastern Sketches," "National Poems," "Spanish Idylls," were favorably received and promptly translated. They brought to the blasé reader a fresh and racy element, impelling at the same time the conviction that truth lurked under those seemingly fantastic pictures of the Far West; of those Californian shores which have been the dream of so many, the goal of a few; the unknown land of golden hopes, of ardent ambitions, and too often, alas! of deadly disappointment. Bret Harte wrote of things he had seen, of men he had known; wrote, as is so rarely done, of what he had felt or experienced. They cannot be all creatures of his imagination, those lawless miners, unscrupulous gamblers, hardy adventurers, or hungry emigrants, uniting the strongest powers of endurance, the most heroic fortitude, to the degrading passions of the brute and the sanguinary vindictiveness of bandits, who acknowledge no master, no law, no God. With a keen eye, a searching scrutiny, he seizes and retains every feature, every salient tone of the story he relates; he paints the mise en scène in short but powerful and graphic sketches: a few words only, and before our mind's eye pass the desolate Sierra, the rushing torrent, the snowy peak, the dilapidated shanty, the dark and lonely road. When the actors appear, they are living men and women, not puppets; their mirth is riotous, their manners are rough, their passions fierce, but the warm blood courses through their veins, and now and then leaps to their brow. Whatever their failings, their vices, or their crimes, they always remain faithful to their nature and individuality, and move in perfect harmony with the surroundings in which they are framed. It has been said that, judging Bret Harte from the majority of his writings, it may be gathered 1 This article, by an English contributor, gives the reader that he has on the whole a poor opinion of hu an idea of the estimation in which Mr. Harte is held as a writer by Europeans.-ED. manity; that in his genius there is a satirical, not to say cynical vein, which leads him ever to select |