is based on a money qualification, not on the intelligence of the voter. For instance, a Maltese cook, who pays not less than six pounds a year for his house, but who cannot read or write, is a voter, whereas a gentleman and scholar, cannot vote because he lives with his father and pays no rent.

Education is, however, on the increase, for in 1842 there were but three thousand eight hundred and thirty three scholars in the schools, and twelve thousand three hundred and ninety in 1881. This year the scholars number upward of fifteen thousand. About twenty thousand pounds is expended annually by the educational department. In 1881 the percentage on the native population of those able to speak, read and write their own language was sixteen and a half, leaving eighty three and a half illiterate or only able to speak their own tongue. The maltese is a most peculiar language. It is of Oriental origin, Arabic in its chief characteristics, but sprinkled all through with Italian incorporations. It has no grammar. It is phonetic and idiomatic.

I will give you a sample. It is from a
Maltese love song:

Tridu tafu shbeiba sh taghmel,
Min fil ghodu sa fil ghashia,
Taghmel il bokli f' rasa,

U tokghodlok fil gallaria.
The translation of which is:

Would you know what a maiden does
From morning until evening?

She adorns her head with curls,
And seats herself in the balcony.

John Worthington, U. S. Consul.

Conversion is no repairing of the old building; but it takes all down and erects a new structure. The sincere Christian is quite a new fabric, from the foundation to the top-stone all new.Alleine.

Nothing is easier than fault finding. No talent, no self-denial, no genius, no character are required to set up in the grumbling business. But those who are moved by a genuine desire to do good have little time for murmuring or complaint.-Robert West.

Columbia weeps!

And bends her beauteous

head,
And drapes her flag in pendages of woe,
And sets apart this day to fondly show
Her rich appreciation of her honored dead!
Nobly they fell her honor to sustain,

Her Constitution, and her flag to save-
Grand souls! The noble and the brave!
Our tears should fall to-day, as holy rain!
We love our country-but our sons we mourn,
The voice of nature must to-day have vent,
And with the widows, we in grief lament;
And to the orphans we in love will turn.
Let there be silence for a sacred space,
(Such silence as we read in Holy writ
The grand Empyrean did in love edict;)
That we the scene of battle may retrace!

The fearful struggle! and the clang of war,

The fierce encounter man with man did wage, Squadron met squadron with demoniac rage; And rampant Mars triumphant drove his car!

Till blood and carnage crimsoned all the plain, And heap on heap, the dying, and the dead Promiscuous lay! aye, many a noble head; Was low in dust, no more to rise again.

The flowers! Yes-'tis Decoration Day! Bring forth the chaplets to adorn the deadAlas! alas! low lies each honored head, And mute the tribute we now fondly pay. Methinks the cypress, and funereal yew

Would best express the feelings of the soul; Our honest tears rush forth without control, As we, our mournful offerings renew. Oh! may the God of love, and peace decree That war no more shall desecrate our land; That love fraternal may impel each hand, And faith, and hope, and peace our motto be! Columbia! Land of promise! Great and fair, May history's muse memorialize thy fame! And form a halo round thy mystic name, That shall to all the world that name declare! Hannah T. King.

VIII.

IF IT should be asked what class of men can do the state the most harm, or the Church most mischief, the universal answer would be-traitors! So patent is the correctness of the statement, that we deem it unnecessary to inquire into the reasons that lead to the conclusion. What state has perished but by traitors' hands? What patriot suffered, but by a traitor's perfidy? And so, as we proceed, we shall see that it was principally through the schemes of traitors that Nauvoo's budding prospects were blighted, and her virtuous people driven into the wilderness.

It will be remembered that in our last number, we published a letter written by John C. Bennett to Sidney Rigdon and Orson Pratt, in which he stated that he was then enroute for Missouri for the purpose of getting out an indictment against Joseph for treason against that state, said to have been committed during the troubles at Far West, in the Fall of 1838. Whether Bennett went to Missouri or not I cannot say, but through his influence the old charge of treason was revived, and an indictment found at a special term of the Circuit Court for Daviess County, Missouri, on the 5th of June, 1843; and on the 13th of the same month Governor Reynolds issued a requisition on the Governor of Illinois for Joseph Smith, and appointed Joseph H. Reynolds the agent of Missouri to receive the Prophet from the authorities of Illinois. Accordingly the warrant for the arrest was placed in the hands of Harmon T. Wilson by Governor Ford,

of Illinois, and Wilson and Reynolds started to find the Prophet.

In the meantime Joseph's friends were not inactive. The day before Governor Ford issued the warrant for the apprehension of the Prophet, he incidentally mentioned to Judge James Adams that a requisition had been made by Missouri for the arrest of Joseph, and that he should issue it the next day; whereupon Judge Adams dispatched an express from Springfield to Nauvoo with this information. The express arrived in Nauvoo on the sixteenth of June; but three days before, Joseph with Emma, had left Nauvoo to visit Emma's sister, a Mrs. Wasson, living near Dixon in Lee County, a little more than two hundred miles north of Nauvoo. But on the arrival of the messenger from Judge Adams, Hyrum Smith at once dispatched Stephen Markham and William Clayton to Joseph with the information. They left Nauvoo about midnight of the eighteenth, and sixty-six hours later arrived at Wasson's, having ridden two hundred and twelve miles in that time, changing horses only once and that near the end of the journey. Shortly after the arrival of Clayton a Mr. Southwick of Dixon rode out to Inlet Grove, where Mr. Wasson lived to inform Joseph that a writ was out for him, and for his pains and interest the Prophet paid him twenty-five dollars, though he had already been informed by Clayton and Markham.

After the receipt of this information, however, Joseph concluded to remain where he was, for, as he put it, if he

started for home he might meet the officers, where he had no friends, and be run over into Missouri among his enemies.

Just how the officers Wilson and Reynolds came to know of the whereabouts of the Prophet is not known. But at any rate they went directly to Dixon, nearly killing their horses by hard riding. At the village of Dixon they represented themselves as Mormon Elders, wanting to see the Prophet. They succeeded in hiring a man with a two horse team to drive them out to Wasson's. On the way they passed William Clayton who had been sent by the Prophet to see if he could learn anything of the movements of the officers at Dixon. But as the sheriffs were disguised, Clayton did not recognize them.

The officers arrived at Wasson's and found Joseph walking down the path leading to the barn. They sprang upon him like wild beasts upon their prey, presenting their pistols, and Reynolds. exclaimed-"God damn you sir, if you stir, I'll shoot!" and this with slight variations he kept repeating. Joseph asked them what was the meaning of all this, for they attempted to serve no process, and to their oft repeating threats of violence, which they sought to make emphatic with blood-curdling oaths, the Prophet bared his breast and told them to shoot, if they desired to, for he had endured so much oppression that he was weary of life.

By this time Stephen Markham arrived on the scene, and immediately started to the Prophet's assistance despite the threats of the officers to shoot him if he advanced another step. Nor did the brave man check his advance until Joseph cautioned him not to resist the officers of the law.

Reynolds and Wilson with much rudeness and many unnecessary imprecations, hustled their prisoner into the wagon they had hired in Dixon, and were for starting off without giving their prisoner a chance to say one word to his friends, bid his wife or children goodbye, or even get his hat and clothes. But Markham seized the team by the bits and said there was no law requiring

an officer to take a man to prison without his clothes, and held on until Emma could bring out Joseph's hat and coat, regardless of the threats of the officers to shoot him.

All this time they had served no process on their prisoner, and had repeatedly thrust the muzzles of their pistols against his sides until both were badly bruised by the uncalled for violence.

Joseph shouted to Markham as he was driven away, to go to Dixon and obtain a writ of habeas corpus, but as the horse Markham rode was jaded, and the officers ordered their driver to whip up, they kept up with him, and both parties went into the town together.

The sheriffs thrust their prisoner into a room in a tavern kept by Mr. McKennie, and ordered fresh horses to be ready in five minutes. Joseph told them he wanted to obtain counsel. "God d—n you, you shan't have counsel; one more word and G-d d―n you I'll shoot you!" was the brutal answer. Just then, however, a man passed the window and to him Joseph shouted, “I am falsely imprisoned here, and I want a lawyer." Presently Lawyer Southwick, the gentleman who a few days before had rode out to Wasson's to inform the Prophet that a writ was out for him, came to the house, but only to have the door banged in his face, and be denied admittance. Another lawyer, Shepherd G. Patrick, tried to gain admission to the prisoner but met with the same treatment as the first. But at last, through the influence of a Mr. Sanger and a Mr. Dixon, owner of the hotel building, where the Prophet was detained a prisoner, Reynolds was given to understand that his prisoner must have a fair trial, and all the protection the laws afforded him. A writ of habeas corpus was sued out before Mr. Chamberlain, the Master in Chancery, who lived some six miles from Dixon, made returnable before Hon. John D. Caton, judge of the ninth judicial circuit at Ottawa.

Before starting for Ottawa, however, Joseph learned that Cyrus Walker Esq., was in the vicinity on an electioneering tour, he being the Whig candidate for