The progress of the Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, as they designate themselves, has been astonishingly rapid, their number being computed at no less than two hundred thousand, of whom about ten thousand are congregated in the city of Nauvoo, (or Joseph,) in the State of Illinois. This portion of the Mormons had previously located themselves in the State of Missouri, but after suffering great persecution, were driven out of that State by the inhabitants. They then settled in the western part of Illinois, and built the city of Nauvoo, and have nearly completed a splendid temple of unique architecture. They, like the Jews, believe that they are God’s chosen people, and that, as _the earth is the Lord’s_, they shall have the honor of calling together the Jews, the former chosen people of God, and that all who have not then embraced the Mormon faith will be speedily cut off. As the Mormons make the Bible the ground-work of their religious belief, and are sparing in their allusions to the Book of Mormon, they are likely to become permanently established, as a portion of the Christian world, and will probably become not only a very numerous, but also a powerful sect. But the demon of religious persecution—let me pause for a moment. I would not knowingly libel any thing, not even religion. Am I not mistaken? Not in the personage, most certainly, but I may be in error with respect to his official character. Perhaps I owe an apology to the religious world. It may be the demon of fraud. At all events, a demon of some description is hovering over this remarkable people, and threatening them with vengeance. Their smoking and desolate homesteads will furnish matter for the future historian, who, with indignation, will record, that in the nineteenth century, in the favored land of Illinois, the ennobling principles of liberty could boast of no better recognition than an empty name. Give ear, ye advocates of liberty in the down-trodden nations of Europe! A voice would address you from the land of promise. Ten thousand men, women, and children in the State of Illinois, can receive no protection from the Genius of Liberty, but in the coming spring are to be driven from their peaceful happy homes, to wend their way through a dreary wilderness, and seek a resting place on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. “Oh! shame! where is thy blush!” Cannot even tottering age, and helpless infancy, arrest the fell purpose?