So, too, in speaking of the privations of camp life: "It is true that in our sojourning we do not possess all the luxuries and delicacies of old established countries and cities, but we have an abundance of the staple commodities, such as flour, meal, beef, mutton, pork, milk, butter and in some instances cheese, sugar, coffee, tea, etc., etc. We feel contented and happy in the wilderness. The God of Israel is with us--union and peace prevail; and as we journey, as did Abraham of old, with our flocks and herds to a distant land, we feel that like him, we are doing the will of our Heavenly Father and relying upon His word and promises; and having His blessing, we feel that we are children of the same promise and hope, and that the great Jehovah is our God." Such remarks as these lighten the rather sombre picture that is usually drawn by writers who relate the story of the evacuation of Nauvoo and the subsequent journey in the wilderness; and who in their anxiety to give a vivid picture of the sufferings of the Saints, forget to vindicate the goodness of God who was with His people in those trying times, and who, by opening the way before them to obtain food and lands to dwell upon, and giving them strength as their day, made their afflictions light as air. These things, Elder Taylor in his sketches does not fail to recognize. At the time of Elder Taylor's visit, great distress existed among the laboring classes in England, and as the Saints were chiefly of that class, they suffered with the rest. The trouble arose very largely from over-population. This being the case, the queen was memorialized by the Saints to adopt a system of emigration to Oregon, a general name given to an immense but indefinite tract of country in the western part of the British possessions, Vancouver's Island forming part of it. To return the means that government was asked to expend in emigrating the people, it was proposed that in a tract of country divided into sections of six hundred and forty acres, and numbered, that each emigrant be entitled to settle on the sections bearing even numbers, and that government retain the odd sections. The presence of the settlers and their improvements on the even sections would give a value to the odd sections and bring them into market, and through the sale of these lands government would soon be repaid the sum expended for emigration. In the interest of this scheme, Elder Taylor called upon, and obtained an interview with the Earl of Dartmouth, but the government refused to engage in the business.