We do not mean to assert that the laws against polygamy should be stricken from our statute-books. Far from it. On the contrary, it is a shame to our country that they have been allowed so long to be nullified. Let us thank God that during the past two years they have been enforced. They should be most rigidly enforced, although no such system of inquisition and prying into the most sacred relations of husband and wife through their children should be instituted in the name of purity and justice, as the Mormons claim is being now carried on there, and which called forth an earnest protest by the women of Utah at a mass-meeting in the theatre of Salt Lake City March 6th, 1886. Besides, other crimes in the Territory should not be overlooked in zeal to punish that particular crime. The laws should be impartially executed. Moreover, I believe the penalty for the crime should be made to correspond better with the gravity of the crime. Six months' imprisonment seems a very small penalty for such an enormous crime against society; the Mormons purchase martyrdom at too cheap a price. It should be increased to three or five years' imprisonment. Nevertheless, no matter what the law may be, it cannot alone overcome this evil. It may make the evil unpopular. It may act upon some as an educator, and cause them to lose their implicit confidence in their leaders; and, indeed, such is said to be the fact in Utah now. Dr. McNiece, in his letter to the writer from Salt Lake City, dated February 12th, 1886, says: "The people are beginning to lose faith in their leaders. The Lord is not coming down on the Wahsatch Mountains with horses and chariots of fire to deliver the persecuted (?) Saints, as Orson Pratt used to predict. In fact, the people are beginning to doubt about the Lord's being on their side at all." Now, that is a good sign; and it is, doubtless, true of the more enlightened among the Mormons; but upon the masses of the people, the only effect will be to weld them closer together; and I cannot but think that the leaders are glad that they can raise the cry of persecution. That cry puts down all internal dissension, and unites the people against a common enemy. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church," has passed into a proverb. But the plan which we propose has nothing of persecution in connection with it, and thus it will leave room for internal dissension; and from within alone can Mormonism be effectually helped to eradicate its errors. The evils will in this way be overcome by the people themselves, while in reality the work will be accomplished by forces without.