THE WORK INTRODUCED INTO PARIS—INTERVIEW WITH M. KROLOKOSKI—"WHICH IS BEST, YOUR PHILOSOPHY OR OUR RELIGION?"—FRENCH PHILOSOPHY OR FRIED FROTH—TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON INTO FRENCH—CHARACTERISTIC LETTER—UNSETTLED STATE OF AFFAIRS IN FRANCE—FRENCH LIBERTY—GOSPEL INTRODUCED INTO GERMANY—TRANSLATION OF THE BOOK OF MORMON INTO THE GERMAN—ZION'S PANIER—A CONFERENCE UNDER DIFFICULTIES—DEPARTURE FROM FRANCE—A KNOWING OFFICER AND A TRUE FRIEND.

Shortly after the discussion Elder Taylor left Boulogne for Paris, where he began studying the French language, and teaching the gospel. Among the interesting people whom he met there was M. Krolokoski, a disciple of M. Fourier, the distinguished French socialist. M. Krolokoski was a gentleman of some standing, being the editor of a paper published in Paris in support of Fourier's views. Another thing which makes the visit of this gentleman to Elder Taylor interesting is the fact that it was the society to which he belonged that sent M. Cabet to Nauvoo with the French Icarians, to establish a community on Fourier's principles. At his request Elder Taylor explained to him the leading principles of the gospel. At the conclusion of that explanation the following conversation occurred:

M. Krolokoski.—"Mr. Taylor, do you propose no other plan to ameliorate the condition of mankind than that of baptism for the remission of sins?"

Elder Taylor.—"This is all I propose about the matter."

M. Krolokoski.—"Well, I wish you every success; but I am afraid you will not succeed."

Elder Taylor.—"Monsieur Krolokoski, you sent Monsieur Cabet to Nauvoo, some time ago. He was considered your leader—the most talented man you had. He went to Nauvoo shortly after we had deserted it. Houses and lands could be obtained at a mere nominal sum. Rich farms were deserted, and thousands of us had left our houses and furniture in them, and almost everything calculated to promote the happiness of man was there. Never could a person go to a place under more happy circumstances. Besides all the advantages of having everything made ready to his hand, M. Cabet had a select company of colonists. He and his company went to Nauvoo—what is the result? I read in all your reports from there—published in your own paper here, in Paris, a continued cry for help. The cry is money, money! We want money to help us carry out our designs.^[1] While your colony in Nauvoo with all the advantages of our deserted fields and homes—that they had only to move into—have been dragging out a miserable existence, the Latter-day Saints, though stripped of their all and banished from civilized society into the valleys of the Rocky Mountains, to seek that protection among savages—among the peau rouges as you call our Indians—which Christian civilization denied us—there our people have built houses, enclosed lands, cultivated gardens, built school-houses, and have organized a government and are prospering in all the blessings of civilized life. Not only this, but they have sent thousands and thousands of dollars over to Europe to assist the suffering poor to go to America, where they might find an asylum.

"The society I represent, M. Krolokoski," he continued, "comes with the fear of God—the worship of the Great Eloheim; we offer the simple plan ordained of God, viz: repentance, baptism for the remission of sins, and the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost. Our people have not been seeking the influence of the world, nor the power of government, but they have obtained both. Whilst you, with your philosophy, independent of God, have been seeking to build up a system of communism and a government which is, according to your own accounts, the way to introduce the Millennial reign. Now, which is the best, our religion, or your philosophy?"

M. Krolokoski.—"Well, Mr. Taylor, I can say nothing."

"Philosophy" has always been a passion with the French; but Elder Taylor seems not to have had a very high regard for what he saw of it among them. He held it in the same esteem that Paul did the "science" of the Greeks—he considered it a misnomer—philosophy, falsely so called.

One day in walking through the splendid grounds of the Fardin des Plantes with a number of friends, one of the party purchased a curious kind of cake, so thin and light, that you could blow it away, and eat all day of it and still not be satisfied. Some one of the company asked Elder Taylor if he knew the name of it. "No," he replied, "I don't know the proper name; but in the absence of one, I can give it a name—I will call it French philosophy, or fried froth, which ever you like."

During his stay in Paris he visited the Palace Vendome, and with a number of friends ascended Napoleon's Column of Victory. His companions scratched their names on the column as thousands had done before them. Seeing that Elder Taylor had not written his name, they asked him to write it with theirs. "No," he replied, "I will not write my name there; but I will yet write it in living, imperishable characters !"

Having baptized a number of people in Paris, he organized a branch of the Church in that city early in December. During the summer, too, he had made arrangements for translating the Book of Mormon into the French language, and publishing a monthly periodical, also in French, called Etoile Du Deseret—The Star of Deseret,—a royal octavo sheet, the first number of which appeared in May, 1851.

In the work of translating the Book of Mormon he was greatly assisted by the patient labors of Elder Curtis E. Bolton, Brother Louis Bertrand and several highly educated gentlemen whom he baptized in Paris, but whose names unfortunately cannot be obtained.

When he announced his intention of publishing the Book of Mormon in French, Elder Franklin D. Richards called upon the conferences of the British Mission to come to his assistance with means; but he made other arrangements to meet his engagements with the publishing house; and wrote the following characteristic letter to Elder Richards:

"I feel very much obliged to you for the remarks you made on the subject of the French mission, a short time ago, wherein you requested the presiding Elders, of the conferences, to raise means for publishing the Book of Mormon in French. In noticing, however, the position of the churches in this country, and the many calls that have been made upon the brethren, I have been seeking to make other arrangements without troubling them, which I am very happy to inform you, I have accomplished, and therefore shall not be necessitated to make any calls upon the conferences. * * The scriptures say, that, 'it is more blessed to give than to receive,' and if in making the above move, I may have deprived some of an anticipated blessing, I hope they will excuse me; for perhaps there may be an opportunity afforded them of assisting some of my brethren in another way. If not, the world is large, and there is ample opportunity to do good."

A few wealthy members of the Church in England had privately furnished him the means, and he made such arrangements with the publishers that when copies of the book were sold a certain amount of the proceeds was put away for printing another edition. "And thus it can be continued from time to time," writes Elder Taylor, "as necessity shall require, until 200,000 copies are printed without any additional expense."

The translation is said to be a very correct one, the original simplicity of the Nephite writers is retained, and it is as literal as the genius and idiom of the French language will admit.

In addition to these literary labors Elder Taylor applied to the government authorities for permission for himself and the Elders to preach throughout France; and the prospects were fair for obtaining it; but at that juncture, a mob arose against the Saints in Denmark, their meeting house where they assembled was torn down and much excitement created. It was this circumstance which doubtless led the French ministry to prohibit the Elders from preaching altogether, instead of granting them the liberty for which they asked.

The political situation in France at the time was precarious, and did much to prevent Elder Taylor and his companions from spreading the gospel among that people. In 1848 Louis Philippe had been compelled to abdicate the throne of France by an insurrection of the people; the provisional government that succeeded was soon supplanted by the republic which was proclaimed by the voice of the people; of which Louis Napoleon, the nephew of the great Napoleon, was elected president for four years, as provided for in the constitution. This term of office was altogether too brief and too precarious for a Bonaparte, and the newly elected President soon set on foot secret measures for an increase of power and an extension of time in office.

Having won over the army to his views, he boldly seized such members of the National Assembly, and other prominent citizens, who were opposed to his interests and imprisoned them, suppressed the newspapers and proclaimed the dissolution of the assembly and council of state. He hastily sketched a new and more despotic constitution, which was accepted by the people, and had himself elected president for ten years.

These movements were soon followed by even bolder acts of usurpation. He secured the passage of a decree by the new senate, making him hereditary Emperor with the title of Napoleon III. And thus an empire was erected on the ruins of the fallen republic.

Such were the agitations and revolutions going on in France during the time that Elder Taylor was there introducing the gospel; and with such an irreligious and excitable people as the French, it is not to be expected that they will turn away from excited multitudes shouting now vive la Republique, and then vive l'empereur, with the whole country on the verge of civil war—it is not to be expected, I say, that a people, and especially the French people, are going to turn from all this to listen to a stranger preach on the peaceable things of the kingdom of heaven!

Still, meetings were held in Paris twice a week, and the work spread into Havre, Calais, Boulogne and other places. In the three cities named, as well as in Paris, branches of the Church were organized. In June, 1851, the Channel Islands,—hitherto belonging to the British mission—in which there were several branches of the Church, were added to the French mission and of course considerably increased its strength.

In the latter part of July or about the first of August, 1851, Elder Taylor accompanied by Elder Viet, a German, and a teacher of that language in France, and Elder George P. Dykes, went to the city of Hamburg, Germany. Here, with the aid of Elder Viet, a Mr. Charles Miller, whom he baptized shortly after his arrival there, and George P. Dykes, he made arrangements for and supervised the translation of the Book of Mormon into the German language. The work was finally completed and stereotyped; and the text so arranged that the French and German would face each other, each page containing the same matter in the same opening, and thus both could be bound together.

In Hamburg as in Paris, he published a monthly periodical, a royal octavo sheet, which was called Zion's Panier—Zion's Banner. The first number was issued November 1st, 1851. He also preached the gospel and raised up a branch of the Church in Hamburg; after which he returned to Paris, to attend a conference of the French mission appointed to convene there.

He ran considerable risk in appointing this conference, for the law prohibited more than twenty persons assembling together, and a number of times the meetings of the Saints in Paris were entered by the police, and the number present counted to see if they were violators of the law. Referring to this cramped situation of affairs Elder Taylor remarks: "'Liberty,' 'Equality,' 'Fraternity,' were written upon almost every door. You had liberty to speak, but might be put in prison for doing so. You had liberty to print, but they might burn what you had printed, and put you in confinement for it"—such was French liberty!

Elder Taylor arrived in Paris about the 18th or 19th of December. On the 2nd of the same month Louis Napoleon by his famous coup d'etat had overthrown the first republic succeeding the government of Louis Philippe; and in the meantime had sketched the more despotic constitution which was to succeed it, with himself elected President for ten years. Paris was in the hands of the soldiers; her streets had recently been soaked with blood; many of the buildings had been battered down into shapeless ruins; and about five hundred prisoners, untried before any tribunal—even that of a drum-head court martial—had been shipped off to Cayenne.

It happened, too, that the day appointed for the holding of this conference was the very day on which the people were to vote for Napoleon for president—it would evidently be a day of excitement; and altogether the circumstances would have been considered sufficient, by ordinary men, to have postponed the conference indefinitely. Not so with Elder Taylor. A French revolution was not to hinder him in his work. The revolution would give the authorities of Paris something else to do than to look after him. So the conference was held.

There were about four hundred represented at the conference. A number of elders, priests and teachers were ordained; a conference was regularly organized and a presidency appointed over the Church in France. "At the very time they [the French people] were voting for their president," Elder Taylor remarks, "we were voting for our president; and building up the kingdom of God; and I prophesied that our cause would stand when theirs is crushed to pieces; and the kingdom of God will roll on and spread from nation to nation, and from kingdom to kingdom."

It scarcely need be said that the prophecy has been, or is being fulfilled. The work the French people did that day was undone in less than a year by the usurping "Prince President" becoming Emperor, and crushing out the life of the republic by founding a despotism as absolute as any kingdom of the middle ages; and which in its turn was violently overthrown, a few years afterwards, by another revolution. Meantime the kingdom of God goes steadily forward—slowly, perhaps, but none the less surely on that account. The Almighty is not anxious to reap results today from promises He laid down yesterday. The oak grows slowly; but every year adds something to its size; the winds which beat upon it only fix its mighty roots deeper in the earth and increase the strength of its fiber; and at last, in spite of slowness of growth, in spite of howling tempest and the thunder-bolt, the grand oak stands monarch of the forest. So shall it be with the kingdom of God among the nations of the earth.

Elder Taylor's mission in France and Germany was now completed; and he began making his arrangements for returning home. It was the day after the conference in Paris that he started for England, intending to call at the Channel Islands en route.

It was not more than ten minutes after he had taken the cab and started to the railway station to take his departure from France, when one of the high police officials came to inquire for him. The gentleman with whom he had stayed in Paris, M. Ducloux, was a very affectionate friend to him, and he, with his sister-in-law, kept the officer in conversation for two hours, speaking very highly of their late guest, maintaining that he was a respectable, high-minded gentleman. In turn the officer told him every place Elder Taylor had been since his arrival in Paris; when he came to France, what hotel he stayed at; when he went to England, and how long he remained; when he went to Germany, and how long he stayed there; what books he had printed, etc. In fact he gave a most minute account of all his movements, all of which were recorded in the police records.

Whether an attempt to intercept Elder Taylor was made or not is unknown. It might have been done by telegraphing their police agents, which were so numerous as to be ubiquitous, but without any design on his part to avoid them, for he did not know they were after him, he turned off the main route to England, to visit a little seashore town where he remained a week, and thus missed what might have been something more serious than a mere annoyance.

Footnotes

1. A year or two after this conversation, the Icarian society at Nauvoo miserably failed. It also failed in France.