"As I had no time before I left England, I now wish to say a few words to the Saints. When I was there, in consequence of having so many places to visit, and to travel so extensively, my stay was necessarily short at the various branches; and it made it impossible for me to visit so many places, to form so extensive an acquaintance with the Saints as I should gladly have done had time permitted. If my stay had been longer, I should gladly have spent two, three, or six months more, in order to have visited all the branches and seen the Saints at their homes, for I love the people of God, and delight in the habitations of the righteous. There peace reigns--there reigns the spirit of God--and there is my home. And here I wish to say, that although very much pressed and hurried, I have seldom enjoyed myself better than I did on my late visit to the British churches. I saw an honesty and simplicity which I admired. The Saints seemed to vie with each other in many little acts of kindness and charity which were duly appreciated by me, and which I have taken pleasure in acknowledging. They were esteemed not so much on account of their intrinsic value as for the feelings of those who administered them.
"Our arrival in England was very opportune. * * Before we left [Council Bluffs], it was revealed to the authorities that the presidency in England was in transgression, and that it was necessary that some of the Twelve should proceed immediately to England. * * * When Elder Hyde and myself were in New York, and Elder Pratt in Boston, we thought it expedient, rather than to wait two or three days for him, to proceed immediately to Liverpool. We found on our arrival that we had not come any too soon. The teachers of the people were under transgression; they were corrupt: they were acting dishonorably, and dishonestly; stripping the poor of their last pittance, and yet those wanton profligates professed that they were doing the will of God, while they, under a cloak of religion, were reveling in debauchery, drunkenness and fraud! But they have their reward.
"Many of the Elders were at a loss what to do. They saw that things were out of order, but how to regulate them they knew not. * * * They felt a disposition to hope for the best, but it seemed to be hoping against hope; in fact the whole head was sick and the whole heart faint; and had it not been that the Saints were in possession of the eternal principles of truth, and had the testimony of the Spirit, giving them assurance of the truth and verity of this work, they might all have made ship-wreck of faith.