January 4, 1856. An Act granting to Brigham Young exclusive right to establish a ferry over Bear River.
January 5, 1856. An Act granting to Brigham Young a ranch and herd-ground in Lone Rock Valley.
January 12, 1856. An Act granting to Brigham Young exclusive right to control the road and coal-beds in Coal Canyon, San Pete County.
Same date. An Act making an appropriation to Brigham Young of $1000 from the Territorial Treasury, to enable him to pay for a share in the Deseret Iron Company.
January 22, 1864. An Act authorizing Brigham Young to establish a toll on the Tooele Road.
After reading all these donations and munificent franchises, one can appreciate the point of the joke perpetrated by Brigham, when he says "he takes no thought how to get rich, and yet riches constantly flow to him."
The Tithing System.
The object of tithing, as stated in the "Book of Doctrines and Covenants," is to exalt the poor, and humble the rich,—taking from where it is not wanted the surplus property of the church, and placing it where it is needed. The law of tithing, as originally instituted, calls for one tenth of the annual increase and gains, after providing for the wants of the family. When the poor were amply supplied, the residue was to be used for purchasing inheritances for the saints, building houses for public worship, etc.
Of late years, however, tithing assumes an entirely different form, and is much more comprehensive in its scope and exacting in its demands. The "saints" in Utah, Europe, and throughout the world, are required to pay one tenth of their income, without any reference to their ability to meet the demand. Thus the laboring man in Utah, who receives but one dollar and fifty cents per day,—not enough to support his family comfortably,—is assessed tithing to the amount of about forty-five dollars per annum.
But this is not all. Every emigrant and new-comer is expected to pay one tenth of his entire possessions. Upon