On the 16th of March special conference was held in Manchester. Elder Woodruff was there with his two counselors, Reuben Hedlock and Thomas Ward. He mentions the fact that there were present five other high priests, thirty elders, twenty-one teachers, and four deacons. The conference there was crowded with eager listeners, both members and non-members of the Church. "The spirit of the Lord," he said, "was with us. Love and union pervaded the congregation. It was a scene that made the heart glad when we beheld in a foreign land so many Saints assembled, Saints united in the everlasting covenant. I had often thought how much I would like to see the Prophet Joseph meet with a conference of Saints in England. It was not granted, however, to the British Nation to have the Prophet of God in that land. This was one of the most interesting conferences I had ever attended abroad. It fulfilled a prophecy I had made in the House of the Lord in Kirtland in 1837 to the effect that I should attend a conference with Elder Milton Holmes in the British Isles."
These old associates of Wilford Woodruff, men tried and true, were always held in loving remembrance by him. He loved those who loved God. The names of those old-time friends lingered in his memory throughout all the years of a long, busy life.
Since he could conveniently do so, immediately after the Manchester conference, he repaired to Idle, in Yorkshire, that he might visit the last resting place of the remains of Elder Lorenzo Barnes, the first elder in this dispensation who had laid down his life in a foreign land. It was not that fact alone which brought forth this respect. The memory of Lorenzo Barnes grew out of an old-time companionship in their early associations, and especially in the journey of Zion's Camp. Of this visit to the grave of his beloved friend he writes: "Before arriving we passed through a beautiful green valley which is located on the top of a hill. The fields of grass were as green as in May, although it was now February. This gave to the landscape a charm both picturesque and inspiring. As we traveled the road, we reflected that we were covering the footsteps of a departed brother who had traversed the same roadway many a time in his mission to disseminate the teachings of Jesus Christ. I felt sorrowful, I was filled with meditation. We called upon Elder Thomas Cordingly and family who cared for Elder Barnes in his last sickness. They pointed out to us the room where he spent the last hours of his mortal life.
"After taking some refreshments we walked to the churchyard where we gazed upon the peaceful, silent grave of our departed brother. My feelings were sensitive and sad. While standing over his grave I offed up a prayer to Israel's God that I too might die the death of the righteous, that my end might be as peaceful and secure as that of our departed brother."
There is an illustration in that prayer, a marked characteristic in the life of Wilford Woodruff. The burden of his thoughts, the great object of his supplication was that he might endure to the end. What the end should be was with him the great concern of his life. He envied those, if he ever envied at all, who were valiant in every crisis and who were steadfast to the death. To him there was no triumph in life like the triumph in death. He was not so concerned about worldly greatness, about the race of the swift, nor the battle of the strong; what he sought above all else was endurance, that endurance which, after all, contains the greatest virtue, as it embodies the greatest strength. Yet often men underrate the supreme value of endurance in their ambition to be great and strong.
On the 23rd of September, Elder Woodruff attended a conference in Bradford. The meetings were attended by large numbers. Elder Elijah F. Sheets, long and honorably known throughout Utah as Bishop Sheets, was then presiding over that conference. Of that occasion he writes in his journal: "The congregation was as still as death." He spoke upon the mission and teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith whose recent martyrdom had still its mournful affects upon the Saints who were sorely disappointed that they had not the opportunity in life to hear the words that dropped from the lips of him whom God had called to open the great dispensation of the last days.
"On my birthday, March 1st, 1845, I received a letter from a friend. It contained a copy of a letter dated Pittsburg, January 30th, 1845, and was written by John Greenbow to his father in Kendall. The letter contained a statement to the effect that he was getting the Doctrine and Covenants stereotyped and that he would bring the plates to England for the purpose of printing, publishing, and copyrighting the book so that the Church could not print and publish it. This was a bold scheme by apostates to steal the book containing the revelations of God to the Church. There was in this proposed action, no doubt, an intention to change the wording and thus deceive the world. I regarded the receipt of the letter as nothing less than providential, an interposition of our Heavenly Father who knew the evil design of the wicked and therefore caused the letter to come into my hands. I spent the day examining the laws of England relative to copyrights."
This information aroused Elder Woodruff to immediate action, and as early as June 7, 1845, he secured the copyright of the book which was entered at Stationer's Hall, England.
On the 9th of March Elder Woodruff records the fact that he held conference in Preston where he visited the old cock-pit, where Elders Kimball and Hyde first openly declared the message of the gospel to the people of England, and where they were soon followed by Willard Richards. He with his companion also walked up and down the river where so many hundreds of the Saints had been baptized. At the Preston conference he mentions the fact that there were several branches represented with the total membership of five hundred souls. This was the first conference organized in the British Mission eight years before by Heber C. Kimball.
Throughout Elder Woodruff's journal of those times may be found minute descriptions of historical places and of public monuments. He was also deeply interested in the history of the countries which he visited, and his journal shows the special significance which historical monuments had to his mind. He further knew that his sympathy and interest in the people would be increased by knowledge of their national history and of those conditions which in the past had been foremost in shaping their character. Many an elder has, no doubt, realized the mistake of either falsely or imperfectly estimating the character of those whose ear he was seeking to gain. Elder Woodruff's journal shows, however, that he greatly appreciated the superior qualities of the English people and their great contributions to the system of free governments. From the history of the English people he often found it convenient to take his text; in short, he made himself at home among the English by his knowledge of them and their institutions.