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of society in this country. The weight of public opinion upon the side of morality, and acting as a check upon private conduct, is lost in it by the too great proportion and preponderance in the social body of privileged classes of persons whose living, well-being, distinction, social influence, or other objects of human desire, are attained by other means than public estimation gained by moral worth. The privileged classes in this community are not merely the hereditary aristocracy, the military, and members of the learned professions; but the tailor, the shoemaker, the smith, the joiner, the merchant, the shop-keeper; in short, every man exercising any craft, trade, branch of industry, or means of living-that is to say, the whole of the upper and middle classes, down to the mere labourer in husbandry-belong to a privileged or licensed class or corporation, of which every member is by law entitled to be secured and protected, within his own locality, from such competition or interference of others in the same calling as would injure his means of living. It is, consequently, not as with us, upon his industry, ability, character, and moral worth, that the employment and daily bread of the tradesman, and the social influence and consideration of the individual, in every rank, even the highest, almost entirely depends; it is here in the middle and lower classes, upon corporate rights and privileges, or upon licence obtained from government; and in the higher upon birth, and court or government favour. The placing of a man's livelihood, prosperity, and social consideration in his station, upon other grounds than upon his own industry and moral worth, is a demoralizing evil in the very structure of Swedish society. We have escaped this modern disease of society; and public estimation, founded on moral worth and industry, can alone confer any weight, honour, or advantage on individuals in the ordinary stations of life in our social structure."-Pages 117-121.

To the demoralizing effect of a diseased state of public opinion, which esteems what ought to be despised, and contemns that which is alone calculated to elevate the moral character, Mr. Laing adds the influence of the example of a dissolute court amidst a poor and idle population.

"The Swedes," he continues, "laboured to be lively, and attained the distinction of being called the French of the North. This spirit of imitation outdid what it copied in the worst points; and was not confined to the court circles or the higher classes; but as these became impoverished, and reduced in means to the level of the middle class, it was carried downwards into those orders of the community, in whom frivolity, gaming, profligacy, inordinate passion for amusement, false estimate of human action and character, are not to be called weaknesses or foibles only, but are vices interfering with moral duties.”—Page 122.

It thus appears that in Sweden society is divided into two classes the privileged and the unprivileged. Not only is there no intermediate or middle class to connect the two ex

tremes-a class which supplies all that is valuable in the constituent elements of society; but the two extremes are so remote from each other, that there is no sympathy between them. With an upper class so utterly devoid of political principle as that of Sweden has invariably shown itself, so destitute of public spirit, and even of an ordinary sense of justice, the feature which Mr. Laing points out as characterizing the national character is not surprising. The Swedes, in point of fact, stand at the very bottom of the scale of European morality.

Another effect of this marked division of the people into two classes the privileged and the unprivileged-is the utter ignorance of the condition of the masses which the wealthier portion of the privileged class betrays.

"The educated Swedish gentleman," says Mr. Laing, " appears to me so far removed by station and conventional distinction from the man of the lower class, that the condition of the latter is scarcely better known to him than to a foreigner. The Swedish educated class appears also very susceptible of the fashionable opinions of the day in the rest of Europe, and fond of applying them to Sweden, as a part of Europe, without consideration of social or physical differences. There is a fashion of the day, we all know, in general opinions as in clothes. The ignorance and inebriety of the lower classes are the two topics which in other countries engage at this day the attention of all enlightened people. The Swedish gentry adopt the fashionable subjects-without considering that infant schools and temperance societies, however useful in a dense manufacturing population like that of Britain, are inapplicable in a thinly-peopled country, in which infants would have to be carried a day's journey to make up a number for a school; and people could not meet to be sober without a vexatious loss of time, and a fatigue which would almost excuse their getting drunk. I venture to place to this account a good deal of the attributed drunkenness of the Swedish people, and believe them to be in this respect not worse than their neighbours.”—Page 135—6.

The ignorance of the upper classes, touching the habits of the industrious classes generally, must necessarily be conspicuous in all countries, though perhaps less so where there is a widely-extending and minutely-graduated middle class insensibly melting into the two extremes. Even in this country such ignorance prevails to a considerable extent. The upper classes talk, and form opinions of the lower, without

"The females are not, even in the lowest class, addicted in the slightest degree to the use of spirits."-Page 140.

sufficient data, or knowing in reality their condition. The "drunken" committee, as it was nicknamed, was evidence of this. Mr. Buckingham's motion itself was a deliberate insult on the working classes; but the evidence defeated the object of the mover, by showing that the drunken class and the working class are distinct; that the outcasts of society form a class by themselves; and that, among the working classes, a drunkard is as marked a man as among gentlemen. Besides this separation of drunkards from the rest of the community, there must be a great decrease of the sum of drunkenness; for whilst the population is increasing from year to year, the consumption of spirits has of late years rather decreased, in spite of the splendour of the modern gin-palace, which, by the way, merely shows that the business of the publican is following the course of all other trades, and falling into capitalists' hands. The gin-palace keepers are merely the traders on a large scale the Swan and Edgars of their trade. Knowing such to be the ignorance of the wealthy of this country respecting the moral habits of the people, we are always prepared to receive with especial caution what we hear respecting the habits of the working classes of other countries;-a point on which Mr. Laing entirely agrees with us.

The manners of all classes of the Swedish people are, however, superior to their morals.

"Whatever may be the want of morals in this country," says Mr. Laing, "there is no want of manners. You see no blackguardism, no brutality, no revolting behaviour. You may travel through the country, and come to the conclusion that the people are among the most virtuous in Europe; and it is only when you examine the official records of their criminal courts, and compare these with the amount of similar crimes during the same period in other countries, that you are obliged to come reluctantly to another conclusion. In Stockholm, the extraordinary proportion of illegitimate births. places beyond all question the want of chastity of its female population; yet in walking through the streets I never see an immodest or even suspicious look or gesture, even among the lowest class of the people. For propriety of dress and demeanour the town might be peopled by vestals, yet onethird of the infants are bastards. I confess I do not like this, either in a people or in an individual. I prefer a little open Irish blackguardism. The man is much nearer to virtue who appears worse than he is, than the man who appears better."-Pages 133, 134.

With these concluding observations we differ. Vice is assuredly revolting in any shape; but it appears to us to be of

fensive in the ratio of its conspicuousness. The mere attempt to throw a veil over vice seems to indicate some latent particle of moral feeling; to show, in fact, that self-respect—that sense of shame, is not wholly extinguished. Unless Mr. Laing can discover that the Swede's politeness is in some way or other to be ranked among the causes of his immorality, his opinion is untenable; and this he does not pretend to show. It follows that he has here written hastily.

It is not among the wealthier classes of the towns alone that superior politeness prevails; witness the following ex

tract.

"It is very characteristic of the two nations in this peninsula, that if you pay the Norwegian boy a little more than he expects, he bawls out, Tak! Tak! (thanks, thanks,) like the clapping together of two deal boards; seizes your hand, and gives it a squeeze and hearty shake, which makes your bones ache: the Swedish boy sighs out his Tak odmydegst (thanks most humbly), kisses the back of your hand, and retires, making his obeisance with a grace which many a country gentleman at Queen Victoria's court might envy. In Norway, if you give a penny to a child, or alms to a beggar, you can scarcely get off without a shake of the hand; the more polished Swede kisses your sleeve or the skirt of your coat."-Page 208.

The poverty of a portion of the people of Sweden is great, but,

"when we compare the state of the poor however in two countries, even in England and Scotland, we must recollect the great difference in the standard of living-poverty in the one country would be luxury in the other. A gentleman of great statistical information, whose acquaintance I had the pleasure of making a few days ago, made the striking observation in our conversation on this subject, that the convict and the pauper in England live better than half of all the Swedish nation. Our standard of living is higher. What is really poverty and punishment in England, because it is privation of what is held to be necessaries of life, is not so where the ideas and usages of living never reached to such necessaries. Poverty may consequently be the effect of a generally improving condition of the nation, which many cannot reach, and therefore are poor; as well as of a generally deteriorating condition. Between what is poverty in England, and absolute destitution, there are many steps. Poverty here in Sweden means absolute destitution of food, fuel, clothing, or means to procure them for the sustenance of life, on the very rudest material."-Page 150.

Apropos of "rude material : "—a poor man in the neighbourhood of Degerfors, about five years since, discovered an earth which had very much the appearance of meal. The people at that time being in a state of privation, and living

upon bark bread-of which more anon-the discoverer took some home, mixed it with rye-meal, baked it into bread, and found it palateable. Hereupon there was a general run upon this mineral meal, and some of it found its way to Stockholm. On analysis, it was found to contain flint and felspar, finely pulverized with lime, clay, oxide of iron, and some organic substance resembling animal matter, and yielding ammonia and an oil. The people were either advised or ordered not to use it; but as those who had tried it both in soup and bread, were not the worse for it, it continued, and probably continues, to be used. Another "rude material" is bark bread.

"Bark bread," says Mr. Laing, “is at present in general use in all this part of the country. The new settlers have no other meal, and bake it very thick, that it may hold together. It is acrid, dry; yet, covered with plenty of butter, it is eatable. The older settlers have at present rye meal to mix with it, half and half, and bake this mixture as thin as our oat-cakes. This is so far from being uneatable, that prudent housekeepers in good circumstances use it to save their seed-corn, even when grain is not dear; and the ruddy cheeks of the country girls prove that it is no unwholesome food, qualified no doubt, as it is, with plenty of butter and milk, and hard work.” -Page 183.

There is one thing certain, that in all countries or sections of countries, where any peculiar kind of food of low quality is eaten, the upper classes will at times affect to consume it as a national or provincial food, and will discourse concerning it as though it were a perennial source of health and virtue. The Yorkshire oat-cake, for instance, is so unpleasant to a southern palate, that, on tasting it, the first impulse is to spit it out; yet it is introduced at the tables of the wealthy, because it is the ancient food of Yorkshire. Almost every locality has, in short, some nasty thing which the rich affect to exalt into a dainty, by now and then tasting it:-a skilful expedient to render the poor contented with it. But if, as both Mr. Laing's works help to show, it is bad for a people to be content with a low standard of living, the rich ought to discourage the use of such provincial or national articles of consumption. It is clear that Mr. Laing does not relish the bark bread, on which he is disposed to be jocose, his remark reminding us of Sam Weller's observation on chalybeate waters, -that they taste strong of flat-irons. "The half and half (rye VOL. X.-No. XIX.

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