SWEDEN

SWEDEN. The recent changes that have been produced in this monarchy consist of the loss of Finland, conveyed by cession to Russia, as a condition of peace, with that of Pomerania, now subject to Prussia; and the acquisition of Norway, as the price of the services of Sweden in the struggle which terminated with the downfall of Buonaparte.

As the inhabitants of Norway discovered an aversion to becoming subject to the kingdom of Sweden, assurances were given that their ancient usages and privileges should be preserved to them; and that, though united with Sweden under the same monarch, the legislative power, the finances, the national debts, the laws, the army, and other establishments, should be maintained distinct, and almost every purpose of an independent nation be preserved.

Bernadotte, one of the Generals of the French army, had been chosen, by the senate and the king, Charles XIV., as Crown Prince, or successor to the throne; perhaps without any intrigues on his own part, but certainly without any on the part of the French Emperor, chiefly on account of the reputation he had acquired through the north of Europe, by his wise and humane conduct whilst exercising the military power in Hanover. On the demise of Charles, after his co-operation with the allies in the deliverance of Europe, Bernadotte mounted the throne, and seems to have succeeded in uniting Sweden and Norway under his government, and in establishing in his family the succession to the crown.

The Swedish geographers divide the kingdom into three portions, called by them the North, the Middle, and the South Provinces. These are again divided into districts, according to their political and fiscal relations, denominated Laens or Stadtholderships; but the ancient distinction of provinces is still kept up among the greater part of the inhabitants.

The places containing more than 3000 inhabitants, Sweden as Norway.

Stockholm, 65,474; Gottenburg, 17,760; Carlskrona, 10,553; Norrkoping, 9428; Gefleborg, 5930; Malmoe, 4932; Upsal, 4897; Falun, 4709; Uddevalla, 3971; Wisby, 3819; Landskrona, 3776; Carlsham, 3387; Orebro, 3242; Lund, 3224; Christianstad, 3106; Calmar, 3058.

There are 88 places denominated cities, and four called market towns. They are mostly small, except the few above enumerated. The inhabitants of these cities and towns, according to the tables of 1815, were 248,029, making about one-tenth of the whole population; and the other nine-tenths were living in 2214 parishes, containing 65,284 farms. At the same period the classes of the people are thus indicated. Learned, including clergy, professors, students, and servants, employed in the churches, with their wives and children, 25,986; civil officers, 24,652; military of all ranks, 113,465; sailors, 22,178; burghers, including manufacturers, merchants, tradesmen, handicraftsmen, and their several apprentices, 160,922; private persons, including retired officers and tradesmen, owners of estates, funded property, or mortgages, 79,814; peasants, 1,391,606; domestic servants to the nobility and gentry, 43,659; poor, and prisoners, 24,131; orphan, and foundling children, 13,757; and females who are either single or widows, with their children, 555,496. By a table, the data for which were collected in 1810, it appeared that the families were 451,116; that the learned classes formed 1 in 110 of the males; the civil officers, 1 in 140; the military, including the militia, 1 in 27; the tradesmen, 1 in 260; the farmers, 7 in 10; the domestic servants, 1 in 44; the workmen in factories, 1 in 52; the sailors, 1 in 146; the poor, 1 in 60; and the children one-eighth of the whole male population.

Not more than one-twentieth part of the surface of Sweden is capable of cultivation, and of that only one-half is actually cultivated. The harvests are by no means productive, and estimated by Akrel to yield not more than five times the seed that is sown in good years. In a cycle of ten years, the same writer states, that one of them fails, two are scanty, five are moderate, and two are abundant. The deficiency of corn for the support of the inhabitants compels them to mix the rind of the Pinus silvestris, and the roots of some bog-plants, with their flour, to eke out their scanty stock of food. The extensive cultivation of potatoes, which has taken place of late years, has been found to afford most valuable aid to the general subsistence. Hemp, flax, and tobacco, are grown for domestic use. Hops are cultivated and exported to Denmark and Germany. The breeding of cattle is a productive branch of industry, though the races of horses, cows, and sheep, are generally small in size. The stock of cattle was as follows, soon after the loss of Finland: horses, 405,030; oxen, cows, and calves, 1,812,594; and sheep and lambs, 1,243,315: goats and pigs are thinly scattered. In the north, the reindeer is a valuable domestic animal: some proprietors have herds of more than 1000, which are fed through the winter on the moss, which instinct teaches them to find under the deep snow. The fisheries yield employment, subsistence, and articles for export; but,

Sweden and Norway. of late years, the shoals of herrings have greatly diminished. The chief production of the soil is timber, as two-thirds of the surface is covered with woods. The far greater part of the dwellings are composed wholly of wood; the demand for fuel is very great; and yet the export of planks, masts, pitch, tar, potashes, and charcoal, forms the chief part of the foreign trade. The mines of Sweden have long been worked, and have suffered little increase

Productions. or diminution of late years. Their average products have been 64 ounces of gold; 12,900 ounces of silver; 24,800 quintals of copper; 431 quintals of lead; 100,000 tons of iron; 22,000 quintals of alum; 35,000 tons of coal; and 65,000 quintals of saltpetre. The manufactures of Sweden are confined to the few articles required for the scanty supply of its needy population. Cloths, cottons, silks, and linens, and many smaller articles, are furnished from the different fabrics within the kingdom, whose annual amount is calculated to be about L. 280,000 Sterling. The merchant ships, in 1816, were 1107; their burden 64,290 last, and their crews 9014 men and boys.

Government. The government is a limited monarchy, hereditary in the male line of Bernadotte; but in case of the failure of males in that family, a successor is to be nominated by the King, and approved by the Legislature. The appointed civil list for the King is 320,000 rix dollars banco, or about L. 50,000 Sterling; that of the Crown Prince one-third of that sum. The States are composed of 1100 Nobles, 50 to 80 Clergy, from 100 to 200 Burgesses, and 100 Peasants, who vote by classes, not by the head. They necessarily assemble every fifth year, and more frequently if convened by the King. They make laws, grant taxes, regulate the coinage and the press, and superintend the administration of justice. The laws are contained in a volume of 480 pages, which is looked up to with much veneration from its antiquity, having been adopted as early as the year 1442. All new cases of differences that occur are referred to the principles contained in this fundamental code. There are courts of revision and courts of appeal, whose judgment is final.

Religion and Education. The established religion is the Lutheran, but since the year 1799 all other sects have been tolerated. It is modified somewhat in a manner different from what exists in Germany, and approaching in its government more nearly to the English Church. There are twelve Bishops and one Archbishop, that of Upsal. The benefices are endowed with the tithes, and the condition of the clergy is respectable. The University of Upsal is the highest seminary, containing twenty-four professors. The University of Lund has twenty-two professors. In these establishments, the system pursued differs from that of the German universities, both in the length of time required for a degree, and the restrictions upon the conduct and attention of the students. In most of the Episcopal cities there are endowed classical schools. In all the towns there are burgher schools, and in the parish churches in the villages; in which the Lancasterian method of teaching reading and writing has been successfully introduced.

Army. The army, at present, is reduced, and consists of 3505 cavalry, 24,144 infantry and artillery, and an

extraordinary division of 3387 men of all arms. The army may be made up in war by the reserve and recruiting to 100,000 men. The navy, which, in 1806, had sunk from 20 sail of the line to 13, since 1799, is now so much further reduced, that there are scarcely six sail fit to be sent to sea, and eight or nine frigates. There are a considerable number of gun-boats and other flotilla, calculated to convey land forces.

Finances. The expences of the government are very rigidly watched, and have recently been considerably reduced; at present they stand on the following scale:

The public income is nearly commensurate with the expenditure on an average of years. It is derived in a small degree from national domains, from a land and capitation tax, from duties on imports which are let to farm, from stamps, from taxes on liquors, from the monopoly of saltpetre, from the mines, and some smaller sources. The public debt, on 16th April 1819, amounted to 6,371,862 Reichsthalern Banco, or about L. 1,387,500 Sterling; having been reduced L. 250,000 since the year 1813. It is wholly owing to residents in Sweden; and, on the plan of a sinking fund now in progress, will be extinguished in fourteen years. The chief financial evil under which the kingdom suffers, is from the vast quantity of paper money which circulates, and which has driven out the metallic money. Measures are adopted by which this paper is gradually withdrawn by the bank, for accomplishing which, certain extraordinary taxes are appropriated.

See Erdebeschreibung, von Gaspari, &c., Weimar, 1822; Swerige's Civil och Krigskalender for Aret, Stockholm, 1819; Utkast til en Svensk statistik, Första Afdelingen, Stockholm, 1818; Thomson's Travels in Sweden, London, 1814.

Norway. When the power over Norway was assumed by the Swedish monarch, its independence of Sweden was secured by resolutions of the States, or the Storting, guaranteed by the King on the 4th November 1814. These fundamental rules decree, 1st, That only citizens of Norway, of the Lutheran religion, shall be nominated to fill any office. 2d, That Norway shall be answerable for its own national debt alone. 3d, That none shall be judged but by the law, and that torture shall not be practised. 4th, That no retrospective law shall be enacted. 5th, That no one shall be arrested, or confined, but in cases specified by the law. 6th, The liberty of the press shall not be infringed. 7th, Landed property shall not become forfeited. 8th, No nobles shall be created. 9th, Each Norwegian, without regard to

Sweden and Norway. rank or wealth, is bound to serve a certain time to be fixed. 10th, Norway shall retain its own bank and coins. 11th, Norwegian merchant ships may carry their own national flag.

Under these stipulations, Norway is a limited hereditary monarchy, in which the executive power is vested in the King, and the Legislature in the States, or Storting. The King exercises his power through a Viceroy, who resides in the royal palace at Christiania. The members of the Legislature are chosen by electors, who are nominated for that purpose by those who have a right to vote. In the cities, the number of electors to be chosen is one to every fifty voters; in the country, one to every hundred voters. These electors choose the deputies for the respective districts; from five to fourteen electors choose one deputy; from fifteen to twenty-four, two deputies; from twenty-five to thirty-four, three deputies; and from thirty-five upwards, four deputies, which is the greatest number that any electoral assembly can nominate. The deputies must be thirty years of age, and have resided the last ten years within the kingdom. Whoever is chosen is bound to serve. They are free from arrest, and are paid for their time and travelling expenses. The number of the representatives of the country are as two to one of those from the cities. The whole number is from 75 to 100. The servants of the Crown, the Members of the Council, and Pensioners, are ineligible. The assembly meets every third year on the first working day in February. There are two chambers, or bodies, one called the Lagthing, consisting of one-fourth the members, the other called the Odelthing, comprehending the other three-fourths. All laws must originate in the Odelthing, from its own members, or from the suggestion of the King; but the assent of the other body is required for their enactment. The forms of passing laws are complicated, but they insure great deliberation. The assembly continues its session three months, but the King may prolong it beyond that period, or call it together in the intervals of the regular assemblings. The Senate, appointed by the King, is rather an executive than a legislative body, but must consist of Norwegians.

The expenses of the government are nearly equal to the income, both being about L. 300,000 Sterling per annum. The revenue arises principally from a territorial impost, and from duties on importation and consumption, which amount to three-fourths of the whole. The national debt is in annuities, amounting to nearly L. 10,000 per annum. It would be speedily redeemed but for the great mass of paper money in circulation, which had depreciated it to such an extent, that, in 1817, one silver dollar was worth ten paper dollars. Attempts have been made by the establishment of a national bank to remedy this evil, but its success has been hitherto very slight.

The army consists of 12,000 men, of whom 2000 form the garrisons of the several fortified places.

The militia amount to 7000. The navy of Norway consists of six brigs, eight schooners, and about forty gun-boats, with some smaller flotilla.

The religion is Lutheran, and the ecclesiastical affairs are under the superintendence of five bishops. The provision for the clergy is scanty, and many of the parochial churches are consequently destitute of pastors. The University of Christiania has sixteen professors, and somewhat more than 100 students; and the seminaries of Tønsberg and of Tøten assist in providing education for the gentry and clergy. In each of the episcopal cities there are endowed schools.

Norway is divided into four provinces, called Stifts, viz.

The account published by the Storting, in 1819, makes the inhabitants 910,000, but in that number is included the army and navy. The towns, proportionally to the whole population, are well filled with inhabitants; especially those where the iron-works or the trade of sawing and shipping timber, which is the chief commerce, is carried on. The names and population of the places containing more than 4000 inhabitants are, Bergen, 18,080; Christiania, 10,638; Drontheim, 9000; Tøten, 7832; Kongsborg, 6810; Oudal, 6169; Benger, 6149; Hoff, 6009; Drammen, 5412; Næss, 5409; Oudalen, 5164; Land, 5119; Alstahoug, 4993; Christiansand, 4844; Bergen, 4864; Grué, 4706; Homnøy, 4561; Brönøe, 4386; and Oal, 4086.

See Thaarups danske Monarkies Statistik, etc. Kiøbenhavn, Vol. VIII. 1815; Reise durch Norwegen und Lappland, von Leopold von Buch, Berlin, 1810; Gemälde von Norwegen von einem geborenen Normann, Hamburg, 1815; Gaspari's Erdbeschreibung, 10 vol. 1822, Weimar. (w. w.)