a town of the county of Chester, in the hundred of the same name, being a part of the parish of Badworth, twelves miles from Chester and 174 from London. It is an old-fashioned and insignificant place, standing on the river Weaver, which is navigable to Liverpool, and therefore of great importance to the produce in the vicinity of that town. There is an old well-endowed grammar school, and a weekly market held on Friday. The population, partly employed in the cotton manufacture, but chiefly in the preparation of salt, amounted in 1801 to 1338, in 1811 to 1382, in 1821 to 1490, and in 1831 to 1481. Near the town, on the south side, are those pits wherein are found the vast masses of salt which have supplied that condiment to the extent of several hundred thousand bushels for a very long period of time. The principal pit in the Northwich salt-mines is now called the Marston Pit, though it was formerly known under the name of the Burn's Pit. It consists of two levels, the lower of which is one hundred and twelve yards below the surface of the ground, and the other just half way down the shaft. The lower level is the most extensive excavation, as well as the oldest of the two, and has been worked about sixty years. The descent is into a magnificent chamber, apparently of unlimited extent, the flat roof of which presents so great an area, that astonishment is felt by the spectator at its not having long since given way. There is, however, no real want of security, it being as sound and durable as if formed of adamant, and is supported by pillars, in size like clumps of bricks in a brick-field; the extent of the area appears to the eye as if a space equal to Grosvenor Square were under cover. The beauty of the glistening particles of crystallized salt upon the walls, which are as hard as freestone, and the extreme regularity of the concentric curved lines, traced by the workman's tools, are very remarkable. Here and there the solid rock has been blasted, and marks of the jumper chisel are visible. Under foot the whole surface is a mass of rock-salt covered with a layer of the material crushed and crumbled to a state exactly resembling the powdered ice on a pond that has been cut by skaters. Experiments have been made by boring to a depth of seventeen yards, but they have neither perforated the rock salt, nor do they at present know the thickness of the stratum. The height of this excavation is about fifteen feet, within which space the salt is estimated as being of the best quality; but above, it is somewhat inferior. Thirty-five thousand tons of salt were annually dug out of the different levels, and the area of the whole together amounts to forty-eight statute acres. At one part there is a vista of two hundred yards in length, which has been dignified by the name of Regent Street. The salt, after being prepared by the solution of the rock and evaporation, is formed by wooden moulds, with holes at the bottom, to allow the remaining water to pass through into cubical blocks, and in this state it is shipped, either by the river Weaver and the canal to Weston Point, and thence into the Mersey, or by the canal southward. A considerable quantity of this salt is exported to Prussia. Much salt is prepared from the brine springs, some of which are so strongly saturated as to hold in solution the greatest quantity of salt. To the water of some of these springs rock-salt is added whilst boiling in the pans. From these springs the water, or brine, is raised by a sunk shaft, and a pump worked by an ordinary machine.
NORWAY
Norway is an extensive country in the north of Europe, and, along with Sweden, forming one kingdom. All the countries which now comprise Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, were designated Scandinavia by the ancients. Pliny calls it Scania insula, an appellation which derives its origin from the circumstance of the Romans, in the time of their great naturalist, being only acquainted with that part of the country called Skanen or Skonen, the little information which they possessed being obtained from some Germans. This is the ancient province of Schonen or Scania, the most southerly of Sweden. The name was afterwards changed to Scandinavia, which has been called the "storehouse of nations;" but without any just title to such a distinction. It seems now pretty certain that Scandinavia was not the native country of the Scythians or Goths, but that they migrated from Asia to Europe. The fact of Pliny having designated Scandinavia as an island of considerable although uncertain magnitude, has also given rise to some discussion. To the imperfect knowledge of geography which the ancients possessed, may reasonably be attributed their mistaken notion as to the insular position of these countries; but the difficulty may be got rid of in another manner. It is well known that the Baltic Sea has diminished in height to a considerable extent, or, in the language of geologists, the coast on its shores has been elevated. In the course of about a century, this elevation is proved to have been considerable by the high-water marks left upon the rocks on the sea coast at different periods. If the sinking of the water or the rising of the land in this quarter has continued at the same rate from a very early period, then, at the time when Pliny wrote, Scandinavia, penetrated in every direction by gigantic arms of the sea, may have had the appearance of a number of islands of different forms and dimensions.
But our present purpose is with Norway, which in Swedish is called Norriga, and in Danish, Norge, pronounced Norre. "In spite of the vague ideas which the ancients entertained of the northern countries of Europe," says Malte-Brun, "it cannot be doubted that the country which Pliny calls Nergou is Norway. Many geographers have asserted that the name signifies the 'Way of the North'; but its true etymology seems to be Nor-Rige, Kingdom of the North, or rather, perhaps, assuming the word Nor as signifying gulf, Kingdom of Gulfs, because in effect its coasts are much more indented than those of Sweden. We thus see that the name of Nergou has much more analogy with that of Norrige than with that of Norweg, which at the first glance appears to be the origin of the modern name."
The early history of Norway is interwoven with the annals of Sweden and Denmark, and consists in legends contained in the Heimskringla or Saga, a collection of ancient manuscripts, which is to Norway what the Edda is to Iceland. The petty sovereigns who held sway in Norway in remote ages were independent, but appear to have acknowledged a kind of supremacy in the kings of Sweden and Denmark, probably more nominal than real; but until the ninth or tenth century little is known of the annals of the country. The Norwegians, of course, constituted no inconsiderable proportion of those daring adventurers who, under the general name of Normans on the continent, and Danes in Britain, became at one time the terror of all the maritime parts of Europe.
The Royal Northern Antiquarian Society of Copenhagen has published a series of the Saga, comprehending the historical account of events which belong to European history, and also to that of Scandinavia, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. It includes a period of about one hundred and seventy years, beginning with the Saga of St Olaf, the contemporary of Canute the Great of England, who assumed the crown of Norway in 1013, and continuing the series until the death of Magnus Erlingson in a sea-fight with Sverrir I. in 1184. This is one of the most curious and minute pictures of an age long past, which the literature of Europe is possessed of. It is not only valuable as an historical document, confirming or adding to our stock of facts relative to a dark period of English history, but as a record of the social condition of the country at that time, and of the influence of the Thing, or assembly of the people; a reference of all matters to this popular convocation being one of the most striking facts recorded in the Saga. From these rude annals we learn, that at a period immediately preceding the first traces of free institutions in our own country, similar institutions existed in great activity amongst these northern people. It seems a fair inference from these facts, therefore, that we owe the political institutions which we enjoy to the Danes and Normans, who were more likely to impose their own peculiar institutions upon those whom they subdued, than to receive institutions from the conquered.
From other Sagas preceding that of St Olaf, we learn, that about the middle of the ninth century, Halfden the Black divided Norway into five districts, with fixed head places for holding Things in each. At these assemblies, laws were framed suitable to the local circumstances of each district, which gave its name to the code. This potentate was succeeded by the celebrated Harold Harfagr, or the Fair-Haired, who ascended the throne at ten years of age, and reigned from 863 to 936. This warlike monarch, after long fighting, reduced all the independent nobles or petty kings to the condition of subjects, and consolidated the various principalities of Norway into one kingdom. Thus was consummated in a single reign, and that too in the ninth century, a work which afterwards cost the other nations of Europe several centuries of bloodshed and contention. But this was more easily accomplished in Norway than elsewhere; for in that country the great nobility never had feudal powers, and consequently those who were under them as servants were bound by no such ties of vassalage as the retainers of a Highland chieftain or a Norman baron. They were not taught passive and unconditional submission to a superior, although he might bear the title of king; for before a small sovereign could make war, he was under the necessity of assembling the Thing, and obtaining its sanction. The equal division of property amongst children, which extended to the crown itself, prevented the accumulation of power in the hands of individuals; and the circumstance of the total want of fortresses, castles, or strongholds in the country, owing to the division of estates, effectually prevented a nobility from attaining the same power with the nobles of feudal countries, and setting the royal authority at defiance. Some of these nobility or small kings colonized Iceland; and Normandy was conquered by Rolf Gangr, one of those whom Harold Harfagr expelled from Norway. In this king's reign Christianity was introduced into the country, and from this period the events recorded in the historical Saga may claim some degree of confidence. The length of this reign was no doubt favourable to the lower orders, by consolidating their institutions, which, as they weakened the authority of the petty kings, were favoured by Harold. Eric, his son and successor, whom he had associated with himself in the royal authority, was deposed by the Thing on account of his cruelty, and a younger brother succeeded him. Hakon, which was the name of this son of Harfagr, was brought up from his childhood at the court of Athelstane, king of England. He reigned nineteen years, during which period there was frequent reference to the Things, both for amending the laws, and for the dissemination of Christianity. It appears, that in attempting to establish the religion of the Cross in his dominions, Hakon had recourse to what were considered as unconstitutional means; for we find that at a meeting of the Thing, held in the year 956, a husbandman named Asbjorn, of Medalhusn, stood up and declared, on the part of his neighbours and of himself, "that they had elected Hakon to be their king, upon the condition that freedom of religion and freedom of conscience should be warranted to every man; and if the king persisted in attempting to suppress their ancient faith, they would elect another king," adding, "and now, king, make thy choice." This is certainly one of the most striking instances of parliamentary patriotism to be met with in the history of Europe; and we must descend six or seven centuries nearer to the present time before we can match it in the annals of our own country. Hakon was not only compelled to give way, but also to take part in the heathen ceremonies of the meeting. This king was slain in 963, in a battle with the sons of his elder brother Eric, upon whom Athelstane of England had conferred the kingdom of Northumberland.
It appears that, after the death of Harfagr, the small kings again had risen to some degree of power, and that each in his own assembly, called also a Thing, had exercised a limited authority. Olaf the saint, before he assumed the name of king, consulted one of these assemblies of the nobility as to the way of proposing his claim as heir of Harfagr to the general Things of the people; and proceeded in such a manner as to show that their voice alone was insufficient to constitute him supreme chief in the land, without the sanction of the general Thing. These institutions appear to have always conferred or confirmed the royal prerogative, and to have been of great importance in that age amongst the whole Scandinavian people. In cases where the good of the community was at stake, they set the royal authority at defiance, and obliged the sovereign to accept of such international contracts as the Things of both countries conceived was for their mutual benefit. The Thing of Sweden compelled the sovereign of that country to conclude a peace with Norway, and to bestow his daughter in marriage on King Olaf, towards whom he cherished implacable enmity. Olaf had the title of saint conferred on him from the exertions which he made to introduce Christianity amongst his subjects; but in prosecution of this object he exercised the most atrocious cruelties, and completely alienated the affections of his people. He attempted to govern without the intervention of the Things, which became the cause of his ruin; for when Cnut the Great, who conquered Norway, invaded his dominions, the people literally "stopped the supplies;" and, unable to collect a force sufficient to oppose the king of England, he was compelled to seek refuge in Russia. For the purpose of recovering his crown, he landed in Sweden with a few followers, and, having received an accession to his force from the king of that country, who was his brother-in-law, marched from the Gulf of Finnland across the peninsula to the Fiord or Gulf of Drontheim. In the meantime the Thing of Norway raised an army of twelve thousand borderer, and placed it under the command of Olver of Egge. At the debouch of the valley of Vardal they met Olaf at the head of about four thousand adventurers. The conflict could not be doubtful where there was such an inequality of numbers, and where the superiority lay on the side of those who were fighting in defence of their li
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1 Harold Harfagr was born in the year 853; he began to reign in 863, and died in 936. St Olaf's father was Harold Grendike, his grandfather Gudrod, his great-grandfather Bjorn Starke, and his great-great-grandfather Harold Harfagr, and St Olaf was born anno 963, only fifty-nine years after the death of his great progenitor Harfagr. A contemporary of St Olaf was therefore a credible source of information for all the events of Harfagr's reign, such as the conquest of Normandy by Rolf Gangr, the colonization of Iceland, &c. (Laing's Journal of a Residence in Norway.) King Olaf was defeated and slain, without even showing the prudence and courage which had distinguished his early career. This battle was fought on the 31st of August 1030, and not on the 29th of June or July 1033, as is commonly stated. The body of the fallen monarch was transported to Saint Clement's Church, in Drøntheim, which had been erected by himself. In return for the services which he had rendered the church, the clergy soon afterwards canonized him; and even at Constantinople temples were erected to his memory. His tomb was regarded as a consecrated spot, to which pilgrimages were performed, not only by ardent devotees from the north, but also from the south of Europe.
Canute the Great did not long remain in Norway; and from the period of Olaf's death the country was ruled by native monarchs, who even for a time governed Denmark. It may be gathered from the ancient chronicles before referred to, that at this period society was composed of four distinct orders. The first was the nobility, who were descendants of royal families; and, without regard to priority of birth, those who were descended both on the mother's side and father's side from Harligr were eligible to the supreme monarchy. They appear to have had no civil power or privilege as nobles, but merely this odelsbarn-ret to the crown. The odelsbarnmen, bondermen, or husbandmen, were the proprietors of lands held neither from the king nor from any feudal superior. These were the people who had a voice at the Things. A third order consisted of the unfree men, holding land for services as vassals or as labourers in cottages, but who had no voice in the Things in respect of their land. A fourth order was composed of the trekle or domestic slaves, who were private property, and in a lower state than the former class. This condition of society, which was equivalent to slavery, was abolished by Magnus VII., who reigned from 1319 to 1344.
The most important event in the history of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, in the middle ages, was the union of the three kingdoms under one sovereign, Margaret, daughter of Waldemar, king of Denmark, which was effected by the league of Calmar, in the year 1397. The circumstances which led to this remarkable occurrence will be found narrated in the article DENMARK. Had this princess been as capable of conquering national prejudices as she was of defeating armies, her dominions would have constituted a great and powerful monarchy. But the passions of her people were more than a match for her policy; and it was no doubt better that the three nations which she governed should each remain in quiet possession of its own freedom, as enjoyed under its own form of government and laws, than that they should lay aside all differences, and, heartily uniting as one kingdom and people, become the terror and scourge of Southern Europe. Margaret died without issue; but during her lifetime she appointed her grand-nephew, whom some historians call her cousin, Eric, a descendant of the Dukes of Pomerania, as her successor; and he ascended to the triple crown of Scandinavia in 1412. The union, however, was far from being cordial, and for rather more than a century local insurrections from time to time broke out and distracted the country. The Swedes, in particular, felt great reluctance to submit to a foreign dynasty; and after various attempts on their part to shake themselves free from the compact of Calmar, the oppression and cruelty of Christian II. led to the final separation of Sweden in 1520, under the celebrated Gustavus Erickson or Vasa. Norway and Denmark, however, remained under one sceptre till, at the adjustment of European affairs after the fall of Napoleon, Norway was separated from Denmark, and united to the crown of Sweden. This took place in the year 1814.
The circumstances which led to the forcible separation of two countries that had for centuries been united by the closest relations, and the union of one of them with another country which had for so many ages been regarded as a natural enemy, may be shortly stated. The grand object of the leading powers was to induce every state to join in the league against Napoleon; and Sweden, in consideration of an ample bribe, acceded to the general confederacy. One of the foulest stains on the escutcheon of Great Britain is the treaty which she entered into with Sweden, dated 3rd March 1813. By this notorious compact against the liberties of a whole people, England gave to the king of Sweden the kingdom of Norway (which was no more hers than Rome or Pekin), together with Guadaloupe, and a million of pounds sterling, as a remuneration to his Swedish majesty for joining the allied powers against France. After the battle of Leipzig, fought in October 1813, the Crown Prince of Sweden entered Denmark with his army, and, after some bloody scenes in Holstein, peace was concluded at Kiel on the 14th of January 1814. By this treaty Denmark gave up all right to Norway, considering it as quite hopeless to enter into a contest with Sweden and England. Although the king of Denmark might relinquish his claim to the sovereignty of Norway, this was no reason for the people of that country making an unconditional surrender of themselves to a foreign potentate. They declared themselves an independent nation, framed a constitution of their own, and proclaimed Prince Christian, son of their former sovereign, and governor of Norway, as their lawful king. Not a little blood was shed in the contention between Sweden and Norway; and England actively interfered, by blockading the ports of Norway, for the purpose of starving the inhabitants of the country into subjection. But a speedy settlement of the question became necessary to all parties. The constitution which the Norwegians had prepared in April 1814, and which they were in arms to maintain, was guaranteed to them, upon condition of their accepting along with it the Swedish monarch as king, and the Crown Prince of Denmark abdicating the throne. Matters were arranged on this footing; and on the 17th of May 1814, both parties, the king of Sweden and the Norwegian nation, solemnly entered into a compact to the effect stated, under the sanction and guarantee of the allied powers, and of Great Britain amongst the rest. By the treaty, the entire independence of Norway as a kingdom was secured, the crowns alone being united, as in the case of Hanover and England. She had a constitution of her own framing, a legislature of her own electing, without being interfered with by any foreign authority in the exercise of her right, and laws of her own making and administering; in short, Norway remained a pure democracy in all but the name. Since this union of Norway and Sweden under one so- Norway, there have occurred only two events of any importance in the history of the former. The first was the abolition of hereditary nobility by the Storting; and the second was an attempt of the Swedish cabinet in 1824 to force on the Norwegian people an entire amalgamation of their country with Sweden. But the firmness of the Storting or parliament, the honourable feelings of the sovereign, and, it is said, the interference of Russia on the part of the allied powers, prevented such an infamous attempt to violate the faith of treaties, and bring disgrace upon those who had guaranteed them. Great Britain, as a party to the treaty of 1813, and as having inflicted some injury on the country by her ships of war, was especially bound to protect the liberties and national independence of Norway, and to preserve her from becoming a mere province of Sweden, as Poland is now of Russia.
The facts relative to the abolition of hereditary nobility may be shortly stated. It is fixed that the executive power has not a final veto, but only a suspensive negative, till the law is passed by three successive Stortings. In the year 1815, both chambers of the Storting proposed and passed a motion to abolish nobility for ever in Norway. The slender remains of this class were of foreign, and almost in every instance of recent origin; besides, few of them had enough of property to enable them to hold a dignified station in society. By the law of succession land is equally divided amongst all the children, so that large estates could not be entailed on the possessor of the family title; and hence, to maintain his rank and respectability, a nobleman must have become a placeman or a pensioner, or engaged in operations which would bring nobility into contempt. The existence of an hereditary nobility, in a country where the law of primogeniture was unknown in the succession to real property, seemed, therefore, an anomaly, which, in any circumstances, could not long be tolerated, and which was altogether unsuitable to the state of things which had long obtained in Norway. The royal assent, however, was refused to the proposed enactment in 1815, and again in the year 1818, after it had passed through a second Storting.
To prevent it from passing a third time became the grand object of government; for then it would necessarily have become the law of the land, with or without the royal consent. In 1821, the year when the measure was to be again brought forward, the king in person repaired to Christiania, and used every means to induce the Storting to abandon it; but in vain. Six thousand soldiers were marched to the neighbourhood of that city, to overawe both the legislature and the people, and extreme irritation prevailed. At this critical moment, when the flames of civil war were about to be kindled, both the Russian and American ministers interfered. What arguments or remonstrances they employed is unknown; but the fact is, that government lowered its tone, the troops were withdrawn, and the Swedish cabinet gave way. The Storting having passed the measure abolishing hereditary nobility for the third time, it consequently became law. Norway, therefore, remains a pure democracy, federally united with the monarchy of Sweden. Its constitution has outlived two dangerous attacks upon it; and as the principles upon which it is based have been developed by practice, it has gained additional strength, and been further secured by the love and veneration of the people. The sudden disjunction of Denmark and Norway, left, of course, much business to be adjusted between individuals of the two countries. It thus occasioned much distress and loss to persons having connections and property in both; and it still produces a constant intercourse. Few, we believe, will admire the manner in which the union between Sweden and Norway was effected; but as few will doubt the benefits which must result to both from the exchange of mutual hostility for mutual cordiality, and to a certain extent an identity of interests.
If the reader turn to the map of Europe, he will find that Norway extends from the fifty-eighth to the seventieth degree of north latitude, and at the broadest from the fifth to about the thirteenth degree of longitude east from Greenwich. On the east it is bounded by Sweden, on the west and south by the North Sea, and on the north by the Arctic Ocean. At the broadest part it is scarcely three hundred miles across, and north of the sixty-third degree of latitude the breadth is very inconsiderable, the country narrowing to a mere belt. Its shape is very peculiar, and in the main, it strikingly resembles that of a Florence flask, the rounded bottom being presented to the south, and the long narrow neck stretching to the north. Norway thus begins about the point where Scotland ends, that is, the Naze. The most southerly headland in the former is nearly in the same parallel as the Pentland Frith, which divides the latter country from the Orkney Islands. These facts will serve to convey a somewhat precise idea of the position of Norway. The sea-coast presents features similar to those which characterise Iceland, the North of Scotland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Labrador, and other islands and continental tracts of country exposed to the storms, the currents, and the perpetual buffetings of the Northern Ocean. The action of the sea alone, however, could not have formed such immense fissures as are found in the solid primary rock on the Norwegian coast. The theory of the elevation of the land by volcanic impulse from below seems alone sufficient to account for such phenomena.
The greater part of Norway may be said to have an outer and an inner coast, the former being a succession of rocky islands of all dimensions, from a mere point to more than a mile in length, and lying within about a mile of the mainland, thus circling all the coast as with a girdle. Boats and small vessels make their coasting voyages within the rocks; for, even when the ocean is strongly agitated, the outer barrier acts as a sort of break-water, preventing the channel within from being thrown into violent commotion.
These immense arms of the sea which penetrate deep into the country are called fiords in Norway; a name in geographical nomenclature identifying them with the friths of Scotland, to which they bear a general resemblance, and also to the maritime lochs so numerous on the west coast of that country. To enumerate these were only to present a catalogue of names designating the same object in different situations and of different sizes. They vary from sixty to two hundred miles in length, and from being several miles to less than a gunshot in breadth; and altogether they constitute one of the most remarkable physical features of the country. The inland streams generally empty themselves into these fiords; and, as in the case of the Friths of Forth, Clyde, and others, in Scotland, it is often difficult to say where the river ends and the ocean begins. All along the rock-bound coast these arms of the sea succeed each other with melancholy sameness; but in penetrating within their sombre and sometimes dangerous mouths, the scene is all at once changed, presenting, at the bottom of these bays, creeks, and other indentations, towns of a pleasant and cheerful aspect, and banks finely wooded with all the va-
Indeed, the large rounded boulder stones found on the tops of the highest mountains afford evidence sufficient of the fact that at one time Norway had been submerged beneath the Northern Ocean. That the sea never flowed in this quarter of the globe (and consequently in every other), eight thousand feet (the height of the highest mountains) above its present level, may readily be taken for granted. We may, therefore, conclude, that the land has been raised by some mighty power; and we know of none which could effect this but the pent-up fire and compressed gases of a volcano, which, striving for vent, upheaved the solid pavement of the globe which lay above them, and thus broke it up into innumerable fragments.