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 as

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

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

"and bark) bread," says Mr. Laing, "tastes strongly of tim"ber, and gets as hard as a board when kept long."

The politico-œconomical arrangements of Sweden are in the highest degree prejudicial to the freedom of industry and the security of property; and therefore tend to promote the poverty of the great mass of the people; and yet the plea for their unwise regulations is, "the protection of labour." Every trade is a species of guild or fraternity; and "the exercise of industry is a property as well as its produce." To exercise any trade there must be an apprenticeship, and a long period of probation as a journeyman; and even in this status there are degrees, all of which must be passed through before a man can become a master.

"Every trade or branch of industry that can be thought of, excepting, perhaps, common labour in husbandry, is exercised by privilege; and, as the tradesman pays a tax to government for his privilege or right to exercise his trade, he is entitled to protection from law-like any other proprietoragainst whatever would diminish its value, and injure his means of living and paying his tax-that is, against free competition. The public, on the other hand, must have protection from the monopoly which this want of competition would establish. Government attempts to hold the balance, to correct, through its colleges of commerce, and on the reports of its local functionaries, the tendency to monopoly in these institutions, and to judge whether in any particular locality there be, from the additional population, room for an additional tradesman or dealer, with advantage to the public."-p. 81.

Mr. Laing sees all the evil which is calculated to spring from such a system; but he is of opinion that it has a tendency to check the undue increase of population, by throwing impediments in the way of early marriages. From voluntary regulations made by bodies of working men themselves, we believe such a result might follow. In this country, wages have been raised in many trades by well-ordered combinations among the working men. In London especially, nearly every skilled trade has so succeeded. But experience in this country shows that guilds (such, for instance, as the City companies) have not produced similar effects. The difference between a voluntary combination and one sanctioned by a government, we take to be this: that the former presupposes a considerable degree of prudence among the people who so combine; whilst the guild not only presumes none, but its tendency is to pre

one respect is prudence in all. It will invariably be found where a working man begins to save even the merest trifle from his weekly earnings, that he has become a prudent man. The mere desire to save indicates a state of mind which rarely (we think never) exists without general prudence; and this is the reason why occasional combinations have appeared to produce such extraordinary results,―results which apparently run counter to some well-established doctrines of political œconomy; whereas, in fact, properly considered and estimated, they rather confirm such doctrines. In short, we repeat, that a government combination-such as the fraternities or guilds of Sweden and other countries-never can be productive of such effects as the voluntary combinations, of which we have every day experience in this country; and the reason is, that voluntary combinations are never undertaken but by intelligent and prudent men; whilst guilds, by dispensing with prudence and forethought, rob all prudence of its real value, and reduce all to the same miserable level.

The pernicious results of these guilds are detailed by Mr. Laing in his third chapter, but his statements are far too long to quote at length. It is part of the system of these guilds, that every artisan should have a sort of roving licence to seek work from town to town; and when such artisan cannot secure work, he is supported out of the "box of his trade." Thus, whilst they ought to be acquiring skill, they are merely acquiring the habits of vagabonds.

"It is not even upon dexterity," says Mr. Laing, "but upon his privilege, that the workman depends-upon his right to exclude a better workman and a better man from enjoying any portion of public favour in the exercise of the same trade, where the competition could be injurious to his means of living. The consequences of this want of free competition are visible in the most simple and necessary trades-those in which national labour and consequently national industry and wealth are most concerned. Smithwork, joiner-work, work in leather, in cloth-in short, all kinds of work are very imperfectly executed compared to the work of English tradesmen in the same line; are never ready at the time proposed; and are performed with great waste of time and labour. To plane a board, for instance, is the work of two men, one shoving the plane from him, the other drawing it to him. With us one man planes the roughest board, and reduces it to a smooth surface. To cross-cut a piece of wood of 18 or 20 inches in diameter, is done with us with a hand-saw by one man, who holds the wood fast with his left hand, or with his knee. Here it is a job for two men with