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TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM. 24%
well as their country, with all the money which would have gone out of it without this
difcovery. Virtues, as alfo vices, whether in morality or politics, never go fingle :
one branch of commerce has given birth to others. Happy the countries whofe inha-
bitants love labour, and endeavour to procure it by their ingenuity! When the material
of the manufactures is at a great price, and the return of the great advances flow, the
workmen are long idle, for the enterprifer will not overcharge himfelf with merchandife.
In the uncertainty of gain he avoids hazard, or makes it fall on the purchafer, by raifing
the price of thefe articles: from that time he diminifhes the confumption, and leaves
unemployed a great many hands, whom often he has taken from agriculture, to which
they no more return. Such is the inconvenience of manufactures of luxury. Thofe
of Ghefle are not liable to it: the two-thirds of its inhabitants, which induitry or com-
merce does not occupy, are employed in fifhing ; and even the peafants have recourfe
to this bufinefs, when the earth is not fuffcient for their fubfiftence.
The rich people poffefs in the town a {chool, and a fmall college with fix lecturers.
Children to whom nature has given genius or tafte for the {ciences, may there acquire
fufficient theory to perfect the practice of the civil arts.
Ghefle is the refidence of the governor of Weftern Nordland, which comprehends
Gheftri-Keland, Helfingeland, Medelpad, Jemteland, and Anghermanland. There
was formerly a fmall caftle, which the government have not poffeffed the pecuniary
means to rebuild, but which neverthelefs would be neceflary, to protect the town from
any infult.
In Gheftri-Keland nearly all the peafants live with comfort ; they dwell in houfes
tolerably well built: it is becaufe th-y are citizens of a country where their clafs is an
order of the ftate, a body refpected by all the others, as the moft numerous, the moft
powerlul, and above all, the moft ufeful, in the views of nature. It is not inquired in
Sweden whether it is proper to give propriety of lands to the peafants; they have it,
and they cultivate them, becaufe they are in pofleffion of them.
The inhabitants of Nordland are more active, laborious, healthy, and ftrong, than
thofe of the fouth of Sweden ; they receive ftrangers wich much more affection, if they
are notimportunate. Modit of the Nordlanders paint the interior of their chambers, to
enliven their abodes, which the climate renders dreary. ‘They are cleanly in their drefs,
and alfo in their food; but their nourifhment is not very delicate: cheefe and butter
are fufficient for the fimple inhabitants: they eat barley and oaten bread in f{carcity of
rye, which is obferved to decreafe, both in quantity and quality, the farther we advance
north. But the vices which exift in the fouth are obferved to diminifh in the fame pro=
portion: travellers are there as fafe as the inhabitants, without locks or bolts. Beggary
is very rare, becaufe idlenefs excites no pity ; but the wants of old age and infirm indi-
gence are fupplied_by the focial affe€tion which unites families. ‘he duties of kindred,
the fentiments of friendfhip, have no reputation, they are fo common : little falfehood,
and no oaths. The candour of youth is perpetuated in the uprightnefs of old age:
there are no vices between thefe two ages, which wither the flowers of the former, and
the fruits of the latter. ‘The picture of thefe manners, worthy the pencil of Tacitus, is
not a mere fiction.
The peafants of Nordland are excellent cultivators: meadows are the mothers of
fields ; they are acquainted with this rule of agriculture. In order to obtain the
beft grafs, they every year cultivate a portion of their pafturages: the firft year they
fow flax without manure; the fecond, barley, or mixed grain; the third winter they
caft dung on it, efpecially that of the horfe ; they afterwards plough this field, and in
the {pring fow oats. When the harveft is got in, they again appropriate this land to
meadows,
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