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KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORS#. 767
felling the roes to the fifhers of fardines upon the coafts of that province. It is to be
noticed, on packing the tuns {worn guagers attend to fee them well packed and filled.
Thirteen of thefe tuns go to a laft, or two tuns Englifh ; weight is out of queftion. The
freight paid at Breft, or any other port of Brittany, is about twenty-five fhillings per laft,
with ten per cent. of average. The duties, which are trifling, and all the expences
included, do not amount to fevenpence-halfpenny per barrel. his is all the informa-
tion which I can give of the trade of Berghen and Norway.
I fhall now fketch out an idea of the manufactures, and branches of external trade
exifting in Norway: I fhall explain its mode of adminiftration ; but as it is united to
that of Denmark, and as privileged companies formed at Copenhagen direét the external
trade of the two countries, I fhall firft enter into a detail of the government and forces
of Denmark.
The government is defpotic, but mild, and tempered by its folid and fixed conftitu-
tion. The provinces are governed by bailiffs, charged with the maintenance of the
laws, the infpection of the king’s revenues, and the {pecial proteétion of the country
people. They have no jurifdiction over them but in matrimonial cafes ; in any others
they can act only as mediators: they cannot prevent accefs to the throne, nor even
keep thofe from appealing to fuperior tribunals, who may have complaints to prefer
againft them, which occafions great mildnefs in the adminiftration of law in the pro-
vinces. ‘The king is the foul of juftice; he referves to himfelf the approbation of all
decifions. No fentence can be put in effect before it has obtained his fignature, whether
it effec the life or credit of the individual. In this is feen an important law, which
proves the wifdom of the legiflator; it is found in the nineteenth chapter of the firft
book of the Danifh code. ‘* Any perfon accufed of a crime, of whatfoever defcription’
it may be, may, on giving furety, come to court and return; enjoying all neceflary free-
dom for his defence.”
i have already obferved that the Lutheran is the only religion authorifed by law, but
that every other is tolerated. The king, in the fame manner as all proteftant princes,
is head of the church in his dominions: his fentence in any matter relative to the church
and the exterior mode of worfhip is conclufive. The authority of the bifhops, a re-
ftraint upon the clergy, only extends to the conferring holy orders, and keeping the
priefts to their duty : they have no temporal jurifdi€tion, nor other rights than fuch as
are neceflary for preferving proper difcipline and regularity in the church.
The Danes and Norwegians love their king ; but the former are better inftructed, and
of more gentlemanners. ‘This is the refult of an examination which is practifed in the
towns of Denmark by perfons felected by the magiftrate to watch over the education
of the children, and the adminiftration of the property of the pupils: they can, of their
own authority, difpofe of children neglected by their parents, and put them out to em-
ployments. The law even allows them to reimburfe themfelves by execution for the
advances which they make for the children; and if the family be indigent, the alms-
houfes are obliged from their funds to reimburfe them. The fame people are obliged
to watch over the property of minors, and exact a juft account; and for the better fe-
curity of the pupils, the law requires of thofe who dwell in a houfe, or in the neighbour-
hood, where a father dies, having orphan minors, to make a declaration as early as
poflible before a magiftrate, under a fevere penalty.
With refpect to the external commerce of the Danes, Chriftian IV. was the firft of
their kings who eftablifhed in his ftates an Eaft India company. Chriftian V. new-
modelled it, and gave it a charter, the twenty-eight of November 1670. It fell to the
ground under Frederick 1V., who ufed great efforts towards fupporting it. Chriftian VI.,
in 1732, fet it on foot again: this is the epoch of the prefent eftablifhment.
; The
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