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COXE’S TRAVELS IN NORWAY. 357
By dividing one hundred and fixty- five thoufand and forty-two, the fum total of births
during the feven years, by feven, we havetwenty-three thoufand five hundred and fe-
venty-feven for the annual average of births ; and by dividing one hundred and twenty-
three thoufand one hundred, the fum«total of deaths, by the fame number, we have
feventeen thoufand five hundred and eighty-five for the annual average of deaths. If,
on a fuppofition that in the whole kingdom one in thirty-five dies annually, we multi-
ply feventeen thoufand five hundred and eighty-five, the annual number of deaths, by
thirty-five, we have fix hundred and fifteen thoufand four hundred and feventy-five for
the population of Norway. Or, if we multiply twenty-three thoufand five hunded and
feventy-feven, the annual number of births, by thirty, the ufual mode * of calculation,
we have feven hundred and feven thoufand three hundred and ten ; and by allowing for
omiflions, we cannot eftimate the probable population of all Norway at more than feven
hundred and fifty thoufand fouls.
The Norwegians, being the fame race with the Danes, and long connected with them
in religion and government, fpeak the fame language, though with a mixture of pro-
vincial expreffions. According to Wilfet, a native writer, the gentry and inhabitants
of the principal towns, allowing for a few provincial expreffions, fpeak purer Danifh
than is ufual even in Denmark, not excepting Copenhagen; the inhabitants of the
ea{tern confines bordering on Sweden, naturally blend many Swedifh words ; through-
out the whole country, the general accent and cadence is more analogous to the
Swedifh ¢ than to the Dutch pronunciation, and the inhabitants on the weftern coatts,
who have a more con{tant communication with the Danes, partake lefs of this pe-
culiarity.
The Norwegians maintain their own army, which confifts of twenty-four thoufand
infantry, and fix thoufand cavalry. ‘The troops are much efteemed for bravery, and
like the Swifs mountaineers, exceedingly attached to their country. The horfes which
fupply the cavalry are {mall, but ftrong, active, and hardy.
Every peafant (thofe excepted who inhabit the coafts, and are claffed as failors) not
born in a town, or on fome noble eftate, is by birth a foldier, and enrolled at the age
of fixteen. From that year, until he has attained the age of twenty-fix, he is claffedin’
the young militia; at twenty-fix he enters into the old militia, and continues to ferve
till thirty-fix, at which period he receives his difcharge. The militia take the field every
year in June, and remain encamped about a month.
Norway is blefled with a particular code, called the Norway Law, compiled by
Grieffelfeld, at the command of Chriftian the Fifth, the great legiflator of his country.
By this law, the palladium of Norway, the peafants are free, a few only excepted on
certain noble eftates near Frederickftadt. But the fpirit of this law extends itfelf-even
to thofe ferfs ; for no proprietor can have more than one of thefe privileged eftates, and
unlefs he poffefles a title or certain rank, and refides on his eftate, he lofes his privilege,
and the peafants become free. ;
The benefits of the Norway Code are fo vifible in its general effects on the happinefs
and in the appearance of the peafants, that a traveller muft be blind who does not in-
ftantly perceive the difference between the free peafants of Norway and the enflaved
waffals § of Denmark, though both living under the fame government.
*® See Dr. Price on Annuities. + Wilfe’s Reife, p. 28.
t The Swedifh and Danih languages are both dialeéts of the Teutonic or German, and are both {pokes
ia a finging or chaunting tone. ‘The Swedes have a more varied and lively pronunciation,
§ This remark was made before the emancipation of the Danifh peafants.
St Many
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