Journal of a Residence in Norway During the Years 1834, 1835, & 1836: Made with a View to Enquire Into the Moral and Political Economy of that Country, and the Condition of Its Inhabitants |
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ancient animal appears Athelstan of England bonder cattle Christiania church civilised coast comfort considerable considered constitution corn cottars court cows crops cultivated district dollars Dovre Fjelde Dronthiem Dronthiem Fiord England English estates Europe farm farmer feet feudal Finmark Fiord fish give glens gneiss grain grass ground habits highland hills horses Iceland inhabitants islands king kuads labour lake land Laplanders legislative Levanger living miles monarch Myosen Namsen nation Nordland Norway Norwegian Olaf ordinary Orkneyinga Saga parish party peculiar perhaps period person population possessed potatoes present principle probably produce proprietors reindeer river road rock Russia Saga scarcely Scotch Scotland seater servants side sledges snow snow skates society spirit Stordal Storthing subsistence Sweden Swedish taste thing Thormodus Torfæus town trade traveller udal udal law valley vessels winter wood
Popular passages
Page 216 - ... of succession, and the general simplicity of the way of living, a greater proportion of the people really are in easy circumstances than in any other country in Europe. The alternate descent and ascent of property through the whole mass of society, like heat applied to the fluid in a caldron, has brought the whole to a nearly equal temperature. All have the ideas, habits, and character of people possessed of independent property, which they are living upon without any care about increasing it,...
Page 125 - To pass such a confirmation implies that the young person is well grounded in the principle of his moral and religious duties, and is of good character and understanding. It is, in common life, equivalent to taking a degree in the learned professions, being, in fact, a certificate of capacity for discharging ordinary duties and trusts. It is accordingly so considered in Norway. "A confirmed shop-boy wants a place...
Page 35 - I walked ten miles, and found it troughed on both sides ; on one, the chain is continued down the main valley for forty miles. Those may be bad farmers who do such things ; but they are not indolent, nor ignorant of the principle of working in concert, and keeping up establishments for common benefit. They are, undoubtedly, in these respects, far in advance of any community of cotters in our Highland glens.
Page 82 - It also regulates the currency, appoints five revisors, who shall every year examine all accounts of Government, and publish printed abstracts of them. There are laid before it verified copies of all treaties, and the minutes of all public departments, excepting those of the highest military command. The Storthing impeaches and tries before a division of its own body all ministers of state, judges, and also its own members. Besides these great and controlling powers, fixed by the ground-law, as it...
Page 38 - ... but because, in proportion to their nutriment as food, they require less labour, less exertion of body and mind to bring them to the state of food, than any other article of human culture. The planting and digging up, the boiling or baking, are almost all the operations required with the...
Page 33 - It is vastly better, however, in another respect — they have no rents to pay — being the owners of the farms they cultivate. Here are the highland glens without the highland lairds. It is, I am aware, a favourite and constant observation of our agricultural writers, that these small proprietors make the worst farmers. It may be so ; but a population may be in a wretched condition, although their country is very well farmed ; or they may be happy, although bad cultivators. The country around Rome...
Page 284 - In national education, as in everything else, supply follows demand; and here there is no demand beyond what the supply is visibly sufficient for. Education, beyond the ordinary acquirements of reading and writing, can lead to none of the ordinary objects of ambition ; and being therefore less valuable than with us, is less valued. The restrictions also upon the free exercise of trade or industry, limit the demand for young men of good but not learned education. If a person must obtain peculiar privileges...
Page 214 - He has a greater variety of food than the same class in other countries ; for besides what his farm produces, which is mostly consumed in his housekeeping, the Fjelde, the lakes and rivers, and the fiords, afford game, fish, and other articles. He has also variety of labour, which is, perhaps, among the greatest enjoyments in the life of a labouring man ; for there is recreation in change. His distant seater, his woodcutting for fuel, his share of the fishery in the neighbouring river or lake, give...
Page 304 - As far as regards property, these laws and institutions left nothing for the most liberally constituted assembly to legislate upon. As far as regards personal rights, the mild and enlightened administration of Denmark, although under an arbitrary form, had left few general grievances to be redressed. There was nothing in the condition of the people, the state of property, the civil or religious establishments, which did not fit in with a free constitution, in which legislative power was vested in...
Page 107 - The good manners of the people to each other are very striking, and extend lower among the ranks of society in the community than in other countries. There seem none so. uncultivated or rude as not to know and observe among themselves the forms of politeness. The brutality and rough way of talking to and living with each other, characteristic of our lower classes, are not found here. It is going too far for a stranger to say there is no vulgarity, this being partly relative to conventional usages...