BRACE'S NORSEFOLK. * THE journey of Mr. Brace in Norway, Sweden,
and Denmark, is chiefly remarkable for the change of Scandinavian opinion respecting America whh the author has to report, and for his sketches of Swedish TM' in 'remoter districts. His mere tour in Norway has been anticipated by numerous writers; since his main line was from Christiania to Trondjem, thence by steamer to Haromerfest, the most Northerly town in Europe, to see the sun at midnight, and a return coast voyage to Bergen. The most remarkable point in this narrative is the cold of which the tourist complains in those latitudes, whenever clouds, fog, or wind, modified the heat of the sun ; for the evident aversion of the company he fell in with to a war between England and America on the Crampton business comes under the head of Scandinavian opinion on America. His visit to Denmark was limited and brief, but he has picked up some information as to social practices ; and. he found the Danes with a special American grievance of their own. Mr. Brace writes" America is just now detested, as a quarrelsome bully, who is trying to wrest an ancient estate from a weak neighbour ; and the Danish press foments this feeling by the most exaggerated stories of our coarse social manners and our corrupt politics, and by repeating many ower true' accounts of the disgraceful tyranny and servitude in our Southern States." In Sweden Mr. Brace deviated more from the beaten track than in Norway, penetrating less into absolutely remote places, than into districts rarely seen by strangers, from the difficulty of conveyance, the nature of the roads, and the paucity of travellers in that country, as opposed to mere tourists. The country life seems to differ much from that of Norway in having a less democratic class. There is moreover a race of resident nobility, or of men who if without the legal status have the wealth and social position of a nobility ; and such a class appears scarcely to exist in Norway, the nearest approach to it being the clergy, the officials, and the wealthier mercantile men. The consequence is, better education and greater refinement of manners, with the more extended knowledge of the world that court and travel impart; coupled with the less pleasing features of a somewhat exclusive feeling and a haughty bearing towards inferiors. The higher class of peasantry or de facto yeomen have considerable influence, from forming an "estate" with a separate House of Assembly, as well as for the property that individuals possess; yet the " peasants " are really divided into several classes, the lowest of which does not seem to be very much above Irish cotters. Of this Swedish country life Mr. Brace saw a good deal through his letters of introduction, the hospitality consequent upon a great paucity of strangers, and the frank freeness of Americans as compared. with English reserve or Continental politesse. The life has sufficient general resemblance to that painted in the best novels of Fredrika Bremer to guarantee the accuracy, and, as we remarked some twenty ago on the appearance of The Neighbours, a likeness to that of England in the last century. There are men of the country squire genus ; but generally there is a • The Norse-Folk: or a resit to the Homes of Norway and Sweden. By Charles Loring Brace, Author of "Hungary in 1831," and •• Home Life in Germany." Published by Bentley.
mixture of refinement of manner and accomplishments, with the practice among the ladies of overseeing household affairs. A general backwardness is visible in things that depend upon the • material luxuries which profitable trading, and the progress of • mechanics and manufactures, have for the last generation brought in their train.
"There is hardly a house, palace, or cottage in all Sweden, with a bed" room bell, or a bath-room, or an outside bell, or speaking-tubes, or dumbwaiters, or any of the little modern labour-saving contrivances in American houses. If you go to a Mend's house, you pull about the handle of the door, stumble in the hall, as hall-lights are equally discarded, rap your knuckles sore, and often at last go away, utterly baffled at arousing any one. In your own bedroom you must often shout out of your window to call any servant. If there is a bell in the hall, it communicates usually with the court-yard, and awakes the whole family and all the dogs of the neighbourhood, if you ring it rashly. It excited ...Teat surprise when I said that our city houses in America, and the best in the country, had now, as a necessity, their one or two bath-rooms, and hot and cold water in every bedchamber. There are at the present time in Sweden only four or possibly.fivc cities which burn gas—Gottenburg, Stockholm, Orebro, Norrkoping, and, I think, Lund. Hardly one has good side-walks, and a day spent i on foot n the streets is really torturing. The principal conveniences, as i
compared with those in American houses, are n the warming apparatus, which consists universally of a large brick stove, prettily covered with white porcelain. This, with little fuel, gives out a mild equable heat when closed for the whole day, or open makes a cheerful fire, like the oldfashioned fireside ; and, however used, produces an infinitely better atmosphere than our furnaces, with their blasts of fiery air, destructive to brain • and lungs."
The primitive condition of society, coupled with the rarity of strangers in Sweden or in Norway, the fact that the traveller
• must have taste, money, and no sharping object, (or he would scarcely, go so far North,) induces facility in making acquaintance. Here is an instance.
"As I was waiting for my carriage at the first post-station a young gentleman, wrapped up in a pelisse, and just about to enter his own carriage, which was at the door, said, suddenly, in English, You ride till Noreheepping, sir.'
"I answered, 'Yes.' After a few pleasant words, he proposed an exchange, that I should come in with him, and his maid should go on in the other vehicle and meet us in the city. I accepted without ceremony; and we were soon rolling easily off in a most elegant little turn-out, with a moustachoed coachman in top-boots on the box. Hy companion was a young nobleman, travelling across the country some two hundred miles, with his own horses. He was a fair type, I suppose, of the majority of his class--intensely patriotic, a little bigoted both in politics and religion, not remarkably cultured, of serious turn, and with a very generous spirit of courtesy and hospitality. "We spoke of the Russian and English war. 'Ah! such a blunder as
was that said he. We had only to throw ourselves in and Finland could have been certainly retaken. Such a chance to drive those cursed Russians for ever out ! But we waited, and we negooed, and it was, in fine, too late. It will never come again—such an opportunity. We all would have enlisted to a man. To be sure, we have not so large anarmy as the Russians, but every one knows one Swede is worth of three Rpalsions.' " And the same feeling Mr. Brace found general among the Swedes, although some thought, and in his opinion more wisely, that "such an attack would have involved Siveden in a long war, which she could not afford ; [and] that even if she had reconquered Finland, it would always henceforth have been a bone of contention between the two powers." Notwithstanding the patriotism of the Swedes, and their general regard for the Kin..b and Royal Family, a political difficulty is impending from the nature of their constitution and the difficulty of reforming it. Everybody knows that there are four estates— the Nobles, the Clergy, the Burghers, and the Peasants. This system truly representea at the time of its formation the interests of people who possessed any power ; but it has become effete through change of circumstances and the social advance of the country. The Houses of the Clergy and the Peasants are mere obstructions, through various causes. Besides the obvious difficulty of getting so many independent bodies to agree upon the common business of legislation, the clergy, from their professional prejudices and jealousies, (real religion seems to be at a low ebb in Sweden,) and their wish to retain their legal influence, oppose every reform. The Peasants do pretty much the same from ignorance, and from prejudices of another kind than those of the Clergy. The Nobles and Burghers, equivalent to our Lords and Commons, are more on a level with the age, and more prompt in business. Their original constitution, however, has become antiquated through the growth of society. Many persons of education, property, and social standing, can neither sit nor vote as burghers, as in order to do that they must be members of a guild. The younger members of a noble family are of course excluded from any access to the Lower House ; but the House would appear to sit on the principle of representation which runs through all the Swedish " estates " ; being in this point of view quite opposite to the British House of Peers. "The senior member alone of a noble family has an hereditary right to a seat. In 1850 there were more than 1500 noble families in the kingdom, and 432 representatives of them in the Parliament. "The senior member will frequently give his seat to a junior member either of his own or another family. A proxy is sometimes sold by a poor noble, indirectly, to Government. An instance is related—though I am unable to say on what authority—of the Crown Prince's buying a seat during the late discussions on Parliamentary Reform, and giving it to a friend to vote against the Liberal party. The nobles of Sweden are entirely dependent on the King for what is their_great ambition—promotion in the army and navy. The President of this House is appointed by the King."
The following is a summary of our author's experience of the change which has taken place respecting America in the Continental mind.
"It is very evident, as I converse with people here, and in other parts of Northern Europe% that a great change has come over the popular feeling towards America since I was last on the Continent, five years ago. Then America was the ideal everywhere to free-thinking and aspiring men. — One felt the effect of all this, as a traveller. • You were not alone; you were the representative of the best thoughts and aspirations of mankind. The warm hand, grasping yours, welcomed not you, but a nation of freemen. The rich did not condemn,. because property and person had been better shielded under the Republic than under European monarchies. The poor, the labourers, were especially your friends, for was not your land the very land which elevated labour?
"All this is quite different now. You are treated politely as a stranger, or you are welcomed more or lea for what you personally are ; but for your country, among the populace you get no welcome. The glory has departed.
"Within five years, various eircunistrumes have opened the eyes of Europe to our real situation, and, as often happens, the people see nothing but our sins. We are simply now a tricky, jobbing, half-barbaric people, where the worst political corruption of the 101c1 World exists without its refinement ; and where brutality, rowdyism, and unlimited despotism have in certain quarters free play. Our politicians and diplomates are despised ; our constitution is sneered. at, as inflicting upon us the most disgraceful legislators ; and the labouring class and the democrats know that within our limits a more abominable tyranny over labour and free speech and thought existn than the worst despotisms of the Continent ever exhibited."
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