MISS BUNBURY'S LIFE IN SWEDEN. * CUSTOMS, manners, social parties—external things

rather than lj proper—constitute the principal subjects of Life in Sweden. There is more in it, too, than " Sweden"; the volumes beginning with a voyage from London to Ostend, a railway journey to Hamburg, a sojourn at Copenhagen and Christiania, with excursions both in Denmark and Norway. From their variety and their rapidity, these are not the least interesting parts of the book. Miss Bun- bury's tendency is to make the most of things ; writing to produce effects by an accumulation of particulars, rather than by compre- hensive description. The longer she resides at a place, the more she IS tempted to dwell upon its details. It is true, she sometimes manages a little empty minuteness, even from the incidents of a journey ; but the temptation to overwriting is less as the novelty is greater.

If our author's statement is matter-of-fact, she went to Sweden through taking a literary compliment too literally. A learned Swede, after expressing his desire to have a true picture of his country, and giving some praise to Miss Banbury, thus continued his note—" I shall therefore be very glad to receive you here, when you, as you have promised, come to make acquaintance with our social life Let me know when you intend to come, and I shall fulfil my promise, to give you the best advice as to your journey, and to prepare for you here." When the tourist arrived, and in bad weather, there was no one to receive her : she had to domicile herself as best she could. The learned man was away from Stockholm, and all he had done was to depute an " adjunct," Anglice a curate, to act as cicerone.

Thus dropping, as it were, from the clouds—or still worse, for that might have caused a sensation, stepping from a steamer— Miss Banbury might have seen about as much of social life in Stockholm as a person under similar circumstances of life in Lon- don, but for the kindness of the late Lady Lyons. "Lady L—" called on her, introduced her to the diplomatic, fashionable, and courtly circles. By this means, Miss Bunbury is able to present the result of a variety of observations during a winter at Stock- holm, as well as various descriptions of society, public fetes, and external nature, seen under the severity of a Swedish winter.

There is some solid information in the book upon the subject of parliaments, law of divorce, education, and religion. The Swedish Parliament is strictly one of estates—the Nobility, the Clergy, the Burgesses the Bonde—that is the peasantry or yeomanry. Like many other institutions, it has somewhat outlived the conditions which produced it. The middle class of Sweden, except the traders, is not represented, nor what we should call the landed gentry. The nobles are not exactly like our House of Peers, nor quite like the nobility of Hungary, though every son of a Swedish noble is noble himself. The head of a family site in the House ; if he cannot or will not, the eldest son takes his place, and so on, by representation. If the " bonde " emerges from his class, he ceases to be eligible.

"The peasants' house is composed of what we would perhaps, I really do not know for certain, term small freeholders ; they may be small farmers, but they must not, I believe, be great farmers ; for any one who raises him- self to the rank and position of what is called in England the landed gen

is no longer eligible to serve in the parliament of his country, and loses privilege of being represented there. It is something scarcely intelligible, that in any land under the sun, a man, a peasant, or small freehold farmer, (a bonde, m his native phrase,) should disqualify himself for parliamentary service, if he, either by education or by purchasing, as is often done, the lands of an impoverished noble, lifts himself above the peasant class. So, however, it is here ; the class above the peasant class—that very one which we deem almost the most important, the landed gentry—has no representative in Sweden, and in the legislature of the country can only exert that worst spe- cies of influence which may be exercised over individual members by secret and personal influence or control. Nor is this the only curious feature in this antiquated mode of legislature. "'Madame,' cried a portly Swede, springing on his feet and exhibiting himself in full length and breadth, have no representation!' Not know- ing what he meant at the time, I actually turned my head to look if the great pier-glass had removed from its place ; but I knew afterwards that in the representation to which he alluded, parliamentary representation, het as well as all professional men, lawyers,—a strangely numerous body,—medical men men of learning, arts, or science, military and naval men, and every one in Sweden, in fact, who is not in trade or commerce who has not an iron-foundry, or who is not a priest, a peasant, or a noble, has no one to re- present their rights or wrongs in the parliament or legislature of their coun-

try. • •

"We went to the peasants' house first, and at the door I saw some sights not exactly suited to St. Stephen's; and then I saw a number of plain, solid- looking men, with longish hair, and dressed, not exactly in freize but mostly in long, plain cut coats of dark blue ; national, or rather provincial costumes, these Riksmen have now laid aside. We could not, however, catch any chamber exactly at work ; at this peasants' house we were told to go to that of the burgesses ; there we hurried, and were sent to the clergy's; and at the clergy's we were told there was a debate at the nobles'.

• Life in Sweden with Excursions in Norway and Denmark. By Selina Bunbury. In two volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett.

"We were at last successful. There was a debate, and what do you think it was ? Guess. Recollect the time and cause of my flight from England; and then imagine me coming nearly to the extremity of Europe, and run- shag post haste to the Swedish ,parliament to hear a debate—on the Catholic question! Now don't laugh at me; but it is true. • •

"It was not an Ecclesiastical l'Itles Bill that was in progress—no Bishop but a Lutheran one could presume to enter Sweden as a Bishop. The ques- tion was whether the Protestant-Lutheran subjects of the country should be liable to a fine of five rix-daler, or about six shillings English, for entering the Roman Catholic chapel where their Queen worshiped. There is an old law to that effect in existence, but, as it is never enforced, its existence was considered by the mover for its abolition as by no means essential to the wellbeing of Church and State. The question was argued pro and con ; some noble lords contending that since the law was not enforced it was necessary to abrogate it, and other noble lords insisting that because it was not enforced it ought W main in statu quo. "The nays had it. The law remained."

The law of divorce in Sweden is facile, as in Germany. Like the Germans, the Swedes are fond of titles. Here are scraps on both subjects.

"I do not know whether a facility in obtaining divorce renders married life more generally tranquil or not; it does not seem to render matrimony a less serious affair than it is with us. Men usually marry late in life, chiefly because they have not the means of marrying early • it is by no means un- common to hear a man of forty, or even more, speak' of marriage as of what he might, some bright day, begin to think about. Women, on the contrary, marry young ; that is to say, when they do marry, for unless they have money, or some other equally great attraction, they, like women elsewhere, often do not marry at all. The number of elderly Friikens—that is, noble old maids—is quite endless.

"Divorce can be obtained on mutual agreement, but the king must sanc- tion it. If tempers do not agree; if one of a couple becomes mad, or com- mits a crime, a divorce is given without hesitation ; if one half chooses to go away and not let the other half know where it is for a whole year—pro- vided it is not known to have gone to sea—the two who were made one can be made two again. In fact it would be almost worth while to be married in Sweden to prove how very easily one can be divorced. The rage for titles, which 'Pervades all classes, and is one of the most ludicrous features of Swedish society, has some influence in matrimonial alliances. To marry a man with any sort of title is something and the merchants and shopkeepers of the capital have not unfrequently injured themselves by giving their money with their daughters to some penniless officer or impoverished noble whose debts have been confessed to, and paid by the much-honoured father- in-law; to deceive whom by concealing debts would be deemed very bad. • a a • •

"Nothing seems to astonish the good people about me so much as the no- tion of my not having a title. It is always the first thing to be ascertained before you can venture to address any one. A good lady who had looked into an old English Peerage thought she had discovered mine, and called me instantly 'The Right Honourable Miss.' But when I petitioned to be ad- dressed only as Madame, ray little waiting-maid, after almost staring her eyes out, precipitately left the room to give vent to her laughter in another. 'A Madame,' is the title given here to charwomen and the lower order of working women. The pronoun you is never used in conversation; it is an offence to say it to a servant. To all classes you must either speak in the third person, addressing them by name or title, or use the familiar pronoun —the sign of love, friendship, or familiarity—thou. General acquaintances must always be addressed by the title, whatever title it be, whether of rank, or office or employment, or even of trade. I was once seriously embarrassed by not knowing the name of a coachmaker from whom I hired a carriage, because I had only heard him called Mr. Coacbmaker. Wives take their husbands' titles, and are quite as tenacious of them. Thus, you address a clergyman as Priest, and his wife as Priestess; n major's wife is Majorskan ; a colonel's, Ofveratinnan ; and one lady has sent me her card in French, Madame le General' And every time you speak you must use the title, Will Generalakan be so good as to give me Generalskan's company,' &c. I asked my grefve if I ought to say Kammerjunkerskan—which title, I be- lieve, would signify female young-gentleman of the chamber' ; but he told me one could not use the feminine of Kammerjunker."

Miss Bunbury considers the almost bigoted attachment of the Swedes to Lutheranism has its origin not in religion but patriot- ism ; it is not creed, but country. The church is a creature of the State, but one of the civil regulations is creditable : education is compulsory, by means of the clergy. Every clergyman is bound to instruct his parishioners, or see that they are instructed. There are two checks upon the negligent divine. Confirmation is es- sential, as it were, to citizenship—without it, a Swede is an out- cast : but he cannot be confirmed unless he can read and write. The outcast himself is liable to be a check on clerical neglect. If a criminal cannot read and write, the officials require his pariah. clergyman to account for the fact. Practically, these regulations could not be enforced in a country with large towns, unless there were a much greater number of -clergymen than is generally the ease, nor very well in a state which tolerated more than one religion.