438 AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES. 



ideut and eight assessors. The judges are liable to damages 

 for their decisions. 



Every Norwegian parish has its court of the higher law, con 

 sisting of the pastor and schoolmaster, whose opinions are 

 authoritative on almost all local questions. As the King is so 

 nearly a lay figure in the civil government, he is permitted to 

 act as the head of the established Church in the bestowal of 

 sees and livings under the eye of the Ecclesiastical Minister 

 and Council of State. This council, consisting of eight per 

 sons, represents the King in both ecclesiastical and secular 

 affairs. 



It is impossible to overrate the influence of the clergy upon 

 the Norwegian people. Generally well educated themselves, 

 they have fostered education; and though intolerant in the ex 

 treme toward all other religions than the Lutheran, they have 

 favored public libraries, literary and scientific societies and 

 the freedom of the press. They have impressed a religious 

 character upon the system of popular education; and every 

 schoolmaster, from the itinerant pedagogue who travels from 

 neighborhood to neighborhood in the sparsely settled regions 

 of the far north, imparting what is better than learning, viz., 

 the love of learning, to the highest official, the teacher is a per 

 son in authority. Education is compulsory in both Sweden 

 and Norway; there are primary schools in every parish, sup 

 ported by small contributions from the pupils and a direct tax 

 upon householders. Their secondary schools, which are daily 

 becoming more practical and technical in their character, are 

 found in all the large towns, Sweden having twenty-seven lower 

 agricultural schools, seven of forestry, nine of navigation and 

 two of mining, besides academies of agriculture and other in 

 dustries. 



It is indeed surprising that so much has been accomplished 

 in the wildest and most inhospitable of lands for the best in 

 terests of the people. &quot;Economy is their name, and frugality 

 their surname,&quot; was said in reply to the question, &quot;who are 

 they?&quot; asked by a Southern gentleman of a citizen of Mil 

 waukee, when a load of Norsk emigrants landed from the 

 steamer. 



It is little wonder that the region of the great lakes and the 

 upper Mississippi should have attracted this enterprising and 

 frugal people. Accustomed to the sea, the ocean voyage has no 



