130 TEN YEAES IN SWEDEN. 



wouldn't persuade folks of that in this country. The glorious 

 privilege of having a vote to give to some goney of a 

 member carries the day. Well may they call that a dear 

 privilege,, for it keeps them poor till their dying day. No, 

 squire, your English system of landlord and tenant is the 

 best for the farmer, and the best for the nation. There 

 never can be a general state of high agriculture without it. 

 Agriculture wants the labour of the farmer and the money 

 of the capitalist both must go hand in hand. When it is 

 left to the farmer alone, it must dwindle for want of means, 

 and the country must dwindle too. A nation, even if it is 

 big as our great one, if it has no general system of landlord 

 and tenant adopted in it, must run out. We are undergoing 

 that process now. I'm most plaguy afeerd we shall run out, 

 that's a fact. A country is but a large estate at best, and 

 if it is badly tilled and hard cropped, it must in the end 

 present the melancholy spectacle of a great exhausted 

 farm/' 



If the reader turns to my chapter on Swedish statistics, 

 he will find mention made of an " Hypotheks," or Mortgage 

 Company, which is established in Sweden. I never studied 

 very deeply the machinery of this gigantic loan society. 

 I had plenty of opportunities of seeing its workings, and 

 this was quite enough for me. 



It appears that this mortgage fund is borrowed (I pre- 

 sume upon the security of Government) from Germany, and 

 a certain portion is let out to the various loan societies esta- 

 blished in the different provinces, in order to lend out again 

 to purchasers of estates. These societies, when a man is 

 desirous of purchasing an estate, advance him so much, say 

 about one-half of his purchase-money, on mortgage at six 

 per cent.; the deeds of the estate are lodged in their hands, 

 and the company's money is of course safe, because they 

 have the first claim. I believe this payment of 6 per cent, 

 clears off not only the yearly interest, but a portion of the 

 mortgage capital, and in forty years the whole debt is can- 

 celled. This seems all very fair, and one might well argue 

 that it could make no difference to the farmer, whether he 



