;ET. 22.] AND SCANDINAVIA. 175 



governors of the provinces, and is done as follows : 

 Every province is divided into hundreds ; and formerly 

 there were subdivisions of tithings, a distinction now 

 lost. In each hundred the governor selects a jury 

 of nine three nobles, three ecclesiastics, and three 

 peasants. These meet in the chief town of the 

 hundred and fix the sum to be paid annually by the 

 district. When a general tax is to be laid on the 

 nobles, it is by an assessment laid on the ploughs of 

 land, into eighty thousand of which the whole country 

 is divided, as England formerly was into Hydes and 

 Knights' fees, and as many parts of Germany now are, 

 into " whole-farmers " and " half-farmers." 



The people in office are in general very poor, and 

 their influence in no way formidable. It is a great 

 deal if they can support a trifling household upon 

 their appointments, and offices (at Court) are so poor 

 and yet so eagerly sought for ; yet scarcely an officer 

 of State has sufficient influence to give away a place 

 of a hundred rix-dollars a-year. The same poverty 

 extends through every department of State, though 

 magnificence is aped by having a multitude of officers 

 with small salaries in order to oblige many dependants. 

 Thus there are four secretaries of State with 200 

 per annum salary, though quite in want of employ- 

 ment. The minister for foreign affairs has 400 ; the 

 postmaster-general, 150. The judges have 100; 

 but this is so taxed that they do not get above 80 : 

 the consequence is bribery. The diplomatic men are 

 well paid ; indeed beyond all proportion. Thus the 



