2o Sweden. 



For hard work commend me to a Swedish female servant. Her 

 wages will probably not exceed 30$. per year and a few clothes, 

 and yet on this she contrives to dress well, often to look very smart 

 and pretty j and it is a pleasure to see the cheerful way she goes 

 about her work. 



Besides the peasant who farms his own land, and who represents 

 the British yeoman, we have still another class, the " torpare," who 

 is, as it were, attached to the estate, and does the principal work of 

 the farm. Every large estate has so many of these " torpare" on 

 it. They have a house and a bit of land on the estate ; and, in 

 consideration, are bound to work so many days in the year for their 

 landlord. This I consider a most objectionable system, for these 

 " torpare" never have a shilling to enter upon their little 

 holding, which is too often in wretched condition. It is generally 

 let far too high, and their day's wages are proportionably low ; they 

 have little time to work their own farm, and as they must buy 

 everything from their landlord, because they scarcely ever are able to 

 go elsewhere, they live completely on the tally system. They are 

 almost always in debt. A poor "torpare" once in debt is never able 

 to work himself out again. The system is certainly good for the 

 landlord, for he gets a hard-working man in return for a wretched 

 house and a poor little patch of land j but I am certain the day 

 labourer would be far more independent and better off here if he 

 received his wages weekly, and hired a small cottage to live in. But 

 labour every year in Sweden is becoming of a higher value. That the 

 Swedish labourer is just now in a better condition than the English 

 labourer, is proved by the fact that in the winter of 1 864 and 1 865, the 

 labourers round us, who were free and not tied down by this 

 " torpare" system, were earning from 8s. to $s. per week. Rye was 

 not above i/. IDS. per quarter, and pork not $s. for 2olb. 



The religion of Sweden is strictly Lutheran j and the Swedish 

 priests exemplary, hard-working, and too often ill-paid men. There 

 are no religious schisms or dissensions in this country, and the 

 priests are far more respected among the peasants than at home. The 

 education of the poor is much better looked after, and no one can 



