28 Sweden. 



they could find many to do the English mile within the three 

 minutes. 



Domestic poultry is but little attended to, although eggs will 

 occasionally fetch is. 6d. per score. In my opinion, both poultry 

 and tame rabbits would pay well in the south and midland districts. 



They have very much improved lately in the fashion of their 

 agricultural implements, as they get all their models from Eng- 

 land. Wood and work are cheaper here; and a Scotch plough, 

 in every respect equal to one made at home, can be bought for 40^., 

 and other implements in proportion. Timber is cheap, and houses 

 and outhouses cost but little putting up in comparison to England. 



The taxes are moderate j all the relief of the poor in our district 

 was out-door, and the poor-rates are levied in grain, after this fashion. 

 Early in spring an auction was held, to which all aged and helpless 

 paupers are brought in order to be let for the year. Each pauper 

 is put up to bidding, to see who will take and keep him or her for 

 one year at the lowest price, and a good deal of speculation goes on 

 among the assembled farmers. A helpless old pauper out of whom 

 they can get no work will perhaps be rented out for the year at ten 

 tunna of oats ; while one who appears to have a little work left in 

 him will be taken perhaps for three. This annual quota of grain is 

 levied among the farmers of the district. I have heard this practice 

 much condemned, and it certainly does appear to be a kind of 

 traffic in human flesh. But I cannot see what other plan could be 

 adopted in this thinly-populated country, where the houses lie so 

 wide apart -, and I really believe that the Swedish peasant is always 

 kindly disposed towards the unfortunate, and these poor old bodies 

 are perhaps as well treated as the paupers in any of our parish 

 unions, and are certainly much freer. But there is something 

 melancholy in the reflection that one can live long enough to be 

 of no use to any one, and to be hawked about at the end of one's 

 "journey," and let out to the man who will undertake to keep you 

 for the lowest price. I recollect two or three old gentlemen who 

 were rented out in our neighbourhood, and they appeared cheerful 

 enough ; all they seemed to want was tobacco, and the poor old 



