158 



SCANDINAVIA. 



the exact relation between the progress of instruction and public morality. Much 

 of the undeniable demoralisation may, however, be fairly charged to bad harvests 

 and industrial causes, want and crime here, as elsewhere, follow ing each other as 

 cause and effect. 



Intemperance is the national vice, and even in the sagas we read how mead 

 overflowed at the gatherings of the vikings. Towards the middle of the present 

 century drink had become a scourge, threatening definitely to debase a great part 



Fig 80. — GoTEBop.G : View take.v from the Botanic Gakdex. 



of the population. In 1855 over 40,000 distilleries were at work in Sweden alone, 

 yielding vast quantities of hrdnvin (brandy) ; yet at this period the trade had 

 already been centralised. In 1830, when every farmer was also a distiller, there 

 were no less than 170,000 distilleries in the kingdom. Under fiscal restrictions 

 the production has considerably diminished during the last twenty years. In the 

 towns also societies have been formed, with the exclusive right of retailing spirits 

 on the condition of handing over all the profits to the municipalities, the General 



