288 Of the Checks to Population Bk. ii. 



Norway and Sweden, I could not help being struck 

 with the idea, that, though for other reasons it 

 was very little probable, such appearances cer- 

 tainly made it seem possible that these countries 

 might have been better peopled formerly than at 

 present ; and that lands, which are now covered 

 with forests, might have produced corn a thousand 

 years ago. Wars, plagues, or that greater depo- 

 pulator than either, a tyrannical government, might 

 have suddenly destroyed or expelled the greatest 

 part of the inhabitants ; and a neglect of the land 

 for twenty or thirty years in Norway or Sweden 

 would produce a very strange difference in the 

 face of the country. But this is merely an idea 

 which I could not help mentioning, but which the 

 reader already knows has not had weight enough 

 with me to make me suppose the fact in any de- 

 gree probable. 



To return to the agriculture of Sweden. Inde- 

 pendently of any deficiency in the national in- 

 dustry, there are certainly some circumstances in 

 the political regulations of the country which tend 

 to impede the natural progress of its cultivation. 

 There are still some burdensome Corv^es remain- 

 ing, which the possessors of certain lands are 

 obliged to perform for the domains of the crown.* 

 The posting of the country is undoubtedly very 

 cheap and convenient to the traveller ; but it is 

 conducted in a manner to occasion a great waste 

 of labour to the farmer, both in men and horses. 



* Memoives du Royaume de Suede, cb. vi. p. 202. 



