Ch. ii. in Sweden. 289 



It is calculated by the Swedish economists that 

 the labour, which would be saved by the abolition 

 of this system alone, would produce annually 

 300,000 tuns of grain.* The very great distance 

 of the markets in Sweden, and the very incom- 

 plete division of labour, which is almost a neces- 

 sary consequence of it, occasion also a great waste 

 of time and exertion. And if there be no marked 

 want of diligence and activity among the Swedish 

 peasants, there is certainly a want of knowledge 

 as to the best modes of regulating the rotation of 

 their crops, and of manuring and improving their 

 lands.-}" 



If the government were employed in removing 

 these impediments, and in endeavours to encou- 

 rage and direct the industry of the farmers, and 

 to circulate the best information on agricultural 

 subjects, it would do much more for the popula- 

 tion of the country than by the establishment of 

 five hundred foundling hospitals. 



According to Cantzlaer, the principal measures 

 in which the government had been engaged for 

 the encouragement of the population, were the 

 establishment of colleges of medicine, and of lying- 

 in and foundling hospitals. J The establishment 

 of colleges of medicine for the cure of the poor 

 gratis, may, in many cases, be extremely benefi- 

 cial, and was so probably in the particular cir- 

 cumstances of Sweden ; but the example of the 



* Mimoircs du Royaumc de Suede, ch. vi. p. 204. 

 t Id. ch.vi. 

 I Id. p. 188. 



VOL. I. V 



