Ch. ii. in Sweden. 295 



arising from the laws of nature, or a privation 

 caused by the edicts of a government. 



The sickly periods in Sweden, which have 

 retarded the rate of its increase in population, 

 appear in general to have arisen from the un- 

 wholesome nourishment occasioned by severe 

 want. And this want has been caused by un- 

 favourable seasons, falling upon a country which 

 was without any reserved store, either in its 

 general exports or in the liberal division of food 

 to the labourer in common years ; and which was 

 therefore peopled fully up to its produce, before 

 the occurrence of the scanty harvest. Such a 

 state of things is a clear proof that, if, as some of 

 the Swedish economists assert, their country 

 ought to have a population of nine or ten millions,* 

 they have nothing further tc do than to make it 

 produce food sufficient for such a number; and 

 they may rest perfectly assured that they will not 

 want mouths to eat it, without the assistance of 

 lying-in and foundling hospitals. 



Notwithstanding the mortal year of 1789, it 

 appeared from the accounts which I received from 

 professor Nicander, that the general healthiness 

 of the country had increased. The average mor- 

 tality for the twenty years ending 1795 was 1 in 

 37, instead of 1 in less than 35, which had been 

 the average of the preceding twenty years. As 

 the rate of increase had not been accelerated in 

 the twenty years ending in 1795, the diminished 



* Memoires du Roy;uunc de Suede, ch. vi. p. l'J6. 



