The Express.
London, England, 1865-06-28 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY,‘

Ten Years in Secede's. Being a
ic Description
Fore osts,
f the
Landsca, Climate, Domest Life,
pe
Mines, Agriculture, Fuld Spores, and Fauna of
Scandinavia. By an OLD Busanaer. London
Oroombridge and Sons.
Without much pretension to literary skill, this
_ hoe* ecoomplisho very fairly re itrtgarair istaarn the
be_
• lamese of its title. We are -
advantage which was anticipated between the Spec-.
tater and his readers. We know nothing of the
hert
no~twhat lim merits:
whhe is short or tall, of a dark
or fair complexion ; but we infer that be is a
healthy man, robust, capable of enduring a good
deal of hardship, and easily satisfied in respect to
lodfling,_ food, clothing, and other necessaries of
life. We think we can also discover that he is
good-tempered and genial, that there is nothing
cynical or niisanthropical in his disposition,
and that whilst he rejoices in the flood
and the field he loves the society of men,
and can make himself at home in their haunts.
The book which he now presents to the
public is quite worthy of his former works on Aus-
tralia and Lapland, and somewhat resembles them
in its arrangement. The author is honestly desi-
rous of exhausting his subject, or at least of leaving
nothing important unsaid upon it. He begins with
the area of the country, and rectifies all his dimen-
sions by English standards. He expounds the
money of Sweden, the weights and measures used
by the people, and gives the proximate estimates,
furnished by recent censuses, of the population in
the several political divisions of Sweden.
ensind
Bee then
cosesiders the climate, and gives comprehve
apparently accurate tables of its variations in dif-
ferent parts of the great northern peninsula. This
naturally introduces vegetation and the soil, which
are both well set out. From the surface of
the land we descend into the mines, and are
shown the mineral wealth of Sweden, with
special exposition of its iron deposits. Having in
this
manner exhausted the subject of Sweden as
an individual nation, our author considers it in its
relation to other countries, explains the nature of ;
its commerce, with the advantages it possesses anti
the drawbacks under which it labours. We then
come to the subject of government, the postal and
railway systems, the religion, the laws, and the state
of education, the army, the navy, and the taxes
by which all are supported. We have next •
chapter addressed particularly to tourists, containing
some good advice and some very useful information
respecting the people, their habits, and prejudices.
This is followed by a chapter on the agriculture of
Sweden, and this by one on field sports and game.
The most important part of the book in a scientific
point of view is " a list of every animal found in
Scandinavia, Finland, and Denmark, scientifically
arranged, with a short description of each." This
catalogue takes up fully one-half of the volume, and
will no doubt be highly appreciated both by sports-
men and naturalists, though it offers no matter for
special criticism. We are more concerned with the
human interests of the book, and these, we are
bound to say, are very well expounded. The popu-
lation of Sweden is at present about four millions,
but that of Norway must be over one million, so
that the population of the united Scandinavian
kingdom must now be between five and six millions.
This is a formidable barrier in the way of the Czar
panting to get out. if, when Sweden had lees than
two millions of people she was able to hold her
owe against Ruses at this aide of the Baltic, it
is not likely that she will fail with treble the
numbers and ten times the wealth. Were it not for
the sentimental regret we should all feel at the
blotting out of an ancient and renowned monarchy,
the beat thing that could happen to Denmark would
be to be absorbed into the Scandinavian Union, so
that she might have resources to call up to her aid
should pilfering Prussia attempt any further rob-
basics on her land. The Swedes are a very pure-
blooded race ; that is they are of the ancient Scan-
dinavian stock, and are probably lees mixed than
any other people in Europe. There are about
10,000 Fins and about 5,000 Laps, who are of the
Mongolian race, with a thousand Jews. These
proportions vary somewhat as regards Norway, but
the foreign element is so small, and still
remains so entirely separated from the
mass of the Scandinavian population, that
it hes produced no effect upon the old native race.
As with ourselves, the female sex is slightly in ad-
vance of the male sex in numbers. The author
attributes this, curiously enough, to the destruction
of the males in the wars of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries. We are somewhat surprised
at this statement, as the Old Bushman might have
known that all inequality between the sexes caused
by accidental circumstances must, by a law of
nature, cease after one or two generations, leaving
only that which is due to natural increase. Stockholm
is the only large city in Sweden, and that does not
exceed the extent and population of many of our
third rate cities. The population of Stockholm is
about 1111,000, that is, about the same as
that of Bristol or Cork. The marriage bond
is not held in much honour among the
lower classes in Stockholm. Out of every
100 children born there, some 42 are born out of
wedlock, and we are told that • peasant seldom
marries till be bas been living with his affianced
wife for some time. The oorn and potato brandy,
or branvin, used in Bweden,is a source of incalculable
evils to the people. It is a sort of fiery whisky,
such as is met with in Ireland and Scotland, and
used formerly to be considered as an absolute ne-
cessary of life. Of late years the oonsnmption of
this detestable spirit has considerably diminished,
indicating a corresponding rise in the moral and
social condition of the.people. This improvement,
which is in a great measure due to the restrictions
placed by government on the manufacture and sale
of the fiery poison, is corroborated and made pro-
gressive by the excellent education provided every-
where for children. In this grind element
of peace anti civilisation, the Swedes are un-
questionably. a long way before us. Education
in Sweden is freer, feller, incomparably less ex-
pensive, and far more generally diffused than it is
in England. The system resembles rather the
parochial method as it formerly existed in Scotland
than anything we have in this country. The stupid
separation of classes that prevails in England, the
fashions that rigidly prescribe separate courses
throughout the whole term of their lives to the eon
of the gentleman and the son of the workman, do
not exist in Sweden. The peasant and the noble
do not meet, as with us, like strangers and foreigners
speaking each a different dialect, practising wholly
didereat habits, and with mutual dislike and repul-
sion. There is in nearly every town a public school
open to all classes, and peasants are admitted on a
perfect equality with gentlemen. The lads come
from all the neighbouring districts and board
and lodge in the town; the whole expense for
everything does not exceed 15% a-vear—that is,
somethin leelaalic a middle-class parent is obliged
to pay in for a boy at a day-school of no
particular c r. The course of education is
much more liberal than any that obtains even in
such schools as those on the foundation of King
Edward VI. It includes, besides languages living
and dead, a full course of science and of natural
history, and, what is still more important, all is
taught in a natural manner. Corporal punishment
is entirely unknown ' • the teachers obtain influence
over the minds of the pupils by kindness and
sympathy, and this wise treatment is reflected in
the conduct of the boys. They are well behaved in
the schools, attentive, obedient, anxious to get on,
113 well for the pleasure their application gives to
the masters, as for the satisfaction they feel is
making progress in learning. Out of school they are
well mannered and gentlemanly ; they never alarm
the neighbourhood with rough games or outrageous
noises, and no passenger has to complain of being
jeered by them or insulted. In short, the educa-
tional system of Sweden reflects the greatest credit
ou the government, which thus sedulously attends
to the formation of the popular mind as one of its
chief duties. Nor ia this care unrepaid. The Swedes
are one of the most loyal nations in Europe ; there
are uo complaints of king, or diet, no grumbling
against oppressive laws, no subterranean discontent
arch as occasionally makes itself felt even in Eng-
land by dull hearings and mutterings. This gene-
ral coatentment has other causes, no doubt, but it

,

----------
is chiefly to be referred to theionfidenos ,A.„,4 le
have in their rulers. Web d .."..r. ,
scot
country of the advantages of gore
ties, and the figment has . ted ~,....,,
in connection with the We ..,
in spite of parties that kit i of _to
obtain place and power ipdr t
at last to be regarded as the causes of natio pros-
*ty. Nor is this monstrous delusion confined to
thaAil"falejoithe .irbig pace
-l—rwew nor tort' who
toll"; man ever
*wakes bf shaping his course by thereal interests of
tbii whole people, but always meets and hedges ace
cording to the mraumstanoes most likely to prolong
his tenure of office, are yet so hoodwinked by tra-
dition and rhetorical sophistry as to think tlet the
emdlicts of parties are absolutely necessary to this'
public welfare. In London all sections of the peo- I
iple are fairly and adequately represented. They ,
have no "great historical parties," but they have)
men in this parliament who not only represent
the different classes of society, but mitaally
belong to them. There the frieze-coated =
sant sits by the side of the cassocked
and the decorated noble, and each contributes his
:i
actual practical knowledge to the general council
which legislates for the common good. Our author
mentions with approbation the general readiness of
the Swedes to earn a living by any respectable
means. There is among them none of that vile
pride which will urge men rather to cheat at horse-
oouping, or " nobbling," or at cards, than use their
i faculties in a rational and upright manner, and
I which will prefer the fallen trade of a billiard-
'marker to the respectable profession of a tailor or
shoemaker. Many of the military officers, whose
I pay is small, employ their leisure in teaching laud-
surveying and other useful branches of knowledge.
Many more of them live upon farms granted to
them by the government, and when not on duty
occupy themselves in the useful and healthful pur-
suits of agriculture. By these means the taxa
are kept down, and a thoroughly efficient
army always kept in a state of preparation. With
an excellent force of 130.000 troops of all arms, and
a navy of 260 ships, carrying 1,215 cannon, and
all this exclusive of the army and navy of Norway,
with an admirable police, a system of education
and poor relief superior to ours, with all the ad-
vantages of one of the best governments in Europe,
the whole of the taxes for all purposes amounted in
Sweden in 1861 toexactlyone million and a half ster-
ling. We cannot of course expect our " old histori-
cal partite" to give up their traditions and histories
for the public good. We cannot expect Sir Carnaby
Jenks, of the Blues, to forsake the drawing-rooms of
Tiburnia and accept the position of mathematical
master at King's College School, of Captain
Trefusis to accept a farm on her Ma-
jesty's manor of Hempholin in lien of
his pay it would be outrageous to dream
of asking Rear-Admiral Bowline to lecture the boys
at Greenwich Naval School on the duties they will
by-and-by be called upon to perform as seamen
and petty officers. We therefore preserve Air dig-
nity, and we pay for it. Our author indu%as in a
somewhat exaggerated groan over the decay of the
Swedish nobility, regrets that they have no law of
primogeniture or of entails by which titles may be
preserved and supported, but we cannot go with
him. It is, no doubt, an agreeable method° exercise
to contemplate the long association of a name with
a certain piece of land, and to remember that a
man who once owned the land and the name did
something great, but it is not so agreeable a reflec-
tion that because of that one great or clever action
the descendants of that man are for evermore to
have a factitious pre-eminence over men quite as
good, and often &great deal better, than themselves.
Above all, it is not pleasant to reflect that these
descendants are thenceforth through all generations
to be rulers and legislators for the people that are
to be born, that the one good deed of the ancestor
is to endow all his posterity with qualities which
shall be substitutes for wisdom, valour, and morality,
although the descendants may be occasionally fools,
or cowards, or vicious criminals. It seems to us
that the Swedish system of rewarding a man for
what he does himself is better than the more senti-
mental one of rewarding him for what was done by
a remote ancestor ; and one of the best effects of it
is that there is in Sweden none of that arrogant
exclusivisnkwhich renders our nobility one of the
most inaccessible and selfish bodies in Europe ; nor
are there' among she true hearted Swedes those
fearful chasms dividing class from class which yawn
before us in the United Kingdom, rendering im-
possible that sympathy between rich and poor for
which Mr. Justice Talfourd sighed with his
last breath. The religion of our north-eastern
neighbours is Lutheran, and has been so since the
time of Gustavus Vasa, who introduced it in the
sixteenth century. There is, we fear, very little
toleration in the Swedish church. The clergy, like
those of Rome, from whom they diverge so widely
in doctrine, are convinced that they alone are
right, and that everyone who differs from them
must be wrong. There are no dissenters in Swe-
den, and but very few catholic or jeers. There is,
however, • class of people called " Lasare," or
readers, who, although not dissenters, remind us
strongly of the original puritans in the times of
Elizabeth and James I. They are still in the
church, but they are stricter in the discharge of
their duties than the mass of their fellow-commu-
nicants They take a higher and more spiritual
view of religious ceremonies, and they belong
chiefly to the middle and inferior classes.
.Now if this does not promise dissent here-
after, we are very much mistaken in our
interpretation of history. The clergy are an ex-
emplary class, they work hard, and their pay is of
the slenderest. The ordinary stipend of a Swedish
curate is 101. a year, when be becomes rector he
may have some 401., and the richest bishop has but
1,2001. a year. There is one bishop who hen over
2,0001., but this is to be reduced to 1,0001. ; and
the Bishop of Carlstadt has 6001 The Swedes
seem to have very happily combined some of those
observances and methods which in this couutry be-
long peculiarly to dissentem with the more rigid
forms of an establishment. The incumbent of a
parish, for example, is chosen by the voice of the
parishioners, so that they never can have imposed
upon them, as in the church of England often
happens, a man wholly distasteful to the entire
flock. Our author informs us that the Swedish
Sabbath begins at 6 o'clock on the Saturday evening
and ends at 6 p.m. on the Sunday. Theremainder of
the Sunday evening is generally devoted to jollity and
social entertainment. Dinner parties are given,
drawing-rooms and ball-rooms ate filled, and the
theatre and opera are open. The author condemns
the practice, and we think with very sound and
abundant reasons. The Swedes are in general
honest and well conducted ; robbery is veep rare,
and the graver crimes affecting life are almost un-
known. Crime of all kinds is decreasing, and this
is chiefly attributable to the restrictions placed
upon the sale of corn brandy—a fact which ought
to be encouraging to teetotallers and Maine Liquor
Law men. The sporting chapters will be
welcome to many, not only for the sound
information they contain, tut for the wholesome
warnings the author gives to his brother tourists
and sportsmen. We must confess that the prospect
be holds out to the lovers of the gun and rod is
by no means inviting. Game is scarce in Sweden,
unless you choose to follow it into almost inacces-
sible fastnesses, where you would have to rick your
We for very little. Salmon fishing is still more
disappointing, as there are no salmon to be found
except in a few places, and not always there. The
Old Bushman wan mightily smitten with thecharms
of the Swedish maidens, and declares that if he'
were in want of a wife he would go there to look 1
for one. The people everywhere were honest,
affable, hospitable ; the mere fact that our author'
was a strangeer was universally regarded as eats-I
blishing his claims upon their kindness. They are
I a tall, handsome race, and are, we are glad to be
informed, scrupulously clean in their persons
and habits, a virtue of which there is •
plentiful lack among our continental neighbours in
general. They are, however, averse from much
exercise, will never prefer walking for its own sake
to riding even for the shortest distances, and they
live very much in-doors. This may be owing to
the severity. of the climate which renders out-
door exercise difficult during a great part of
the year, acd account', we are disposed to think,

• I q...t.; •1136

.nt for the eonstehwhat flabbyvAnd uneterprisiag
y.
th ~,.1 • h bin WIN :Mb Alle-
n 'r ' These its mod
They'.. :". the e i the ys of s
o . . and • Gong my, an still
In. , 4 n p Own-
ed
not inf to other the field'of
battle. We have read the Old man's amount
Sudan militate* pismium salt 4erived moth
instruction frool,it. The scient,ifio elmaificstion of
the Ileandinavissi Fauna is a iubstaidial and per-
manent benefit oonferred upon the saw* of Da-
; tura history.
—.__— •

The Great Schools of England : on Account of the
FoundatioN Bnclownsents, and Discipline of the
Chief Seminaries of Learning in begland, includ-
ing Eton, Winchester, Westminster, St. Paula,
Charter house, Merchant Taylors', Barrow, BugbY
Shrewsbury, de. By HOWARD STAUNTON. With
Illustrations. London : Sampson Low, Son,

and Marston.
The interest in the history and present audi-
tion of one great public schools very generally ex-
cited by the report of the Royal Commissioners,
published rather more than a year ago, has in-
duced Mr. Howard Staunton to extend and ela-
borate certain articles on those schools which
appear ed some time back in a newspaper, and
which he had previously thought of reprinting as
they stood. He has accordingly spread his canvas
rather broadly, and has produced a bulky volume
containing as much as most readers will care to read
about those ancient seats of learning, which have
certainly had a most important influence in shaping
the national character of Englishmen. His account
of the schools themselves is preceded by an intro-
ductory essay, in which be criticises the public
school system generally, zed offers a few ang-
gestions for its improvement. Mr. Staunton is
very friendly to that system, but he sees that
the development of modern civilisation has ren-
dered various changes necessary, and be condemns,
with much reason, the bigotry of those men who, in
an age of progress, are doing their utmost to main-
tain • meduaval and partially effete character in our
old endorsed schools. We do not at all object to
this combination of the feeling of reverence with
the desire foe reform, because that is precisely the
mood in which most Englishmen regard the whole
of their institutions, and which saves them at once
from stagnation and revolution. But it certainly
does appear to us that Mr. Staunton, while on the
whole supporting the public) school system, makes ad-
missions which, if they are correct, amount to an
entire condemnation of that system. He either
grants too much or claims too much. He says that
our public schools " neither furnish the best moral
training, nor the best mental discipline, nor the most
salutary and substantial mental enrichment ;" that
" they do not form the most accomplished scholars,
or the most heroic, exalted, and disinterested men."
In another passage we read that the best friends
of these schools confess that they contain much that
is pedantic, much that is puerile, much that is anti-
quated, much that is obsolete, much that is obstruc-
tive, and not a little that is barbarous, and that,
like other English institutions, they are apt to con-
found stolidity with solidity." Again—" Edu-
cation in Zugland is at present very much of a
chance-medley affair. It has neither unity of
object nor of spirit. The whims of individuals, the
bigotry of sects,the timid interference of the govern-
ment, the tricks of charlatans, sciolism, incompe-
tency, coarse popular feeling, and neoessity, all
commingle and counteract. What fruits can such
a system, or rather such an absence of system,
bear ?' Flogging and fagging are also condemned
as mischievous and disgraoeftg ; and of the latter
we are told that its fruits "are likely to be
the most savage, most capricious bullying
on the one hand, and the most craven ap-
prehension on the ther." if all these objections be
just, it is difficult to understand how Mr. Staun-
ton can give his support, as be does most enthuai-
statically, to the public school system in the main.
He says that these schools are mediaeval in spirit,
beyond the possibility of cure without entirely
changing their nature ; he asserts that "by no
process of transfigurement" could they be made
into institutions` aiming mainly at stimulating
and storing the mind ," yet he thinks they answer
so excellent a purpose that he cannot conceive any
other form of educational establishments doing the
same work as well. What that excellent purpose is,
is not at all clearly made out. It would seem, how-
ever, from one sentence, that the author chiefly
values such schools as Eton, Winchester, Harrow,
Rugby,. etc., as " theatres of athletic manners! and
the training places of a gallant, generous spirit for
the English gentleman." How they can be all this,
and yet fail to furnish either the best moral or the
best mental training, we do not understand. But
then these schools were designed mainly for the
aristocracy, . and " the aspiration of the English
aristottracy is to be, not the beet educated, but for
prattlcal purposes the most cultivated." Very
good ; but, if our public schools give their pupils a
defective training, not only in intellectual matters,
but in morals—if they are incurably medietval, in
many respeeta barbarous, apt to mistake stolidity
for solidity, incapable of forming "the most
heroic, exalted, and disinterested men," and of
such a nature that they can only be tinkered and
blotched, instead of being radically reformed, we are
at a loss to see how they can make our aristocracy
the most cultivated body in the world. We are not
here taking sides ; we mean nothing more than that
Mr. Staunton destroys•his own case. We might,
rhaps, quarrel with this gentleman's extravagant
assertions that the English aristocracy " does not
exist for its own sake ; does not exist merely to
monopolise certain privileges ; it exists that it may
be the national ornament and bulwark ; it exists
that it may crown that social hierarchy which should
symbolize the hierarchy of nature ;" and that
aif English society as a whole is intensely aris-
tocratic, the English universities, the great English
endowed schools, the English church, the English
army, the Eneish navy, should be aristocratic
also." But to discuss these points would lead us
too far afield, and we desire simply to call attention
to Mr. Staunton's leading strictures and suggestions
with referenoe to the institutions which he here
describes, and to the state of education in England
at lerge. With respect to reforms, he would make
the learning of French compulsory, adding other
modern languages if the pupil or his parents desired
it, though without giving up the old devotion to
Greek and Latin. He also urges,, with re-
spect to education generally, the ap-
pointment of a Minister of Public Instruc-
tion, with somewhat of autocratic authority
the establishment of a National University "
(in or near London) ; "and the formation of
academies and schools corresponding to the Gym-
nasia and Realsehulen of the Germans, in which the
business of instruction should not be 'monopolised,
to the extent it is in our great schools, by the minis-
' tees of the church." These are suggestions wb ich may
' be readily understood ;but some of Mr. Staunton's
remarks strike us as being very cloudy. Thus, we
are told that " the superficiality complained of in
the knowledge of the present day may in some
degree be ascribed to the abandonment of a good old
English habit—that of reading aloud at stated
times." It may be so ; but the reason is certainly
not obvious on the face of it, and Mr. Staunton
does not help us to an explanation.
The notices of the schools in the body of the
work are full and entertaining ; but in the account
of Christ's Hospital, our author has made a ludi-
crous slip of the pen. He appears to reckon Cole-
ridge among the "earliest" scholars of the Bluecoat
School ! Of course we are aware that he does not
;mean this ; but the sentence begioo--.‘ Notable
among the earliest scholars are the memorable
Jesuit, Edmund Campion," and so on down to
'"Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Allen." It
would be as well to amend this in any future edi-
tion. However, the work (which is adorned with
some rather muddy woodcuts) is sure to interest a
large body of readers, and to them we commend it

COURT OF COXIIIOII COIINCIL.-At a special
Coact a cosines cooed), held yesterday for thet purpose.
the sheriffs poisestod • eemmusiciation slating that her
Majesty had appointed this day (Wednesday) to receive the
edifies at coogratulation has the corporation on the birth
of a sewed prism accordisse to a meolotion of the 15th
inst., sad the court proceeded, with closed loss, to nomi-
nate the depot•tics.

.