New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1844-06-21
Aericulture and Morals.

Agriculture and NJ OralS.
There is no more common Misrepresentation
than that which attributes 10 Manufactures the
generalization which prevails in some districts
where they are prosecuted. According 10 the
poetic assumption, an Agricultural community
presents d SOFT of Arcadia, IN which competence
and intelligence are universal and crime ana
misery unknown. Among the thousand facts
which utterly refdie this assumption we take the
following account OF the moral condition Of
Sweden, where neither Manufactures (nor even
Popery can be assigned as the cause OF such
general depravity and w.etchedness
Decentralization OF Sweden.
1t is a singular and embarrassing fact, that the
Swedish nanon, isolated from the mass OF the
European people, and almost entirely agrcutu
raj or pastoral, having, in abour 3 00O, 900 of IN
dividuals, only 1926 employed in manufacto-
ries, and thesc not cgngregaied III one or two
places, but scattered among 2,037 fucores
having no great standing army Or navy; no ex
tended commerce.; no afilux OF strangers; no
considerable city but one; and having schools
aid universities IN i lar proportion, and pow
erful and complete church establishment undls
lurbed in It's labors by sect or schlsm; is, not
wltlisiandlng, IN more demorazed state than
any nation in Europe-more demoralizcd even
than any equal portion of the dense manufacture
ing population OF Great Britain. This is a very
curious fact in moral statistics 1t is so directly
opposed 10 all received opinions and long cstab
shcd theories OF the superior moral condition,
greater Innocence, purity OF manners, and c1
emption from vice or crime of The pastoral and
agricultural stale Of society," coHIpared to the
81 -
merely on the travellers own Impressions, obser-
vatuns or experience, II would not he entitled 10
any credit. According to the official returns
publlshedin the Swedish State Gazette, in March
1897. the number o. persons prosecuted for Grim
mai offences before all the Swedish courts in the
wear 1885, vas 26,21J, of whom 81 262 were
convicted, 1915 acquitted. and 9S remained un-
der examination. In 1885, the total population
of Sweden was 1888, III individuals In this
year, therefore, one person Of every | IA oi the
whole nation had been accused, and one Ill every
lao persons convicted of criminal offences By
the same official returns ltappears that, In the five
years from 1886 TO 1884, inclusive, one person III
every 46 OF The inhabitarts OF the towns, and one
in every l79 Of the rural population, had, on an
average been punished each year for criminal
offences. In 1886, the number of persons tried
criminal offences III all The courts Of the king.
dom, was 26,9l5, OF whom - ,292 were con.
Gcmned 6cS acquitted, ana 94o under Trial or
comlnlltal. The CRIMINAL lists OF this year are
stated TO be unusually llghr. yet they give result
OF one person IN every ll2s OF the whole popu
ia;lon accused, and IN ABOUT every 81 con.
vlct,d oi criminal ctichc,S and, taking the pop
slaIon Of The Towns, aud the rural population
separately, one person in every 40 individuals ut
the former, anu one IN every II individuals OF
Tue latter, have been convicted Hithiu the ycar
1886 Tor criminal offences The proper
.,un, also, OF egitnae TO legitimate births III
this country leads 10 Inc same conclus on. Ii Is
Is enc To = 3l0,hs IN Stockholm. In no Other
Christian Community IS there state of ienee
morals approaching To tins In Paris, the ilegi-
innate are reckoned by ruchet to be one in FIVE
births, and IN the other towns Of France one II
IT. la England and W alcs it Is reckoned there Is
one lIIegit mate legitimate and in Lnnd"nand
Mlddiesex one 10 IS legitimate births. Fl,
CURES do not biing home to orr imaginations the
moral condition of population so depraved as
that OF Stockhom In such society, the off
spring of secret adultery, and the births merely
saved from lllegitlmacy by the tardy marriage o.
parents, must be numerous IN proportion to the
general protiigacy. fit were possible 10 deduct
these from the one side of the account and add
them to the other, TO which morally they belong,
what singular picture ii depravity on great
scale this city presents, Suppose a traveller
standing in tie streets of Edinburgh and able tn
say, from undeniabc public returns, one out OF
every three persons passing me il, on an average,
the offspring Of illicit intercourse; and one out oi
every forty ne has been convicted within these
twelve months OF some criminal offence.'
Laipg's Tuur in Sweden.