buildings of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, older than the oldest specimens we have in England of Norman and Saxon buildings, and are, on this account, interesting, as they shew in the arches of the same period, the characteristics which we suppose in England distinguish two distinct periods of Gothic architecture; the round Saxon and pointed Norman arches being used indiscriminately in buildings of the eleventh century.-This town, empty of inhabitants, with gardens, corn land, and large unoccupied spaces within its walls, and no suburbs without, reminds one of the description of the Eastern cities."

We must closely abridge the account of some of the churches. The first, Helige Ands Kirkan, the Holy Ghost's Church, built in 1046, a curious small structure, an octagonal prism one hundred feet high, fifty-two feet long, divided into two stories. The author suspects that it has been originally the temple of another religion, for the religion of Odin was existing in full force in Scandinavia in the tenth century, when Wisby was a great city and had temples of stone. The oldest church in which the pointed arch and what is called the Norman style of Gothic architecture is found, is St. Lawrence Church, built in 1046. It is a cross church, and pointed and round arches are used indiscriminately. Within a few yards of it is St. Drottens, built in 1086, in the Saxon style. St. Nicholas, built in 1097, is a large edifice in the Norman style, with long windows and pointed arches. Except the material, nothing remains in these ancient churches. They were plundered by Waldemar, King of Denmark, in July 1361, who landed with a large force, killed 1800 of the citizens, and loaded two ships with the plunder of the town. In the front of St. Nicholas Church two ornamented roseworks or circles are shown, in the centres of which were two carbuncles, it was said, of which the light could be seen far off as guides to mariners. The old port or harbour of Wisby, like the new one, was small; but the shipping, Mr. Laing remarks, of those days were, probably, of small size, such as could be drawn upon a beach-galliots of forty or fifty tons. The vessels in which the Northmen, under their sea kings, plundered the coasts of France and England, were of a class to go up small rivers. They went up the Seine to Paris, and even up such small rivers as the Rother in

P. 28. The following curious fact, we believe unnoticed before, is mentioned by Mr. Laing regarding the salmon in the Wener Lake :

necessary habit of this fish, as we suppose, but that it may remain and recover its condition in fresh water in due season, or if there is a variety of the species habitu. ated to, or living entirely in, fresh water. The oceanic salmon is a much better fish for the table than these or even the Baltic salmon; but I could not learn that there was any apparent difference in size or form."

In discoursing on the formation of the Swedish army, and the Indeldta system, the author thus eulogises the great Gustavus

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P. 56. "The man who of all historical characters has the most strikingly anticipated, both in his military and civil ideas, the improvements of our age. He first brought the formation and movements of military bodies into accordance with the weapon they had to use, the musket. Although matchlocks had been introduced long before his time, the pike or spear had not been entirely exploded, and military formations and movements were all in reference to the latter weapon. Tilly's troops, at the commencement of the thirty years' war, were formed in line nine ranks deep; the spear of sixteen and even eighteen feet long, being still considered the main weapon in the soldier's hands. It probably was so : the matchlock was so heavy that the soldier trailed an iron fork in his hand to stick in the ground and rest his piece on when he fired. His powder was carried in cartridges, dangling to a bandoulliere or belt, going over one shoulder, at the end of which hung his lighted match. The bullets were carried in a pouch, which our Highland regiments still retain as an ornamental appendage to their dress. He carried a flask of fine powder for priming. It is stated by writers of that period, that in the Aus

trian service there were 199 words of command before the soldier who had discharged his matchlock, had reloaded and fired it again. Gustavus Adolphus changed the art of war. He invented or introduced ball cartridges, cartridge boxes, flint-locks,light muskets, and the bayonet, and, as a consequence of the musket being the sole weapon, he introduced the formation of troops in lines of three ranks, and invented the principles of all modern military movements. His dispositions and movements at the battle of Leipsic are at the present day studied by all military men. He introduced the military organisation of armies now in use, framed articles of war, established courts martial, and, as an inventor in the military science, he has left memorials, in the system and practice adopted in the armies of all modern nations, of a mind and genius before which the achievements of Bonaparte and his generals sink into a mere effort of force. Military colonies, a system which Russia and Austria have lately adopted, are a revival of his conceptions. In 1626 he established a military colony in Livonia, to be in readiness for the defence of his conquests," &c.

The author then proceeds to give an account of the system of military constitution, began by him and established fully by Charles XII. which continues, with little alteration, to the present day. The Swedish army, including the regular and the Indeldta troops, make up a total force of 95,528 men. The condition of the Swedish soldier under the Indeldta system is superior to that of our own. His little farm is sufficient to support a family very comfortably, and the character of the soldier has risen with his comfort. It is rare to see one intoxicated. Certificates of character and conduct are required to be allowed to enlist in these troops. As a proof of their comfortable condition, in 1830, when 48 of these soldiers were drowned by an accident in crossing a river, it was found that 44 were married men, leaving 155 children, or three and a half to each marriage; and as they were in the prime of life, the average of their families, if they had lived, would probably have considerably exceeded that of marriages in the best districts of Europe, the average of which is four children and a half to each marriage.

There are, in various parts of this volume, observations of much interest and importance as regards the different laws and institutions of the country; as, for instance, at p. 80, &c. on the restrictive policy on the free exercise of industry, and its effect in checking population; at p. 102, on the war carrying on between the press and the government; at p. 108, on the demoralised state of the whole nation, as shown by official documents and statistical returns; at p. 321, on the moral condition of the people; at p. 405, on the character of Bernadotte, the present king of Sweden; on the conformation of the Swedish diet; on the universities, and other subjects, to which our readers will find it useful to refer. Turning to other matters, we mention a circumstance connected with human food that we never before heard of. The author says,

"I had heard of an earth found in the Fjelde being used as a substitute for meal in this parish as well as the common substitute of ground pine bark. I made myself master of the subject, as well as of 1 specimen of the earth and meal, by a present of some hooks and flies, to my landlord, an intelligent man, but as unwilling as any Scotchman to expose the natural defects of his parish. About five years ago a poor man of the parish, living forty miles up in the forest, cut down a tree, which, in its fall, tore up the moss on which it grew, and laid bare some very white looking stuff like meal. He baked it into bread, with some rye-meal mixed, found no bad taste with it, and all the world of this and the next parish flocked to the spot to take their part of this extraordinary blessing of meal produced in the earth, at a time when they were reduced to bark bread. The functionaries of the district at length heard of it, and gave orders that it should not be used, until they had ascertained that it was safe. Some of it was sent to Stockholm to be analysed: it was found, I have been since told, to consist of finely pulverised flint and feldspar, with lime, clay, oxide of iron, and a residuum of some organic matter, similar to animal, which yielded ammonia and an oil. The proportions or the regular analysis of the substance I could not learn. All my land.. lord knew of the matter was, that they were told not to use it, because it would lodge in the stomach, and be indigestible;

but that people who had used it both in pottage and in bread, were never the worse for it, and it is still quietly used. In America, some of the tribes are said to use a kind of earth as food occasionally, which also contains some trace of animal matter. This substance is of a yellowish white, very light, and does not effervesce with acids. If it contain any trace of organic or animal matter it would be curious, as no impressions or relics are found in the primary rocks of this part of the peninsula.

"Bark bread is of general use in all this part of the country. The new settlers have no other meal, and bake it very thick, that it may hold together. It is acrid, dry, yet, covered with plenty of butter, it is eatable. The older settlers have at present rye-meal to mix with it, half and half, and bake this mixture as thin as our oat cakes. This is so far from being uneatable that prudent housekeepers in good circumstances use it to save their seed corn, even when grain is not dear, and the ruddy cheeks of the country girls prove that it is no unwholesome food, qualified, as it is no doubt, with plenty of butter and milk and hard work. The half and half, however, tastes strongly of timber, and gets as hard as a board when kept long. The present price of rye is eighteen rix dollars, riksgäld per tonde, which is equal to 4.53 bushels. This makes their bread corn about 4s. 6d. the bushel, and wages being twelve shillings banco a day, a day's labour will earn of a bushel," &c. P. 181.

In speaking of the society in Christiana among the lower and middle orders, of their meetings, their balls, card parties, music, and other social amusements, where decorum and propriety are preserved, and of their harmonising effects on the character and manners, their diffusion among all serving to knit together the different classes by one common mode of living, the author observes (p. 363.) :

English gentry might fly up to the moon some evening in Mr. Green's balloon, and not be missed by the other classes. A participation in the same tastes and the same kind of social enjoyments and modes of living, would raise the lower class to a higher level in the scale of civilization, and connect the parts of the social body more firmly together. The evil of such an improvement in the tastes and habits of the lower class is, that in the unhappy condition into which the financial difficulties of almost every government has plunged the great body of the people, the expense of what is necessary for the bare existence of a family is so great, that the most innocent enjoyments must be restrained, and even rare and moderate indulgence on the part of the labouring man is imprudence. This evil, however, does not

belong to the diffusion of refined tastes and enjoyments, but to the effects of excessive taxation, and of a faulty distribution of property in society-the mass of the community is obliged to make it the main object of life merely to live, not to enjoy. It is a curious and lamentable truth, that, in this poor country, not producing even

At the conclusion of his work the

"When the traveller returns to the spot from whence he set out, he naturally considers, and his reader also, what he has brought back with him: what facts, what observations, what of the useful or agreeable. My acquisitions on the road are soon reckoned up. I bring back three facts,-1. The Swedish nation is more generally educated than the English, the Scotch, or perhaps any in Europe, except the Danish. Elementary education in reading, writing, and the shorter catechism of the Lutheran Church, is so universal, that even the aid of the schoolmaster in these branches is superseded in many districts, and the children are instructed by their parents. The educational institutions of government-the two universities, the twelve gymnasia, the numerous Latin or high schools, and apologist or common schools, and the law requiring adults to shew that they can read and understand the Scriptures before they can be admitted to the Communion Table, and to have taken the Communion before they marry or exercise any act of majority, diffuse widely the means of education, and its first elements. The many periodical and other publications constantly issuing from the Swedish press, and the establishments in the bookselling trade to be found in the smallest and most remote towns, prove that the Swedes are an educated and reading people. 2. In no country in Europe is the Church establishment so powerful and perfect. In Sweden there is not merely an union of Church and State, the Church is a distinct component portion of the State, equal in its constitutional share in the legislature to the whole body of the aristocracy, or of the representatives of the people, and possessing extensive authority and influence, besides its share in the legislature, through the department of government for church affairs. It has but one religion, its own, to deal with in the nation, there being no Catholics nor Calvinists among the Swedes; and is undisturbed by sectarianism or dissent of any note from its doctrines or forms. Its members, as a body, are highly educated, of undeniable piety and zeal, with very efficient internal regulations in their establishment,

in ordinary years the corn it consumes by 200,000 quarters-there is, by the better distribution of property, and the better financial state of the government, a much greater share of the enjoyments of life, and of a more refined kind, among the middle and lower classes, than in Britain with all her wealth." author says (p. 425):

for preventing negligence or laxity in the discharge of clerical duties, or the admission of incompetent individuals to clerical functions. The exemplary church attendance of the people, the erection of new and decorations of old churches by voluntary contributions, and the freewill offerings at Easter and Christmas to their pastors, prove beyond question the popularity and influence of the Established Clergy in Sweden, and the good feeling in general of their flocks towards them. 3. Notwithstanding this powerful, effective, and complete Church Establishment, and notwithstanding this very wide diffusion of education and religious instruction by parental and clerical tuition, and by an extensive and efficient national establishment of public schools suitable to all classes, the Swedish nation stands among the lowest in the scale of morality, -по other three millions moral beings in Europe appear to commit, within a given time, so large an amount of crime and moral transgressions. The inference from these facts must be that Church and School Establishments in a country, however perfect and efficient

of

and in Sweden they are eminently so -will fail to realise what so many good and enlightened men among us are expecting from them-the improvement of the moral condition of the people. Something else is wanting.-What is this want, which in Sweden so. evidently counteracts and neutralises the natural and proper effects of a wide diffusion of education and of religious instruction? At a time when all right-thinking people are zealously promoting this diffusion of knowledge, and when the most enlightened are inclined to adopt a School Establishment as well as a Church Establishment in the arrangements of the State, and even with some kind of compulsory power to enforce the education of the people, it is startling to hear that the means may not be adequate to the end in view-the moral improvement of the social body. In moral as in physical science, it is only by collecting and comparing facts and observations from many quarters, that general truth can be developed. The importance of the subject to all, and its deep interest to many,