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    people ^ -and . to show by a few extracts the interesting nature of toe information communicated by the author . The evidence

    furnished by Mr Laing is conclusive on the following points ;—there is in ^ Norway no extreme or hurtful division of land ; np

    over population , though its numbers are increasing ^ scarcely anything , on the one hand , that can properly be termed pauperism , nor great fortunes on the other ; but a prevalence of ease and competency , with a standard of comfort superior to the average of other countries ; a general simplicity of manners and habits , to the exclusion of luxury and ceremony ; while a tone of gentleness and politeness pervades every class of

    society . It is remarkable that Norway was singled out by Mr Malthus in his ' Essay on the Principle of Population / as a country in which the natural poverty of the soil , and the narrow limits , both of its bounds and of the number of its inhabi * -

    tants , would effectually prevent any considerable increase of population . In commenting on this theory he evinces some alarm at the consequences of the increase that had already taken place previous to the year 1803 , in which he penned this work : —

    < c Many , " says Mr Malthug , " of the most thinking and best informed . persons express their apprehensions on this subject , and in the probable result of the new regulations respecting the enrolments of the army , and the apparent intention of the court of E > enmark * to encourage , at all events , the population . No very unfavourable season has occurred in Norway since 1785 ; bat it is feared that , in the event of such a season , the most severe distress might be felt from the rapid increase that has of late taken place .

    u Norway- is , I believe , almost the only country m Europe where a traveller will hear any apprehensions expressed of a redundant population , and where the danger to the happiness of the lower classes of people from this cause is in some degree seen and understood . This obviously arises from the smallness of the population altogether , and the consequent narrowness of the subject . "—Essay on Population , 3 rd edition , vol . i , p . 328 .

    These apprehensions , in the event of any increase in the pbpulation of a country , were expressed more than thirty years 6 ince by Mr Malthus , and seventy-five years since by Wallace , from whose work the former borrowed both hid theory and arguments . The opinion that various forms of evil must attend a law for the partition of property , are prevalent at the presertt day . The first answer we snail offer 16 both classes of theorists will be found in some descriptions of the present

    state of the 6 ountry by Mr Laing * - —

    ^ * tt wiJl be rcnoe ^ nbered that , a , t the period of Mr Malthut ' t woifc , Norway was incorporated whb Denmark *

    Untitled Article

    654 $ Journal of a Residency in Norway .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1836, page 656, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2663/page/4/