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    &e eiegaactea of civilized life , but nothing . more . Witk a ^ mwilatioa of 9111 , 000 inhabitants , about the year 181 % them were 41 , 656 estates . We must compare this proportion of population to , landed property * / with the proportion in Scotland about the same period , in order to form any just idea of the different state and condition of ihe middle and lower

    dUsses , in these two small countries * The population , in 1822 , of Scot * land was 2 , 093 , 456 , of whom those holding landed property , as freeholders , amounted to 2 , 987 . Of these , also , many did not actuall y possess land , but held fictitious votes , two or three on one estate . On the other hand , many estates afforded no freehold qualification ; ' and' therefore 2 , 987 cannot , perhaps , be taken as the exact number . Suppose we triple it to cover all omissions ; we should still hare only 8 , 961 estates of

    land in Scotland . But if the population of Scotland , of 2 , 098 , 450 , had held the same interest in the soil , which the 910 , 000 of Norway have in the land of their country , there would be 95 , 829 estates in Scotlandoriejbr every 22 , instead of one for every 700 of the population . In a ' country in which soil and climate are so unfavourable to agriculture as in Norway , the income of these small estates cannot be considerable ; and as the produce is consumed in the family , unless to the extent required for

    paving taxes and buying groceries , —and much is done by bartering— -the owners themselves cannot perhaps tell the yearly worth of their estates . The salaries of such public functionaries as iritist , from the nature of their offices , be rather above than below the ordinary scale of income' of tB « gentry of the country , will probably give the beet idea of what is a sufficient income ia the higher class . An Amtman , who , like the French I * r 6 fet , is the highest officer in a province , and ranks with a

    Major-General , has a salary of 1600 dollars , or 320 / . sterling * . A Faged , who has the charge of the police , of the collection of taxes , of the crown estates or interests , and all public concerns , in a district of from 10 , 000 to 15 , 000 inhabitants , has a salary of 800 dollars . A member of Storthing ftf allowed , as a suitable maintenance when attending that assembly , two dollars and a half daily , which is at the rate of 900 dollars yearly . It may be concluded from these incomes , that 800 or 900 dollars are

    about the incomes of the highest class of landed proprietors . "— -p , 162 . * The whole of this account of the different cfod&es of landowners in Norway , we hold to be conclusive evidence that the abolition of the Law of Primogeniture and the Substitution of a L . aw of Eqtfal Partition among all the children , does not necessarily lead to " excessively minute and hurtful division of

    land ; " but on the contrary , other cireumstafcces being favourable , conduce to the general good by an equitable distribution vf property . Such a division as would be mirtfur is prfevented bjr the natural motive which influences mankind when in p 6 sne » gion of property ; that is , th £ desite to make that property conducive to their own well-b ^ ingv abd the consequent provision against excessive division , by agreements and bargains tnade in every family according to its circumstances . We refer our readers to the very acute remarks of Mr Laing on thp state pf Ireland , as compared , prith that . .. of Norway , and his clear exposition of the fallacy of supposing that the miserable

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    fKO * JjHmu d ^ f * JR * $ kteftc * i * Mmvutyf

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1836, page 660, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2663/page/8/