day, except Sundays and festival days of the church, from 7 o'clock a. m. to 3 o'clock p. m.; but discharging and loading can be carried on at all times of the day from 6 o'clock morning to 6 o'clock evening.

Before any loading or unloading can take place, special notice shall be given in writing, the same day or the day previous, to the inspector of customs, of what goods are to be landed or taken on board that day, whereon the inspector shall attest that such notification has been made. This certificate shall be given, on the notification and clearance being produced, at any time between 6 o'clock in the morning and 6 o'clock in the evening.

§ 15. Loading or unloading taking place without a certificate from the inspector of customs, or at other hours than specified in the preceding paragraph, is illegal, and punished with the confiscation of the goods in question, or of their value, if they are not brought forward.

§ 16. This ordinance is in force from the day of its publication, and from the same day all prior ordinances regarding trade and navigation at St. Croix not in conformity herewith are hereby repealed.

Given at our castle, Frederiksborg, the 30th of June, 1850, under our royal hand and seal.

FREDERIK R.

B.

We, Frederik the Seventh, by the grace of God King of Denmark, the Vandals, and the Goths, Duke of Schleswig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsh, Lauenborg, and Oldenborg, make known:

On the report of our minister of finances, who has laid before us the most submissive report of the colonial council for our West India possessions on a draught of an ordinance for altering certain taxes and imposts in the island of St. Croix, we most graciously decree:

§1. The protection granted to the trade from the mother country to St. Croix by § 6, II a, of the law of 30th June, 1850, relating to trade and navigation in St. Croix, shall be modified for the period from the 1st of April, 1863, to the 31st of March, 1864, in such a manner that all the produce of the mother country, and all goods on which duty has there been paid, when brought to the island in Danish vessels, or in foreign vessels enjoying the same privileges as these, after having been loaded in a customable port of the mother country, and accompanied with clearance from there, proving the national origin of the goods, or that duty has been paid upon them, shall enter on paying half duty; and from the 1st of April, 1864, the said protection shall cease entirely, so that from that date full duty shall be paid.

The enactment in § 6, II b, of the same law, shall be repealed from the 1st of April, 1863, in such a manner, however, that the transit duty, proved to have been paid in the mother country on the goods treated of therein, shall be refunded on their importation to St. Croix.

To which all concerned have to conform.

*

*

Given at Fredensborg, the 29th of December, 1862, under our royal hand and seal.

[L. S.]

FREDERIK R.

R.

SWEDEN.

STOCKHOLM-B. F. TEFFT, Consul.

SEPTEMBER 30, 1863.

* Having devoted some time to the study of the statistics of Sweden, I have the honor herewith to transmit a general statistical survey of the country.

I. TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COUNTRY.

The area of Sweden, including land and water, is 3,865 square miles Swedish, which is six and two-thirds English. Of this area 3,492 square miles Swedish is land, and 373 square miles water.

Lakes. The number of navigable large lakes is twenty-five; of navigable small lakes the number is forty; and to these must be added two hundred and twelve more, not navigable in the ordinary sense of the term, but which are navigated by very small steamers, such as are common here, and nowhere else, I believe; of from two to ten horse power. There are also two hundred and five very small lakes, which are navigable only for yachts, skiffs, and scows.

Rivers. Of navigable rivers there are forty-one, of which twenty are navigable for large vessels, and twenty-one for sloops and steamers of a moderate size, while there are about fifty more on which the smallest steamers, such as those before mentioned, ply with small packages and passengers.

Islands.-Sweden is a country of islands, the bays of the Baltic and all the rivers being full of them. There are twenty-two large islands marked and named on the map of Sweden, and several thousand more whose names are known only to those living on or near them.

Water-falls. This country is also remarkable for the number and great dynamic power of its water-falls, of which there are twenty-five very remarkable, and several hundred suitable for mills and manufactories.

II. THE CLIMATE.

Sweden lies between. latitude 55° 25′ and 69° 3' N. and longitude 10° 50' and 24° 49′ E. of Greenwich, the average of latitude being 2° 14' higher than the southern coast of Greenland, and about 14° higher than the average northern boundary of the United States.

Gulf Stream.-It is separated from the direct influence of the Gulf Stream, first, by the interposition of the British islands, and secondly, by the whole length and breadth of Norway. So far as that wonderful provision for tempering the high latitudes of northern Europe is concerned, Sweden is nearly abandoned to the natural and direct force of latitude alone.

Seasons. The average time, therefore, of the closing of the Swedish lakes and rivers, in the middle of the country, is the 15th of December, and the average date of their opening is the 20th of April. The average length of the agricultural season, or the time between frosts, for middle Sweden, is about five months and twenty days, while the length of the season north of Stockholm, covering one of the most productive portions of the country, is only about four months and 15 days.

III. VALUATION OF PROPERTY.

The real property of Sweden by the returns of 1860 is set down at about $476,367,264 for the country districts, and for the cities at about $85,400,000; thus giving an aggregate of real property for the whole country $561,767,264. * This very able report has been necessarily abridged.

The personal property of Sweden has never been fully and satisfactorily returned to government, but is estimated to amount to one-quarter of the valuation of real property.

IV. OUTSIDE ACCOUNT.

There is but a trifle at any time due to Sweden from foreign countries.

The national debt.-The national debt of Sweden on the 30th of June, 1863, was about $10,390,000.

Other debts.-The outside debt of all the Swedish associations of every kind, at the same date, was about $30,600,000, a heavy sum for Sweden.

V. POPULATION.

The population of Sweden is made up of Swedes, Laps, Fins, and foreigners, and is thus divided. Foreigners, 2,000; Fins, 10,000; Laps, 5,685; Swedes, 3,982,355. Total, 3,990,040.

Of males there are....

Of females....

Excess of females.....

1,944, 399 2,055, 365

110,966

The annual increase from 1856 to 1860, 6 per cent. The total increase for the same period being 218,717.

VI. SANITARY CONCLUSIONS.

The climate of Sweden, though severe, is dry and bracing, and does not tend to the development of consumption, that scourge of northern latitudes. Its tendency is rather to inflammatory diseases.

It is a singular fact, in the relations between health and climate, that the maladies of southern latitudes, usually attributed to excessive heat, are indigenous also to this land of frost; for here in Stockholm, as well as in other considera`ble towns of Sweden, the Asiatic cholera, so called, and the Syrian leprosy are very virulent and common.

Not only the statistics of the country, but the most casual observation, show that the proportion of those born deaf, blind, and otherwise disabled, is alarmingly great. The number of those born free from all connatural blemish is exceedingly small.

Of children below one year, there die annually 16 per cent.; between one and two years, 40 per cent.; two and three years, 3 per cent.; adults at 30, 0.9 per cent.; adults at 40, 1 per cent.; adults at 50, 2 per cent.; adults at 80, 16 per cent.

It will be perceived, therefore, that 59 per cent. of all persons born in Sweden die before reaching the end of their third year.

The Swedes are remarkable for their attention to and for the means they have provided for the preservation of the public health; but so long as 49 per cent. of all children born in Stockholm are illegitimate, as is now the fact, and so long as the marriage covenant is so generally disregarded throughout the country, making future connexion between the nearest blood relatives unavoidable and frequent, because unknown, and impossible to be known, the infraction of the natural and revealed law must continue to fill Sweden with this miserable demand for charity.

Notwithstanding the great waste of life caused by this profligacy, and exhibited in the great mortality among children unlawfully born, and abandoned or neglected by their parents, the average longevity of the whole Swedish

population is no less than 51 years, or nearly eight years greater than the average longevity of the United States and Europe.

VII. PUBLIC CHARITIES.

There are in all Sweden 2,123 houses for the poor, besides one and two institutions each for widows, orphans, seamen, and soldiers; and the whole number of those relieved annually in the poor-houses about 133,000, and in all other institutions about 9,000; total, 142,000.

The annual cost of these public charities, in the poor-houses, is about $850,000; in all other institutions about $100,000.

VIII. CIVIL GOVERNMENT.

The government of Sweden is a monarchy limited by the constitution of 1809, and by the old laws of the land, which are regarded as most of all fundamental.

IX. THE JUDICIARY.

There is no distinction made in Sweden between law and equity. The courts are divided into two general classes, known as common courts and special

courts.

XIII. TAXATION.

Such has been the singular history of this country, that, costly as is its government, about fifty-one per cent. of the present population are born to an exemption from all personal taxation.

Though all the land is taxed, with the exceptions already made, the assessments are entirely unequal; some farms being taxed so heavily as to reduce their market value almost to zero, while other farms pay so little to government, and are consequently so high in market value, that none but the wealthy can own them. The natural result of this old historical system is, that practically the poor pay nearly all the taxes.

XIV. AGRICULTURE.

Land under plough.-The quantity of land under plough is returned at 5,000,000 tunnland-one tunnland being equal to one acre and a quarter English; and therefore the quantity of land under this sort of tillage amounts to an average of only about one and a half English acres to the individual, or seven acres and a half to an average family.

Land in grass.-The land in grass is reported at 4,000,000 tunnland, but a large part of this area is pasture, and the quantity of hay cut per annum is not reported.

Land seeded. The land annually seeded is returned, at only 2,475,279 tunnland, which gives an average of only 77 hundredths of an acre to the individual, or 3.85ths acres to the average family.

Grain sown. The average amount of grain sown for the last five years is 2,400,000 tons or barrels, giving not quite one barrel to an acre and a quarter. Potatoes.-The balance of the soil under plough is given to potatoes, of which there are annually about 1,300,000 tons or barrels planted.

Field above seed sown.-The yield of the leading agricultural products above

seed sown, and the ratio of increase in each kind, will be found in the following table:

Giving less than four tunns or barrels of grain to each inhabitant, or about twenty barrels to each family.

Yield of potatoes.-The yield of potatoes above seed is returned at 10,634,771 tons or barrels, or nearly thirteen and a half barrels to each average family; and it may be added that there are no better or more nutritious potatoes in the world.

Other products-To these productions must be added the yield of gardens, of fruit trees, and of wild berries of several sorts, of which the quantities and value are not known, but each of them is quite considerable as to amount and value; and the wild berries in particular, of which there are three kinds not produced in the United States-the lingon being the leading article in this category-are most valuable and abundaut. The lingon is a sort of mountain cranberry; it grows everywhere on the untilled lands of Sweden, and no peasant family undertakes to encounter the winter without a store of this fruit, ranging in amount from one to twenty barrels.

Hay cut, timber felled, and lumber manufactured, and cattle raised.—I have sought diligently to find the quantity of hay cut, of timber felled, of lumber manufactured, and cattle produced, but of these things there are no reliable records, only guesses and doubtful approximations in the possession of the government. But it is well understood that the aggregate value of these several items would nearly or quite double the before-mentioned productions of the country.

Savings from consumption.-It is plain that it is not what a nation produces but what it saves which constitutes its wealth, and nations which produce less may save more, and thus become more independent than other nations. This observation is due to Sweden, for its inhabitants are a frugal people; and were it not for some habits already mentioned, and the excessive cost of government, they would gradually pay their debts, and become even wealthy. The amounts saved, in the several kinds of products, may be found by comparing the amounts produced, as above given, with the following facts as to consumption:

Consumption of grain by persons.-The amount of grain consumed by persons is 9,137,810 tons or barrels.

Consumption by cattle.-The amount consumed by cattle is 2,393,929 tons. Potatoes consumed by persons.-The amount of potatoes consumed by persons is 8,142 05 tons.

Potatoes consumed by cattle.—The amount of potatoes consumed by cattle is 1,971,400 tons.

Products consumed in the manufacture of brandy.-The amount of grain consumed in the manufacture of Swedish brandy is 320,142 tons or barrels.

The amount of potatoes thus consumed is 1,221,320 barrels. That is, more than 1,200,000 bushels of grain and nearly 5,000,000 bushels of potatoes are