is said, have embarked therein a capital of £50,000. Great encouragement is given by the Swedish government to the consumption of porter in preference to that of ardent spirits, the use of which has been attempted to be restrained by every means that could well be devised; even those who keep post-horses or vehicles for hire are prohibited from selling spirits, or any matter which might afford an excuse for an indulgence in the use of ardent spirits. Could the pernicious practice of taking schnaps or drams, which is too prevalent, be restrained, it would have a powerful effect in reforming the habits and curbing the propensities of the lower classes from those irregularities into which they too frequently fall. Although the vice is generally condemned, yet those who are often busy in its condemnation, render themselves frequently reprehensible in this respect. An anecdote proving the truth of this observation is related of a young man, who being intoxicated, met two sober young friends that reproached him for his intemperance; but the moralists had a short-lived triumph, for in the evening of the same day, when he had become sober, he met his admonishers reeling along as drunk as Bacchus. "What!" said he, as he stood eying them with a look of pity and contempt, "are these the persons that reproved me this morning for an irregularity into which they themselves have so grossly fallen in the evening ?" The good old practice of domestic brewing is still followed in Sweden, and the beer is represented as sweet and wholesome. In the year 1797, there were fifty breweries and forty-seven vintners in Stockholm. Regnard describes a drink which he met with in that city, termed calchat, consisting of beer, wine, and sugar. Formerly it was customary in Sweden to drink healths out of goblets of a size proportioned to the rank or respectability of the person whose health was proposed, so that a goblet to the health of a king was as much, if not more, than could be taken as a bumper. At entertainments in some parts of Sweden, a beverage is used termed bishop, which consists of a mixture of Burgundy, Claret, Sugar, Spices, and Seville Oranges. At Stockholm, every description of luxury is to be found which is common in Europe, and although the manufactures are insufficient for the supply of the country, the deficiency is made up by importation, a view of which may be seen in a Table of the Addenda. As agriculture in Sweden has been carefully attended to, much of the sterility of the soil has been overcome, and the land, in many places, rendered tolerably productive. Oats, barley, rye, and wheat are cultivated, but not in sufficient quantity for home consumption, since it has been calculated that upwards of 300,000 tons of grain are yearly imported. In the north of the kingdom, there are neither apples, pears, plums, cherries, nor any kind of fruit cultivated; but nature has been bountiful in bestowing on it a profusion of wild fruit ; of these there are six species of raspberry, three of currants, four of whortle berries, and a peculiar sort of wild gooseberry. In order to save grain, which is sometimes so scarce and dear in that country, it was proposed in 1747, by Mr. Charles Skytes, to distil brandy from potatoes. The experiment was tried, and it was found that an acre of potatoes compared with an acre of barley, would yield a spirit in the proportion of 566 to 156, even admitting the potato to grow in the worst kind of ground, and the barley in the best. It has been ascertained by Dr. Anderson, that 72lbs. of potatoes, when properly fermented, will produce one English gallon of pure spirit, considerably above proof, with an additional quart something below proof. This liquor has been found to possess qualities of the best description both in taste and flavour. The annual duty on the spirits distilled in the country, has seldom exceeded £41,541. Besides the use to which potatoes have been converted by the Swedes in the distillation of spirits, they have extracted sugar from them, and the apples of this vegetable, when ripe, ferment and yield vinegar by exposure to the atmosphere. At Upsala, there are public cellars like the tap-rooms in England, where beer, brandy, and wine are obtained in great abundance. The beer is made at Stockholm, the brandy is highly flavoured with anise-seed, and when mixed with water, it appears as white as if milk had been mingled with it. These cellars are often the arena of revelry and drunkenness, in which, according to Clarke, the students spend more of their time than is favourable either to the practice of morality, or the pursuits of literature. There is such a rage for the use of auise-seed in Sweden, that they mix it with bread and drink. The bread, which is generally made of rye, is so full of it, that both it and their brandy are, at first, unpalatable to strangers. The Swedes are as partial to this plant, as the Chinese are to the use of the illicium anisatum for seasoning dishes; and the Japanese also display such a love for it, that they have garlands of it in their temples, before their idols, and on the tombs of their friends, besides using its powdered bark, as an incense to their gods. Linnæus himself has left a memorial of the national partiality for this plant, by naming it illicium, which signifies an allurement. Great quantities of the seed are used at the brandy distilleries of Helsingberg ; and although some dilute this liquor with water, it is the common practice to drink it raw, not only in Sweden, but throughout Norway and Russia. All the post-houses on the mountainous passes in Sweden and Norway are tax free, and they have the privilege of selling corn-brandy for the accommodation of travellers. Spruce beer is a beverage much in use among the Swedes. It is said to have originated from the salutary effects produced by boiling the tops of the spruce fir, and giving the liquid to the soldiers employed against the Russians, during a war with that people, and at a time when the scurvy had made great ravages. The recovery of the army was on this occasion so miraculous, that the Swedes ever after continued to call this fir, the scorbutic tree. From the fruit of the rubus arcticus, a most delicious wine is procured, the use of which is confined to the nobility in Sweden; and the Swedes make an agreeable liqueur, resembling lemonade, from the berries of the rubus chamamorus. Among the Swedish imports, English porter is still an estimable commodity, notwithstanding the prosperity of the native breweries. The privilege of importing this liquor is confined to Gottenburg, and the consumption of it is great, on account of the number of hands employed in the fishery and oil trade. Brandy, however, is the favourite beverage, and the custom of using it before breakfast and dinner, is as much a characteristic of a Scandinavian or of a Russian, as the ceremonious gifts of tobacco and coffee are of a Turk or of an Arabian. Strangers in Sweden are subject to many diseases, which never attack the natives; and if you ask how they escape these disorders, they answer that they preserve their health by drinking brandy, morning and evening. But they do not confine the drinking of brandy to these two periods of the day, for the dram bottle is ever at hand, even in the king's palace; and there are fourteen different stages in the day's dram-drinking, each having a distinct name, but it is expected that the Crown Prince, who is favourable to Temperance Societies, will bring about a reformation in this degrading habit. The population of Sweden, in 1830, was 2,904,538, of whom the half may be considered consumers of brandy. These may be divided into three classes, according to the number of drams taken daily:viz. Canns. million take 5 drams daily, or 60 canns yearly, 30,000,000. 18,000,000. 12,000,000. The cann is valued at a rix-dollar, or one English shilling, which gives an amount of 60,000,000 rix-dollars spent on brandy. The following is a return of the number of pans employed, with the amount of canns of brandy manufactured in Sweden, during the years specified: viz. For a view of the importation of wine, together with the quantities. of malt-liquors exported, the reader is referred to the Addenda. The cann is computed to hold 30 drams; and 100 canns are equal to 69 English wine-gallons. The number of pans has been reduced to about 150,000, which is mainly owing to the exertions of the Temperance Society; but unfortunately the imports show that the efforts of this Society are, as yet, but limited. The brandy-pans, as they are termed, are of various sizes: some are only large enough to make four canns, while others can make ninety and upwards. However writers may be divided with regard to the character of the Swedes, on the whole it may be affirmed, that no person of fine feelings and warm fancy can, without regret, quit a country so remarkable for its picturesque scenery and the hospitality of its inhabitants. In Lapland, a large portion of which is subject to Sweden, scarcity is sometimes so great that the inhabitants are compelled to feed upon the bark of trees: yet, amidst this desolate region, a late traveller ascribes the only evils with which the people are beset to the habitual use of brandy. Their love for this liquor is such, that they have been known to give a crown for a glass,† and to exchange one of their best rein-deer for six drams of the common Swedish spirit. They regard their passion for it as a misfortune, but when remonstrance is made on the subject, they say that without brandy they could have no wives. This unhappily is too true, for when a young Laplander wishes to choose a wife, he must first furnish a friend with some bottles of brandy, to mediate between him and her father, who is disposed to permit the visits of the lover only in proportion to the brandy he brings. This perquisite too often induces a parent to postpone the nuptials of a daughter for two or three years. From the pleasure it gives in this world, they consider a little of it necessary for comfort in the next, hence they put into the coffin of a deceased friend a flask of brandy with other articles, in order that he may cheer himself on his journey.§ In a country where the winters are so rigorous and the cold so intense, it need scarcely seem surprising, that an ignorant and savage people should have recourse to strong liquors, to enliven the solitude of their rocks and mountains, and to give a brisker flow to their spirits. It is a ceremony not unworthy of relation, that when a Laplander has laid hold of the glass or mug, out of which he is about to drink, he first dips his forefinger into the liquor, rubs a little of it to his forehead, then on his bosom, and with the celerity of lightning, empties the contents into his stomach. These innocent people think that those precautions prevent the ardour of the spirits from injuring either head or heart. Their chief supply of brandy is drawn from the border fairs of Norway, Sweden, Muscovy, and Finland. To these places they generally resort in caravans, or companies, travelling in sledges drawn by the rein-deer, and their furs, baskets, cheese made of rein-deers' milk, dried fish, toys, and the deer itself, for their favourite liquor, and for such necessaries as they may want. Whole families go to market in this way, and seldom return without experiencing some of the fatal consequences of too great an indulgence in their passion for strong liquors. Lapland abounds with the rubus chamamorus, or, as it is called cloud-berry, from being found on the tops of mountains, the fruit of Vide Clarke's Travels, vol. v. p. 404. § Ibid. vol. v. p. 404. Thompson's Travels in Sweden, p.343. † Ehrenmalm. |