The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

View158 SCANDINAVIA.the exact relation between the progress of instruction and puLlic morality. Muchof the undeniable demoralisation may, however, be fairly charged to bad harvestsand industrial causes, want and crime here, as elsewhere, following each other ascause and effect.Intemperance is the national vice, and even in the sagas we read how meadoverflowed at the gatherings of the vikings. Towards the middle of the presentcentury drink had become a scourge, threatening definitely to debase a great partFig -Goteborg :taken from the Botanic Garden.of the population. In 1855 over 40,000 distilleries were at work in Sweden alone,yielding vast quantities of branvin (brandy) ;yet at this period the trade hadalready been centralised. In 1830, when every farmer was also a distiller, therewere no less than 170,000 distilleries in the kingdom. Under fiscal restrictionsthe production has considerably diminished during the last twenty years. In thetowns also societies have been formed, with the exclusive right of retailing spiritson the condition of handing over all the profits to the municipalities, the General