Dryden's fable of the flower and the leaf was not a more
poetical reverie.
Adieu, however, to fancy, and to all the sentiments which ennoble
our nature. I arrived at Laurvig, and found myself in the midst of
a group of lawyers of different descriptions. My head turned round,
my heart grew sick, as I regarded visages deformed by vice, and
listened to accounts of chicanery that was continually embroiling
the ignorant. These locusts will probably diminish as the people
become more enlightened. In this period of social life the
commonalty are always cunningly attentive to their own interest; but
their faculties, confined to a few objects, are so narrowed, that
they cannot discover it in the general good. The profession of the
law renders a set of men still shrewder and more selfish than the
rest; and it is these men, whose wits have been sharpened by
knavery, who here undermine morality, confounding right and wrong.
The Count of Bernstorff, who really appears to me, from all I can
gather, to have the good of the people at heart, aware of this, has
lately sent to the mayor of each district to name, according to the
size of the place, four or six of the best-informed inhabitants, not
men of the law, out of which the citizens were to elect two, who are
to be termed mediators. Their office is to endeavour to prevent
litigious suits, and conciliate differences. And no suit is to be
commenced before the parties have discussed the dispute at their
weekly meeting. If a reconciliation should, in consequence, take
place, it is to be registered, and the parties are not allowed to
retract.
By these means ignorant people will be prevented from applying for
advice to men who may justly be termed stirrers-up of strife. They
have for a long time, to use a significant vulgarism, set the people
by the ears, and live by the spoil they caught up in the scramble.
There is some reason to hope that this regulation will diminish
their number, and restrain their mischievous activity. But till
trials by jury are established, little justice can be expected in
Norway. Judges who cannot be bribed are often timid, and afraid of
offending bold knaves, lest they should raise a set of hornets about
themselves. The fear of censure undermines all energy of character;
and, labouring to be prudent, they lose sight of rectitude.
Besides, nothing is left to their conscience, or sagacity; they must
be governed by evidence, though internally convinced that it is
false.
There is a considerable iron manufactory at Laurvig for coarse work,
and a lake near the town supplies the water necessary for working
several mills belonging to it.
This establishment belongs to the Count of Laurvig. Without a
fortune and influence equal to his, such a work could not have been
set afloat; personal fortunes are not yet sufficient to support such
undertakings. Nevertheless the inhabitants of the town speak of the
size of his estate as an evil, because it obstructs commerce. The
occupiers of small farms are obliged to bring their wood to the
neighbouring seaports to be shipped; but he, wishing to increase the
value of his, will not allow it to be thus gradually cut down, which
turns the trade into another channel. Added to this, nature is
against them, the bay being open and insecure. I could not help
smiling when I was informed that in a hard gale a vessel had been
wrecked in the main street. When there are such a number of
excellent harbours on the coast, it is a pity that accident has made
one of the largest towns grow up on a bad one.
The father of the present count was a distant relation of the
family; he resided constantly in Denmark, and his son follows his
example. They have not been in possession of the estate many years;
and their predecessor lived near the town, introducing a degree of
profligacy of manners which has been ruinous to the inhabitants in
every respect, their fortunes not being equal to the prevailing
extravagance.
What little I have seen of the manners of the people does not please
me so well as those of Tonsberg. I am forewarned that I shall find
them still more cunning and fraudulent as I advance towards the
westward, in proportion as traffic takes place of agriculture, for
their towns are built on naked rocks, the streets are narrow
bridges, and the inhabitants are all seafaring men, or owners of
ships, who keep shops.
The inn I was at in Laurvig this journey was not the same that I was
at before. It is a good one - the people civil, and the
accommodations decent. They seem to be better provided in Sweden;
but in justice I ought to add that they charge more extravagantly.
My bill at Tonsberg was also much higher than I had paid in Sweden,
and much higher than it ought to have been where provision is so
cheap. Indeed, they seem to consider foreigners as strangers whom
they shall never see again, and may fairly pluck. And the
inhabitants of the western coast, isolated, as it were, regard those
of the east almost as strangers. Each town in that quarter seems to
be a great family, suspicious of every other, allowing none to cheat
them but themselves; and, right or wrong, they support one another
in the face of justice.
On this journey I was fortunate enough to have one companion with
more enlarged views than the generality of his countrymen, who spoke
English tolerably.
I was informed that we might still advance a mile and a quarter in
our cabrioles; afterwards there was no choice, but of a single horse
and wretched path, or a boat, the usual mode of travelling.
