ased me
so much in the conduct of the people on the sea coast. A man who has
been detected in any dishonest act can no longer live among them. He is
universally shunned, and shame becomes the severest punishment.

Such a contempt have they, in fact, for every species of fraud, that they
will not allow the people on the western coast to be their countrymen; so
much do they despise the arts for which those traders who live on the
rocks are notorious.

The description I received of them carried me back to the fables of the
golden age: independence and virtue; affluence without vice; cultivation
of mind, without depravity of heart; with "ever smiling Liberty;" the
nymph of the mountain. I want faith!

My imagination hurries me forward to seek an asylum in such a retreat
from all the disappointments I am threatened with; but reason drags me
back, whispering that the world is still the world, and man the same
compound of weakness and folly, who must occasionally excite love and
disgust, admiration and contempt. But this description, though it seems
to have been sketched by a fairy pencil, was given me by a man of sound
understanding, whose fancy seldom appears to run away with him.

A law in Norway, termed the _odels right_, has lately been modified, and
probably will be abolished as an impediment to commerce. The heir of an
estate had the power of re-purchasing it at the original purchase money,
making allowance for such improvements as were absolutely necessary,
during the space of twenty years. At present ten is the term allowed for
afterthought; and when the regulation was made, all the men of abilities
were invited to give their opinion whether it were better to abrogate or
modify it. It is certainly a convenient and safe way of mortgaging land;
yet the most rational men whom I conversed with on the subject seemed
convinced that the right was more injurious than beneficial to society;
still if it contribute to keep the farms in the farmers' own hands, I
should be sorry to hear that it were abolished.

The aristocracy in Norway, if we keep clear of Christiania, is far from
being formidable; and it will require a long the to enable the merchants
to attain a sufficient moneyed interest to induce them to reinforce the
upper class at the expense of the yeomanry, with whom they are usually
connected.

England and America owe their liberty to commerce, which created new
species of power to undermine the feudal syst