ts and cotters. Nor is there any trace of that equality in the mode
of living which Mr. Laing found in existence among the several classes
of the rural population--'the public functionary, the clergyman, the
gentleman of larger property, and the _Bonde_ or peasant.' Refinement
and culture, equal to what exists amongst corresponding classes of this
country, are wanting only to the yeomen farmers; and their efforts to
adopt a 'higher standard of living,' and to acquire the 'comforts of
life,' have in no small degree conduced to the encumbrance of their
estates. From the Reports of the Prefects it is evident that the gravest
symptom of the decline of the rural economy in Norway, and, at the same
time, one of its principle causes, is the heavy indebtedness of the
yeomen farmers, great and small. Its origin is traceable to the year
1816, when the Bank of Norway was founded, chiefly for the purpose of
'advancing on its own notes, upon first securities over land, any sum
not exceeding two-thirds of the value of the property' mortgaged to it.
Mr. Laing alludes to it as 'the peculiar, and for the wants of the
country, well-imagined, Bank of Norway,' which 'facilitates greatly the
family arrangements with regard to land.' Its capital was originally
raised by a forced loan or tax upon all landed property, and the
landholders became shareholders according to the amount of their
respective shares. The borrower repaid half-yearly to the Bank the
interest of the sum that might be to his debit at the rate of 4 per
cent. per annum, and was also bound to pay off 5 per cent. yearly of the
principal, which was thus liquidated in twenty years. Although Mr. Laing
was of opinion that 'a circulation of paper money on such a basis is
evidently next, in point of security, to that of the precious metals,'
he fails to mention that the Bank was forced to suspend specie payments
three years after its establishment, and that the resumption of those
payments was not commenced until 1823, when the notes of the Bank began
to be convertible at little over half their original value; the
operation of raising them to par, on a graduated scale, having been
completed only in 1842, a period since which the Bank, with an increased
Reserve Fund, has maintained an uninterrupted and unimpeachable
stability. But while the Bank still advances money on the security of
landed property, two-thirds of its resources are now employed in the
discount of mercantile bills. At