n the beginning for the wide reputation which the Norwegians
have for honest simplicity of character; but the accounts given by
former travellers are undeserved praise if applied at present. The
people are trading on fictitious capital. "Should I have a written
contract?" I asked of a landlord, in relation to a man with whom I was
making a bargain. "Oh, no," said he, "everybody is honest in Norway;"
and the same man tried his best to cheat me. Said Braisted, "I once
heard an old sailor say,--'when a man has a reputation for honesty,
watch him!'"--and there is some knowledge of human nature in the remark.
Norway was a fresh field when Laing went thither opportunities for
imposition were so rare, that the faculty had not been developed; he
found the people honest, and later travellers have been content with
echoing his opinion. "When I first came to the country," said an Irish
gentleman who for ten years past has spent his summers there, "I was
advised, as I did not understand the currency, to offer a handful in
payment, and let the people take what was due to them." "Would you do it
now?" I asked. "No, indeed," said he, "and the man who then advised me,
a Norwegian merchant, now says he would not do it either." An English
salmon-fisher told me very much the same thing. "I believe they are
honest in their intercourse with each other," said he; "but they do not
scruple to take advantage of travellers whenever they can." For my own
part, I must say that in no country of Europe, except Italy, have I
experienced so many attempts at imposition. Another Englishman, who has
been farming in Norway for several years, and who employs about forty
labourers, has been obliged to procure Swedes, on account of the
peculations of native hands. I came to Norway with the popular
impression concerning the people, and would not confess myself so
disagreeably undeceived, could I suppose that my own experiences were
exceptional. I found, however, that they tallied with those of other
travellers; and the conclusion is too flagrant to be concealed.

As a general rule, I have found the people honest in proportion as they
are stupid. They are quick-witted whenever the spirit of gain is
aroused; and the ease with which they pick up little arts of
acquisitiveness does not suggest an integrity proof against temptation.
It is but a negative virtue, rather than that stable quality rooted in
the very core of a man's nature. I may, perhaps, judge a little