labour. His wife was making their brfad, arid had heated the
oven to bake i t ; the bread contained fo much ftraw, and fo little
meal, that in order to make the dough adhere, ihe was obliged to
ufe a wooden frame, fuch as is employed in making cheefe. He
had neithér field, nor cow, butter, milk, nor animal food, and was
exifting in the moil deplorable condition. I confefs the prefencc
o f thofe doric pillars, contrailed with fo much poverty and mifery,
irritated my feelings to fuch, a degree, that I ihould not have been
ferry to.fee them a heap o f ruins. T o what purpofe this parochial
magnificence, while the parifliioners themfelves remain in a
Hate o f ftarvatiori ! 1‘ Down,” faid I within myfelf, “ down with
the pillars, cupola, and temple ; give again to thefe poor wretches
their wonted humble place o f devotion, and inftead o f wafting
treafure on idle ihow, beftow it in cultivating the foil and giving
them fubfiitence.”
Nothing in fociety can be the iource o f more melancholy to a
feeling mind, than a quick and violent contrail o f extreme poverty
and luxury. I remember to have experienced fimilar mournful
reflections on the inequalities among men in the courfe.of .my
travels through the Britiih dominions. It was in Ireland, where,
happening to be with a hunting party, I perceived a hut formed
from a dunghill ; on looking within, I faw naked children fleeping
without any ibrt o f covering for their bodies, with their father, their
mother, and with hogs : and what fupported this miferable hovel?
A wall o f ten feet high, which furrounded “ his honour’s” park.
W ith regard to the poor Finlander, o f whom I have been fpeaking,
I communicated my imprefiions to Mr. Caftrein, who w'as
affe&ed by my defcription, and promifed to take care o f that unhappy
family.
One o f the wonders which our new friends were defirous to
fhew us in our walks about Kemi, was a bell that was intended to
be fixed in the dome o f the new church. W e were accompanied
thither by Mr. Caftrein’ s fillers, and our expedition was confidered
as a kind o f facred vifit. T he great objcit o f our curiofity turned
out to be a couple o f bells o f a moderate diameter: they were
loaded with a number o f Finlandiih infcriptions. The place
where they were, was but at a little diftance from the minifter’s
houfe. M o il o f our party, ourfelves excepted, were perfeftly acquainted
with the language o f Finland; and the ladies undertook
to read the infcriptions, and tranflate them into Swediih. T h e
prettieil girl in the company immediately read aloud, “ Catzo,
&c. &c. Scarcely had ihe pronounced the word, when we began
to laugh like fools, and the ladies, ignorant o f the caufe o f our
mirth, thought that catzo muft be a very laughable word, and
therefore never ceafed repeating it in the whole courfe o f our walk,
at table, in converfation, and on all occafions. L et the reader
judge what ibrt o f effedl this word, fo often repeated by the company,
muft have produced on the ears o f two Italians. Catzo, in
Finlandiih, fignifies here is.
Mr. Caftrein, who wiihed to inftrudl me in all the Finlandiih
cuftoms, aiked me if I had ever bathed according to the ufage of
the country; and being anfwered in the negative, faid, we ihould
V o l . I. X x then