In the little and carefully governed town of Orebro, the number of poor during the year 1780 was no more than 70 or 80 individuals, and in the year 1832 it was 400! In the parish of Nora, in the province of Nerike, the alms given in the year 1814 were 170 rix-dollars 4 sk.; and in 1832, 2138 rix-dollars 27 sk.; and so on at many other places in the kingdom. That the case was otherwise in Sweden formerly, is proved by history. Botin says that a laborious life, abhorrence of idleness and fear of poverty, was the cause why indigent and destitute persons could be found, but no beggars. Each family sustained its destitute and impotent, and would have deemed it a shame to receive support from others. [Sidenote: The price of 8 kappar = 1½ doll., or 2_s._ 5_d._] When the accounts required from the secretary of state for ecclesiastical affairs, regarding the number of and institutions for the poor, shall be reduced to order, and issue from the press, they must impart most important information. By the interesting report on this subject by the Bishop of Wexio, we learn, that the proportion of the poor to the population is as 1 to 73 in the government of Wexio, and as 1 to 54 in that of Jönköping. The assessed poor-taxes are, on an average, for every farm (hemman,) eight kappar corn in the former government, and 12½ in the latter. With regard to the institutions for the poor, it is said, the more we give the more is demanded, and instead of the poor-rates being regulated by the want, the want is regulated by the profusion of charities and poor-taxes. In the bishopric of Wisby (Island of Gottland), the proportion between the poor and those who can maintain themselves, is far more favourable than in that of Wexio; for in the former only 1 in 104 inhabitants is indigent, and in 22 parishes there is no common almshouse at all. Among 40,000 individuals, no more than 17 were unable to read.--(p. 377.) RUSSIA. A general outline of the provision for the poor in Russia, is contained in the following extracts from Mr. Bligh’s report, (pp. 328, 329, 330). As far as regards those parts of the empire which may most properly be called Russia, it will not be necessary for me to detain your Lordship long, since in them (where in fact by far the greatest portion of the population is to be found), the peasantry, being in a state of slavery, the lords of the soil are induced more by their own interest, than compelled by law, to take care that its cultivators, upon whom their means of deriving advantage from their estates depend, are not entirely without the means of subsistence.