Page:Archaeological Journal, Volume 4.djvu/104

92 the geographical position of Sweden was favourable to an intercourse with the north-eastern districts of Europe; and therefore, while it is certain the Swedes were at times associated with the Danes, in their expeditions to the English coast, it is also true that they did not, from natural causes, appear in equal numbers.

Notwithstanding the perpetual troubles, occasioned by contests for its sovereignty, to which Sweden was subjected for ages, the inhabitants of that country appear to have kept pace with the rest of Europe in civilization, and in certain respects they were in advance of their neighbours. The important work which has suggested this notice, and to which we are glad to call the attention of English students, as an invaluable contribution to our materials for comparative history, shews that in the thirteenth century the tenure of property was at least as secure in Sweden as in England; perhaps more so, for among the numerous wills here printed we find many belonging to persons of inferior degree, as servants for example, who could scarcely have made a safe testamentary disposition in this country during the same period. From these documents we find that the manumission of serfs was already in progress, and whereas few English wills of a corresponding date contain emancipatory clauses, such provisions occur invariably in the last testaments of the sovereigns, ecclesiastics, and landowners of Sweden. In the same century that witnessed the grant of Magna Charta and the first recognised meeting of the English commons, the Swedish peasant had his property secured to him by a penal law, and while our first Edward was exhausting the resources of his realm on the unfortunate invasion of Scotland, Magnus Ladelas, king of Sweden, sank into the grave, craving the pardon of his subjects, whose liberties he had augmented, for any wrong done unto them by his authority; and prayed that his name might linger in their memories, and not "pass away with the sound of the bells."

The sources whence the documents printed in the volumes of MM. Liljegren, Hildebrand, and Kröningsvard have been derived are various. The records in the government archives furnish the greater part of their contents, and where originals were wanting their places have been supplied by copies from the registers of cathedrals, the chartularies of monasteries, and from the "codices diplomatici," which are stated to be books of transcripts of public documents made officially in early times; corresponding in some degree with our legal enrolments. Many ancient charters and ordinances have been preserved by recital in the old Swedish laws. These materials are arranged in strict chronological order, and the editors have ensured the completeness and enhanced the value of their publication by wisely incorporating charters, &c., which were scattered through works printed at various times, and even in foreign countries; a plan which should have been adopted in the publications of our Commissioners of the Public Records. A table is prefixed to each volume, indicating the depository of the several instruments; the seals appended to them are minutely described, both with respect to their condition, the colour of the wax, and to the ar-