But the strength of the Swedish army lies in its Indelta, a description of force peculiar to that country—unless the military colonies of Russia be considered a parallel case.
The crown possesses large estates, and these are leased out, like the knight’s fees in old times, on man service, and for that purpose are divided into hemmans, each hemman furnishing a man, who has a portion of it by way of pay—the hemman is not a measure of size, but of produce. Fertile hemmans are small, waste or barren hemmans are large; and thus it often happens, when a crown estate has been cleared and brought into cultivation, though quite as productive as some other estate, it furnishes a much smaller quota.
The holder of such a property, is then bound to serve himself, if capable, and to furnish a certain number of efficient soldiers, horse or foot, according to the size of his estate. The whole country is divided into military provinces, under colonels; these are subdivided into districts, under captains, with their proper complement of subaltern and non-commissioned officers, who are paid by the tenure of certain reserved farms, which they hold in virtue of their commissions.
Whenever the Indelta is called out—and a third of them assemble in camp every summer,—the crown tenants of the estates that furnished it are bound, at their own expense, to cultivate the farms which the soldiers hold, and to return to them their lands, when they are dismissed from active service, in the same condition in which they took charge of them, accounting for any sale of produce which they may have made.
The service of the Indelta is very popular, and for every vacancy there are at least half a dozen candidates. No application is ever received without written testimonials from the clergyman of the applicant’s parish, and no man is ever admitted who has been convicted of any crime. Many of these crown holdings have been purchased and re-purchased, and transferred from hand to hand so often, that they are regarded as a sort of private property, and their tenants very often complain of being burthened to a greater extent than their countrymen. This, however, is as unreasonable as that a tenant should complain that in paying rent he is not on an equality with the proprietor in fee. The sale of crown lands is merely the transference of a beneficial lease.
So far as the morals of the people are concerned, the patronage of the Indelta, and the reward it holds to good conduct, act very beneficially; as to the efficacy of the force, the wars of Gustavus Adolphus and of Charles XII., may form a pretty fair criterion. The strength of this contingent to the Swedish army, may be reckoned at 20,000 infantry, and 5,000 cavalry, and has the advantage of being always available.
“You may come out of your hole now, Birger,” said his friend, the artilleryman, who, arriving hot and dusty from the barracks, was lounging down the streets, with his jacket open and his stiff military stock in his hand, a free and easy style of dress, in which an English officer would think it just impossible to put his nose beyond the barrack gates. “The General and all his staff are gone in a body to Arfwedsen’s Villa, so you are safe for to-day.”
“And for to-morrow, too,” said Birger, “for the steamer starts for Stockholm to-morrow morning early; while you were amusing yourselves, I have been doing business. As soon as I heard from the sound of your guns that the General was safe, I stepped down to the quay, went on board the Daniel Thunberg, and engaged two cabins—we will toss up who is to have the cabin to himself.”
“Why, where’s Moodie?”
“Moodie!” said Birger, taking out his watch, “why, by this time Moodie is at Agnesberg.”