family was obliged to be an independent community.

These cottagers work at a certain price (tenpence per day) for the
farmers on whose ground they live, and they have spare time enough
to cultivate their own land and lay in a store of fish for the
winter. The wives and daughters spin and the husbands and sons
weave, so that they may fairly be reckoned independent, having also
a little money in hand to buy coffee, brandy and some other
superfluities.

The only thing I disliked was the military service, which trammels
them more than I at first imagined. It is true that the militia is
only called out once a year, yet in case of war they have no
alternative but must abandon their families. Even the manufacturers
are not exempted, though the miners are, in order to encourage
undertakings which require a capital at the commencement. And, what
appears more tyrannical, the inhabitants of certain districts are
appointed for the land, others for the sea service. Consequently, a
peasant, born a soldier, is not permitted to follow his inclination
should it lead him to go to sea, a natural desire near so many
seaports.

In these regulations the arbitrary government--the King of Denmark
being the most absolute monarch in Europe--appears, which in other
respects seeks to hide itself in a lenity that almost renders the
laws nullities. If any alteration of old customs is thought of, the
opinion of the old country is required and maturely considered. I
have several times had occasion to observe that, fearing to appear
tyrannical, laws are allowed to become obsolete which ought to be
put in force or better substituted in their stead; for this mistaken