keskiviikko 5. tammikuuta 2022

Rikollisuutta Ruotsissa vuonna 1799

Eilen mainittu naisten uskottomuuden yleisyys ei ollut ainoa yllätys loordi Broughamin muistelmissa. Yleisesti (Suomen tapaan) rehelliseksi kehutussa Ruotsissa hän joutui kestikievarissa lokakuussa 1799 varkaan uhriksi:

Oct. 9. Our journey had been through forests, only interrupted here and there by pieces of cultivated plain, and occasionally great masses of rock, the inns being generally bad. At one of them we had our pistols broken, and one of them stolen. The excuse was that they had been left out, and that there were many passengers beside ourselves. 

But as our writing-desks and the rest of our luggage had been in our bedrooms, and we never absent except for half an hour while our supper was getting ready, and while we were in the kitchen to hurry them with it, we therefore never thought of examining desks or luggage, and only found next day (October 10), on our arrival at Jönköping (a singular-looking town half fortified on the Wettern Sea), that our desks had been opened and the greater part of the money taken. 

October 10 was spent in going to the judge to have a proclamation published, offering a reward through all the churches, and in our writing to Copenhagen to have the bills which had been taken stopped ; so we did not leave Jönköping till eleven at night, Our carriage having now got a canvas covering on it, we resolved to travel all night as soon as a driver could be found ; and in the state of our broken arms, we were comforted by being told that a Jew had been robbed and murdered not far from the town. (The Life and Times of Henry, Lord Brougham. Vol 1. 1871, s. 141-142)

Varkaiden uhrit siis peruttivat setelinsä (kuten minun nuoruudessani matkashekit), kuuluttivat varkaan perään kirkoissa ja saivat lohdutuksekseen kuulla, että huono-onnisempi yksilö oli sekä ryöstetty että murhattu.

Tukholmaan päästyä Ruotsin rikollisuus saa lisäväriä:

While we were at Stockholm several instances happened: a man killed his wife because she would not assist him in corrupting his own daughter. Three men were hanged for forgery (one of them a nobleman). They continued forging notes even whilst in prison. A gang of thieves robbed a noble's house with the assistance of his servants. Another gang formed a plan to rob and murder indiscriminately, throwing the bodies into the sea; and this they actually perpetrated on several. (s. 165-166)

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