tempted to abuse you, as an English coachman would have done in a similar case. On one occasion I offered a postboy a skilling banco, which was all the copper money I had in my possession. He returned it to me again with the greatest good-humour; and when I gave it to a boy who was standing beside him, he seemed quite delighted with the joke."

So much for their good-humour, and the doctor's idea of a joke. But it appears that they have some qualities to set off this amiable disposition, as they are always inclined to take advantage of the necessities of strangers. The examples which are given us of this grasping disposition, as coming within, our traveller's own knowledge, are certainly singular. Having had the misfortune to break the wheel of the carriage, they applied for assistance to a country blacksmith, at whose house they were obliged to spend the night, and put up with such accommodation as his cottage afforded. The fare which they here met with was not of the most elegant description, consisting of rye cakes, butter, potatoes, and eggs; but the bill next morning, if it had not been inserted under the head" peasantry imposing," we should have been inclined to have considered as an example of moderation. The charges were, for mending the wheel six shillings, for dinner, lodging, and breakfast, two shillings and eiglitpence; and this for the board and lodging of two gentlemen and their servant, which even taking the additional charge of eighteen pence for the horses into consideration, does not seem to warrant the accusation of want of generosity which is made against Olof Essen, not only in this place, but when the recollection is accidentally recalled in a different part of the journey. We must not think of travelling with Dr. Thomson; and, perhaps, dining with him, if he estimates cost in this way, might not be a very good speculation. Another example was given, with which our author was not less struck, or ourselves less amused. He lost a screw nail from sonie part of the carriage, which he replaced with an old nail procured from a peasant. This, to his surprise, he was asked to pay for, but not having any change sufficiently small for compensation, he drove off without complying with the demand. This is brought forward as an instance of exaction; but as the doctor has so good a remedy at hand against extortion as a pair of light heels, we really think he might have spared his complaints. To render these objects of imposition the more striking, we are favoured with an instance of Scottish generosity, which happened to our author some years before in an excursion through the Highlands. The partiality of Dr. Thomson to the north of Tweed is no new quality in our Scottish neighbours. In Dr. Thomson it is carried to a very amiable excess.

At Stockholm Dr. Thomson spent three weeks out of the six or seven employed in this tour of twelve hundred miles. The description of this city may, therefore, very naturally be expected to be the most finished and amusing of any in the work and in this we were not disappointed. Indeed, it is this chapter which convinces us that, had it not been for the shortness of the time allotted to the journey, a sort of meddling activity of mind which prompted the traveller to treat of every thing, and the perpetual recurrence to the common-place book, with a view to a speedy publication of the journey, Dr. Thomson might have risen to mediocrity in the class of modern tourists. The following picture of the city is spirited, and contains fewer of those inaccuracies of style and language which swarm, in other parts.

"In consequence of the great inequality of the ground, and the abundance of water on all sides, it is not easy to form an adequate notion of the size of Stockholm. The best point of view is the little hill on which the observatory stands: it commands the whole city. You take in at once all the remarkable buildings, the squares, spires, streets, lake, and shipping. Nothing can be more romantic than the view of Stockholm from this place. The houses are almost all of stone or brick covered with plaister. The churches are mostly crowned with magnificent spires. The inlet of the Baltic covered with shipping; the lake Malar scattered with little hills, constituting islands, some of which were covered with buildings or forts, while others are bare cliffs, or thick set with bushes or pines the environs in every direction entirely in a state of nature no marks of culture, and scarcely a gentleman's seat any where to be seen; but the remarkable inequality of the ground, the great proportion of water, the abundance of wood, and the fine contrast between the dark green of the pines and the lively green of the oaks; the autumnal yellow of the birches, and the red of the poplar, formed a whole exceedingly pleasing and beautiful. Hardly a rock, I should suppose, exceeds one hundred feet in height; yet the inequality, small as it is, adds prodigiously to the beauty. Much of the beauty is owing to the lake, and not a little to the striking contrast between the magnificence of the city and the wildness of the environs."

Stockholm contains many beautiful public structures. The palace, which is placed in the central island, is of immense extent. The mint, the exchange, and the houses of the nobles, are of considerable consequence; and a spacious and magnificent bridge joins the island to the continent, from the centre of which the finest part of the city forms a striking view. The streets in general are not regular, and are mostly narrow. The Swedish theatre is very small, but neat. Short Swedish plays, usually translations from the French, are here performed. There is

likewise an opera-house, which, though not splendid on the outside, is very elegant within. It was originally destined for the exhibition of Italian operas, but for some time past all those performed in it have been in the Swedish language. Our author states that he spent much time in the inquiry whether the Swedes had any music which might be deemed national, but could not ascertain that they had. The music universally played was Italian. Although his request of playing a Swedish song was often complied with, the tunes, though pretty enough, were all impressed with evident marks of being quite modern; and the resemblance which they bore to the Italian or French was too striking to be overlooked.

But what shall we say to the critical dissertation upon the language, which follows in this part? When we first perused it, we thought that we were under some mistake in supposing that the doctor had told us, at first setting out, that he was totally unacquainted with it, and entirely without the means of making enquiry. But upon referring back we found it to be actually true, that a person who could not ask his way to an inn at Gottenburg fancied himself qualified to write a dissertation upon the comparative merits of the language at Stockholm. Are we to consider this as an unparalleled advancement in philology, or shall we set it down as foreign ornament and the venial flourish of a travelled man? We are the more inclined to this latter opinion, as we shall have occasion hereafter to observe that Dr. Thomson has not confined himself entirely to the observations which he had himself an opportunity of making, but has sometimes borrowed with more freedom than he has thought it necessary to declare. There is, however, one circumstance from which we should be inclined to infer that the criticism comes partly from himself,-an incidental comparison between the Scottish and English dialects; at which, however, he gives it as his own opinion, that an Englishman would smile with incredulity or contempt. We are not at this present moment disposed to enter the lists upon the comparative merits of "halfpenny and bawbie," or "cool and cawler," but shall content ourselves with the accidental circumstance which, in his opinion, alone confers superiority upon the English, namely, that England is the residence of the court, and of consequence the standard of accurate and fashionable pronunciation. These strictures are concluded with the following opinion of the Swedish lan guage:

"Upon the whole, the Swedish language seems highly deserving of cultivation, and preservation, though, from the small population of the country, and the little encouragement which authors experience

in Sweden, the language can never expect to rival the English, Ger man, and French, which may be considered as the three general languages of Europe. Still it is probable, that the merits of the Swedish writers, and the merits of the language itself, will gradually give it a much greater currency through Europe than it has hitherto attained."

But we are now to introduce our author in a new character. As a political historian he has undertaken to give an account of one of the most singular revolutions ever recorded in the page of history. It was with peculiar interest that we turned to a statement which promised at least to be impartial, of events not the least perplexing amongst the extraordinary changes of modern Europe. But we found that the whole of this part of the work before us was a mere transcript of an account of late events, published under the authority of the present government of Sweden, and which has just made its appearance in this country in an English dress. To this work an acknowledgment is made for about five pages relative to the conspiracy, whereas candour would have demanded that inverted commas should not only have been placed upon these, but upon thirty pages more, containing an account of previous occurrences in the life of the unfortunate Gustavus Adolphus, which, in Dr. Thomson's opinion, rendered the revolution not only justifiable but necessary. He tells us, as the result of his inquiry, that this monarch had just stepped over that line, whose boundary separates the allegiance of the subject from his lawful sovereign, and that his trangression rendered resistance in his people not only innocent but an indispensable duty. He further adds, that this is a fundamental maxim of the British constitution. This defence of those concerned in the dethronement of the king is introduced to us with a shew of candour, and a kind of mock reluctance to believe statements so contrary to his former opinions, except upon evidence of undoubted accuracy and the most cautious investigation.

"Before I went to Sweden I was strongly impressed with a high opinion of the late king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus IV., as it had been drawn with so much zeal and apparent truth in the British newspapers. I disapproved of the Swedish revolution, and was eager to learn the opinion entertained of it by well informed people in Sweden. I had many opportunities of conversing on this subject with people of all ranks, both Swedes and foreigners, who had the means of accurate information on the subject, and no motive whatever to disguise their real sentiments."

To such an appearance of impartial and superior information we should inevitably have been dupes had we not before seen the work alluded to, and satisfied ourselves that it was upon this

manifesto of the present Swedish government, who could have no motive whatever to disguise their real sentiments, that Dr. Thomson relied for his well authenticated facts.

It is not for us to find fault with the attempted justification of the conspirators of Stockholm, but we must demur to the authority of anonymous publications and unauthenticated documents;-nay, we even think that British newspapers are capable of giving statements of facts full as impartial, and may be quite as free from any motive for disguising their real sentiments. We cannot forget that Gustavus was, for many years, the unshaken ally of this nation. We cannot forget that he was the only one of the sovereigns of Europe who protested with us against the cruelties and oppression of the successful usurper. If a small portion of that spirit, here stigmatized as chivalrous, which induced this monarch to send back the order of the black eagle to the King of Prussia, who had bestowed the same upon Buonaparte at his coronation, after the murder of the Duke d'Enghien, had but inspired others of the northern courts, far different might have been the course of events from that period. Such conduct would, at any rate, have been quite as honourable as the agree ment at Erforth for the triple partition of the kingdom of Sweden. Although the unfortunate Gustavus is no longer the magnanimous hero of the north; although he has lost his flatterers, and may be now more accessible to the voice of truth, we are not so much changed by his altered fortunes as not to admire the spirit with which he stood forward the champion of a just but declining cause, the avowed and unrelenting enemy of despotism and cruelty. We must ever lament that such a spirit was greater than the means of realizing its honourable projects, not without a degree of indignation against those, who possessing the means, wanted the courage to follow the example,

We subjoin the act of abdication said to be written by himself; not as characteristic of bigotry and unworthiness in the man, but as a touching instance of resignation and anxious care for the welfare of his former subjects.

"In the blessed name of the most Holy Triune God,

"We Gustaf Adolph, by the grace of God, King of the Swedes, Goths, and Vandals, &c. Duke of Schlesvig, Holstein, &c. make known, that since on this day seventeen years ago we were proclaimed king, and with a bleeding heart ascended a tenderly beloved and revered father's bloody throne, it has been our endeavour to advance the prosperity and honour of that ancient kingdom, indispensable to the happiness of a free and independent people. As we can now no longer exercise the royal functions according to the purity of our intentions, nor preserve peace and order in the king

VOL. V. PART IX.

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