rary, and not personal or profeffional, characters that our jurifdiction as Reviewers only extends; fo that fuppofing we were poffeffed of the pleas on both fides, it might yet be justly objected that the cause is coram non judice.

ART. IX. Curfory Remarks made in a Tour through fome of the Northern Parts of Europe, particularly Copenhagen, Stockholm and Petersburg. By N. Wraxall, jun. 8vo. 5s. Cadell *. 'These remarks are written in the form of letters, and in a fpirited and lively ftile; which renders the relation of the incidents and obfervations of a very hafty journey more entertaining than the matter would otherwife prove. The remarks that a traveller could have an opportunity to make, in paffing through Denmark, Sweden and Ruffia, in the space of five months, could not fail of being curfory indeed; although, to do juftice to the ingenious letter-writer, it must be confeffed, they are in general as important and pertinent as might poffibly be made by more tedious and tardy itinerants.

From Copenhagen Mr. Wraxall dates the following account of the celebrated Count Struenfee, whofe unfortunate cataftrophe some time fince made so much noise over Europe.

To give you a picture of the court, as it now exiâs, I must carry you back to the time of the late celebrated, and unhappy favourite, Count Struenfee. I have made it my endeavour, fince my arrival here, to gain the most authentic and unprejudiced intelligence refpecting him, and the late extraordinary revolution which expelled a queen from her throne and kingdom, and brought the minifters to the fcaffold. I fhall only inform you of fome few anecdotes, which elucidate his character, and with which you may be unacquainted; though, as I never perufed the printed account of his life and trial, which appeared in England, you must excufe me if I repeat what you have feen there.

"Struenfee, as you knew, had not any noble blood in his veins, or confequently any hereditary and prefcriptive title to the immediate guidance of affairs of ftate. Fortune, and a train of peculiar circumftances, coinciding with his own talents and addrefs, feem to have drawn him from his original mediocrity of condition, and placed him in an elevated rank. He originally practifed phyfic at Altona on the Elbe, and afterwards attended the prefent King of Denmark on his travels into England, in quality of phyfician. On his return, he advanced by rapid ftrides in the royal favour, and feems to have eminently poffeffed the powers of pleafing, fince he was equally the favourite of both the king and queen. He was invefted with the order of St. Matilda, inftituted in honour of the queen, created a Count, and poffeffed unlimited minifteriał power: his conduct, in this fudden and uncommon eminence, marks a bold

Announced in our Review for March,

and

and daring mind; perhaps I might add, an expanded and patriotic heart. Unawed by the precarious tenure of courtly greatnefs, and more peculiarly of his own, he began a general reform. The state felt him through all her members: the finances, chancery, army navy, nobles, peasants-all were fenfible of his influence. He not only dictated, but penned, his replies to every important question or difpatch; and a petition, or fcheme of public import and utility, rarely waited two hours for an answer. At prefent, I am told, you may be two months without receiving any. The civil judicature of this capital was then vefted in thirty magiftrates. Struenfee fent a meffage to this tribunal, demanding to know the annual falary or penfion annexed to each member: rather alarmed at this enquiry, they fent an anfwer, in which they diminished their emoluments two thirds, and eftimated them at 1500, instead of 4000 rix-dollars. The Count then informed them, that his Majefty had no farther occafion for their fervices, but in his royal munificence and liberality, was gracioufly pleased to continue to them the third part of their avowed incomes, as a proof of his fatisfaction with their conduct. He at the fame time conftituted another court, compofed only of fix persons of approved integrity, to whom the fame power was delegated. He proceeded to purge the chancery, and other bodies of the law. Then entering on the military department, he, at one stroke, broke all the horfe-guards, and afterwards the regiment of Norwegian foot-guards, the fireft corps in the fervice, and who were not difbanded without a fhort, but very dangerous fedition. Still proceeding in this falutary, but most critical and perilous atchievement, he ultimately began to attempt a diminution of the power of the nobles, and to fet the farmers and peasants at perfect liberty. You must not, you will not wonder that he fell a victim to fuch measures, and that all parties joined in his deftruction. Thefe were his real crimes, and not that he was too acceptable to the queen, which only formed a pretext. It was the minifter, and not the man, who had become obnoxious. I do not pretend, in the latter capacity, either to excufe or condemn him; but as a politician, I rank him with the Clarendons and the Mores, whom tyranny, or public bafenefs, and want of virtue, have brought, in

every age, to an untimely and ignominious exit; but to whofe memory impartial pofterity have done ample juftice."

Of this extraordinary man, Mr. Wraxall fays, there are portrajts in all the print-fhops of Copenhagen, with the subsequent punning motto,

Mala multa Struenf-fe ipfum perdidit.

From Denmark, where at prefent no very flattering reception is bestowed on travellers of this country, Mr. Wraxall paffed over to Helfimborg; where the fnow, which had fallen the preceding night, lay upon the ground on the 16th of May, about' two feet deep. The relation of his journey fren Helfimborg te Norkoping prefents a picture equally cold and dreary with that he met with on his arrival on the confines of Sweden.

"Groves of fir or afpin, says he, covered the country; and in the courfe of fixty miles, I can fafely affure you, I faw not a hum

L 3

dred

dred people, and not ten hamlets: villages there are not any. I have drove from one ftage to another, of twelve or fourteen English miles, without meeting or feeing a fingle perfon, though I caft my eye impatiently round on every fide, in hopes to difcern the countenance of man.

"In many places the firs on either fide the road formed avenues, as noble as those which are often planted in the entrance to palaces, or noblemens' feats; and through the whole was fpread a kind of rude and gloomy magnificence, which, fuperadded to their filence and loneliness, very ftrongly affected the mind. Even the birds feemed to have abandoned thefe dreary forests, and I heard or faw none, except woodpeckers, and now and then the cuckoo. I enquired if they did not afford refuge to wolves or bears, as these animals are commonly found in those countries and places, which want population; but the peafants affured me the former were only in fmall numbers, and rarely feen, and as to bears, there are not any.

"This deplorable want of inhabitants is one of the many evils which Charles XII. entailed on his unhappy kingdom. Unchecked by the defeat of Pultowa, by the lofs of his richest provinces, and bravest fubjects, his rage for war, heightened by perfonal animofity to the King of Denmark, made him ftill exert new efforts, and make fresh levies of foldiery from his bleeding and exhaufted country: and though more than half a century has now elapfed fince his death, Sweden has by no means recovered herfelf, or repeopled her uninhabited plains.

"The pealants are civil and humble to obfequioufnefs, grateful for the third part of a halfpenny, and infinitely lefs uncivilized and barbarous, than one would be tempted to fuppofe from the appearance of every thing around them. I faw a number of very pretty forms among the women, who used to croud round the carriage at every poft-houfe; and I muft own that I distributed my fchellings more in proportion to their beauty, than their age, infirmities, or poverty. Such is the enchantment of this captivating endowment, that I attempted in vain to refift its influence: my head condemned me, but my heart counteracted all its dictates, and warped my benevolence in compliance with its own feelings.

"Had I not taken the precaution to carry wine and provifions with me in the chaife, I must have been almoft ftarved in three or four days journey through thefe miferable provinces, where the peas fants are ftrangers to every kind of aliment, except bread, and falt pork or fish. It is, indeed, a queftion whether the former of these deferves the name of bread, as it is a compound of rye and oats, of a colour approaching to black, and of a tafte which you must be as hungry as I was to relish."

During the whole of this journey, our traveller obferves, he did not fee a fingle piece of either gold or filver; and that he was told they have none in the provinces. From Stockholm he writes an account of the Swedish court and present reigning family, with fuch particulars relating to himfelf, as may not be thought very important to the reader. His defcent into the

iron mines of Danmora is too fingular an incident to be paffed over; as it not only affords a proof of Mr. Wraxall's being actuated by the motives to which he afcribes his travels, a paffion for novelty and admiration, but that he poffeffes likewife an intrepidity adapted to the gratification of even the most dangerous curiofity. It is to be obferved, that the ore is not dug out of these mines as is the tin ore in Cornwall, but is blown up by gunpowder. The aperture of the great mine is near half a mile in circumference, and its depth fo great that the bottom' is not to be feen.' Into this mine there is no other method of descent than in a large deep bucket, capable of containing three perfons, and fastened by chains to a rope. In this bucket Mr.: Wraxall determined, like another Don Quixote, to explore the .bottom.

"The infpector, fays he, at whofe houfe I had flept the preceding night, took no little pains to diffuade me from this refolution, and affured me not only that the rope or chains fometimes broke, but that the fnow and ice which lodged on the fides of the mine frequently tumbled in, and destroyed the workmen, nor could he warrant my abfolute fecurity from one or both of these accidents. Finding, however, that I was deaf to all his remonstrances, he provided me a clean bucket, and put two men into it to accompany me. The gentleman who travelled with me, had already been into the mines of Fahlun in Dalecarlia, where there is a ladder for that purpose, and he did not chufe to fee a fecond mine, after having once gratified his curiofity. I wrapped myfelf therefore in my great coat, and ftepped into the bucket. The two men followed, and we were let down. I am not afhamed to own that when I found myself thus fufpended between heaven and earth by a rope, and looked down into the deep and dark abyfs below me, to which I could fee no termination, I fhuddered with apprehenfion, and half repented my curiofity. This was, however, only a momentary fenfation, and before I had defcended a hundred feet, I looked round the fcene with very tolerable compofure. I was near nine minutes before I reached the bottom, it being eighty fathoms, or four hundred and eighty feet. The view of the mine, when I fet my foot to the earth, was awful and fublime in the highest degree; whether terror or pleasure formed the predominant feeling as I looked at it, is hard to fay. The light of the day was very faintly admitted into thefe fubterraneous caverns. In many places it was abfolutely loft, and flambeaux fupplied its place. I faw beams of wood across fome parts from one fide of the rock to the other, where the miners fat, employed in boring holes for the admiffion of powder, with as much unconcern as I could have felt in an ordinary employment, though the leaft dizziness, or even a failure in preferving their equilibrium, must have made them lofe their feat, and dashed them to pieces against the rugged surface of the rock beneath. The fragments torn up by the explofion previous to my defcent lay in valt heaps on all fides, and the whole fcene was calculated to infpire a gloomy admiration in the beholder. A confinement for life in thefe horrible iron dungeons, muft furely, of all punish

ments which human fubtlety has devised, be one of the most terrible. I remained three quarters of an hour in thefe gloomy and frightful caverns, and traverfed every part of them which was acceffible, conducted by my guides. The weather above was very warm, but here the ice covered the whole furface of the rock, and I found myself furrounded with the colds of the most rigorous winter, amid darknefe and caves of iron. In one of thefe, which ran a confiderable way under the rock, were eight wretches warming themselves round a charcoal fire, and eating the little fcanty fubfiftence produced from their miferable occupation, They rose with surprize at seeing fo unexpected a guest among them, and I was not a little pleased to dry my feet, which were wet with treading on the melted ice, at their fire. There are no less than 1300 of thefe men constantly employed in the mines, and there pay is only a copper dollar, or 3d. English, a day. They were first opened about 1580, under the reign of John the IIId, but have only been conftantly worked fince Chriftina's time. After having gratified my curiofity with a full view of thefe fubterranean apartments I made the fignal for being drawn up, and can moft feriously allure you I felt fo little terror while reafcending, compared with that of being let down, that I am convinced, in five or fix times more, I should have been perfectly indifferent to it, and could have folved a problem in mathematics, or compofed a fonnet to my miftrefs, in the bucket, without any degree of fright or apprehenfion fo ftrong is the effect of custom on the human mind, and fo contemptible does danger or horror become, when familiarized by continual repetition !"

Similar to this obfervation of our traveller's is that, couched in a few lines, which fuggefted themselves to the Reviewer, on obferving, fome years ago, a fimilar fituation of danger, on the cliffs of the coaft of Norway.

See where, beneath th' impending cliff,

The Norway fowler moors his fki,
And defperate, fifty fathom high
Sufpeaded, feems himself to Ay,

While thus from rock to rock he fprings,
And blythe his fummer's ditty fings.

From Peterburg our traveller dates a difadvantageous account of the Ruffian ladies, with the difgufting mode of promifcuous bathing, practifed indifcriminately by both fexes in that country: with a quotation from which we shall take our leave of this entertaining and ingenious traveller.

"I am just returned from being a fpectator of one of their cuf toms, at which I could not help being a little furprised. It was a promifcuous bathing of not less than two hundred perfons of both fexes. I know you will immediately recollect lady Montague's defcription of the baths of Sophia, and expect fomewhat of the fame. nature; but nothing can be more oppofite or unlike. The vivid colouring of her pen has called up a fcene more voluptuous and glowing, than any which Ovid imagined, cr Titian drew: we fee ine Houris of Mahommed realized, and beauty in all its naked: magnificence: