our feats rocked under us. The recollection that we were eleven hundred and thirty-fix feet under the furface of the earth; the fight, at every repeated flafh, of our guides, and of myself, dreffed in fable hue; the fall of the rocks that were detached by the explosion; and the fmoke of the gunpowder, will plead my apology fhould I candidly confefs that I feltall the toupee which I have, ftand erect. This concert continued about half an hour, and fuddenly ceafing, left us in profound filence; which, together with the obfcurity of the place, and the fuffocating fteam of the gunpowder, rather increased than diminished the horror. This operation is repeated every day at noon.'

The Author proceeds to give a minute account of the different operations, from the feparation of the rock, to the purifying of the metal: but they will afford no new information to the mineralogift. The iron mine of Dannemora, which is much the most profitable of any of thofe with which every part of Sweden and Lapland abounds, is faid to yield 60 lb. of metal in a 100 lb. and the others about 30 lb. The iron extracted from this is known in Europe under the name of Oregrund; which name is derived from a fea port on the Baltic. A large portion of it is employed by us for making our beft fteel. The mine was discovered in 1470. The unwrought ore was first fold to the merchants of Lubeck. It was not until the reign of Guftavus Vafa that the Swedes worked it themselves. It is af ferted that the mine of Dannemora yields about 40,000 fchifp of bar-iron per year, which is fuppofed to be one-tenth part of the quantity which all the iron mines of Sweden produce. Of this product, amounting to 400,000 fchifp, 300,000 are annually exported; the remainder is manufactured at home. It is calculated that no less than 25,600 men are employed in mining, and the branches immediately connected with it, viz. 4000 for breaking the rocks, either by explosion or manual labour; 10,800 to hew timber, and burn it into charcoal; 2000 are employed in smelting; 1800 in tranfporting the metal from the furnaces to the forges; 600 in tranfporting fand, fuel, &c. 4000 for transporting the charcoal, and 2400 at the forges.

*

The filver mine of Salha or Salhaberg is the richeft, as well as the most ancient of any. It exifted fo early as 1188, and during the whole of the 14th century, it yielded 24,000 marks of filver per annum. In the 15th century, the quantity was diminished to 20,000. In the reign of Charles X. it gave only 2000, and it furnishes at present ftill lefs, the ore yielding only one ounce of pure metal per quintal. The chief gallery whence the pureft filver was obtained, having fallen in, is not yet cleared, notwithstanding their inceffant labour. They are also digging pits in a perpendicular direction, in order to arrive at the principal vein, which extends itself from the North to the

South-eaft. Formerly, lead employed in feparating the metal, was imported from England; but the mine furnishes, at prefent, a fufficient quantity for the purpose.

Various have been the attempts to encourage agriculture, fo far at least that the fruits of the earth may fupply the wants of the inhabitants; and to create an influx of wealth by the eftablishment of different manufactures; yet these have never fuc ceeded to their wishes. But, if art has not been effectual in ' deriving, from the furface of the earth, all the advantages which they had expected; nature abundantly fupplies the deficiency, in the growth of immenfe forefts, that feem inexhauftible, the productions of which are exported to every part of Europe, fuch as planks, timber, pitch, tar, pot-afh, &c. The bowels of the earth are alfo the copious fources of plenty. The iron mines are the Peru of Sweden. Copper, filver, gold, lead, alum, vitriol, falt-petre, are extracted by the induftrious workman from the bofom of these barren mountains; but the iron mines form the most important article of commerce. The 300,000 fchifp annually exported, being valued at 5 crowns per fchiff, yield about 8,934,750 crowns, bank-money.

The copper

mines are valued at 30,800 crowns. The alum exported, amounts to 30,000 crowns. Planks, timber, &c. produce annually 387,580. The herring fishery is in fo flourishing a ftate at prefent, that they are able to export 160,000 tons, at 16 dollars (filver) per ton *.

Letter 18th prefents us with a comparative view of the two adjacent kingdoms, manifeftly drawn with great attention, and, apparently, with an impartial pencil. We fhall lay before our readers the following extract:

These two nations, feparated by a ftrait only, whofe origin is, doubtless, the fame, who inhabit climates nearly the fame, and speak the fame language, exhibit remarkable contrafts, both as to country, and inhabitants. In Denmark, the foil is ftony, but fufceptible of cultivation; the hills are fmall, the woods of no great extent, but the plains are vaft and boundlefs: and there are many fmall lakes, but no rivers. The clothes of the men are long and of a red colour. In Sweden, on the contrary, nothing is feen but mountains, rocks, deep vales, extenfive forefts, large rivers, and immenfe lakes. Their clothes are fhort, and blue. The Swede is of an eafy, elegant figure, lively, laborious, cheerful, and capable of fpeedy attachments. The Dane is more clumsy, flower in his motions, fond of eafe, does not work with equal alertnefs, is more ferious and phlegmatic, ferved, but more conftant in his friendships. The dialect of the two languages is effentially the fame, but it partakes of the characteristic differences of the two nations. Both speak with a finging cadence, but the Swede fings quicker than the Dane, terminates many words by vowels, and, in fome provinces, by the a particularly: a

*Their filver dollar is in value about 10 d. English.

more re

boka, a book; befka, a horfe; baka, a mountain; and he raises the tone of his voice at the laft fyllable, after depreffing it at the penults. The pronunciation of the Dane is flow, fomewhat guttural; and moft of his words end with a confonant, as book, befk, baken. So that when two Swedes converfe together, they infpire gaiety, while the melancholy accent of the Danes difpofes to gravity. Both nations cultivate the fciences, and have diftinguished themfelves in the belles lettres. The Swedes can enumerate several great men, who have not only acquired celebrity at home, but are esteemed and admired by all Europe; fuch as a Linné, a Berquian, a Celfius, a De Geer (the Reaumur of Sweden), a Menanderheilm, a Wargentin, and the learned hiftoriographer Lagerbring. He died in 1788. The Danes, on the other hand, can boaft their Tycho Braehe, Röemer, Gafpard Bartholin, Simon Pauli, Wormius, Holberg, and many others. To whom let me add the prefent ornaments of Copenhagen, M. De Kratzenftein, Rector of the Univerfity, and Profeffor of Experimental Philofophy; the Grand Chamberlain De Suhm*; De Trefcauw, Profeffor in Theology; and Kalifchen, the Chirurgical Profeflor.'

Letters 21, 22, 23, contain a concife abridgment of the Swedish hiftory, from the reign of Guftavus Vafa to the year 1786. It is confined to the different revolutions which have fo frequently taken place in that country, from the jarring interefts of kings, who wifhed to reign defpotic; of nobles, actuated by ambition and the love of wealth; and of the people, jealous of their liberties. This fketch is chiefly introductory to the revolution which took place in the year 1772; and which gives us the present æra of the Swedish government. The ftate of the nation previous to that event, and which prepared the way for it; the different factions that difturbed the public tranquillity; the intrigues of the French court; the contrary intrigues of the English; the unbounded ambition, avarice, and tyranny of the ariftocratic party; and the addrefs, eloquence, and policy of the king, who, while he relieved the inferior orders from the oppreffions under which they groaned, artfully employed them as inftruments to establish his own authority; are delineated in a lively and entertaining manner. In their wretched fituation, they had no other alternative than of the two evils to chufe the leaft; and it was only by throwing the plenitude of power into

Our traveller informs us, in a note, that M. De Suhm has published fourteen volumes on hiftory, particularly on the hiftory of the North, in the Danish language; and that, according to the judgment of Profeffor Trefcauw, his works contain the most authentic accounts of Denmark of any that have been published. Their titles are the following: On the Origin of Nations in general. Cop. 1769. The Origin of the Northern Nations. Cop. 1770. On the Odin and Mythology of the Northern Nations. Cop. 1771. On the Emigrations of the Northern Nations. Cop. 1772-1773- Critical Hiftory of Denmark, 4 vols. 1774-81. The Hiftory of Denmark, with Plates, in Folio. A Collection of hiftorical Pieces concerning the Hiftory of Denmark.

Sf3

the

the hands of the king, that they could enable him to fubdue the many-headed monfter. It appears from this reprefentation, that if it be poffible for a nation to be happy under an abíolute monarch, it is under the adminiftration of Guftavus III. who has, with infinite labour, effectuated a reform through every department of the ftate, and has hitherto only employed the power entrufted to him, for the general good. The people, however, feem to be still watchful over their liberties; nor have they, either by the faireft promifes, and, what is yet more, by the performance of these promifes, been lulled into a dangerous fecurity. At a general affembly held in 1786, after an interval of eight years, his majefty laid before them several propofitions, which were rejected by the different orders, as infringements on their ancient laws and cuftoms. The propofitions were, I. Not to punish infanticide by death, but by perpetual imprisonment, with the addition of being publicly whipped every year, on the day on which the crime was perpetrated. II. To prevent the divifion of lands, by inftituting that they should be tranfmitted to the eldeft fon, a provifion being made for the younger branches of a family. III. To authorife the king to employ fuch a fum out of the national bank, as fhould enable him to establish magazines of grain in different parts of the kingdom, as a provifion againft fcarcity. IV. To authorife his majefty to draw from the bank a fund, in order to defray certain expences of the different mines, particularly to protect the copper mines of Fahlun from inundations; depofiting in the bank fuch a quantity of copper as fhould be equivalent to the fpecies employed. Of these four propofitions, all were rejected, excepting that relative to the establishment of magazines. The clergy perfifted in the resolution to punish the crime of infanticide by death. The equeftrian order oppofed the propofition for the divifion of lands. And the States refused the fupply for the mines; alleging that the evil proceeded from the mifmanagement of the perfons immediately interested. This was the firft inftance of an effectual oppofition to his majesty's plans. He difmiffed the diet with an harangue replete with eloquence, in which he expreffed his apprehenfions "that fufpicions as ill-founded in themselves as they were unmerited in him, who had rendered them free, would difturb that harmony which he had endeavoured to maintain for the space of fourteen years with fo much difficulty, and with a total inattention to his own interefts."

In the course of this year, 1786, an academy was established for the amelioration of the Swedish language, on the plan of the French academy. The academy of infcriptions and belles lettres was alfo renewed at the fame time.'

Although the chief attention of this traveller has been engaged by the affairs of Sweden, we are occafionally prefented with fome

ftrictures

Arictures concerning Denmark: and in the 24th and laft letter, we find a circumftantial account of the changes which took place in this kingdom alfo, in the year 1772, which terminated in the difgrace of Matilda, and the deftruction of the Counts Brandt and Struenfee. The ftory of these unfortunate perfonages has been often told. But while party-zeal predominated, and animofities ran high, it has been told with fuch various colourings, that the world has been at a lofs to determine what degrees of cenfure and of pity were due to the fufferers. The author's narrative is the more worthy of attention, as he was an impartial collator of the most authentic informations that could be obtained. He tells us that, exclufive of what he learned on the spot, he has used the papers of one well known in the republic of letters, who was involved in the difgrace of Struenfee. But as his account was written with paffion and manifeft partiality, fuch parts only are felected which appeared indubitable facts *. We must refer the curious reader to the work itself for the detail of particulars, and fhall content ourfelves with the transcript of the following paragraph, which, as it reprefents the ambitious Struenfee placed on the highest pinnacle of power, indicates the immediate caufe of his dreadful fall.

Struenfee, blinded by his good fortune, and yet more by an ambition that knew no bounds, was not contented with being, virtually, fovereign. He was determined to reign with fplendour, and to draw his name out of obfcurity by enrolling it among the firft nobility in Denmark; he was accordingly ennobled, and obtained the rank of Count. Diffatisfied with even this elevation, he was determined to have a title that should correfpond with the dignity of his ftation; and as there was none extant which could fufficiently characterize his office, the title of Privy Counsellor of the Cabinet (Confeiller intime du Cabinet) was invented. Nor was he merely invefted with this; but the unlimited powers which the king had annexed to it, were as novel as the title itself. He was authorised to commit to writing, in that manner which he should judge the most proper, every mandate that he received from the mouth of the king, and to tranfmit it to the different departments under the feal of the Cabinet, without the fignature of his majefty, which was deemed fuperfluous. The day following this abfurd grant, an injunction was made public, figned by the king himself, compelling every department to refpect the Count's orders. The minifter laid before his majefty, every Saturday, extracts of the orders he had iffued in the courfe of the week, by

This manufcript was originally compofed in the French language, and published in German, under the title of Authentische und böchftenerk würdifch aufklärungen, &c. i. e. Authentic and moft remarkable Illucidations, refpecting the Hiftory of the Counts Struenfee and Brandt, contained in a Manufcript compofed by a Perfon of Rank: first published in Germany, 1788.-A tranflation has lately appeared in this country; which will be noticed in a fubfequent Review.