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C 337 ]
TRAVELS OF M. ARWID EHRENMALM INTO WESTERN NORDLAND, AND
THE LAPLAND PROVINCE OF ASEHLE, OR ANGHERMANLAND, IN THE
MONTH OF FUNE, 1741.
[From the Hist. Gen. pgs Voy. xxv. 464. ]
THIS work, tranflated from the Swedifh, is perfectly new to foreigners, and the
tranflation has been made for the Hiftory of Voyages and Travels: it will enlarge our
knowledge of a country, which, though barren, and but a wafte, is fufficiently near our
civilized {tates to merit the attention of the reader. Should an invafion in Europe ever
take place, it will, we have no doubt, proceed from thofe countries which we at prefent
defpife. The moft indigent nations only wait for fome violent convulfion, fome rupture
in Europe, to fall upon it from all quarters; and perhaps the Nordlanders will per-
form their part in this great revolution. We regard it as a mere chimera; becaufe
hiftory does not prefent the fame event twice, and that the paft, we imagine, far from
being an example which fhould alarm the prefent, is, on the contrary, the guarantee of
our iecurity ; fo does the difference of time and fituation change the order of caufes
and effects. We confide in the political connections of Europe, which balance all its
powers by one another, which give the faculty of forefeecing, and time to guard againft,
irruption. We truftin the progrefs of the art of war; in the fecurity of fortreffes; in
the inexhauttible refource of fire-arms ; in money, which creates numerous armies; in
the multiplicity of ftates, which mutually thwart the enterprifes, and retard the progrefs
of one another ; in commerce in fine, which multiplying and mingling interefts and
wants, diverts towards labour and induftry that reftlefs and furious activity of men
which formerly inclined them to war. But is not the invention of fire-arms favourable
to the northern nations, whom nature has furnifhed with iron to conquer the land?
Citadels, which may prevent furprife, will they bear againft famine and devaftation with
which it is eafy to furround them? The gold which pays the troops, will it infpire them
with courage? Ifit ferve for defence, willit not be anallurement for attack? All the
riches of the new world, which flow in three or four channels of Europe, do they not
invite the inhabitants of the north towards the fouth ? May not the connections of powers
haften the revolution they are deftined to prevent? Would not the preponderance of
one of thefe northern confederacies bring on the fall and ruin of the equilibrium ?
Would not each petty member unite with the greateft, with the ftrongeft, to complete
the deftruction of the whole body? Does not commerce point out the way to conquett ;
does it not infpire temptation? What but a ten years’ war in Europe is {ufficient to de-
prive the richeft powers in America of their colonies ? Why affure ourfelves that thefe,
at the leaft fhock of the mother country, would not throw off the yoke of the power
which oppreffes them ? To what purpofe ferves the commerce of the two Indies, but to
enervate, perhaps even by the riches it yields, the nations who have feized on it, to the
exclufion of all others. The northern nations, full of vigour, with their forces united,
would fall upon our fouthern countries. They are open to invafion by the paflage of
the two feas, which at prefent form the path of all countries; by the effeminacy of
the only inhabitants who have intereft without power; by the mifery of the only inha-
bitants who have power without intereft, to defend the ftate. What, when Rome pof-
feffed all the riches of Afia, and all the ftrength of Europe; a difcipline unique; a
nation trained up to war by the conqueft of the world ; nations which it had enlightened
and civilifed ; laws, arts, knowledge, and enjoyments which fhould have rendered it
VOL. I. Be dear
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