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TRAVELS IN SWEDEN:
By M. FORTIA*,
PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR.
THE kingdom of Sweden, a description of which is given in this volume, is, on
many accounts, a country of great interest: it presents indeed few beauties to the curi-
ous eye of a lover of the arts; nature there dispenses her bounty with a niggard hand,
and the southern provinces alone support their inhabitants without a supply from abroad.
But what places Sweden on a level with the great states of Europe is its laws, its
government, and the energy of its inhabitants. The loyalty of the peasantry of Swe-
den ranks them much above other people. Unfortunately this valuable recommenda-
tion is daily on the decline: general corruption has overspread the great towns, and
contagion is but too visible in those parts of the kingdom most frequented by strangers.
The inhabitants of the northern provinces, with those of the mountains in the other pro-
vinces, alone preserve, in all its purity, the character of their forefathers. Notwith-
standing the degeneracy, however, which has in some instances taken place, the Swe-
dish peasant, even as he is, is still the most estimable of any in Europe; at least of those
with which we are acquainted.
This volume was (for the most part) printed in 1793; circumstances, which the
reader will without difficulty divine by reference to that epoch, obliged us to disconti-
nue the work, and wait a more favourable instant for its continuation. To the same
cause is to be attributed the great number of typographical errors that occur: luckily,
to our satisfaction, they are all of them easy to be corrected by the reader.
We shall observe that the different pieces with which we have been favoured, that
is to say, the dissertation on the Atlantica of Rudbeck; the letters of the King’s mur-
derers, and all that regards their trial; the relation of the death of Charles XII. &c.
are inserted exactly as we received them, not allowing ourselves the liberty of making
even such correction as certain passages appeared to require.
Modern Works on Sweden.
Memoires fur la Suede, by Cantzler. 2 vols: A work of merit; the fruit of the
most laborious research. The tables are of the greatest service: they are getting old,
but the path is laid down; and, in our opinion, a Swede who should continue the work
on the same plan, might with little difficulty do material service to his country.
An historical Abridgement of the present State of Sweden. 2 vols. 12mo. London,
1748. It treats of the interval between 1680 and 1743; very concise, not always cor-
rect, and of but small esteem.
* Translated from the French of Voyage de deux Francais en Allemagne, Danemarcky, Suéde, Russie, et Po-
logne; Fait en 1790—1792. Paris, 1796. 5 vols. 8vo.
7. Tableau
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