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FORTIA’S TRAVELS IN SWEDEN. gor
to prove that the brain of man is liable of accefs to the moft abfurd inconfiftencics. We
have been aflured that the King having by his own, fault miffed his objeét the firft year,
owing toa fiege badly planned, and an unfuccefsful campaign, himfelf engaged his offi-
cers to enter into a criminal correfpondence with Ruffia, in order that this treachery
might ferve him as an excufe to the nation for having undertaken an unjuft war, and
effected nothing where much might have been done. Although a ferious reply to fuch
an atrocious and unfounded charge might well, indeed, be difpenfed with, we yet fhall
examine its merits. Jn the firft place, could it be fuppofed that the officers arrefted
and tried would have failed to avail themfelves of fuch an ample apology to avoid the
punifhment to which they were fubject? A minute detail of the whole procefs is in ex-
iftence, and no fuch thing appears : befides, this charges Guftavus with an unpardon-
able offence, that of caufing an officer to be beheaded, and many others to be imprifon-
ed, on account of a crime fuggefted by himfelf. A conduct of this defcription could
be followed by none but one who had previoufly, and that provedly, done the fame ;
but that the incredulous may finally be convinced, if further be requifite for conviction,
Jet them know that the revolt of the officers in Finland was contrived, by that traitor
Sprengporten, at the very inftant of his going over to the Ruffians in 1779: that in
1783 the firft meetings of the confpirators took place in Helfingfors, at a lodge of free-
mafons; that Sprengporten regularly attended thefe meetings from Ruffian Finland,
where he refided, which was the more eafy for him to do as the King was then abroad.
The confpirators at that time were fifty, and much encreafed in number afterwards.
Many perfons known well enough at Stockholm, if this work fhould chance to fall into
‘their hands, muft inwardly own that our information is correct : eafy in faét would it
be for us to give further particulars ; from fuch we however fhall abftain.’ What we
have faid will be enough to fhew that the plot did not commence with the beginning of
the campaign, as is generally believed.
We thall not dilate upon the war in Finland ; it would caufe us to exceed the limits
we have prefcribed to ourfelves. We fhall leave to hiftorians the tafk of tranfmitting
to pofterity the victories of Frederic/hamm and Svenk/und ; fatisfied ourfelves with re-
marking how great the difference between the Swedes in the prefent war and thofe who
fought in 1741 and 1757. ‘The victories of Guftavus Adolphus, Charles X. Charles
XI., Charles X1I., and Guftavus II. were owing principally to their prefence. The
Swedes are accuftomed to fee their kings at their head. If the foldier is guided by rea-
fon the prefence of his king can but have great effet on hinr: he will feel that where
he who might peaceably and in fecurity await the details of a battle, expofes volunta-
rily his life and bears all the inclemency of the weather, he cannot himfelf retreat be-
fore the enemy, nor murmur at his toil. The prefence of a king prevents all difobe-
dience and all altercations,more common than isufuallyimagined among generals. A king
will take upon himfelf what a general would not dare without mature deliberation, in
council or an order from court ; in the interval of which the favourable opportunity is
frequently loft. The generals of the King of Pruflia would not have ventured many of
the battles won by that Monarch ; and to his heading his troops himfelf is the high re-
putation of the Pruffian forces entirely to be afcribed. What we have faid of the
Swedes is applicable to the French; nor is it in this inftance alone that thefe two peo-
ple refemble each other. We know the time when the French foldier at the fimple
name of the king, whom he had never feen, would gaily have fronted certain death :
what then would’ he not have done if he had been at the head of his army; but for a
long time our kings had been unaccuftomed to fhew themfelves to their foldiers, an
omiflion which will ever meet its punifhment foon or late.
The
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