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Travels in sjveden:
By M. FORTIA*.
PREFACE OF THE AUTHOR. -
THE kingdom of Sweden , a defcription of which is given in this volume, is, onmany accounts, a country of great intereft : it prefents indeed few beauties to the curi-ous eye of a lover of the arts ; nature there difpenfes her bounty with a niggard hand,and the fouthern provinces alone fupport their inhabitants without a fupply from abroad.
But what places Sweden on a level with the great Hates of Europe is its laws,, itsgovernment, and the energy of its inhabitants. The loyalty of the peafantry of Swe-den ranks them much above other people. Unfortunately this valuable recommenda-tion is daily on the decline : general corruption has overfpread the great towns, andcontagion is but too vifible in thofe parts of the kingdom mod frequented by ftrangers.The inhabitants of the northern provinces, with thofe of the mountains in the other pro-vinces, alone preferve, in all its purity, the character of their forefathers. Notwith-standing the degeneracy, however, which has in fume inftances taken place, the Swe-diili peafant, even as he is, is Hill the molt eflimable of any in Europe ; at lealt of thofewith which we are acquainted.
This volume was (for the moft part) printed in 1793; circumftances, which thereader will without difficulty divine by reference to that epoch, obliged us to difconti-nue the work, and wait a more favourable inftant for its continuation. To the famecaufe is to be attributed the great number of typographical errors that occur: luckily,to our fatisfa&ion, they are all of them eafy to be corre&ed by the reader. .
We lhall obferve that the different pieces with which we have been favoured, thatls to fay, the differtation 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 inferted exattly as we received them, not allowing ourfelves the liberty of makingeven fuch correction as certain paffages appeared to require.
Memoiresfur la Suede , by Cantzler. 2 vols. A work of merit; the fruit of themolt laborious refearch. The tables are of the greateft fervice : they are getting old,but the path is laid down ; and, in our opinion, a Swede who ffiould continue the work°n the fame plan, might with little difficulty do material fervice to his country.
An hifiorical Abridgement of the frefent State of Sweden. 2 vols. 12010. London ,* 748 . It treats of the interval between 1680 and 1.743; very concife, not always cor-re &, and of but fmall efteem. .
. * -Tranflated from the French of Voyage de deux Frangait (n Allemagnt, Danemarci, Suede, Ruffle, el Pa*°gnes Fatten I7QO-—J7Q2. Paris , 1796. c vols. 8vo.
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