4.15
again; it is fattened by a very ftrong bar, which paffcs through a hole bored throughthe whole breadth of the piece. An iron handle i'erves to work this part of the cannon’'with facility, a fingle man fufficing ; this method is however practicable only with fmallpieces. Nothing of any defcription has hitherto been exported from this manufactory;every thing is extremely dear; it employs no more than forty workmen, who earn aplott per diem.
There are nine fugar refineries here, one of four boilers, the others of but two orthree.
We have before obferved that labour is very dear at Stockholm ; tradefmen areconfeqnently obliged to fell in proportion. Generally fpeaking their work is w'elldone, lefs fo however than in France ; and oftentimes you are obliged to wait a longtime for what you order. Frequently the workmen exact part payment in advance,nnd afterwards furnilh their job at leifure ; this may appear a hardffiip, but it is una-voidable. They never, however, deny the receipt of the money advanced, nor was itever known here that a tradefman changed the goods you have bargained for tofubttitute inferior, as is frequently the cafe in a ftate, the neighbour of Sweden .
In almoft all trades, the journeymen have a box to which they monthly fubferibe acertain fum. From this box, when ill and unable to work, they are paid 24 (killingsweekly, and in cafe of death their friends receive 20 rix-dollars for their interment*.
There were in Stockholm , in 1790, five hundred and fixty-four manufactories of filk,cotton, wool, thread, iron, and fteel, which, gave employment to eleven thoufand twohundred and fifty perfons, matters, and journeymen, and furnifhed goods to the value of1,200,000 rix-dollars.
Chap. IX.— Different Orders of Sweden.—Ceremony of \gth February 1791.
IN' Sweden there are four orders, one of which open to civil and military characters,one purely military, and two to civil alone.
Fcfitival of the order of the Seraphim. On the 28th April (1791) the minitters andforeigners went at eleven o’clock in the morning to the apartment of the Marffial ofthe court, to breakfaft. The matter of the ceremonies coming to inform us that wemight attend the lever of the King, we croffed the court of the cattle with the diplo-matic body, without any attention to ceremony. We patted through two ranks of fol-diers on carpeting, to the ftaircafe which leads to His Majetty’s chamber. As we en-tered the room, we were (truck by the various ceremonial dreffes worn on that day;each order wearing one peculiar to itfelf: the Swedes prefent not belonging to any ofthe orders, were either full dreft, or in uniform; of the latter but few. The drefs ofthe Order of the Seraphim is white with black ftripes, the (hoes black and white, a roundhat* covered with a white plume of feathers. (The King alone was dreft in cloth offilver.) The drefs of the Order of the Sword is of (ky-blue, and differs immateriallyfrom the cou.-t drefs, wffiich is (Iriped with white filk. The drefs of the Order of thePolar Star is crimfon, with white ftripes. All the dreffes are draped after the nationalcut, and their diverfity has a fingular and very pleating effeCt; the blue colour alone
_* Is it not ridiculous that 20 rix-dollars thould be expended for the burial of a workman ; would notffiis fum be infinitely better difpofed of if given to his family ? The Swedes indeed are bigottedto fplendiifunerals, and every one mutt have his whim ! Nothing can be imagined more curious than their coffinthops; fomeof them are gilt, force carved or painted : a fpeftatorin one of thefe, would, in thort, conceivehimfelf rather in a furniture warehoufe than an undertaker’s (hop,,
3 k 2 being