IORTIa’s TRAVELS IN SWEDEN.
48 9
Although the means he made ufe of in affuming abfolute power, may be confideredby fome as worthy of blame, it will yet be difficult indeed to pafs cenfure on the ufe hemade of his authority. He left to his fucceffor a fiouriffiing kingdom, a rich treafury,and an army; perhaps it had been more fortunate for humanity, if Charles XII. hadfound his kingdom in the fame hate he himfelf left it: yet again who can infure thatthis ungovernable character would have been retrained by want of power ? Oughtwe not rather to conceive, that the condition of his fubje&s would have been muchmore worthy of regret, if an exhauftion of men and money had manifefted itfelf at'thebeginning of his reign ? This Prince, attacked by three powers, neither regarded theftate of his army, nor the means of his country; he only looked to the infult and re-venge ; the perfonal courage with which he was infpired appearing to him to counter-balance every other confideration. Sw'eden has reafon to bewail the death ofCharles XI. , fince his fucceffor in a few years loft all the fruits of a long and gloriousreign : yet can it not be concealed that Charles XII . never was the offender, and pof-fibly, had he not been forced to arm for defence, (and having affumed arms, he certainlybore them too long,) he might have been ignorant his whole life long of his talents forWar, of his fatal propenfity.
Charles XII . fucceeded his father, and was declared of age at the clofe of 1697, al-though at that time no more than fifteen years and a half old. This Prince, fo famousfrom his exploits, was attacked in 1700 by the united forces of Denmark , Ruffia, andPoland , the fovereigns of which countries thought to take advantage of the youth ofthe new King, little imagining with whom they were about to deal. Charles obligedDenmark to fue for peace in fix weeks’ time; and in the fame year defeated the Ruf-fians at the famous battle of Narva, the relations of which differ with refpecf to the forceof the contending armies; but generally agree in allowing that the Ruffians were beatenby an army vaftly inferior in number. Mr. Leveque hazards an affertion in his hiftoryof Ruffia, on the fubject of this action, as incredible as it is abfurd; he pretends, thatin fpite of the capitulation of a part of the Ruffian army, the Swedilh generals detainedand ill-treated even thofe who had furrendered, and that in the prefence and in viola-tion of the orders of the King. This affertion is evidently falfe: in the firft place, theSwedilh generals never would have dared to infringe upon the orders of their King, andthat in his prefence, of a King fo arbitrary in his will, and whofe engagements were everfacredly obferved: moreover, it is not the character of Swedilh foldiers to maltreattheir foes after capitulation. Mr. Leveque compofed his book in Ruffia; there it wasthat he imbibed that antipathy towards the Swedes which appears throughout his work:
more fo even than Turkey ; which might eafily be proved were we to enter into difcuffion on the fubjeft ;yet will no one attempt to compare Catherine with Nero or Caligula Denmark alfo is a defpotic govern-ment, perhaps as much fo as Ruffia ; yet no one efteems the Danes a nation to be pitied, although, accord-ing to the philofophers of the prefent day, all fubjedts of defpotifm are objefts of pity. We will readilygrant that fuch a cafe may occur, but deny that it is a pofitive.confequence. The moft tremendous defpo-tifm is that which is cxercifed by a number, examples illuftrative of which may eafily be found in Europe .The more dsfpots there are, the heavier the yoke they impofe : a fenfible and well-informed man, void ofambition, and friendly to peace, to order, and juftice, will ever prefer the fmalleft number of defpots ; be-caufe he will be fatisfied that, having to obey his talk will be but the more laborious, from being fubmittedto the caprices of a mob always ignorant, frequently unjuft, and fometimes brutal. Were we to point outa perfedl government, we ihould exemplify the empire of law; but then again to how many- chiefs ffiouldwe confide the trull of feeing to their execution ?
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VOL. VI.