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while the husband is seeking his fortune in Moscow or St. Petersburgh. Mr. Porter assures us, that the husband, on returning with his gains, and finding a family ready made for him, only bethinks him of marrying his sons and sending them off, as he himself had been sent, that he may "enjoy himself, like a Turk in his seraglio, amongst their wives." Whatever foundation there may be for this statement, we should require very strong evidence to make us believe, in its whole extent, any thing so contrary to the ordinary course of nature. It cannot, indeed, be denied, that much may be explained by the debased state of the lower orders in Russia, and their entire dependance upon their masters, whose interests, as Mr. Porter has justly remarked, lead them to encourage both the temporary emigration of the master, from which great gain is derived to the estate, and the continuance or increase of their numbers. We must only suggest, that the expedient in question seems one of the least natural and obvious, as well as the most revolting which could have been devised for accomplishing those purposes.

We shall not follow our author back to Moscow, whither he again went. He seems to have remained in Russia as long as the intercourse between that country and his own permitted; and, on the unhappy commencement of hostilities, he retired into Sweden. The journey through Finland, and across the gulph, to Stockholm, presents us with nothing worthy of notice. On arriving there, our author, of course, describes the city well; and it is equally a matter of course, that he should fall in love with the court, especially the dresses, the king and the queen. We shall give his portraits of these illustrious and unfortunate persons.

"As soon as the king was seated, a piece of musick with, I suppose, appropriate words (for it was in Swedish) burst

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from the orchestra. His majesty seemed very attentive to what was sung; while the queen, with a less impressed countenance, sometimes listened, and at others looked round on the assembly with a de

lightful complacency. I confess that my observation was most particularly directed to Gustavus. He bears a striking resemblance to the best portraits of Charles addition of similar habiliaments; for the twelfth, and seems not to neglect the really, at the first glance, you might almost imagine the picture of his renowned ancestor had walked from its canvass. He is thin, though well made, about the middle stature, pale, and with eyes whose eagle beams strike with the force of lightning. Look at them, and while he is in thought they appear remarkably calm and sweet; but when he looks at you and speaks, the vivacity of his manner and the brilliancy of his countenance are beyond description.

His mouth is well

upper lip; and his hair, which is cropped and without powder, is combed up from his forehead.

shaped, with small mustaccios on his

"Her majesty is most interestingly beau tiful; very much resembling her sister, the empress of Russia. She is fair, with exbut the affability of her countenance, her pressive blue eyes. Her features are fine a smile, and engaging air, independently of other charms, would be sufficient to fascinate every heart almost to forget she was a queen, in her loveliness as a woman. She was drest with exquisite taste. Her hair, in light but luxuriant tresses over her brow and head, was looped up with a double diadem of jewels. Her robe was splendidly embroidered; and on her breast she wore the badges of the order of St. Catherine. And certainly it must be acdistinction or of beauty, never shone knowledged, that the star, whether of brighter than on the bosom of the fair Helen of the north; for thus this beautiful queen is generally distinguished; though, were 1 to give her a title, it should rather be that of Andromache, whose beauties, lovely as they were, were yet transcended by the more endearing graces of the chaste wife and tender mother.

"During the whole of the evening, af ter the musical salutation, their majesties mingled with the company, conversing with every person, with the kindest condescension. Every citizen was spoken to, and their eyes sparkled with joy, while their tongues faltered out a reply to the address of their sovereign. His conversation with the subjects of his brother in arms, our re

vered monarch, was of the most gratify ing complexion. No coldness; no form; all was frank, great, and consistent with himself In short, it would have been impossible for any potentate to have shown more graceful, knight-like courtesy to all present; or for a sovereign to be received with deeper homage from a brave and loyal people. In many courts I have seen the body of loyalty: here its spirit was felt." II. 132-134.

Mr. Porter then proceeds to express his astonishment and indignation, that any persons should be found, especially in Sweden, who are not as much enamoured as himself of the king and his mode of governing. "Who," says he, "that was present at such a scene would believe that some of his ungracious subjects affect to lament the destiny of the state? But so it is. As in most countries parties exist, who contend for they know not what, even in Sweden there are a set of grumblers, troubling the government with discontents, which, lying in themselves rather than in the constitution, neither king nor senate can rectify. These turbulent natures are the torment of every state. We may consider them as inherent diseases amongst all people; a sort of acrimonious humour boiling from the body politick, which, as the evil is in human nature, must discharge itself somewhere; and what is more, there is no hope of the disorder being cured, till the final exit of the world with all its imperfections." [II. 124.] We are not eloquent like Mr. Ker Porter: so we cannot talk of diseases, and humours, and the exit of the world; but we may give a very plain solution of his difficulties, in the matter of fact. The king of Sweden, notwithstanding his high spirit (which, by the way, was chiefly shown in imitations of Charles XII's dress and in parodies upon the French bulletins) was disliked by his subjects; because, for the gratification of personal feelings, he involved his country in a war, which was necessarily expensive beyond its utmost means, and could scarcely

fail to terminate in the dismemberment or subjugation of the kingdom. If Sweden had enjoyed the benefits of a free constitution, even of such a form of government as Gustavus III. abolished, but, much more, if she had possessed the inestimable treasure of such a constitution as ours, the catastrophe which has, since Mr. Porter's return from the Baltick, be

fallen her unhappy, misguided sovereign, never could have happened A course of misrule, supported by popular delusion, might, no doubt, have brought the country into difficulties. It is even possible that the caprices of the court should, for a short time, have made them persist in measures contrary both to the interest and to the wishes of the people; but this could only have lasted for a season; and, in no long time after the eyes of the people had been opened, their voice must be heard, and a change of councils, or, at the utmost, a change of counsellors, would have prevented the necessity of any attempts upon the sacred person of the monarch.

It may easily be conceived, that our author's enthusiasm about Charles XII. leads him to every spot where any memorial of that gallant and most pernicious ruler can be found. He tells the whole story of his assassination as minutely as if he had read the details in an extraordinary gazette, and with as little hesitation as if this were, not one of the quæstiones vexato of modern history, but a passage free from all obscurity. We shall probably expose ourselves to the charge of jacobinism (though the wish is somewhat oldfashioned, and, indeed, so little in consonance with the prevailing taste, that it can scarcely be accused of triteness) if we express a desire to hear kings called by their proper names, and to have Charles XII. once more held up to the world as a personage, whose want of all the good principles most requi site in a sovereign, is a great deal

more evident than his madness. For a contrast to this prince, we cheerfully take Gustavus Vasa, of whom we rejoice to find, that our author has collected some anecdotes. He visited the spot in Dalecarlia, where that truly great monarch took refuge from the Danish usurper, and conœaled himself, while he matured his plan for the deliverance of his country. The following passage is exceedingly interesting, and relates the anecdotes with no small dramatick effect.

"On the little hill just mentioned, stood a very ancient habitation; of so simple an architecture, that you would have taken it for a hind's cottage, instead of a place that, in times of old, had been the abode of nobility. It consisted of a long barnlike structure, formed of fir, covered in a strange fashion with scales, and odd, ornamental twistings in the carved wood. But the spot was hallowed by the virtues of its heroick mistress, who saved, by her presence of mind, the life of the future deliverer of her country. The following are the circumstances alluded to; and most of them were communicated to me under the very roof.

"Gustavus, having, by an evil accident, been discovered in the mines, and after being narrowly betrayed by a Swedish nobleman, bent his course towards this house, then inhabited by a gentleman of the name of Pearson (or Peterson) whom he had known in the armies of the late administrator. Here, he hoped, from the obligations he had formerly laid on the officer, that he should at least find a safe retreat. Pearson received him with every mark of friendship; nay, treated him with that respect and submission which noble minds are proud to pay to the truly great, when robbed of their external honours. He seemed more afflicted by the misfortunes of Gustavus, than that prince was for himself; and exclaimed with such vehemence against the Danes, that, instead of awaiting a proposal to take up arms, he offered, unasked, to try the spirit of the mountaineers; and declared that himself and his vassals would be the first to set an example, and turn out under the command of his beloved general.

"Gustavus was rejoiced to find that he had at last found a man who was not afraid to draw his sword in the defence of his country; and endeavoured, by the most impressive arguments, and the prospect

of a suitable recompense for the personal risks he ran, to confirm him in so generepeated assurances of fidelity. He named the gentlemen and the leading persons among the peasants whom he hoped to engage in the enterprise. Gustavus relied on his word, and promising not to name himself to any while he was absent, some

rous a resolution. Pearson answered with

days afterwards saw him leave the house to put his design in execution.

one.

"It was, indeed, a design, and a black Under the specious cloak of a zealous affection for Gustavus, the traitor was contriving his ruin. The hope of making his court to the Danish tyrant, and the expectation of a large reward, made this son of Judas resolve to sacrifice his honour to his ambition, and, for the sake of a few ducats, violate the most sacred laws of hospitality, by betraying his guest. In pursuance of that base resolution, he went straight to one of Christiern's officers commanding in the province, and informed him that Gustavus was his prisoner. Having committed this treachery, he had not courage to face his victim; and telling the Dane how to surprise the prince, who, he said, believed himself to be under the protection of a friend (shame to manhood, to dare to confess that he could betray such a confidence!) he proposed taking a wider circuit home, while they, apparently unknown to him, rifled it of its treasure. It will be an easy matter,' said he; for not even my wife knows that it is Gustavus.'

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Accordingly the officer,, at the head of a party of well armed soldiers, marched directly to the lake. The men invested the house, while the leader, abruptly entering, found Pearson's wife, according to the fashion of those days, employed in culinary preparations. At some distance from her sat a young man in a rustick garb, lopping off the knots from the broken branch of a tree. The officer went up to her, and told her he came in king Christiern's name to demand the rebel Gustavus, who he knew was concealed under her roof. The dauntless woman never changed colour. She immediately guessed the man whom her husband had introduced as a miner's son, to be the Swedish hero. The door was blocked up by soldiers. In an instant she replied, without once glancing at Gustavus, who sat motionless with surprise: mean the melancholy gentleman my husband has had here these few days, he has just walked out into the wood on the other side of the hill. Some of those soldiers may readily seize him as he has ne arms with him.'

If you

"The officer did not suspect the easy simplicity of her manner; and ordered part of the men to go in quest of him. At that moment, suddenly turning her eyes on Gustavus, she flew up to him, and catching the stick out of his hand, exclaimed, in an angry voice: Unmannerly wretch! What, sit before your betters? Don't you see the king's officers in the room? Get out of my sight, or some of them shall give you a drubbing! As she spoke, she struck him a blow on the back with all her strength; and opening a side door, there, get into the scullery, cried she, it is the fittest place for such company! and giving him another knock, she flung the stick after him and shut the door. Sure,' added she, in a great heat, never woman was plagued with such a lout of a slave!'

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"The officer begged she would not disturb herself on his account. But she, affecting great reverence for the king, and respect for his representative, prayed him to enter her parlour, while she brought some refreshment. The Dane civilly complied; perhaps, glad enough to get from the side of a shrew; and she immediately hastened to Gustavus, whom she had bolted in, and, by means of a back passage, conducted him in a moment to a certain little apartment, which, projecting from the side of the house, close to the bank of the lake where the fisher's boats lay, she lowered him down the convenient aperture in the seat, and giving him a direction to an honest curate across the lake, committed him to Providence." II. 198-202.

The present proprietor of the house is a descendant of this extraordinary woman; and if Mr. Porter has given us accurately the tradition current in the house and neighbourhood, it amounts to no mean species of evidence for such a passage.

Our author's military ardour, to which we have already alluded, carried him to Gottenburgh, where he resolved to enter on immediate service with the English army, then assembled in that port. He made his arrangements for joining this force, and expected shortly to be fighting as hard as possible, either in Norway or Zealand. But the decrees of the fates, or those of our cabinet (which, if not quite so unalterable, are to the full as mysterious) willed it otherwise; and Mr. Porter

saw the transports, after waiting two months for nothing, all of a sudden set sail. "His northern campaign being cropt in the bud, he hoped for a more propitious commencement on the shores of Spain," and was some time on board a transport; but being informed that they were going direct to the Spanish coast, he disembarked, in order to take England in his way, and rejoin the army when it should arrive at its destination, While he is waiting for a packet he receives the most flattering invitation from the Swedish commander in chief on the frontiers of Norway to join his army, with the assurance that his " military passion shall be fully gratified." But, his duty calls him to the Spanish shores; so he "declines the honour with gratitude," and sails for England.

We wish Mr. Porter would employ another engraver. His drawing used to be excellent; but the scraping, by means of which it is rendered to the publick in these volumes, destroys its whole effect. Nothing can be less satisfactory or distinct than these plates. As for any other corrections, we fear it would be in vain to suggest

them.

Were we, for instance, only to require a little attention to grammar, or a somewhat less frequent use of French words in describing things at Moscow and Stockholm, where French has nothing to do; or, if French must be used, were we to suggest the propriety of some regard to the idiom of that language, that he should not, for example, turn the burghers or citizens of Stockholm, into bourgeoises [II. 120]; or were we to cry out against such words as bathos-ical and Alexandri nally, and a thousand others equally unknown in all languages, Mr. Por ter would forthwith tell us: "These are letters to a friend, and you can't expect cold correctness in epistolary effusions." This would have been an excellent defence, if his friend had criticized his style. It may also be a

good reason for not publishing his letters: but they are now a printed book, and must come under the ordinary jurisdiction of criticism, what

ever shape they may formerly have assumed, or with whatever intentions they were composed.

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FROM THE LONDON REVIEW.

Critical Essays on the Performers of the London Theatres; including general Observations on the Practice and Genius of the Stage. By the Author of the Theatrical Criticisms in the weekly Paper called The News. London. Printed by and for John Hunt.-Reviewed by Mr. Cumberland.

THESE Essays abound in a variety of judicious observations and remarks, which, though addressed to readers of a particular description, will afford general entertainment and delight, were it only for the pleasantry of the style, enlivened as it is by such a flow of fancy, such display of humour, so many apt allusions and so much originality of thought, which, whilst they manifest the genius, mark the juvenility of the writer They are, however, more particularly to be valued for the evidence they bear of the sincere and manly character of their author, who, with an honest contempt for the popular farce writers of the time, observes that every actor, who repeats the nonsense of these scribblers with all its effect, hurts his own reputation in proportion as he would extend theirs ; for when the owl screeches, the echo must screech also.

It is not my design, and I do not consider it as my duty, to attend upon this critick through his whole list of performers, amounting to not less than thirty. I will say something of those, who have ceased to live; but I will treat sparingly and tenderly of those, who are to earn their living by their labours on the stage. I approve of their being told of faults, which it would be for their interest, to correct; but as I will not arraign them for defects, with which nature has unalterably endowed them, I must be perfectly satisfied that correction is in their power before I move them to attempt it. As objects of our general censure they have no

defence; as servants of the theatre, exhibiting themselves on a stage for our amusement, they have no fastnesses to retreat to from our attack; they are at our mercy, and discouragement partakes of persecution; until a performer shall offend against the respect due to his audience, great respect and lenity are justly due to his feelings.

I have something, but not much, wherewith to reproach my author upon this account; and as it chiefly, if not exclusively, applies to Mr. Pope, I shall reverse the order of his list, and say in few words what I can say with truth of that intelligent and meritorious actor. In all my dramatick concerns with Mr. Pope, which have not been few, I have ever found him strictly punctual in his rehearsals, studiously correct and faithful to his author in representation, and devoting himself to the general interests of the piece as well as to the particular duties of his part with zeal so ardent and so cordial, that if this testimony, which I now oppose to a criticism that condemns him in the gross, may in any degree compensate for the asperity of it, it is a defence that I should have entered upon from conviction of his merits, had I not been also moved to it from a grateful sense of his good services.

It is happy for an actor when nature has bestowed upon him an expressive countenance; but if he has it not by nature, he cannot make it such by art. Let him not hear of privations, which he cannot supply; tell him only of such errours as he

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