forsook the coast. Diseases, the effect of hardships, excessive fatigue, and insufficient food, broke out in the army, and in the fleet: in such cases we have had lamentable proof how little can be effected by medical science, even in the most advanced state to which it has yet attained; but in Sweden both skill and medicines were wanting. A third of the soldiers and sailors, it is supposed, were carried off, and of the survivors half were lingering in the hospitals. Pestilence was not confined to the military part of the population; it appeared at Carlscrona and on the borders of Lapland. Poor diet, and that scantily supplied, was the cause: the deaths were fifty a-day, and thousands were thus swept off.

Dearth and pestilence were thus wasting the people. Finland had formerly been the granary of the northern provinces, and this province, the most fertile and the most prosperous of the whole kingdom, was lost. From thence and from Pomerania, which also was lost, Stockholm and most of the other sea-ports used to receive provisions and fuel; the capital, therefore, severely felt the effects of the war. The mer chants remembered their gains while the kingdom remained neutral, and, forgetting that France had destroyed all neutral trade by her tyrannical decrees, imputed their losses to the war alone, and ascribed all the sufferings of Sweden to her alliance with England. Among the higher orders there prevailed that baneful attachment to the language and manners of France, which has contributed so greatly to the overthrow of the continent. The government, too, was ill compacted: the long struggle between the crown and the nobles left a rankling spirit in the aristocra

cy, which had produced the murder of Gustavus III., and was working evil against his son. In many respects the king resembled the best of his progenitors; his private life was unimpeachable; his high sense of honour was manifested in the resolution with which he alone, of all the continental sovereigns, rejected the offers and defied the power of the Corsican tyrant. No prince would ever have been more popular in ordinary times. His zeal for the improvement of the kingdom and of the people was unwearied: if any person, how humble soever in rank, distinguished himself above his neighbours, whether by making drains, embankments, or enclosures; by improving his agriculture or his breed of cattle; by being the foremost to have his children vac. cinated, or to send them to school; even if a peasant set the example of building his house with stone, and roofing it with slate, the provincial magistrates were instructed to inform the king of such a man's deserts, and he was sure to be rewarded, as an incitement to others to pursue the same course. But there was in him that family disease which had manifested itself in Christina and in Charles XII.; and though the general tenor of his conduct was not only blameless, but even wise, every error which he committed, and every sally of anger to which he gave way, was attributed to this cause. That the disease existed is beyond a doubt; his conduct toward Sir John Moore proved it but too plainly; and another proof was displayed at the beginning of the year, when he laid an embargo upon British ships, and shortly after took it off again, for reasons which at the time could neither be conjectured in this country nor in Swe den. But his very virtues were turn

ed against him, and, because he had sometimes acted insanely, the whole system of his policy was imputed to insanity.

The discontent of the nobles became apparent towards the close of the year 1808, and it was reported that some of them would be brought to trial; but if this was really the intention of Gustavus, he had no power to execute it. A conspiracy had been formed against him which was widely extended, and his own uncle, the Duke of Sudermania, was at the head of the conspirators. The man appointed to commence the rebellion was Colonel Addelsparre, who had formerly made himself conspicuous among the discontented party, but, notwithstanding this, had been trusted by the king with the command of two regiments stationed on the frontiers of Norway. It was easy for this traitor to excite a mutiny among troops who were ill paid, ill clothed, and ill fed, and whose spirits were broken, not so much by the hardships which they had endured, as by the hopelessness of the war in which they were engaged, conducted as that war had been. Having thus far succeeded, Addelsparre entered Carlstadt at their head on the night of the 6th of March, and demanded of the burgomaster quarters for his troops. The per sons in authority here were not in the conspiracy; the burgomaster refused to obey the illegal requisition; the governor, Count Rosen, was then applied to, and Addelsparre accompanied this second demand with a threat, that if it was not complied with he would enforce it, and his troops should take quarters wherever they could find them. The count could not resist, but he did his duty in refusing to obey: he and the bur

gomaster were arrested by the rebel commander, and the troops quartered themselves in the town, giving out that they were on their march to Stockholm to obtain payment of their arrears, and demand of the king to call a diet of the states.

This latter object they held out especially to justify themselves, in a proclamation, wherein, after entreating their brethren in arms, and their fellow countrymen, not to mistake their views, or imagine them to be other than those which arose from public spirit and honour, they declared their sole purpose to be, that the states of the realm should be at liberty to assemble and deliberate uncontrouled on the means of restoring the prosperity of Sweden. "We have solemnly sworn," said they, "to lay at their feet the arms which we have taken up to procure their freedom, and around the hall where they hold their deliberations we will form a rampart, which no power upon earth shall be able to beat down. The German dominions of Sweden are delivered up to the enemy, and Finland, the native soil of a noble and gallant people, is lost. Our trade is ruined; our mines deserted; our youth taken from agricultural pursuits to be destroyed by sickness and the sword; the burthens laid on agriculture are such that they can be borne no longer; grinding taxes are exacted without mercy, and desolation and misery are spreading far and wide, and threatening universal ruin. We have seen with grief the most important concerns managed in a manner which began without any plan, as it ended without success; the remaining strength of the country, if no means be taken to prevent farther evil, may be wasted with the like folly. We have sworn that not

a single inch more of Swedish territory shall be given up to the enemy. We have sworn that the fathers of the country shall enjoy full liberty to restore our welfare and prosperity. Let then the higher and lower states of the commonweal join heart and hand to assert our freedom; and let the fathers of the country offer peace and amity to our neighbours, but with this assurance, that every Swedish soldier will rather be buried under the ruins of his country, than suffer a single inch of Swedish ground to be taken by the enemy, or ceded to them. Our ally, Great Britain, shall learn to appreciate and value a nation which knows how to break its chaius; France shall learn to respect a people who are anxious to rival her military prowess; and the rulers of Russia and Denmark, who are incessantly engaged in pursuits tending to promote the prosperity of their subjects, will not disturb the tranquillity of a nation which only desires to live or die in independence. Such are our wishes for our country, and we are ready to sacrifice our lives for their fulfilment. It is of the utmost importance for Sweden that every Swede should at length be allowed to return to a peaceful home, as far as that can be done without disparagement to the honour and independence of the kingdom. The frontiers are for a short time left without defence on account of our departure; but should the enemy, contrary to his solemn promise, avail himself of our absence to attack them, we will speedily return, take a severe revenge, and convince him of the difference of a war carried on because of the personal hatred of the ruler, and one prosecuted by a nation which is determined to maintain its independence."

The proclamation concluded by

expressing the confidence of the insurgents that the whole army would co-operate with them in effecting the restoration of public prosperity and the destruction of their foreign foes, and by requesting that the people in general would suspend their judge ment upon these proceedings till the decision of the states should be known. This seems to imply that the public opinion was against them, and the studied ambiguity of all the expres sions relating to the foreign foe lead to the same conclusion. It is apparent that they who drew up the proclamation regarded England as that foe, but that it was not thought prudent to tell the people so. Perhaps the troops themselves could not have been stirred up to rebellion, had they been regularly paid. At Gottenburgh this was supposed to be the sole cause of the insurrection when the tidings reached that city, and the magistrates, in order to satisfy the troops in their district, and prevent them from joining the insurgents, raised a loan of 20,000 rix-dollars to pay off the arrears. But the root of the evil lay deeper. It was the treachery of the nobles and of his own blood that overthrew Gustavus That prince, little suspecting that he was surrounded by traitors, as soon as he heard of the insurrection sent orders to supersede Addelsparre, and the commander-in-chief of the western army, Baron Aderstrom. General Aldercreutz prevented the courier from proceeding: the king was informed that the mutineers were appeased and order restored; and this falsehood was so well circulated that it reached this country. Gustavus was two days before he discovered that he had been deceived; he then determined to march in person at the head of his guards against the insur

gents. On the morning of the 13th (of March) he left his apartment to go down to the parade, which is in front of the palace, and there announce his determination to the guards, and call upon them to follow him. As he was descending the great staircase, a party of the conspirators, with Aldercreutz among them, advanced to meet him, as if in compliment. In this manner they contrived to surround him, and Aldercreutz then told him, that as all other means had proved ineffectual to make him adopt measures con. sistent with the exigencies of the times, it was now become necessary to have recourse to restraint. "What do you mean," said Gustavus, with perfect coolness; "am I arrested?" They all answered, yes. He then drew his sword, and attempted to run Aldercreutz through the body; but the conspirators were too numerous and too vigilant for this to be possible one seized him from behind, others closed in, overpowered, and disarmed him, though not till one of them, Count Shoilsky, had been wounded in the hand. Having thus secured his person, they immediately sent him as a prisoner to Drotningholm, once the most splendid palace of the kings of Sweden, situated in the isle of Lozon, a Swedish mile to the west of Stockholm.

On the same day the Duke of Sudermania issued a proclamation, declaring that the king, under existing circumstances, was incapable of conducting the affairs of the nation, and that he therefore, being the nearest and only branch of the family who was of proper age, had been induced, as administrator of the kingdom, to take into his hands the reins of go. vernment, which, by God's help, he would so conduct that the nation might regain peace both at home and

abroad, and trade and commerce might revive. Wherefore he invited and commanded all ranks and classes of people to obey him as his intentions deserved, and their own welfare required. He ordered Te Deum to be sung in the capital for the salvation of the country, and thanksgivings to be offered in all the churches throughout the kingdom. The following day he sent Mar. 14. out letters, patent, summoning a general diet for the 1st of May; and these were followed by a manifesto from the duke, who now assumed the title of regent. "He deemed it right," he said, "and conformable to the duties of his high station, to lay before the people the motives for the important change which had just been effected: there were abundant documents among the archives of the state which would prove the necessity of that change, both to the present age and to posterity. Public opinion had long condemned the ruinous system of warfare which had been pursued; for the geographical situation of Sweden might have secured to her that neutrality, which was all that her commercial interests required. But the king had thought proper to take an active part in the coalition against France; the first consequence was, the loss of her trade with almost all the states of Europe. He was invited to form one of the contracting parties at Tilsit, and upon terms which were by no means irreconcileable with the welfare of the country: he was not prevented from accepting those terms by England, yet he refused; and the immediate effect was, that Sweden was compelled singlehanded to fight France and her numerous allies upon the continent. The siege of Stralsund was then vi

gorously carried on. A convention was concluded, which stipulated the evacuation of Pomerania and Rugen by the Swedes; even then the offer of peace was renewed by France: it was again rejected; and thus the German provinces of Sweden, the last remains of the conquests of the great Gustavus, were lost. These evils were followed by war with Russia and Denmark, a danger that might have been prevented by acceding to the peace of Tilsit. Finland became the seat of war, and if the means of defence which the nature of that country permitted had been managed with skill, or if the plans of resistance, which were relinquished almost as soon as they were adopted, had been firmly and perseveringly carried into effect, the loss of that province, the most calamitous event which has for centuries past befallen Sweden, might have been averted. In this state of things, the means of waging war against such numerous enemies must soon have proved insufficient; the public necessities increased in the same proportion as the resources failed; and yet it was universally known that the king again repeated his unalterable resolution never to conclude a peace with the present government of France, a resolution which rendered a reconciliation with Denmark and Russia impossible. Seeing the approaching ruin of the country, the western army resolved to march to the capital, and take measures for its salvation: similar movements took place among the troops in the north. The king would have assembled a force in the south to march against them two distinct governments would thus have been formed, and a civil war have filled up the measure

of calamity. The most respectful remonstrances against this desperate determination of his majesty were rejected, and no other means remained for securing even the safety of his own person, than forcibly to prevent him from carrying his purpose into effect. In these circumstances," the manifesto concluded, “all the officers of state, in concert with the states of the empire who were present in Stockholm, made known to the Duke of Sudermania their constitutional wish, that he would take the government into his own hands, which he, notwithstanding his advanced age, thought himself in duty bound to do, confiding that his conduct would be seen in its proper light by every honest and patriotic Swede."

It appears then, from the usurper's manifesto, and from the proclamation of the rebellious army, that the charges against the king were, his obstinacy in refusing to make peace with Buonaparte, and the misconduct with which he carried on the war. One of our English journalists well observed upon this occasion, that scarcely any thing was alleged as a reason for deposing Gustavus which might not have been said in the British House of Commons on a motion for a committee upon the state of the nation; so that that which in one country had overturned a throne, would in the other have only displaced a ministry! A more striking example has never occurred of the advantage of a limited monarchy, like our own, to the monarch himself, as well as to the people. No stronger proof can be required of the excellent character of Gustavus, than that these were all the charges which could be brought against him. For they