lish goods seized in the Hanse Towns and the ports of Prussia brought eight or nine millions sterling into the French exchequer. In Westphalia, a line of French custom-honses extended from Rees to Bremen. The hatred of English merchandize became at length stronger than the desire of improving the French finances. All English merchandize, whether taken at sea or land, was ordered to be burnt. The decrees, first, for seizing, and, lastly, for burning English merchandize, were carried into execution with great rigour, in the Hanse Towns, in France, Italy, Germany, Prussia, Switzerland, and Denmark. The zeal of his Danish majesty, in this business, was signalized by a severity that seemed to outrun even that of Buonaparte. To hold any intercourse with England-was made felony in the captain of a ship, who was accordingly liable to be punished with death, and the owner of the ship was to be branded. By an imperial decree, punishments of different kinds and degrees were denounced against all who should be concerned in English merchandize, from captains of ships to common porters. We have a picture of the rigour with which the anti-commercial decrees of Buonaparte were enforced, in a letter, dated at Frankfort, November 1, and received in London November 16. "The gates of the town have been shut, and domiciliary visits made to most of the mercantile houses in the city, in order to seize every kind of English and colonial goods." The Emperor, as some relief to his own subjects, gianted licences to VOL LII

certain individuals, both for exportation and importation of certain articles, on certain conditions. But such licences were not to be signed by any of his ministers: they must be signed by himself. His autograph consisted in the three first letters of his name, [Nap.] fantastically written. He repealed, nominally, the decrees of Berlin and Milan, as far as related to America: but he imposed such a duty on the importation of colonial produce as amounted nearly to a prohibition; while, at the same time, he continued to seize occasionally, and sequestrate American vessels as usual.

On the side of Italy, Buonaparte had nothing to excite his jealousies or fears, but the influence of the ecclesiastics, who still maintained the supremacy of the Pope. A greater concourse than ordinary of that order, from all parts of Italy, and even some from other countries, was remarked at Rome. The ecclesiastical states, of which his holiness had been deprived, manifested strong symptoms of dissatisfaction. Such of the priests, both regular and secular, as were strangers, or only visitors at Rome, were ordered to repair to the usual places of their respective residences. A French corps, 20,000 strong, was collected in the vicinity of Rome. A great part of these troops were at first quartered on the inhabitants but in consequence of the numerous assassinations of the soldiers, which this dispersion occasioned, and which became every day more frequent, it was aban doned. Some of the churches and other public buildings were conR

verted

verted into barracks for the use of the troops. A great blow was struck against the churchmen in the month of September. By a decree of his majesty the Emperor and King, marriages contracted without the sanction of the civil

magistrate, were to be deemed null and invalid; and ecclesiastics who presumed to pronounce the nuptial benediction, without such authority, to be punishedafter repeated offences, even with death.

СНАР.

began to disperse. But in a very little time a large party returned. When Count Fersen went to the house just mentioned, he was accompanied, or straightway followed, by Silversparre, and some others, who wished to save him from the fury of the mob. Silversparre, seeking to pacify them, harangued them from the window, but in such a mean and fawning style, as encouraged them with increased fury and imprecations to demand their victim. They rushed into the house and the chamber where he was; and while they poured the most horrid imprecations and abusive language, stripped him of his sword, the insignia of the orders he wore, his watch, his money, and a medal hung round his neck, and of his coat, which they tore in pieces. These spoils they threw to the rabble out at the window. In the mean time, Baron Silversparre continued to harangue the mob, whom he at length prevailed on to agree to what he prayed for; which was, that the count should be suffered to go to prison without being insulted, to be tried, and condemned, if he should be found guilty. The leaders of the mob promised to let him go quietly to the Town-house, on condition that the life-guards, which by this time had come up, should be sent back. Silversparre had the unheard of stupidity to trust to their word. The count, in his waistcoat, left the house where he had remained for a quarter of an hour, and proceed. ed to the place of confinement through a crowd of people, agi

tated by passion, over which there was not any curb: yet they made way for the unhappy count to pass through them, as he advanced to the Town-house, near which there was drawn up for his protection a regiment of guards. When the rabble, pressing hard on the footsteps of the grand marshal, came up to the guards, the soldiers, of their own accord, with fixed bayonets, overawed and kept them in check, and gave the marshal a momentary respite. But in a little time they shouldered arms, (some say by order of their com manding officer) which emboldened the mob to advance through two ranks of soldiers, in order to shut up the high marshal in a cellar, under the flight of stairs leading up to the Town-hall. The count, however, with the assistance of some faithful and intrepid friends, made his way into the guard-room. The mob, for about ten minutes, paused; but at length, perceiving that they had not any resistance to encounter, they burst into the guard-room, seized Count Fersen by the legs, threw him on the ground, took the rings out of his ears, and cut off his hair: * they then dragged him out, and, in the presence of the regiment of guards, drawn up in parade, but with their arms laid on the ground, murdered him, by the mere dint of repeated strokes with staves and umbrellas. His body was stripped naked, and left all day to the outrages of the rascally populace. It was not till the evening, when the insurgents were dispersed by the fire of the troops, that any one

durst

durst to remove the body: when it was secretly conveyed to one of his estates, about five miles from Steding, where it was interred in his garden.

The Countess of Piper, Count Fersen's sister, loudly threatened and abused by the mob, fled from her house, and found means to take refuge on board a ship of war, from whence she was conveved to the fortress of Wrexholm. Mr. Rossie, principal physician to the late Crown Prince, was also sent as a prisoner of state to Wrexholm. A number of other persons, charged with having been accessory to the murder of the Prince Royal, were also arrested.

The regularity and relentless perseverance with which the attack on Count Fersen was conducted, could not but give rise to a suspicion, that it was the result of a previous plan, rather than an ebullition of popular indignation. It is ascribed to law less and perfidious intrigues in the royal proclamation on the subject, dated Stockholm Castle, June 21. The Swedes had hitherto been considered as a calm, reflecting, humane, and brave people. That the Swedish guards, commanded by officers of the first families in the kingdom, should remain inactive spectators of the murder of Count Fersen, at the same time that they felt and expressed their horrors of the transactions of that day; that a body of regular troops should not have the courage to save a high officer of the crown from the sanguinary rage of a lawless and abused mob, was a circumstance, of all the kingdoms on the continent of Europe, the least to be expected in Sweden.

But another conjuncture soon occurred, which placed the degeneracy of the Swedish nation, from the virtue of their ancestors, in a light still more striking,

On the 15th of August, the States of Sweden were assembled at Orebro, for the election of a successor to the king on the throne. There were four candidates. The first was the eldest son of Gustavus IV. When this unfortunate prince, during his exile in Switzerland, was informed of the proclamation for convoking the Diet at Orebro, he quitted the place of his residence incognito, and took the route of Germany, with the intention of soliciting the support of the courts of Petersburg and Berlin in favour of his eldest son. But he was arrested on his journey by order of the King of Prussia, and sent to Wittenberg, to wait for an answer to letters communicating the pretensions of his son, from Stockholm. The second competitor was the Prince of Holstein, the eldest brother of the Prince of Augustenburg. The King of Denmark also appeared in the list of candidates. To overcome the aversion of the Swedes, and conciliate their favour, he promised to quit Copenhagen and reside at Stockholm. The fourth competitor was Marshal Bernadotte, Prince of Pate Corvo. Though this was the candidate, as was well enough understood, and, as could scarcely be misunderstood, favoured by the Emperor of the French, yet he secretly encouraged the King of Denmark to solicit the succession, because he knew that he could never succeed, and that the very idea of being governed by a Danish king was odious to the Swedes,