home, and considered the orders of the English ministry which he had received, he conceived himself bound to return home directly without waiting for any farther orders, unless the British troops were immediately permitted to land. He wrote a note to that effect to Mr. Thornton, the British ambassador at Stockholm, who laid it before the King. Gustavus was incensed, and without farther ceremony ordered Sir John Moore to be confined to his house. Strong remonstrances on the absurdity and danger of this step were made by Mr. Thornton; but without effect. At last Sir John Moore made his escape to Gottenburg, and the British troops returned home to England.

"All this while Finland and the Swedish army in that country were abandoned to their fate, while 15,000 Swedish troops lay in Sconia because the king had again resumed the project of invading Zealand. With this small army he proposed to besiege Copenhagen, and conquer Zealand: the proposal was referred to a committee, who' pronounced it altogether impracticable. Supposing it even possible for this little army to take Copenhagen, it was clear that they could not keep it, because the Danes had it in their power immediately to besiege them with a much greater army. Gustavus sailed for Oland, and after writing some ridiculous letters to the Russian general, and sailing about for weeks in quest of the Swedish galleys, he at last established his head quarters at Grelsby.

Mr.

Thornton had recommended opening a negotiation with the Russians and Danes; but Gustavus treated the proposal as an insult, quarrelled with Mr. Thornton, and insisted upon his recal, a demand which was

soon after complied with by the British ministry.

"The army in North Finland had all this time been left to itself, yet it had begun to oblige the Russians to retire; and had it been properly reinforced, there can be little doubt that Finland might have been recovered. Two expeditions were indeed sent out by the King for the recovery of South Finland, consisting each of a few hundred men; one to land at Obo, the other at Vasa; but they were too insignificant to accomplish any thing, and served only to diminish the strength of the Swedish army. Early in the summer the Russians in North Finland, who had been much weakened by their winter campaign, were not able to stand their ground before the Swedish army, which, including the Finnish militia, amounted to about 13,000 men. The Swedes recovered a considerable space of ground, and conducted themselves with the utmost gallantry and skill; but they were left totally unsupported, and by the month of September were reduced by continual fighting to about 6000 men. All the losses of the Russians had been supplied, and they were now stronger than when they first entered the country. Some trifling expeditions were indeed sent to assist the Swedes; but by the express orders of the King, they were obliged to land at so great a distance, and to fight their way through so great a space, that they were destroyed piecemeal without being of the least service to the common cause of Sweden. Baron Vegesack, indeed, at the head of six battalions, by disobeying the king's commands and landing at Christinestadt instead of Björneborgt, succeeded in reaching the northern army, when it was

driven almost to the polar circle, and quite unable to oppose the Russians, TheKing upon this occasion expressed the greatest displeasure that his orders had not been exactly obeyed, though it was demonstrated to him, that if the troops had landed at Björnebourg not one of them could have escaped the Russian troops.

was

"South Finland, which already lost, and covered with Russian troops, was more an object of consideration with him. He sent a standard bearer to Obo to collect information respecting the state of the country this man brought back intelligence that 13,000 peasants were ready to rise in arms against the Russians. He sent back this man and one of his life guards to take the command of this supposed army of peasants; 2600 troops were to be sent at the same time under the command of Count Lantingshausen. These troops were supplied with only sixty rounds of ball cartridges apiece: and thongh the general remonstrated on the insufficiency of such a supply, which would be exhausted immediately, he could procure no more. This little army was ordered to land at Lokalax, take Obo, and then to join General Vegesack's corps. After various delays, this small body of men landed at Varanpä, and took possession of a strong fort about four miles from the place of debarkation. They were immediately attacked by the Russians, who were repulsed; but the Swedish ammunition being speedily expended, while the number of their enemies had increased, they were obliged to return to their transports, which they effected without

Joss.

"An army of 6000 men was collected at Gefle, and ordered to sail to the northern coast of Oland,

where they would find ships that would make them acquainted with their destination. They did so, but found no vessels at the appointed place. The orders given to the different commanders were inconsistent and contradictory, so that they had no means of divining the object of their expedition. A storm arose and scattered the transports; some were wrecked, and some totally lost. Meanwhile two sets of orders had been issued by the king; one ordering them to the north, and the other to the south. One battalion and two companies of ColonelSkjöldebrand's brigade meeting at sea with the vessels carrying the first orders, joined the army in the north; but only served to increase the confusion, arising from the want of provisions and resources of every kind. Most of them perished in these dreary 1egions, not more than 90 returning again to Sweden.

"I shall pass by several other expeditions to Finland, undertaken during the course of this year, all of them small, and all of them as injudiciously contrived as possible. Had the object of Gustavus been the loss of Finland, and the destruction of the Swedish army, he could have taken no steps better calculated to accomplish them. No valour on the part of the Swedish troops, no skill on the part of their commanders, could be of any avail: because, by the consummate folly of the King, they were exposed every where to teu times their number of Russian troops, without any of the requisites which constitute an army; and every expedition was left to its fate without inquiry, and without reluctance. The Swedes are unanimously of opinion that Finland was

lost,

lost, and their army ruined, by the extreme folly and incapacity of the King; that the resources of the country were quite sufficient to have defended it; and that the Swedish army, had it been judiciously placed, would have bid defiance to all the efforts of their enemies, at least for several years. But Gustavus was dreaming of con. quests, and his eager desire to copy after the example of Charles XII. could ill brook the idea of defence, to which, in his circumstances, any King of common sense would have restricted himself. Of all the race of Gustavus Vasa, he was by far the weakest that had ever sat upon the throne of Sweden, whilst his passion for war, and the erroneous opinion that he had formed of his own abilities and qualifications, made him the most injurious to his country of any prince that Sweden had ever obeyed.

"I am conscious that this picture of the conduct and capacity of Gustavus IV. is very different from what is generally entertained in this country. It is very different from what has been uniformly inculcated in all our newspapers, and, indeed, as different as possible from the opinion which I myself entertained before I went to Sweden. But it is an opinion which must be adopted by every person who will make himself acquainted with the facts which took place in Sweden during his reign. I have already stated a considerable number of these; but more are still wanting to complete the picture.

"In consequence of the quarrel between Mr. Thornton, the British ambassador, and Gustavus, that gentleman had been recalled by the British government, and Mr. Merry sent out in his place. In his first conversation with the King of Swe

den, that monarch, whose finances were in the most deplorable state, imperiously demanded an increase of the subsidy advanced to him by Great Britain, and the immediate payment of a sum of money to answer his exigencies. Mr. Merry informed him that he had no powers to enter upon any such negotiation; but to prevent an immediate quarrel between the two countries, he allowed him to draw bills for 300,000l. without any orders from his own government. These bills were returned dishonoured by the British ministry, and a note was written at the same time, advising Gustavus to make peace with the belligerent powers, assuring him that the British ministry would with pleasure release him from his engagements, and keep up the usual communications between the two kingdoms, even supposing him to make peace with France and Russia. Gustavus was indignant at this note. He again declared his unalterable resolution never to make peace with Buonaparte or the Emperor of Russia. He immediately ordered an embargo on the British merchant ships at Gottenburg, commanded that pilots should be refused to the British ships of war, and that if they attempted to sail without pilots they should be treated as enemies. He wrote a letter with his own hand to the King of Denmark, informing him that he was already at war with England, and requesting an immediate cessation of hostilities, and a negotiation for peace. But before this letter was sent off he received information that the Danes had circulated revolutionary proclamations in Sconia. He immediately tore his letter in pieces, recalled the embargo of the British vessels, and entered into a

new

new treaty with the British minis

ter.

"The crisis of Sweden was now at hand. The Swedish army in Finland had been driven out of the country and nearly annihilated. The army of the west had been equally unsuccessful in Norway, and the Norwegians had actually invaded Sweden. The Swedish supplementary army of 30,000 men had been nearly destroyed, partly by want of clothing and exposure to severe cold, and partly by being sent upon services quite unsuitable to the tender age of the troops, who were mostly boys not more than 19 years of age. The treasury was absolutely exhausted, and the violent taxes to which the king had recourse were so tyrannical and unjust that they could not be levied. The whole money remaining for carrying on the war, I had been credibly informed, did not exceed 2,000l. sterling. Meanwhile four separate armies were preparing to invade the kingdom on every side. Two Russian armies were ready to march; the one from Obo over the ice was destined to take possession of Stockholm, an open town, and incapable of any defence; the other was to proceed from the north and fall down upon Delecarlia and Nerike. A French and Danish army in conjunction were to cross the Sound upon the ice. But they were fortunately prevented by the sudden breaking up of the ice, and the appearance of some British ships of war. Finally, the Norwegian army, under the command of Prince Augustenburg, was to take possession of Wermeland and West Gothland. Such was the weakened state of the Swedish army, which in one year had been reduced from about 100,000 men to a comparatively

small number; such the discontent both of the officers and men; such the want of provisions and ammunition, that very little resistance could have been opposed, and Sweden must infallibly have been overrun and divided. In this dreadful dilemma, when no hope was left, the country was saved by an unforeseen revolution, which wrested the sceptre from the unworthy hands of Gustavus, and saved the country from partition by a speedy and necessary peace. I shall give an account of this revolution, with as much precision as my information on the subject will permit.

"It is a fundamental maxim in the British constitution that it is the duty of a prince to promote the welfare of his subjects and country; and that whenever his conduct becomes unequivocally inconsistent with the interests of his people, resistance becomes not only innocent but an indispensable duty. It was by this maxim that the revolution of 1688 was justified, which hurled the family of the Stuarts from the throne, and introduced a new and a foreign dynasty. Never did a greater necessity for a revolution exist in any country than it did in Sweden in the beginning of the year 1809. The finances of the country were in the most deplorable state, the army was harassed and cut up in detail, as if it had been the professed object of the king to annihilate it. Three powerful nations were preparing to invade and divide the kingdom of Sweden among them. Gustavus had quarrelled with his only ally, and obstinately refused to listen to any terms of peace with France and Russia; though it was demonstrated thạt such a peace was essentially necessary for the interests of his country,

and

and that perseverance in the war could lead to nothing else than complete ruin.

"The liberty of the press had been totally annihilated in Sweden, so that the people in consequence were but imperfectly acquainted with the state of Europe. The King had all along been very popular with the people, who, ignorant of his real character, ascribed all his errors in Germany to the want of capacity of his ministers. Even the commencement of the Russian and Danish war did not alter their sentiments, and the losses sustained in Finland served only to irritate the minds of the people. Popular enthusiasm was raised to the highest pitch, and the most glorious results would have taken place had the throne been filled by a prince who understood how to profit by the disposition of his subjects. But the management of the war in the summer and autumn of 1808 opened the eyes of the whole Swedish nation. The army were disgusted with a prince who expected from them impossibilities, who paid no attention to their lives or their comforts, and who refused to share the toils and hardships to which he exposed them. The barbarous treatment and cruel fate of the supplementary army excited the compassion of all ranks, and raised a corre sponding abhorrence at the unfeeling mind of its author. The deplorable state of the finances, the determination of the king never to make peace, and the absurd plans which he had projected for the next campaign, awakened in the mind of every thinking man the necessity of taking some immediate step to save their tottering country.

"It was impossible to obtain in Sweden any very satisfactory ac

count of the origin of the conspiracy. Every body asserted that the Duke of Sudermania was altogether unacquainted with it. This is possible, though from the subsequent conduct of that prince I can hardly bring myself to believe that this was the case. The two gentlemen, from whom my principal information was obtained, were neither of them actors in the conspiracy; though they took a very active part in the framing of the new constitution, and one of them indeed was for a short time a secretary of state. I must satisfy myself with giving the particulars, such as I learned them, without being able to throw much new light either upon the origin, or the names of the original conspirators. But the conspiracy appears to me to have originated in the army, and to have been very gene. ral all over the kingdom. The actors in it were all officers in the army, and even some battalions of common soldiers were let into the secret.

"Varjous projects and consultations about a revolution took place at different times, and were so publicly talked of, that if the government of Gustavus had possessed the least vigilance, the whole project must have been discovered. Different schemes were proposed and abandoned in succession, and the ardour of the conspirators began to cool. At this time an officer of high rank, in the disguise of a servant to his own adjutant, arrived from the army of the north. He found about twenty persons in ́ Stockholm anxious to bring about a revolution; but not determined either about the time or the measures to be pursued. After some consultation, the different sentiments of this body were reconciled,

and