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1
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6
AN APPEAL
TO THE ENGLISH NATION
lit BEHALV or
Jiortoa^.
BY A. ANDERSEN FELDBORG.
' i
Hail, brave Norwegian! ion of freedom, hail!
Oh ! may your cause, your sacred cause prevail ;
And may no hand of rude oppressive power,
Crush the bright oflspring of this anxious hour.
Norway, a Pom, iy Charlott«Wa»i>lk.
1814.
TO TIIK
Right Honorable Lord Grcnvillc, <^c, ^jf-c.
u
My Lord,
Much as the high-spirited and gallant people of
Norway may have had cau^e to lament the inauspicious result of
their application to the Government of this country, that circum-
stance has now, I am almost tempted to say, been converted into
a subject of congratulation and triumph. It has placed the cause
of Norway on the highest ground imaginable. For it is notorious,
that Sweden trusted more to the effects of an English blockade than
to any other means which she could devise or employ for the
subjugation of Norway. In the exultation of their hearts,
the enemies of that unoffending country exclaimed : ** The
Norwegiajis cannot long resist a regular blockade of their ports."
Yet the Norwegians still resist, and will, I am satisfied, continue
to resist, until their national rights shall be fully acknowledged.
In presuming, my Lord, to account for the effects, which have
proved to be directly the reverse of the consequences so fondly and
so confidently anticipated by Sweden from the declared hostility
of the British Government towards Norway, I speak, I am per-
suaded, the universal sentiment of the British and Norwegian
nations, when I ascribe to your Lordship, in particular, the revival
of those pleasing prospects, which must have illumined the minds
and gladdened the hearts of the brave Norwegians, when they
besought England to interpose her good offices, with a view to
relieve them from the dreadful alternative with which their dear
and suffering country was and is still menaced.
Your Lordship's transcendent efforts in behalf of Norway sup-
plied Ministers with views which had probably not occurred to
them, or else been sedulously kept from their notice by those who
would faia desire, that the Norway question should only be exhi-
bited in those lights which would prove most agreeable to their own
intei'ested speculations •, while the people of England have de-
rived from her first statesman that instruction and guidance, which
can never be rejected with impunity to make way for new-fangled
doctrines of utility, and a remorseless substitution of arbitrary
principles.
235
My Lord, connected as I am with Norway, it will ever be one
of the proudest and most gratifying incidents of my life, that I
have been honored with an opportunity of becoming fully ac-
quainted with your Lordship's sentiments and feelings relative to
the glorious struggle in which the people of that country are now
engaged. For I have in consequence been impressed with the
unchangeable conviction, that England will eventually prove the
avenger of Norway, and the assertor of her independence..
The cause of Norway is intimately connected with the claims
and sufferings of other countries, for which the voice of England
will be raised in the approaching discussions. T|ie Norwegians
may therefore be encouraged to indulge the hope, that deference
will be shown to the feelings and Impressions which the people of
England have so unequivocally and unanimously displayed in their
behalf. For, if there never was a period when the character of
England stood so high on the continent of Europe as at present ;
and if there never was a more general disposition to look up to her
with gratitude and respect, England cannot be supposed to be
indifferent to the value and power of that character. On the
contrary, she will duly appreciate the various and awful trusts com-
mitted to her hands by the ALMIGHTY, and she will feel, that
in this « high and palmy state" of the national character, she is
more especially called upon to stand forward as the disinterested
advocate of freedom and justice.
In the consummation of that great and glorious purpose, you
will, my Lord, have performed a most distinguished part -, while.
In immediate regard to the subject of this address, your Lordship'g
name will be embalmed in the grateful remembrance of a people,
who cannot and will not survive the degradation of their country.
I have the honor to be.
With the most sincere respect
and unfeigned gratitude,
My Lord,
Your Lordship's most obedient
and most humble servant,
THE AUTHOR,
Lo7idon, 12 J.^/j/, 1814.
AN ADDRESS, &c.
Hi
n
Mint questions of a similar nature, arising out of the system of
tyranny recently put down, have been submitted to the people of
England ; and on every such occasion, the feelings and sentiment*
of Englishmen have been expressed in a manner becoming the in-
habitants of a country, which was but lately the last «tay of the
eivihsed world. It is therefore but a natural effect of a natural
cause, that this nation should in the case of Norway display the
same steady adherence to those old, established, and true, prin-
ciples of national law and public liberty, by which England has
risen to her greatness and glory. The Norway question comes
immediately home to the business and bosoms of Englishmen, not
excepting those who differ from the majority of the nation on this
most important and most distressing subject. For the cause of
Norway is the cause of freedom, public and private j and even
those who from the cogency of particula- "ircumstances may deem
V. expedient to oppose the claims of Norway, must in charity be
supposed to do so from motives, which, if they could be investi-
gated, would, I trust, not appear quite so reprehensible, as we
may be led to imagine from a superficial and partial view of thair
conduct.
U we reflect for a moment on the manner in which the appeal
made to this country by Norway has been publicly espoused or
opposed, we shall perhaps be inclined to doubt to whom Norway
ought to hold herself under the greatest obligation; whether to her
friends or to her enemies. For, however anxious I may be, in
common with every sincere friend to national independence and
f ra ;
237
civil liberty, to do justice to the noble endeavours made in behalf
of Norway by such as would from principle alone be induced to
advocate her causej I am firmly persuaded, that these men them-
•elves will be the first to rejoice in ascribing the deliverance of
Norway to that acknowledgment of her rights, which, though it
may not be extorted from her enemies, at least for the moment,
is most earnestly recommended by the impotence and awkward-
aess of the resistance offered to the claims of Norway.
It would be an insult to the understandings and feelings of the
people of England, to suppose, for an instant, that the independ-
ence of Norway is not conformable to the general sentiment and
wish of the nation. For, if the late war with France were, as 15
has been termed, the people's own xvarj it behoves the people to
$ee that war finished in their own way. The people of England
therefore rightly consider the attack on Norway as a perpetuation
of that system of horror, in the armihilation of which English
blood and treasure have been expended with a prodigality which
must entitle their country to the admiration and gratitude of the
latest generations. The attempt to subjugate Norway is viewed
in the light of a moral attack on England. To their eternal honor,
the people of this country have therefore expressed their anxiety
to defeat it with an energy, zeal, and unanimity, from which the
world at large will form better hopes of lasting concord than
from the protestations of perjured princes, and the dear-bought
efforts of mercenary armies.
Sidney, that glorious martyr to English freedom, in his work on
government, proves the liberty of the people to be tha gift of God
and natu^-e. In the assertion of that doctrine he died.
Now, thv. Norwegians will be found to have framed their oppo-
lition to the pretensions of Sweden, on the principles laid down
by the writer referred to, and others who held similar opinions :
Hence it is to be inferred, that the Norwegians, well knowing the
character of the enemy they have to contend with, have thrown
away the scabbard, the moment they drew the sword. Nor did ai
• " When the French first made war upon us, with their revolutionary
principles and their rcvohitionary hostility, tlie people spoke for Ihemselres,
m support of the King and Constitution; and it was their public declara-
tions and associations that gave a toiie to the exertions of Government,
which has been our main support through this long warfare. The contest
seems now to be reduced to one single object, "the overthrow of the odious
tyrant himself. Let the people now show themselves, to put a finishing
hand to their own war."— A public Address, agreed to at a Meeting of
Gentlemen at the: Thatched-House Tavern. St. James's Street, Saturday,
13th of February, 1814.
238
nation ever tlraw the «worti more justly and nobly, or from mo*
lives more imperiously urgent.
Sweden conceived it would be for her interest to annex the
ancient and free kingdom of Norway to her dominions ; and being
well aware, that her object could not be effected by herself alone,
she, with more policy than probity, took advantage of the necessi-
ties of Russia and England, and stipulated Norway with sundry
other territorial, commercial, and pecuniary advantages, as the price
of her co-operation in the great and glorious work of European inde-
pendence. But before she received the perfect sanction of Russia,
and the conditional acquiescence of England, in her arbitrary
views on Norway, she commenced against that country a system of
warfare, the most abominable of all hostile operations j she
inflicted on the peaceable and unoffending people of Norway, what
Mr. Burke described as the greatest of all possible calamities ; as a
calamity so dreadful, that every humane mind shuddered and turned
away from its contemplation — she attempted to starve a whole
nation. This she did in a state of profound peace with the nation,
to whicli the Norwegians were attached by a common government.
Let it not however be supposed, that the court of Sweden openly
committed such an act of aggravated injustice and cruelty to the
Norwegians. No : if it had, the proverbial ingenuity of that court
might have been called in question. Its notorious docility in
adopting the diplomatic examples and precepts of France might
have been doubted ; and room would have been afforded for a sus-
picion of its sincerity in duly appreciating the inestimable benefit
conferred by Bonaparte on Sweden, in parting with one of his ge-
nerals, solely for the purpose of diffusing the blessings of the
Napoleon system throughout the wretched regions of the North.
Sweden, therefore, by simply borrowing a leaf out of Bonaparte's
Edition of the « Law of Nations," put her cruel design against
Norway into execution with as great facility, as if she had been in an
open state of war with that country. At a moment when, owing
to her unrestrained intercourse with Great Britain and Russia,
Swetlcn abounded with grain of lier own and foreign produce, she
adapted that most ingenious of Bonaparte's measures, which he
termed a mmiicipal regulation^ and attached the heaviest penalties
to the exportation of corn of any kind. Thus all the Danish
grain, which came into Sweden either by British capture or other
sinister accidents, was laid hold of by Sweden, and accumulated
for the purpose of enabling her at some future time, to render the
distress of the Norwegians subservient to her attempts on the honor
and welfare of their country.
Nor was this all. The trade with England is well known to be
239
the main pillar of the prosperity of Norway. To shake this to its
foundation, therefore, became an essential part of the policy of
Sweden towards Norway. For as long as the produce of Norway
found its way into England, notwitlistanding the war with Den-
mark, Sweden could not hope for the realisation of her projects
against Norway. She accordingly found means by degrees to im-
pose such restrictions on Norwegian commerce, as rcmlered this
trade in the first instance of exceedingly little value to Norway,
and eventually beneficial to England, only, in consequence of
which all trade between this country and Norway naturally
ceased.'
Having thus aimed two vital blows, at whicli slie fondly expected
Norway would quiver in her remotest lirnb, Sweden commenced a
series of the most desperate attacks on the moral existence of the
People of Norway ; alternately employing all those varied means,
which might according to circumstances appear most conducive to
the accomplishment of the subjugation of Norway ; an object,
which has been so long and so ardently wished for by Swedish
Politicians.
It is however dlHicult to deceive a free people respecting its true
interest. Of this important position, the people of Norway have
furnished an additional illustration. Lot it not however be sup-
posed, that the resistance oflered by Norway to Sweden, is at all to
be referred to what is vulgarly termed interest. No, tlie real
cause of that opposition is to be found in the determination of
the Norwegians not to expose tliemsclves to the contempt of
mankind, and more particularly to the execration of their own
posterity. Let Paley be heard in behalf of the Nv)rwegian8.
" The true reason," he observes," « why mankind hold in detestation
the memory of those who have sold their liberty to a tyrant, is,
that together with their own, they sold commonly, or endangered,
the liberty of others ; which certainly they had no right to
dispose of."
' Lest tlie statement of tliis fact should appear to cotuey the slightest
rettection on cerlaiii ri<!;lit honoriilile geiitleiiieii, at the head of cdmurcrciul
atilairi, it will he ii('c«",iary to ohserve, rliut they "ere iiboiil: liie si'nie tune
seized with u Caiiudiun mania, wliich sireutly t'aciliUtied tiie desif;n of Swe-
den iigaiust Norway. They felt iiichi(.ecl to think that the wtTcdtrade of
Norway might he ui!vaiiiai.'coiisiy siiiuM>ei'ed hy importation^ (n. in CanHdu.
It is much to he lioped that Iheir tialterini!; e\pe(:tations may be fnljy an-
swered to the henelit of liionsands of English families, who buiitred'iuost
^rifevously by the extinction of tlie trade with Norway.
* The principles of moral and political philosopliy by William Paley M, A.
Arch Deucou of Cailule ; (juarto, second edition, London, ITati, page 77.
240
m
I
Tlie Norwegians, as Sir James Mackintosh truly and beau-
tifully remarks, have never worn the scar of foreign bonds and
fetters i and there is indeed something particularly manly, generous,
and noble in their present resistance : it is most worthy of their
national character, and entitled to the sympathy and active inter-
position of every man, who dares to give the proper definition
to right and wrong. It is held justifiable to fight an enemy
with his own weapons. Now, if Norway had had recourse to strata-
gem inretaliation for all theartifices, frauds, insults and injuries com-
mitted by Sweden, she might, by feigning submission have pre-
pared a dreadful retribution. The execution of such a design
might have been perfectly practicable, from the nature of the
country and the means of annoyance possessed by the inhabitants,
and of which Sweden with all her art and caution will never be
able to deprive them. But the revival of the Sicilian Vespers,
on a remoter stage of action, ill agrees with the feelings and rule*
of conduct, by which the Norwegians are actuated. They rightly
deemed it beneath their dignity to pursue the attainment of an ob-
ject, however good, by the employment of foul means. Such
was their well-founded confidence in the protection of the
Almighty, in the justice of their cause, in the means which they pos-
sess to defend that cause, and in that attention, which will sooner
or later be paid to their claims by those who are now, in the tech-
nical phrase, the arbiters of the destinies of jiations, that they
would not, by any act of ambiguous character, sully as glorious a
cause, as was ever committed to the care of anv nation.
With deference to certain politicians, who describe the annexa-
tion of Norway to Sweden as the greatest good, that could by
possibility happen to the former country, and of which the Nor-
wegians neither can be nor ought to be the judges, for according
to the proposition of the noble President ' of His Majesty's most
honorable Privy Council, a people has in no case a right to resist
the tnnsfer of their allegiance ; my first business will be to sub-
mit, that the resistance of the Norwegians is founded in the law
of nations, or which will perhaps be a more eligible term, the
law of nature. For I am unwilling to subscribe to Lord Harrow-
by's doctrine, that treaties are to be considered as the practical
expositions of the law of nations. Sure I am, at least, that very
few treaties, if any, concluded for a considerable time past, cart
be characterized by any other terms than those made use of by
Voltaire
be able t
The p<
of Uenni
and in nc
England,
aware, t\
a superi<
right nc
sooner fi
perceive
equally g
an oblig
ful, necc
that migl
from eve;
mote its
the Norv
have a rij
perfectioi
whatever
But N
tic advoc
exultatioi
ought tht
sovereign
den.
I could
(if argum
Norwegis
that polit
Prince oi
it cannot
the opinic
promulga
some unj
obliged tc
misrepresi
The cei
pounders
* The History of Cliarlos XII. of 'Sweden, London edition, 1793, page It^^
' The Hi
page 18.
* Vatiel'
3 Reflexi
No.^
241
Voltaire:' "a submission to necessity, till the stronger shall
be able to crush the weaker."
The people of Norw:^y, though, in terms, dependent on the King
ot Denmark, have, to all intents and purposes, been free People •
and m no instance more strikingly so, than in their relations with
ii.ngland. Of this, mdocd, their enemies seem to be so fully
aware, that only few of them, who may chance to be gifted with
a superior share of hardihood, venture to question the natural
right now exercised by the Norwegians. Jlut even these no
sooner find themselves on this most tender ground, than they
perceive how untenable it is, and in various, though certainly not
equally graceful, ways admit, that the Norwegian nation is under
an obligation to preserve itself, has a right to every thing law-
ful, necessary for its preservation ; ought to avoid every thing
that might occasion its destruction ; has a right to secure itself
from every threatening danger ; that it ought to endeavour to pro-
rnoteitsown perfection, and that of the state; and that finally
the Norwegians, with a view to the preservation of their country,
have a right to every thing without which they cannot obtain the
perfection of the members and of the state, or prevent and repel
whatever is contrary to this double perfection.*
^ But Norway has been conquered in Holstein,^ say the diploma-
tic advocates of the Crown Prince of Sweden, in a tone of great
exultation and triumph. The inhabitants of the former country
ought therefore to comply with the last order of their former
sovereign, by which he transfers them to the dominion of Swe-
den.
I could wish to avoid giving any direct reply to such arguments
(If arguments they can be called) as may be advanced against the
Norwegians by the desperate, and, I trust, the few members of
that political band, in which His Royal Highness the Crown
rrince of Sweden formerly enacted so capital a part. But since
It cannot be dissembled that so great deference has been paid to
the opinions of those worthies, that their sentiments have even been
promulgated in the most august assemblies in this country by
tome unaccountably condescending individuals, I am reluctantly
obliged to pay some sort of attention to the representations or rather
misrepresentations of the Swedish government or its agents.
The cession of Norway, say these ingenious and infallible ex-
pounders of the law of nations, is no novelty at all. Unfortunately
page?8*'"''*°''^°^^'''''^^'''^"'^'"^ °^ ^''"^^"' loudon Edition, 1793,
* Vatlel's La'v of Nations, Book I. ch. ii. § 16, 18, 19, 20, 91, 22, S3.
3 Reflexions sur I'Etat actuel de la Norvege, p. i2.
No. Vil.
Pam.
Vol. IV.
Ill
42
for the establishment of this position, Norway happens to be no
German fief» no sugar island, where slaves bear a proportion to
freemen as 20 to 1, rio palsied limb of a body politic ; Norway is
an integrally independent state, in every view most fully entitled
to resist the new Master to whom the King of Denmark has been
obligee, by heart-rending necessity to cede his rights. Indeed, the
real character of the opposition offered by the Norwegians to the
views of Sweden, appears now to be so generally and so properly
understood, that a correct informant need scarcely be under the
necessity of intruding into the petty circle within which the
Crown Prince of Sweden moves.
It is really very amusing to notice the whimsical embarrass-
ments into which men who undertake to defend a bad cause must
of necessity fall. Thus while the Bernadotte party contend
that the Norwegians ought to yield implicit, passive obedience
to the King of Denmark, in delivering up their country to a natu^
ral, if not a mortal, enemy, they in the same breath m.ake a great
parade of the happiness which the Norwegians will experience in
being relieved from the dominion of a Monarch, who is above
Jaw. . 1 M?
Whatever the Danish government may be, m theory, the illus-
trious individual, in whom that high and awful trust is vested, stand*
in no need of vindication, relative to its practice. Bernadofe'*
dependents, therefore, as well as his friends and admirers, if he
has any, are exceedingly welcome to make the most of their dis-
quisitions on the Danish government.
But since these devout followers of those doctrines in politics,
which I now scarcely know whether to style new-fangled or obso-
lete, and to which they seem to cling with a fondness, prophetic,
I trust, of their fate, appear to place considerable value on loyalty,
when the exercise of that distinguished virtue may conduce to
the realization of their own treacherous and treasonable views,
it will be necessary to inquire, whether the Norwegians have trans-
gressed the duties of loyalty.
The conduct of the Ncvwegians is described by a French, or
perhaps a Scandinavian, advocate of Bernadotte, as « une vraie
calamite pour le monde civilise, si cctte manierc d'agir dcvenait
generale." ' It is needless to observe how peculiarly ungracious
the expression of such sentiments must appear in those who have
been in the habit of cherishing diametrically opposite opinions
lone after their friend, their patron, and in fact their creator, Ber-
ijiuoite, iias Dcen turiieu uui ui v iCu-.ui lOi e^piCoci-ig .u» *i'--»-'a
u;ion notions, which he now as strongly reprobates, a« it; a u
' Reflexi(*ns, &c, pajc 5.
Buonapai
nadotte hi
probabilit
condemn
mander 1
to constn
for the di
now guil
men, wh
I am satii
that Bern
and choic
to differ
enjoys tl
cousin, ai
that, as p
we know
flow in h
On th
considera
trust, ha'
most per:
towards t
About
Denmark
and unde
rendered
the c -s
chav r
of huH: n
the Nor^
from tb.e <
proper ar
if, as the
way has
all the pa
wegians,
furnished
known, o
arisen, in
from Dei
able Gen
lent oppo
of Norw
result of )
243
Buonaparte, he were a descendant of Charlemagne. Would Ber-
nadotte himself, had he always observed the duties oi loyalty, in all
probability, have been what he now is ? Not tliat I mean to
condemn "n unquahfied terms the address with which this com-
mander has proved to be the architect of his own fortune ; or
to construe his deviation from the path of loyalty into an apology
for the disobedience of which, in his opinion, the Norwegians are
now guilty. The loyalty of the Norwegians and that of French-
men, whether they shout Vive VEmpereur or Vive le Roif can,
I am satisfied, bear no comparison. All that I mean to impress is,
that Bernadotte and his associates should be exceedingly cautious
and choice in such terms as they may apply to those who happen
to differ from them on political subjects. For though he now
enjoys the singular good-fortune of being styled good brother,
cousin, and friend, by legitimate Sovereigns, he ought to recollect,
thai;, as poor Ophelia observes : « We know what we are, but
we know not, what we may be." The blood of Vasa does not
flow in his veins.
On the ground of loyalty alone, abstracted from all other
considerations, I am, however, ready to maintain, and shall, I
trust, have no difficulty in proving, that the Norwegians are
most perfectly correct in the line of conduct which they pursue
towards Sweden.
About 450 years have now elapsed, since the kingdoms of
Denmark and Norway were united under one sovereign, on terms
and under circumstances, which ever have, and ever must, have
rendered those kingdoms two distinct and independent states. In
the c -se of that long period, it is too much to presume on the
char r of human nature, and it would argue too gross ignorance
of hun: n transactions, especially in our own age, to suppose that
the Norwegians may not have had opportunities of withdrawing
from the connexion with Denmark, if such a measure had appeared
proper and desirable. We may safely take it for granted, that
if, as the Bernadotte party roundly assert, the Kingdom of Nor-
way has been treated like a colony by the Danish Governm.ent,
all the particulars of such policy have been exhibited to the Nor-
wegians, in the strongest and most hideous colors, that could be
furnished by the Swedish Government and its agents. It is well
known, on the authority of Mr. Canning, that circumstances have
arisen, in which even England regarded the separation of Norwv.y
irom Denmark as an expedient measuve. Indeed that right honor-
able Gentleman, while Secretary for foreign affairsj had an exceU
lent opport\''iity of ascertaining the real sentiments of the people
of Norway towards the Danish Government, and I believe the
result of his incjuiries proved to be, (no doubt to his very gr«at sur-
ill
' K
u
ill
I mm
244
^rlze and dismay), that there existed something hke Spartan vir-
tue among the Norwegians, and that their national honor was yet
•nendangered by meanness and degeneracy. It were much to be
wished, that the Ex-Secretary, instead of whining professions of
his readiness to pay any price in order to get rid of the obligation
imposed on England by the Swedish Treaty, would have intro-
duced into his speech on the blockade of Norway some details
of the manner in which his oificial overtures to Norway in 1809,
had been rejected the moment they were received. He might
then, perhaps, I am almost persuaded to hope, have been relieved
from his personal sufferings, and probably rescued his free, noble,
»nd generous country, from the horrid and degrading obligation,
by which she is coerced, as Sir Philip Francis truly observes,' " not
to run a risque, not to fight a battle, not to win a laurel drenched
in blood, but to annihilate the entire population of an iimocent
unoffending kingdom ; women and children, sickness and age,
must all alike perish under the sweephig desolation of famine,
inflicted by the magnanimity of England, unless they subniit to
a foreign yoke, and consent to be slaves for ever."
To give an idea of the loyalty prevalent among the Norwegians,
I shall quote the following passage. " The immjDrtal Christian
the fourth of Denmark, undertook nearly fifty journies into Nor-
way, and, there can be no doubt, gave birth to those enthusiastic,
romantic, and religious feelings of love, devotion and veneration,
•till cherished among the peasantry towards the bare name of
King. This fact, so honorable, cheering, and consoling, to human
nature, and more particularly creditable to the people in ques-
tion, affords the most exquisite illustration of the public virtues
of Christian the fourth, who has justly been styled the idol of
Danish story, the glory of the Danish name, and the delight of
human kind. The Kings of Europe called him their father;
Elizabeth of England was his friend^ and Algernon Sidney would
have been his best subject." ^
Now the present King of Denmark is a lineal descendant of
Christian the Fourth ; and if ever a king possessed an indisputa-
ble claim to the respect and sympathy of his subjects, in every
circumstance of life, Frederick the Sixth may prci^r that title.
To prove this, we need only furnish a sketch of the present
state of his country ; and it will, I am persuaded, clearly appear,
that the Norwegians are at this moment acting in strict conso-
nance to the dictates of loyalty j for tlfty have an undoubted right,
* Letter to Earl Grey, p. 76.
* BoydsH'ii Sftcner/ wt'Nerway, Ne. 14.
U5
to presume, that that power, which has been the systematic, urn-
ceasing, and unrelenting enemy of their king, never can and never
will, in the nature of things, take that interest in their happines*
and prosperity, to which, in the enjoyment of national independ-
ence, they have been accustomed for centuries.
Whatever may be the nature and extent of that " haine que
les Danois depuis des siecles nourissent contre leurs voisins,' I
tliink it may be affirmed, that the hatred which the Swedes have
for centuries nourished against their neighbours cannot be deemed
inll^rior. In regard to its effects, it certainly has proved infinitely
superior. Let us see in what manner Sweden has preserved the
relations of good neighbourhood with Denmark, reverting merely
to the year 1807.
In that year the government of this country, for some reason
or other, perhaps only best known to the enemies of both states,
thought proper to inflict a mortal blow on the political existence
of Denmark. Whence the idea of that memorable measure ori-
ginated, lam not of course able to state precisely j but for the
honor of England I am anxious to believe, that her policy was of
foreignextraction. TheiJwedish government, at the time at least,
took great pains to induce such a belief, claiming indeed, very
unreservedly, great part, if not the whole, of the'^ merit of that
unrivalled exploit : for some credit on that account was generally
imagined to be due to a noted French politician, who has since
been sent to his account,
" With ail his imperfections on his head,"
as abruptly, yet perhaps still more awfully than the hapless beings
at Copenhagen, who fell victims to those suggestions, whicli he
was understood to have had the address of engrafting but too suc-
cessfully on British councils.
What was at that moment the conduct of the " magnanimous
hero of the North," — « the Swedish liberator of Europe,"—" the
real opposer of Buonaparte," as Gustavus Adolphus was then
styled by those who have since transferred their hopes and admi-
ration to an upstart general of Buonaparte ?
If a transcendant genius and distinguished patriot, a brother
politician but rival bard to the poet-Iaureat, had not gloried in tha
sight, when
" A royal city, tower, ind spire,
lieddeuM tlie midnii^lit sky with fire,
While shouting crews her navy hore
Triumphant to the victor shore," ^
i might have left unnoticed the ecstatic delight with which the
' Ileflexions, &c. page V(.
• Walter Scott's Marmioi), page 160.
— ■■--*u^
i. ^
iii
246
mad King of Sweden beheld the deadly conflagration of Copen-
hagen. Such a sight, I confess, would of itself be sufficient to
shake the strongest head of a rival kingj who would thus in vision
believe his most favorite project accomplished : for with the fleet
of Denmark fell what was in former times the main support of
Norway, when Denmark and Sweden were able to settle their
disputes by themselves. Gustavus may therefore be excused for
going to the nearest spot in his own dominions whence he could
most conveniently witness the memorable transactions off Copen-
hagen in 1807. It was indeed but natuval, that he who struck
out the first thought ' of those proceedings should himself enjoy
as much as he could, consistently with his personal safety, of the
grand and imposing spectacle which Copenhagen at that moment
exhibited. The ministers of a friendly power do not every day
burn for stage effect a capital in alliance, merely to astonish people
and look vigorous. And what they could do in peace, surely the
King of Sweden might see in peace.
Less excusable, I fear, was that most religious king, who, I
dare say in imitation of his great prototype, « did not imagine
that there could be a system of morality for kings different from
that for individuals/' "• when he proposed to His Britannic Ma-
jesty's Ministers, as a very honorable mode of executing the con-
vention for the evacuatioii of Zealand, that the army should pass
over to Scania, and from thence again invade the island.
After these unequivocal demonstrations of neighbourly good-
will, Gustavus thought it expedient to issue a declaration of war,
and commence operations against Norway, where he might pro-
bably have done the best thing he ever did or could do •, have
fallen like Charles the Twelfth, if he could have stood like him.
Of his favorite project to conquer Zealand, it would be super-
fluous to speak, if it were not for the opportunity which is thus
afforded of mentioning that His Britannic Majesty's Ministers
resolutely prohibited the army of General Moore from embarking
in a nev/ attack on that island. « Where there is shame, there
not osten:
• The late Mr. WirKUiam assigned a reason for the expedition ag-ainst
Copenhagen in the following terms, according to his wliinisical nvciniicr:
" Tire Kmg of Sweden lieginning to dtspair of any supernatural assistance
for ihc relief of Stralsund, and the British armament, liowever large, being
inadequate for that purpose, luckily hit upon an expedient to art'ovd mi-
nisters f-omc recounfonse for the trouble they had been at in fitting out the
expedition under Loid Catlu art. ' Why don't you go and take the Danish
fleet?' demanded the Swedish monarch. The boldness of the suggestion
fit fir>t eoiifonnded ministers;; liut, alter some refleetion, or at least stratcii-
ingof'CTds, they re[)lied, ' Faith! an txcellont thoii_;lu of your Majesty.
W til, in (w d's n'iime, let us go and take the Danish Heel'."
* V^oltaire's History of (Jiiarlcs the Twelfth, page 49.
247
may be virtue," say. Dr. Johnson, and Ministers merit some praise
at least for embracing, as it might seem, an opportunity of satis-
fying the world that they were conscious of having done quite
enough to imitate Buonaparte.
Of the policy pursued towards Denmark by the actual though
not ostensible successor to Gustavus, General Bernadotte, it is
but justice to say, that if it be impossible to love Sweden cordially
but by cherishing a mortal hatred against Denmark, the Crown
Prince of Sweden must be allowed to have reached the acme of
patriotic perfection.
The ministers of this country may have had weighty reasons :
the feelings of the majority ' of them, I fear, would alone be suf-
ficient to prompt them to desire that the Danish government
should be placed decidedly in the wrong in the judgment of the
Parliament and the people. Now, for the accomplishment of »
purpose, which on financial grounds alone might be deemed
highly desirable, an abler and a fitter instrument could not have
been found than Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Macbeth himself
would have acknowledged that he occupied
« A station in the file.
Not in the worst rank of manhood."
We need only refer to his former situation in life, to the inti-
mate connexion which, as the commander in chief of the French
army in Holstein, he must have maintained with the Danish
government, to the consequent opportunities he may have had of
diving into the heart's core of his Danish Majesty, aye, into his
heart of hearts •, we need merely reflect on what fell from the
advocates * of the expedition against Copenhagen on the subject of
the share which this very same Bernadotte was thought to have
had in the maritime designs at one time stated to have been enter-
tained against this country by means of Denmark — a man whom
they were then reviling in the most cutting terms of reproach, but
whom they now praise and support, though he is deservedly tot-
> A most pleasing excention is to be made in favor of the Secretary of
State for ihe Home Department, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The nnvvearied efforts of Lord Sidmouth and Mr. Vansittart, m the first
instance, to render justice to Denmark, or at least to obtain some pledge
to that effect, are so well known in both countrie?, that I need not say anj
tliini; on ihe subject. But gratitude . i ing from variows sources, towards
those distinguished and most an\iabie characters, demands that 1 should
raise my voice, however feeble, in praise and admiration ot the generous
iiiterest which they have at all limes, in and out of office, taken in objects
connected with the honor, hai>pinebs, and welfare of Deiin ark.
^ The speech of th« Right Han. Charks Yorke on the expediUon against
Copenhagen.
V !
i t ,
248
tering on that eminence which he has hitherto occupied, to at least
a negative and partial accomplishment of the services he undertook
to render Europe j and we may be justified in concluding, that, as
he has had it in his power, he has not labored under any lack of
incli'iavlon to perform those kinds of political labor, which is but
too geiicialiy deemed of the greatest value among statesmen.
Ministers will sometimes indulge in speculations which contradict,
as Mr. Burke ' expresses himself, or even detract from, the efficacy
of that character, which they ought to preserve as the trustees,
advocates, aitornies, and stewards of their King and country.
And those, who directed the notable expedition agahist Copen-
hagen, may perhaps havi^ been so far influenced by their indivi-
dual feelings and opinions as to deem it right, however morally or
politically wrong and inexpedient, to prevent Denmark, as far as
their wisdom and power could extend, from ever after rendering
herself obnoxious to similar suspicion:. The state-inquisition of
Venice invariably put. those to death who had been accused and
pronounced guiltless, lest they should attempt to revenge them-
selves. Nevertheless, I trust that the moment will arrive, and
speedily too, which shall expose the folly and danger of that
policy, by which England has been prevented from rendering
justice to a people closely allied to her by a common descent, by
a similarity of language, manners, and morals, and by a most
obvious identity of interests ', while her honor has been outraged
by refusing that to the much injured and insulted nephew of her
venerable sovereign, which has been gratuitously conferred on one
with whom the good old King of England would perhaps have
felt an insuperable reluctance to have held any intercourse.
The attack on Norway will, it is to be hoped, prove the cli-
macteric of all the aggressions and successful intrigues of which
the Swedish cabinet, especially under the auspices of Bernadotte,
has been guilty towards Denmark. It will at least, it may be
confidently anticipated, furnish that distinguished commander with
an opportunity of repairing the personal loss, which, on the au-
thority of Sir Robert Wilson,- he sustained at the battle of Eylau.
Perhaps, for the honor of the glorious cause in which he had
latterly the amazing good fortune to be employed, he may at the
same time satisfy the world, that he was at least able, if he had
been so inclined, to do what might have been expected from his
talents and political conversion. Such information will at least be
acceptable to the nation in \vhose pay he has had the honor of
marching a Swedish army from Stralsund to Lieee and back to
• Burke's Works, vol. vii. page 6f5, Thoughts on French Affiiirs.
* Sketch of the Campaigns in Poland in 1806 and 1807, page 106.
-. !
no
r
the Baltic, losing by the way about 100 men in killed, wounded,
and missing ; and acquiring for himself an enviable opportunity
of sacrificing his private feelings to an heroic sense of higher
duties i however much it is to be regretted, that such an oppor-
tunity was afForded him by a man of honor like Sir Charles
Stewart.
Against such a ruler,
That's not the twentieth part the tyth«
Of th'.'ir precedent Lord :
can it for a moment be doubted, that the Norwegians will not
or ought not to oppose all the resistance, which can be suggested
by an ancient and devout sense of duty to that line of kings under
whom their country has enjoyed more freedom and as much real
happiness as perhaps has fallen to the lot of any people in the
civilized world ? Most certainly not. To form a different sup-
position would be highly injuriou'i, not only to the Norwegians,
but to human nature itself.
On a question like the present, I am however conscious that too
many proofs cannot be advanced, and since the Bernadotte party
have succeeded in covering a worthy member of the Prince Re-
gent's cabinet with a good deal of ridicule, and 1 fear some con-
tempt, by rendering him the vehicle of some of the most arrant
nonsense that ever was uttered in a British House of Parliament,
I am anxious to give that Noble Lord (Earl Harrowby) an oppor-
tunity of cautioning the individuals in question not to practise too
much on good nature and credulity *, to which his Lordship might
add the threat, that if they continue to furnish him with such in-
formation relative to the Danish government, he will for the
future simply consult Lord Molesworth. My Lord Harrowby
gravely stated in the upper house, that the Norwegians would be
transferred from an absolute to a free government. Now, since
his Lordship, I am persuaded, possesses so much political acumen
and candor as to admit, that a people may enjoy a great deal of
liberty on paper and very little in fact, he will, I doubt not, give
credence to some proofs which I shall bring forward in support of
the assertion, that the Norwegians have, to all intents and pur-
poses, been a free people. These proofs I draw, net from the
honied statements of prosperous courtiers, not from the partial
assertions of timid placemen, or from the agreeable communica*-
tions of scribblers, who wrote for title or office. I draw the proofs
from testimonies given at different periods by men far above the
slightest suspicion of undue motives, especially in regard to their
relations with the court of Denmark. The first of the writers,
IM^
ill
250
whom I shall quote, might state wliat he liad to say respecting
Norway, in a manner ratlier agreeable to the court of Denmark j
but still he would not suporesa or disguise the truth. The next
indeed apologizes in his preface for having stated his sentiment*
with a degree of frankness, wliich at times borders too cloaely on
a want ot modesty, and which he ascribes to that happy inde-
pendence, in which he has always lived. This gentleman must
therefore be supposed to have paid no particular attention to the
manner in wliich he conveyed his matter. As for the third writer,
he is exactly in the predicament of the poet who thus sings of hi»
muse : °
" Thou source of all my bliss and all my woe,
Who /ound'st nie pour at iirst, and kecp'st me so :"
and may justly appropriate Gray's sentiments of himself,
" Too poor for a brilje,aii(l too proud to importune.
He had not the melhod of making his fortune."
This gentleman is a vicar in some obscure part of the diocese of
Bergen, and it may be truly affirmed of him that his head never
ached for a mitre.
The first of those writers remarks,' " The greatest part of our
commerce and shipping was carried on with or employed by Eng-
land. Every sailor and peasant along our coasts spoke English.
Our clothes, food, and drink, v/ere English, and the prevailing
tone among us was English in a high degree. But notwithstand-
ing all that, those of the Norwegians who remained unmixed and
undcbauchcd were at all times eminently devoted to their King
and his line ; they are a valiant, frug.d, noble, magnanimous, and
patient race of men, and especially during this war have proved
themselves worthy of the peculiar care and parental love of their
king."
'f he second author observes,^ « The bright path of liberty con-
• ducts the Norwegian nation to prosperity and intellectual improve-
ment,_ and preserves this region from that ignorance and stupor
in which slavish countries are immersed." In another place this
excellent and intrepid writer says, " The Norwegian nation has,
ever since the union, evinced an unalterable attachment to the
Danish government."
In a beautiful lyric poem, dedicated to the present KinT of
Denmark, then Prince Royal, and entitled the Prospect, the prince
• What ought the Nation to wish, either War or Peace v ith England ?
hy W. Seblielov, ('hrihtiansiinr!, 1810. Pa^r 40. ^
- Patriotic Tdeas, hy .Tacob All, jumor, oi'^NaiSs Iron-works. Clirislian-
saiid, lauo. Pa-es 40. 103.
i -4 t,ii i) ■
251
is addressed in behalf of Norway by Themis, the Muses, &c. and
lastly by the Goddess of Liberty, who thus announces herself:
«« Prince ! Freedom is my name i in this region my temple stands.
I render Norway happy •, to me she is indebted for her virtue
and glory •, but to thee thy Norwegians will be indebted for me,'' '
Hence I am persuaded, that every truly loyal being must, in
mind and heart, sincerely approve and applaud the heroic resolu-
tion of the Norwegians not to surrender their country to the do-
minion of a man, whose power originated like that of his fallen
patron, was fed and strengthened by the same resources, and
which, if finally consolidated, will stand in awful grandeur on the
wreck of public principles, which have been alternately rejected
and adopted as interest and ambition might direct. That the Nor-
wegians may never acknowledge the ascendancy of such a man and
such a rule, I most fervently pray, " Forbid it God, forbid it man !'*
If we inquire how far the sacred flame of patriotism may have
kindled the glorious resistance of the Norwegians, we shall discover
the most noble and spirit-stirring impulse.
The attempt on the part of Sweden to subjugate Norway is no
novelty -, but it has always been repelled with a degree of courage,
firmness, and unity, by which the national character of the Nor-
wegians has acquired a stamp of superiority, to which the Swede*
have always been in the habit of paying that respect which they
will scarcely venture to refuse, though their army now possesses
the experience— mw/M teneatis amici — « qu'elle a acquise dans la
guerre d'AUemagne, sous la conduite d'un chef tel que la Prince
Royal de Suede," ^ who may probably once more verify the fa-
mous lines :
" The man, who fights and runs away,
May hve to fight another day ;
But lie that is in battle slain,
Will never rise to fight again."
All Norway, it is well known, abounds with simple, artless
memorials, called Bautasteene, erected to perpetuate the defeats
of the Swedes. Some of these monuments, for instance a pyramid
of Norwegian marble twenty feet high, with an inscription com-
memorative of the death of Charles the Twelfth, erected by Fre-
derick the Fourth near the fortress of Fredericksteen, where the
Swedish king was killed, have been removed, with what some
would call a laudable, and others perhaps a fastidious and a thank-
less desire, on the part of the Danish government, to allay the
national irritation of both countries. This kind and conciliatory
t ■ _
» Poems by the Rev. Mr. Zellita.
« H«tlexions, &c. page 17.
Copenhagen, 1783.
Page 182.
Ft ii t
"ft-
ill
2j2
f ttentlon to the feelings of Sweden, It is, however, evident, hat
produced no corresponding effect on the government of that
country, whose happiness and j^lory will never be fully established
until it shall be able to exclaim, " Dcinnark is no more !" and,
from its natural disposition to mischief, not even then, I am per-
suaded. The effect originally intended to be produced on th&
population of Norway, by the erection of those memorials, ha«,
however, in no degree been impaired, for the deeds, which called
forth those public expressions of admiration and gratitude, have
been preserved by less perishable means. The Norwegian Muse
particularly delights in rehearsing the valorous achievements of the
nation, though, in fact, no people can possibly be of a more quiet
and peaceable dispositicii. But no sooner does the glaring Baune*
announce from the summits of the hills the approach of public
danger, than the aciilak of the Grecians, and, as the Norwegian*
term it, Budstikkm, is dispatched from place to place with a zeal
which must indeed be the best bulwark of any country. The
phrase « A nation in arms," can of course only be applied in very
few cases indeed j but of tliese cases Norway presents one, and I
glory in adding, one of the most gratifying that can be imagined.
Here is a people, in every political point of view, with reference
to the past, present, and future interests of Europe, standing most
perfectly on the defensive. It simply desires to be, what it always
has been, independent. The declaration of this wish is the free,
clear, and spontaneous will of the nation itself. Not a voice is
raised in favor of submission to Sweden in any part^ of the
country, from the Naze to the North Cape, from Cape Stat to the
hills, which form a natural barrier beitioeeii the tvio countries. (I
copy the poor old King of Sweden's own words in one of his
proclamations to the Norwegians.) All hearts and all hands are
most firmly united in supporting the country in the just, necessary,
and glorious struggle, which the arts and the arms of the enemy
have provoked. No propositions for a parley with him are made,
or even thought of, after his inexorable purpose has been fuliy
developed and ascertained. Tlie people have most solemnly de-
termined to stand or fall with the independence of their country.
Is not this a sight which *
" With pleasure Heaven itself survey??"
a nation struggling to offer the last sad mark of its fidelity and
affection towards a kindred king and people, from whom it ha«
been torn by every, the boldest, means that fraud or force could sup-
» Wood raised in fortn of a rone on the tons of the hills, and set on firr
in case of invasion.
-'■M:
253
ply, while in the cours? of this most unprecedented and ungrfl-
cious proceeding, it has itself been exposed to injuries, insults, and
sufferings of a description, that has harrowed up the souls of the
most obdurate, selfish and thoughtless.
From such a display of national zeal and vigor, Norway may
confidently anticipate the most beneficial consequences ; she may
expect to become what she deserves to be, in the words of the
much lamented predecessor of the Crown Prince of Sweden, a
happtfi strongy inde-pendent and invincible country. ' In addition
to l*r own efforts, she is blessed with the hearty good wishes of
all mankind. Her cause is deeply rooted in the kindest afTcctions
of our hearts j it is sanctioned by the unerring decisions of our
consciences. Even Bernadotte, while he is craving, and oh ! what
wonderful complaisance ! is permitted to take « the penalty and
forfeit of his bond," must be conscious, that the feelings and
impressions of all the world are against him, if Shylock-hke, he
be not altogether destitute of the milk of human kindness. But
perhaps he has been allowed to proceed to the execution of his
fell purpose, only to sustain the more bitter disappointment in the
failure of his awful scheme. Some Portia may step in, and Nor-
way will prevail. Perhaps it is ordained, that the last efforts of
continental oppression should be disconifiied on freedom's fa-
vorite soil.
A mountainous country like Norway is not easily conquered,
because under all circumstances, even the most adverse, it Is full
of resources. Of these, the first is unquestionably the spirit of
the people, which will never be subdued. V/hat their ancestors
did on similar occasions, the present Norwegians are as able and
as willing to repeat. Since the key to Norway was not given up
to Charles the Twelfth, as the price of safety to the town below
the fortress, it will hardly be presented now to Charles the Four-
teenth. Some new Peter Colbioernsen will give full scope to the
utmost efforts of Norwegian valor and firmness, by inspiring the
citizens of Frederickshald to set an example of patriotism similar
to that which was exhibited at that place about a hundred years ago. *
• The fare-well Address of Prince Christian August to the Norwegians.
Christiania, 30th Deceiiibtr, 1809.
* " Nolwithstandins: Cliarles the Twelfth was thus become master of tht
town of Frederickshald the inhabitants did not acknowlediie iiis authority.
Sonse of them retired to t!>.e lijrt, and others went on bo=ud the prume, or
hid themselves in the inounlains. From all quarters a constant fire wiii
kept up on the town, especially from the fort, to expel the enen)y, lest pro-
tected by the houses, his attack on the fort mi<;ht he more tremendous, A
few hours after the capture of the town, Charles sent a trumpeter to the
f»rt t» solicit a trute^ who Yvab sent baik with this answer: " His Swec!i»*
Id
C54
New Lagertlias ' and Anna Colblocrnsens * will not only cheer
the manly hearts of their gallant countrymen in the defence
of their homes, their wives, and their babes, but in imitation of
those matchless heroines, share in the toils, the dangers, and the
anxieties of the sacred cause. The scene of Thermopylx will be
acted again and again in the passes of Norway. The Swedes will
Majesty being an uninvited jgiiest, it is oiir duty to send liim whence lie
fame." The li(h;hty with whicli tliey meant to keep their pruniise was soon
rvident to Charles, fur wlicn they found it iniiJossihle to (hslodgc tlieir
enemy by the mere exccutiun of cannon, they desperately set tire to the
town. tJne of the most uncommon scenes now took place ever recorileii hi
history. Tiic citizens eagerly hastened to hre their own houses, while th«
enemy in vain sought to extinguish the increa"<ing flames. 'I'his scene of
horror was consideralily angrnentcd by the artilltry iVom the fort and the
pramc. Charles the 'I'welfth, whom nature iiad endowed with an invincible
spirit, strengthened by a familiarity with danger, stood appalled at this
extraurdinary spectacle, and left the town that very day."
Great and Good Detds of iJuncs, 'Noruegians and
Holsteiniam, bi/ (he Malting, page GO.
' " Lagcrtha, a young Norwegian woman, displayed uncommon personal
•ourage in the war which Regner Lodbrog, King of Norway, waged against
Fro, king of Sweden. Her valour cuntribuled essentially to the overthrow
of the Swedish Monarch , but her charms ronniirred the conqueror, lleg-
ner saw and loved her ; he felt his happiness depended solely on her, and
ultimately obtained the interesting object of his wishes."
Samr. hook, page 30.
* Mr. Mailing, pape 103, under the head of Inircpidity, gives a most
interesting account of the conduct of that celebrated woman during the
invasion of Norway by Ch£irler> the Twelfth, in the year 1716, of whirh J
can only give an outline in this place. Mrs. Anna Colbioernsen was the
wife of 'a Norwegian Clergyman. By her wondedid afldrcss she not onlj
proved the insirument of preserving a detachment of Norwegian dragoons
who had been stationed to watch the motions of the enemy, of whom a body
of horse 800 strong were on the march to attack Konigsberg ; but actually
contributed most essentially to the overthrow and dispersion of that Swedish
division, whose. Commander, Colonel Loeven, was taken prisoner at Mrs.
Ci Ibioernsen's house. After the action she was placed in imminent per-
sonal danger, from which she rescued herself with uncommon pr^scnc- of
mind. Site went out in company with another woman to view t.i: h' m^ of
battle, when a party of Swedish horsemen coming up to them, a corporal
pointed a carabine at Mrs. Colbioc rnsen's breast and demanded information
relative to th.e Norwegians. Her companion fainted away, but Mrs. C.
boldly asked, '' L; it the order of your King to shoot old women ?" when
the Corporal, feelini: abashed, rem'oved his carabine, but persisted in his
questions, and re; ol ";: such answers as led to the precipitate retreat of all
the Swedes, v-. .> -v ,.-■ still ;n le to save themselves by fli^lit. On that occa-
sion, she likewise exJ iliio-d a most striking instance ot that independent
manner of thinb.mg auA acting which is so congenial to all classes of the
Norwegian People."' On the day succeeding the victory, slie gave an enter-
taitmient to the Norwcizian Officers, and placed 'Ihore llovland, a Quarter-
master of dragoons, at\he head of the table, observing, that it was, " an
honor assnredfy his due, for having led tiis counlrymea into danger, and
been most couipicnoua in crowning them with glory."
25J5
not hare forced one strait or stormed a summit, before they will
perceive the immediate necessity of forcing and storming others.
They will lind every hill a fortress, every path a road to destruction,
every tree a messenger of death. French tactics, Iiowever con-
tummato, will be of no avail j there will be still less employment
for Gallo- Swedish politics - the quintescence of all politics. There
are no dulcia vitia of a corrupt court to tamper with, no blunder*
of a feeble cabinet to take advantage of, no Macks to meet in the
field, no foreign troops to be seduced, no coieries to be operated
\!j)on, no aivisions to be effected among the people. The most
active members of the Crown Prince's army in Germany, Mr.
Schlegel, the compositors, pressmen, and their devils, will eat the
bread of idleness in the camp Printing-OlFice, from which their
master carried on such a desolating war against Bonaparte; and
the Hero of Ponto Corvo himself will proli ibly aftov a short trial
not ai all relish campaigning in Norway, but perhaps feel induced to
listen to the earnest eiftrcaties, with which the good citizens of
Stockholm may solicit his return to live over again the happy,
merry days at Liege.
The land that gave birth to Admiral Tordenskiold ' is not to
be frightened or forced into submission to a race, whose ancestors
trembled in their cradles at the bare name of a hero, whose spirit
now appears to revisit the scenes of his deathless glory. In the
words of a patriotic writer, it may be safely predicted, that, "while
the Norwegians continue to preserve their ancient fidelity and
firmness, that crown, which is the patrimony of Skioldunger, *
» Admiral Tordenslsinld (Tlmndpr-shield, anamo most approfiriiiely con-
ferred oil him by the King of Oeniiiiirk in ilhistratioii oHiis pubUc services)
rose from obscurity to tlie nink ul' Vice-Adminil, hotlre he wus 28 yeurs
old. He was killed in a duel with a -Swedish Colonel, Shiolj (probably au
ancestor of the most conspicuous liunily in the ucrnadottc party) while
he stopped at liainhtirgh on a jnurney to visit Ilis Majesty King Guorge the
First of Enu;land. To sucli a Iicii2;ht of terrible fame hid tlic exploits of
Tordeuikiold risen anionj' the euelnic.•^ of hi.s country, that the women of
Sweden actually employed his name to iVigliten children into good belia-
vioiir. It is particularly plcasin^j; to add, thai his desf eadants now worthily
trace liis illustrious course; they liave alrraly made a great numiier of
valuable captm-es from tiic .'; .vf.'des, ainnuj^:; winch is a iariie East ladianiati,
probably the first that set sail under the auspices of the new political
system of Sweden, so vchcincntly recon\mended by Madame Stael and Co.
against theu- feelin^is atid against llieir judgments, 1 should add, if I did
not know, Lutet nn^iih in herbu.
* The Royal family of Denmark are at this day styled Skioldungcr or
offspring of Skiold, who was accorchug to Alalling i'ag. 20. the original
founder of the Danish throne ia the ^iorlh. lie attanied the royal, dignity,
not only by exerting his valor ia the service of his country against foreign
enemies, but iuor« particularly by proiautin^ thts iuteru*! welfare of fiis
i:i i \
;•*«
IM '
tjQ
shall never deck the audacicus front of a foreign conqueror.
Among the mountains of Norway, his ambition shall find a grave,
5.nd his presumptuous plans be frustrated by 1 Norwegian valor|
as the waves of the stormy ocean are repelled by the rock, whose
natural strength defies their reiterated attacks." ' Yes ! under tile
guidance of the illustrious example furnished by the late Prince
Christian, "^ the present leader of the Norwegians will, in defence
of the most honest cause for which the sword was ever drawn
satisfy the court ct Sweden in its own words, that < the strength
of nations consists far less in masses of men or rich treasuries than
in the impulses, which are given to them by patriotism and mili-
tary honor.* ^
But methinks I hear the spirit of Shakspeare bemoaning the
outrage which has been offered to his memory by that list of reck-
less resolutes, who are headed by Bevnadotte. It does not appear
sufficient that they should have inherited from the founder of their
fortunes a share of the properties of the rattlesnake, + quite ade-
A
f
people. He abhorred slavery, and caused it to be abolished, and the vic-
tims of misfortune always found in him a real friend. His warriors clelij^ht-
ed in serving him, for he distributed the whole of the booty among them,
saying: "Tlie prize money belongs to the soldiers; the glory is the°reward
of their chiefs."
* Some remarks occasioned by the political relations at present subsistini*
between Norway and Swedew. By B. H. Munthe Morgenstierne Christ
tiania, 1813. Pag. 9.
* Late Stadtholder of Norway, who was called in the year 1809 to inherit
the Crown of Sweden it would almost appear, for having successfuUr
thwarted her views on Norway. This unfortunate and much lamented
Prince died very suddenly in Sweden, and was succeeded by Bcrna-
<Jotte.
' Appeal to the Nations of Europe, P?g. 42.
* An ingenious and most impressive comparison between the faculties of
Buonaparte and the Rattle-snake will be fourid in an excellent pamphlet;
entitled, '<The danjiers of the country" published some years ago and now
out of print. It is much to be regretted, that the learned author did not
in his speech on the Blockade oi' Norway perceive the probability that the
people of that country might as Justly view the effects of Swedish invasion
with the same dread and horror, which he rightly concludes, would be felt
Ly the people of England in the contemplation of French invasion. The
Norwegians are however obliged to Mr. Stephen for having done his utmost
to satisfy them of the hopelessness of resistance; but they have too great
respect for his talents not to be benefited by the glowing picture which he
draws of the miseries of his own country, in case slie had been subjected to
a foreign joke. As the author of another celebrated pamphlet, in which
Mr. Stephen contends for doctrines, which in their application have proved
subversive of the Danish monarchy, and in consequence productive of the
evils, under which Norway now labors, he may probably think, that in
ofi'ering hira their thanks, the Norwegians carry on a kind of T4'«r in dit-
%!
257
quate to fascinate His Majesty the Emperor of Russia ; they must
needs also impress into their hateful service a bard, whose name i$
coupled with the best feelings of the human heart. I need only
propose, whether Shakspeare would have subscribed to such a
scheme of human oppression as that put into practice against
Norway by the court of Sweden, to be satisfied, that most English-
men at least will agree in reprobation of the use made of his high
authority for so iniquitous a purpose. Shakspeare, if he could
not have served, would not at least have betrayed the cause of
liberty ; but he is now, by a sad perversion of ingenuity, exhibited
us a libeller of that cause. Accordingly he is sent forth by His
Excellency the Swedish Ambassador and suite in the character of
Prologue.
" For us, and for our tragedy •
Here stooping to your clemency,
We beg your hearing patiently."
ushering into the world their denunciation against the Norwegians
Under the safeguard of the following lines :
■ young Fortinbras,
Of unimproved inetlle hot nnd full,
Hath in the skirts of Norway here and there,
Shark'd up a list of landless resolutes,
For food and diet, to some enterprize
That hath a stomach in't : which is no other
(As it d«th well appear unto our state).
But to recover of us, by strong haml,
And terms compulsatory, those 'foresaid lands
So by his Cousm lost. —
For the honor of language uttered by Shakspeare, it will how-
ever be abundantly evident, that the motto in question is wholly
inapplicable. Perhaps at this very moment the Swedes may be
gathering useful experience relative to the qualities of the Prince
i^nd people, who intend to keep, not to recover, by strong hand,
the 'foresaid lands, out of which the King of Denmark's cousin of
Sweden might have managed to, cozen the brave people of Nor-
way, had they not risen to a man, and called in Prince Christian
to frustrate the infamous project.
gkhe. But they do no such thing; they simply wish to act agreeably to
the ancient adage, Fas est ct ub/wite doceri, and they do full jusiice to the
motives by which he is influenced in desiring the speedy extinction of the
flame which threatens to involve their couulry. An iiiLcnJiary ib oUea 1I19
$rtst to cry, put out the fire.
' Reflexions sur L'Etat actuel de la Norvege—a most tragical perform-
ance It is widely printed in French.
NO. Vll. Pam. VOL. IV. R
1* t
I *
I'l It'l^
f III
llfll
2o8
By that act the Norweginns have most unquestionably consulted
the honor and interests of their country in the only effectual man-
ner, that could be devised. They at once set the seal of condem-
nation on the meditated transfer of the country and laid the firm-
est founilation for its independence. Any other mode of disposing
of the supreme authority might not indeed have been attended
with fatal consequences to the preservation of the country, for no
opinion, too high, can be formed of the patriotism of the Norwe-
gians. When the aggressions of Sweden are to be repelled, every
Norwegian will do what Fabius did to Minucius. But the crisis
into which Norway was thrown by the treaty of Kiel, inspired the
people with the desire that a mortal Mow should instantly be
struck at the efforts of the Swedish government. Now this could
never be aimed more unerringly than by the hand of a descendant
and namesake of that great and good Christian, whose very name
sounds like music to Norwegian ears. Nor is a more affecting
instance of national gratitude and confidence to be met with in the
annals of mankind, than when the people of Norway expressed
the wish, that their country might continue to be ruled by that
race of kings, whose gentle sway has for ages been productive of
so much mutual happiness and satisfaction to the governing and
the governed. How feelingly does His Norwegian Majesty ex-
plain the situation of the country at that momentous period in the
following letter to the King of Sweden :
<* Your Majesty will not ascribe it to any want of respect in
me, that what I now communicate to you has been delayed longer
than might seem proper. I could wisli that this communication
might be able to clear up every doubt, in relation both to my
respectful sentiments towards you, and the motives of my actions.
Though I am unable to employ for that purpose any other means
than that which I now make use of, you will not wonder, that my
pen, the only organ of my feelings, expresses them with all the
frankness which I owe as well to your Majesty as to the cause
which I defend.
** In communicating to your Majesty the proclamation of the
19th of February, I make you acquainted with the feelings, which
inspire the people of Norway, as well as with the principles which
shall always guide my conduct. The Norwegian nation is not of
a dispodition calmly to sacrifice its liberty and independence :
there is only one voice among these mountaineers, namely to pre-
serve their national honor. In vain should I have executed the
ifcaty Oi ix'ic] ; in vain attempteu to give up tuc lortrcsscs to your
Majesty's troops. The inevitable consequences of such an attempt
would nav« been a general insurrection against the only authority^
m
259
which could preserve a people, left to themselves, from the incal-
culable evils of anarchy. By such a mode of proceeding, I should
instantly have lost the authority requisite to maintain order, and
I should have deserved it, by deceiving the people in the good
opinion, which they universally entertain of me, that I constantly
aimed at their welfare, and at such a critical moment will prevent
disorder. I had therefore no other choice than either the infamy
of abandoning a people whose whole confidence is placed in me,
or the duty of retaining for their good the authority which I had
till then exercised."
What answer the King of Sweden may have returned to that
frank and generous statement, has not transpired, but the senti-
ments which his dear adopted son entertains on the subject have
been communicated to the world in one of those papers, which in
former times paved the way for force of arms in the overthrow
of kingdoms, fiernadotte's proclamation to his brethren in arms
is drawn up in a strain which, with all honest men cannot be
misinterpreted. To cajole and threaten, to smile and stab, to pray
and blaspheme, to libel and praise, have too frequently been the
burthen of such documents not to be understood by the more
wary of those to whom they are addressed, but a glaring contra-
diction levels itself to the capacity of all : Thus while he
rejoices, that the King of Sweden has saved his country
Srom the misfortune of becoming a province of another king-
dom, some may think, that he furnishes tlie Norwegians with
an argument of which they will avail themselves rather than oi his
kind offices in making them friends of the Swedish nation.
Mr. Schlegel after all, though a servant of Bernadotte, must pos-
sess some political integrity ; he deserves to be thanked for giving
official currency to sentiments, which his doating fostermother, *
much to her honor, has taken an opportunity of expressing, though
in direct opposition to the principles and feelings of that wretched
and hateful faction, with which it is much to be regretted, that
the first female writer of the age should ever have been con-
nected.
The King of Norway will be too seriously occupied with the
destiny of his country, to permit the personalities of such a man as
Beniadotte to intrude into his thoughts. By advising Bernadotte
to desist from a practice, which perhaps too much savours of his
early pursuits and coimexions at Caw and elsewhere, some service
may be rendered him. His Royal Highness, who professes to be
' Individuals ought to submit to destiny; but nations never ; for it is
they who can alone command destiny ; with a little more exertion of thi
will, misfortune would be conquered. The submission of one people to itnothef
k i:ontrarif io nature. G».'raunr, by Mad. iftael; Piefjce, Pag. xiv.
M \
560
M<
a roan of chivalry, should recollect that the great boast of polished
life is the delicacy and even the generosity of its hostility. If he
will take counsel trom an enemy, he may rest assured that it v^rill
be particularly gratifying to the nation over which he has assumed
the dominion, to perceive that he is anxious to accommodate him-
self to that superior style of manners, which is so prevalent in
Sweden. It may be thought strange to give a Frenchman lessons
o» the art of pleasing, but it will be recollected, that Bernadotte
is one of the nine tenths of Buonaparte's officers who have sprung
from the ranks, and that his duties in the earlier part of his career
probably almost wholly estranged him from the refinements and
indulgences of polished intercourse. But he may now be said
to have served « a seven years' apprenticeship to good breeding,"
and considering the kind of society in which he has of late moved,
it is naturally to be desired for their sake, that he should at least
write like a gentleman, though he may not otherwise be entitled
to a favorable interpretation of the Noscitur a sociis.
But in the abuse of his enemies he may probably plead the
Ifx talionis; and as far as that is directed against his English
adversaries, I do not well see, I must confess, how he can be
debarred from the benefit of the apology. By Sir Robert Wilson
Jje has been proved to be unduly fond of his neighbour's goods,
and not unlike FalstafF in point of courage. ' Indeed in the latter
respect. Sir Charles Stewart has put him to the test and expressed
an opinion rather unfavorable, which Marshal Blucher, it seems,
would be very happy to confirm ; while Sir Philip Francis, and
those who thmk with him, say 999 out of every thousand Eng-
lishmen are firmly persuaded that he has proved very like a
traitor to the cause which he was engaged to support.
Now, although it is a fundamental principle of English law
that an accused individual is to be presumed innocent until he is
found guilty before a proper tribunal ; yet as the aforementioned
defendant Mr. Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, has contrived by means
of divers quiddities to put off his trial, he cannot in reason blame
the Norwegians for proceeding to the election of a ruler. The
business of Norway was not to be at a stand, until it could be
decided by others, (who by the bye have no right to vote on the
question but what might gives them) that it was matter of perfect
indifference whether a throne was filled by an acquitted felon or
an unsuspected character. The Norwegians well knew that
^1
1 li
', Sketch of the Campaigns iu Puiand in i80(J iiud 18«7; br Sir Robert
Wilson, Pag. 85, /tiul iotJ. *^
^iisl^
261
other Sovereigns would vote against such a decision, and that thft
time was not gone by, when the then Count de Lille could say
with as much propriety as ever, « It is more honorable to deserye
than to carry a sceptre.'" Bernadotte is therefore the last per-
son, who should find fault with the Norwegians for giving the
government of their country to the cousin of the King, who had
lost the « 'foresaid lands," and who, whatever his political sini
may be, has at least never shared in the plunder of Europe, but
preserved that moral dignity in the circle of monarchies,^ of
which it might perhaps have been useful to remind the Rus-
sian Autocrator, had he not drunk too deeply of the waters of
Abo.
Bernadotte's hirelings will not convince the world, certamly not
Norway at least, that « le Prince Royal de Suede a toujours eti
I'ami et le defenseur de la liberte ; appele a la succession au trone
par une election spontanee, il a conserve le meme zele pour cette
belle cause, pour laquelle il a combattu avec tant de gloire." ' The
beautiful cause of liberty, it is to be hoped, will not, for a long
time to come at least, give employment to such friends and de-
fenders as Murat, Bernadotte, Sec, who have been so well charac-
terised as retainhig «< all the leading features of their original de-
partment in life ;— a fierce and turbulent nature— a wild, irregular
ambition— a total ignorance of the utility of civil laws— and a so-
vereign contempt for letters." * A ruler of such a description may
be foisted upon Sweden at the instigation of the hat, or French
faction, which has so long " been her inbred pest and bosom de-
stroyer ;" ^ or he may even be spontaneously admitted by a nation,
that has « long burned and languished in a feverish and oppressive
state, which might be called the romance of her history and of her
public councils," A military mountebank may make his fortune
in a country where « the memory of the great Vasa, and the heroic
madness of Charles XII. have impressed upon the nation a kind of
fond political credulity, of which it has been the character and the
pfFect to be for ever engaged, and for ever straining and heaving
under efforts and exertions too mighty for its strength." Such a
» Letter from I,ciiis the 18tli to the King of Spain on returning the msig«
nix of the Golden Fhcce, wliich had been conferred on Buonaparte.
» The Emperor of Russia's declaration of war against Great Britain, dated
St. Petershurgh the 26th of October, 1807.
i Uellexious, ikc.\). 9. . ^^ , , i .-.
* Ivliubiirgh ilfvie\v,No. XXVI. for Jan. 1809, Art. Code de laConscrip*
'"'"'c'jiui'deralions on th* Relative Stats of Great Britain iaMaj 1815, p. 92.
-■ff I-
ill
n
%
262
popular disposition, such a man as Bernadotte, who, we are told,
has carried chivalry «' in republicanism as well as in royalty," ' and
knight-errantry too, undoubtedly may be eminently qualified for
humoring. But if Bernadotte tells the world, as he does in his
farewell address at Lubeck, that « he cannot declare the freedom
of Sweden to be firmly established, without making the Norwe-
gians friends of the^wedes j" he wilfully and deliberately utters a
double falsehood •, first as it regards Sweden, and then as it con-
cerns Norway. If Norway (which God forbid) should be subju-
gated by Sweden, Bernadotte, with a view to maintain military
possession of that country, (for no other kind of possession can ever
be contemplated,) will find it absolutely i;eccssary to perpetuate
in Sweden the establishment of the conscription, that infernal in-
stitution, as it is called by one of his own panegyrists, the editor of
The Times ; that code of hell, as it is termed by Monsieur Cha-
teaubriand, who has just been appointed French Ambassador to
Sweden. Has Bernadotte duly considered the effects likely to be
produced on the freedom of his adopted country, and on the feel-
i'lgs and opinions of the world at large, by his devout anxiety to
preserve, as a precious relique, one of the most detested parts of
the Napoleon system ? The subjugation of Norway, it is evident,
must therefore directly tend to impair the freedom of Sweden.
Bernadotte, it is true, may say to the Swedes as Charles XII. did;
" I will send you one of my boots, and oblige you to receive orders
from that ;" ^ but we are told, " les Suedois sont jaloux de leurs
droits j" ^ and perhaps they may not chance to obey.
With respect to the endeavours made by him and his associates
to make the Norwegians friends of the Swedish nation, he had
better be silent. On that subject he can only claim the merit, (if
merit it can be called,) that he has been led to form a just estimate
of the Norwegian character, by directing the adoption of the only
measures that could possibly hold out a chance of success in his
horrid undertaking. But let him beware ; even while he is whet-
ting the knife to take his p'^und of flesh according to his bond, the
victim may be snatched from his merciless power. The true
cause of the permission given him to proceed thus far is perhaps
nearer the point of developement than he imagines.
I have now shown on what grounds the Norwegians decline the
condescending offer of Bernadotte to resume his original occupa-
tion, '^ for the purpose of drilling them into free and independent
soldiers. Bernadotte, by the bye, sliould avoid using the terms
' Appeal to thp Nations of Eun.pe, p. P3.
* History of Charles Xli. by Vollahe, p. 316.
^ IJeflexions, p. 10.
* A Serjeant in the regiment d( royal inaiino
263
free and independent, except when he may have occasion to apply
them to himself individually and exclusively. His amor sceleraius
habendi may be palliated, as the world goes-, but let it not be in-
dulged with the smile of benignity on his countenance, and the
cant of philosophy on his tongue. He may injure a valiant peo-
ple, who dare to vindicate their liberty, buf, he should not insult
tiiem. 1 t c V \^ n
1 proceed to investigate the grounds on which the Swedish Uo-
vernment thinks itself entitled to require the acquiescence of the
Norwegians in the annihilation of their national existence-, and
trust that the Court of Sweden will appear to all unprejudiced ob-
servers in the same amiable liglit in which it is fortunately viewed
by the unsophisticated Norwegians. I could cite innumerable au-
thorities, to prove tlis' the Norwegians never can be amalgamated
with the Swedes, nor ever acknowledge any arguments but those
of force with a view to the establishment of Swedish supremacy in
Norway. But in an appeal to the English nation, my purpose may
be essentially served by referring to the concurring testimonies of
those writers who, on political subjects especially, are well known
to contend for the empire of criticism in this country. The Edin-
burgh Review thus expresses itself of the Norwegians : «« There is
something extremely pleasing in the Norwegian style of character.
The Norwegian expresses firmness and elevation in all that he says
or does. He has always been a free man •, and you read his his-
tory in his looks. He is not apt, to be sure, to forgive his ene-
mies j but he does not deserve any -, for he is hospitable in the
extreme, and prevents the needy in their wants. It is not possible
for a writer of this country to speak ill of the Norwegians •, for of
all strangers, the people of Norway love and admire the British the
most." ' The Quarterly Review, by holding the same language,
may be considered to have done the Norwegians a most essential
service at a moment, when every British heart is bursting with in-
dignation in anxious suspense for the result of the glorious strug-
gle which the Norwegians are now supporting against what might
be called fearful odds ; but that he
" Wlio flights his country's battle,
Does in hi bosom leel a golden omen
C)f victory."
« Brave, honest, and intelligent, the Norwegians resemble the
English in manners, in feeling, and in language, more than any
people upon earth." * Thanks be to God that they do \ otherwise
• No IV for July, 130;!, Art. Cattcau's Tableau dcs Etats Danois, p. 306.
^ Quarterly Revip\v,No. XXI. for April, 1^11, Art. Travels ihrotigh Nor-
wav, I/ipiaiKi. &'■. J). 1^3.
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264
the feelings of the people of England would now have been infi-
iiitely move afflicted on account of the Norwegians. The sight of
an ancient nation, generally esteemed and admired throughout the
world, passing without remonstrance into a state of confirmed
slavery, would have been more galling to the inhabitants of Eng-
land than the predicament in which their government has been
placed in regard to Norway. Against the voluntary immolation of
the Norwegians at the shrine of despotism, the people of England
could have no remedy ; against a political_/(?/o de se of their minis-
ters, they enjoy at least the privilege of animadversion. Accordingly,
to use again the words of the Quarterly Review, " the tide of public
opinion in this country certainly runs strongly against Bernadotte."'
I trust the tide will roll on, gathering strength in its noble course,
until it shall sweep away the last remains of those encroachments
in which power, though on the most opposite pleas, has but too
successfully indulged, at the expense of opinion. It is a great
triumph to the cause of the Norwegians, that the people of Eng-
land did nol in tlieir rapturous, but most natural and rational ex-
ultation, at the downfall of the most extensive system of despotism
that was ever put in execution, overlook the establishment of
tyranny, upon a small scale, at the very source of liberty. It is an
event of immeasurable importance to the cause of freedom, that
any dereliction of those principles, which have at last wrought the
political salvation of Europe, is noticed and characterized as it de-
serves by the people of England, even though the transgressor
should happen to be the most amiable of Emperors. Let us hence
indulge the hope, that since a useful lesson has been given to future
Lieutenants of Engineers of an aspiring disposition, it may not be
wholly lost on ambitious Serjeants, who are still invested with
regal power. In fact, Bernadotte would probably consult his per-
sonal interests most effectually by listening to the voice of the
people of England on the subject of Norway: for he would then
give the world an unequivocal proof of the uprightness of his mo-
tives in making so signal a sacrifice of private feeling to public vir-
tue as he affects to have done. His views on Norway, even if
they should be carried into effect to the utmost extent of his
wishes, may aggrandize him personally, but, I am persuaded, for
a very sliort time only ; and, in regard to the Interests of Sweden,
it will soon be discovered that the French system of arrojidisse'
mens contains the same seeds of self-destruction in the north, which
occasioned its dissolution in the south.
In addition to the impressions which must naturally have struck
deep root in the minds of the Norwegians, when they beheld their
• Ku. XXI. forAin-il, 1814, p. 123.
^63
i •11
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precarious means of procuring the first necessaries of life abridged
in a most serious degree by a neighbour with whom they were at
peace *, when they found the principal support of their country,
the commerce with England, gradually decrease, and finally alto-
gether cease, entirely through the machinations of the same neigh-
bour •, and when, in such a state of public distress, they beheld
themselves most basely assailed in the tenderest point — their na-
tional honor— the violation of which would, in the opinion of that
great statesman Mr. Fox,' of itself form a just cause of war ; in
addition to those impressions, which cannot surely be deemed
favorable to the Swedish Government, the Norwegians feel inti-
mately persuaded that the genius and dispositions of that govern-
ment are and must be hostile to the true interests of their country.
With a view to give some color to the magnanimous intentions
of the Swedish Government in effecthig the transfer of Norway
from an absolute to a limited government, the people of this coun-
try have been favored with a French disquisition * on the superior
benefits and charms of a free government, like that of Sweden,
contrasted with the disadvantages and horrors of a despotic go-
vernment like that of Denmark. In illustration of this, Moles-
worth ib quoted, with much the same effect with which certain
senators drew from him arguments in support of the necessity,
justice, policy and propriety of the expedition against Copenhagen
in 1807. We are at the same time told, that " le caractere per-
sonnel de leurs nouveaux Souverains doit inspirer aux Norvegien*
une enciere confiance en ces promesses. L'equite et la moderation
du Ivoi sont connues." ^
Of the moderation of his Swedish Majesty, a more striking proof
^ found tiiau in his having lent his name to the design
a^ Torway. That statement will be decisive.
V jard to his equity, I fear that he can justly claim very
little ciedit for that quality, while his innocent grand-nephew, a
descendant, as well as himself, of Gustavus Vasa, roams an exile
among the mountains of Switzerland, like the illustrious founder
of Swedish liberty, meditating, if not projecting, plans for the
teal interest of his country. ■*
As for the personal character of the Crown Prince,
Hie niger est -. hunc tu, Norvege, caveto.
I Speech on the occupation of Hanover by Prussia,
a Rc'rtexions, &c.
3 RMexions, p. 9. , , r r^ *
4 Accounts tVotn Switzf rlaiul continually state, that me son of (.>ustavu8
will be placed on the tlironc of Sweden ; tmd the intelligence is on every oc-
casion repeated in the French papers, in a tone of rather ill omen to the
hopes of " our much beloved son Oscar, Vrince of Norway."
!1-^
266
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Let us now contemplate the beauty and perfection of the Swedisli
Government, to which Bernadotte's scribes assure us tlie Norwe-
gians will ofFcr no other resistance, than the tears which young dam-
sels shed at their marriage, although in secret they desire the
connexion. '
The Norwegians are an intelligent people. For this we have
the authority of the Quarterly Review ; in which the Bernadotte
party, to their great surprise and mortification, will no longer b*e-
hold a zealous friend, but almost a neutral, and perhaps a well-
wisher to the gallant and free Norwegians.
"^ Trifles liglit as air
Are to the jrnlotisconfunKitions Strang
As proofs ut holy writ.
Now docs the Swedish Government imagine that an intelligent
people, like the Norwegians, would remain thoughtless spectators
of the public transactions of a neighbour, against whom they have
imbibed with their mother's milk the most rooted aversion ; an
aversion rendered still more rational by such considerations as must
naturally have occurred to the Norwegians upon a view of the
political convulsions in Sweden within the last forty years.
In 1772, the limited constitution of Sweden was entirely in the
unlimited power of the aristocracy, whose tyranny Gustavus the
Third successfully destroyed, as Paley observes, with the acqui-
escence, not to say the assistance, of the people, of whom, as well
as of the nobility, the same king contrived to render himself alto-
j'^'^ther independent, at the diet in 1789. In 1792, this unambitious
and unassuming uru le of the present moderate and equitable King
of Sweden, suddenly dissolved the diet of Gefle, because it felt dis-
inclined to support him in certain Quixotic military projects against
Norway ; and he was some time afterwards assassinated by one of
his own subjects.
His son, Gustavus, the fourth Adolphus, evidently appeared to
have inherited the despotic notions of Charles the Twelfth, who
not only himself thought, but had actually made his subjects also
believe, that they were born only to follow him to the field of
battle, ^ How much Gustavus respected the Constitution of Swe-
den, may be seen from his conduct at Nordkioping, in 1 800, where
he ordered one of the partizans of the court to direct the spokes-
man of the peasants to declare, <' The state consents." Tlie se-
cretary wrote as he was told, and the intimidated peasants held
their tongues. This unconstitutiorial King was at last dethroned,
after he had well nigh accomplished the ruin of his country.
» Reflexions, p. 13.
* Vohaire'sIIistur) of Charles Xlf. p. 35lt
son,
fife '' »(
267
He was succeeded by his loving uncle, his present Swedish
Majesty, who will be ever distinguished in history for striking 0"t
a plan for the acquisition of Norway, which no common statesman
would have ventured to conceive and execute. He adopted for his
son, and heir to the Crown of Sweden, the bravest and most suc-
cessful man that ever directed the efforts of the Norwegian nation
against the restless and unprincipled designs of the Court of Swe-
den —the good and gallant Prince Christian. Whether this illus-
trious and unhappy Prince, on a nearer acquaintance with his
Swedish Majesty, thought proper to remonstrate against the exe-
cution of a scheme, which from his knowledge of the Norwegians,
he knew could not be accomplished ; whether he was barely sus-
pected of a disinclination to promote the annexation of Norway,
which he was intimately persuaded the inhabitants of that country
most sincerely deprecated, and would most strenuously resist i or
whether he was found untractable in other respects, an end was
put to the career of this most truly virtuous Prince before he had
lived six months in his adopted country. The melancholy event
gave risi to various events, from which the people of Norway
drew the most afflicting conclusions in regard to the fate of their
beloved Prince ; but the Court of Sweden took the greatest pains
to invalidate, and, if possible, to remove the impressions, to which
it might otherwise have been obnoxious. At the funeral of the
Prince, the inhabitants of Stockholm did not, however, appear
satisfied with the attestations of the faculty ; they « doubted some
foul play;" knowing that the Prince was generally ctyled by the
nobility « the Prince of the mob." In consequence, Count Fersen
was dragged out of his carriage in the solemn procession, and mur-
dered. A similar fate, it seems, was intended for a Countess, who
now goes by the name of Signora Tofana ; and a physician of the
court, an Italian, of the name of Rossi, who was the body-physi-
cian of the late Prince, thought proper to leave off practising in
Sweden. I have no hesitation to add, from my personal know-
ledge of the impressions which the death of Prince Christian, by
whatever cause it may have been occasioned, produced among the
Norwegians, that that event alone has in no small degree tended to
arm the population of Norway against the pretensions of the Court
. of Sweden.
So much for the genius of the constitutional government of
Sweden, especially when the chief magistrate thinks it his duty
not to disregard the rights and feelings of the inferior orders.
Nov/ the Norwegians must be perfectly aware that that very indif-
fereiit derenaeror ihc ucauiuui cauac ui nucrti
Prince of Sweden, neither can, will, nor dares to pursue the line of
public conduct adopted by his predecessor; and that he and his
J?
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268
government must therefore be perfectly unsuitable to their country.
His friend Machiavel may tell him, besides, that it is a hopeless at-
tempt to reduce to slavery a nation imbued with the spirit of
fiecdom.
With respect to the dispositions of the Court of Sweden, there is
but one opinion throughout Norway, and that opinion is founded
on well attested knowledge of the ruling passion of that Court. So
the cabinet of Sweden can but make a hgure, it does not care if it
be a ridiculous and a contemptible one. Perfect masters of tho
ethics of vanitiji the statesmen of Sweden, in Burke's words,
** exist by every thing which is spurious, fictitious, and false j by
every thing which takes the man front his house, and sets him on a
stage, which makes him up an artificial creature, with painted
theatric sentiments, fit to be seen by the glare of candle-light, and
formed to be contemplated at a due distance." '
It is a fact, at least it is boastingly asserted by Swedish diplo-
matists, that Sweden might at any time have recovered Finland by
holding up her hand. But the dashing statesmen of Sweden did
not think proper to gratify the anxious desire of the inhabitants of
Finland to return to their former government j and entirely disre-
garded the national feelings of the Swedes, in behalf of the people
of Finland, who universally detest the Russian Government, if
the statements of Swedish diplomatists are to be credited. The
Court of Sweden preferred acquiring a country, which, to use its
own magnanimous and jihilanihrojnc language, will prove a bur-
then, to recovering a province which was the granary of the capital
and great part of Sweden. In thus repudiating the people of
Finland, the Court of Sweden has undoubtedly furnished a striking
proof of the practical efFects of the jt)///7oso/% of vanity.
These transcendant politicians seem to have discovered, that the
nearest and easiest road to Finland led through Norway. They
imagine that if the military force of Norway be but at their perfect
disposal, the loyal population of Finland will adopt the necessary
means to project the deliverance of their country ; and against
that time the political tempests, which have just subsided, may
again open new views, favorable to the restless ambition of a court
confessedly the most troublesome and intermeddling In all Eu-
rope. The conquest of France in 1814, and more particularly
the mercy shown to her, affords a fine field for speculation : on
that subject, Bernadotte may perhaps feel some compunctious vislt-
ings, which maybe still more quickened by a sense of the Invalu-
able friendship of the Sublime Porte •, and he may probably, at
' Burke's Works, Vol. VI. p. 32. Letter to a Member of the NatiQaJ
Assembly.
Hii •
m
the end of a long soliloquy, make up his mind, that the preponde-
rance of Russia has increased, is increaijing,and ouglit to be dimi->
nished. If Finland was too near Petorsburgh, why may not Peters-
burgh be said to be too near Finland, (which the court of Sweden
will never give up the hope of recovering), and would not the
Emperor Alexander be more properly lodged in the sacred city of
the antient Czars ? Bernadotte in his heart thinks, that he has after
all been but scurvily treated. The island of Guadaloupe, has been
withheld from him rather ungraciously j and in the case of Nor-
way, h« bears some resemblance to a person who is allowed to
keep the skin of the bear, which he must himself kill. It seems in
fact, as if certain high contracting parties wished to turn out Berna-
dotte for a day's sport among the mountains of Norway, thereby insi-
nuating, that if he has ever laughed in his sleeve at them, they are de-
sirous of returning the compliment. Indeed, Bernadotte appears to
have had great if not just cause of complaint, against some of the
heads of the confederacy against Bonaparte. They either could not
or would not treat him like a gentleman •, of which various instance*
have been cited by his advocates, which leaves no doubt of hit
meekness so forcibly insisted on by Sir Charles Stewart. But
jBern?dotte, who might have sat for the picture of tlic Jew, which
Shakspeare drew, will remember how he has been rated
" About his monies, and his usances."
.His particular obligations toEngland, it will be observed, cease j and,
considering the proverbial short memories of Princes, will probably
be forgotten, the moment the Swedish flag is not necessary to pro-
tect the commerce of England. With the breaking up of the
English colony at Gottenburgh, the praises so lavishly bestowed on
this nation, by the Swedes, will no longer fill the columns of the
News-papers. Things will revert to their ancient order. The
political relations of Sweden, will be found to be what of neces-
sity they must be, favorable to France, hostile to Russia, and by a
natural consequence, inimical to England. Bernadotte will repair
and adorn with fresh embellishments, the monument of the wis-
dom of the Empress Catharine, which her grandson has suffered to
become as great a scandal as the declaration, whereby he solemnly
pledged himself to restore it to its pristine strength and beauty. The
asseverations of Bernadotte to promote the peace of the North, by
raising fresh wars, and to conGolidate the tranquillity of Europe,
by giving rise to discussions, on which different sentiments must
exist, will then be duly appreciated ; and we shall see, what credit
m
"■']■
OIlr^ll^ fn lii-iro 1>.'iqii
. *1
CD Lli^K
they would be able to satisfy the honorable scruples of England, to
lull her fears, and to impress the conviction, that her best interests
i
270
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111
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were «?«8entially promoted by the annexation of Norway to
Sweden,
With deference however to the Swedish Ambassador at this
court, and the few— very few individuals indeed, who are of his
way of thinking on the subject of Norway, very little credit will,
I trust, appear to have been given to the statements of the merci-
less, presumptuous, and perhaps at this moment, I fondly hope, dis-
appointed, enemies of Norway. Of this we shall perhaps soon be
satisfied by leifers from Sweden^ written in Mai/fair^ animadvert-
ing in no ambiguous or civil terms on the notorious inefficacy of
the British blockade of Norway. For the rulers and politicians
of Sweden can be as loud and as cutting in their strictures on the
application of the naval power of England, if it be not conducive
to their interest, as any other foreign government has ever been.
Sweden has certainly been infinitely nore furious both in actions
and words than the Danish government, regarding the naval supre-
macy of England. Yet Bernadotte's advocates now unblushingly
aver, that Denmark has been punished, solely because she did not
drop in proper time the principles of the armed neutrality. Swe-
den, however, it seems, was better acquainted with the tompor,
spirit, and resources of England, and the humor of her government^
than Penmark ; and accordingly she is now assisted to reap in in-
famy what she has sown in iniquity.
It may not therefore be improper to show, how Sweden has
formerly thought, felt, and acted, respecting the maritime rights of
England.
In the noted cases of the two Swedish convoys condemned by
England, Sweden sent one of the commanders to the scaffold, be-
cause he did not sufficiently dispute the ultima ratio of the King
of England, for subjecting the Swedish vessels in question to an
investigation before Sir William Scott. Sweden thus gave a pretty
unequivocal proof of the sincerity of her inclination at least, to
define the maritime rights of England.
Denmark never betrayed such violence of resentment j but it
may be said it was only because she did not meet with a similar
opportunity, and I am willing to allow the force of the objec-
tion. For whenever any thing like an insult was offered to the
Royal flag of Denmark, its honor was always protected and assert-
ed to the utmost, with that valor and skill, which perhaps in
reality constituted the secret art-'^'es of Tilsit.
In 1800 Sweden raised an outcry against England, scarcely lesa
violent than if her capital had been burnt, her niivy carried oft,
and every one of her merchant ships swept from the ocean. Sir
Thomas Louis, in the Minotaur, at that time cruizing in the Medi-
terranean, felt anxious to obtain possession of two Spanish vessels,
271'
which lay at Barcelona, laden with naval and military stores for
South America. In consequence, the admiralty directed Captain Hii-
lyei', of the Niger frigate, to take the necessary measures. The boats
of the Niger were dispatched, and, meeting in the mouth of the har-
bour a light Swedish galliot, the British olhcer conceived, that from
on board of his vessel this enterprise might be more efFectually accom-
plished. He therefore represented to the Swedish Captain the state
of the case, probably adducing some arguments which the Swedish
Captain found absolutely irresistible. The English thus attacked the
Spaniards, and carried them both off. No sooner was the transac-
tion known in Sweden, than it became a subject of the most bitter
and rancorous invective against England ; not merely through the
ordinary channels of official communication, but by means of the
most vulgar and unworthy expedients, that could possibly be de-
vised. The cabinet of Sweden, which cannot now find a single
passage in the Law of Nations, to justify the Norwegians ia
defeating the stratagem attempted to be played ofF against them,
then fulminated quotations from Grotius, PuffendorfF, and Vattel,
denouncing all the terrors of political vengeance against the British
Ministry for sanctioning, or conniving at the act of a subaltern,
who perhaps purchased the spotless character of the Swedish flag
for a few guineas. For the main ch?rge of the Swedish government,
on that occasion, was founded in downright falsehood. No
violence was offered to the Swedish Captain ; nor did the English
cover their intended attack on the Spaniards by a display of the
Swedish flag. To prove the last assertion, I need only adopt the
language of one of the English officers employed on the occasion,
*« We never fire a shot, but our enemies may see whence it comes.'*
The Swedish government, however, adduced the Barcelona busi-
ness, as a particular ground for acceding with mad alacrity to th©
mad convention of the mad Emperor Paul.
But Sweden would of course behave more graciously to Engv*
land, when this country poured forth her legions to defend, if not
to aggrandize her, and when she diffused with a liberal hand the
benefits of her friendship throughout all classes of Swedes from the
King to the Dykker,' who casts an anxious eye over the ocean and
fervently prays for a speedy abundance of wrecks !
Let us hear the words of an intelligent and very candid English
traveller. «*The Swedes ascribe to England alone all the outrages
and losses sustained by tliem, since the conclusion of the allbnce
between the two powers."
* Dykkeriet is a very honorable and useful institution in Sweden, which
provides for the legal plundering of wrecks. It is upou the whole a fiu«
monument of th« public naoraJitv of Sweden.
n:v
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« This unreasonable, arid I may almost say, ungrateful preju*-
•iice against us, has struck me as a very unamiable feature in the
national character. It is the more so, as we have rather a greater
partiality for the Swedes than for any other foreign nation, and as
■we have uniformly shewn every disposition to favor them."
« But they do not only wish to have no connexion with this
country and sigh for their ancient alliance with France -, they ex-
tend their hatred against us even to their own king and govern-
ment.'"
Again, and even in a publication avowedly undertaken for the pur-
pose of initiating the nations of Europe, in the arcana of the new
political system which more particularly ought to unite England
and Sweden, the latter takes an opportunity of chiding the former,
and in terms which very nearly place the chief belligerents on a
par in regard to their duties to the world at large. « If England
lometimes handle neutrals roughly, Bonaparte never tolerates any
whatever ;" * says the ingenious Mr. Schlegel. I am rather surprised
that some high-mettled tenant of Doctor's Commons, or Master in.
Chancery, has not taken up the gauntlet thus thrown, with what
justice, it is not now my business to enquire.
But thus much is clear, that Sweden must and will prove a vi-
per, which England may find some difficulty in shaking ofFj and
that so far from deriving any return for past, present or future
favors, the very weight of her benefactions may, perhaps at no great
distance of time, only prove a plea for fresh demands, perhaps
raised, that they might be refused. The history of the North
furnishes a memorable instance, which Bernadotte may probably
think eminently worthy of imitation. After the peace of Roe&-
kilde, which was signed on the 26th of February, 1658, between
Denmark and Sweden, the Kings of both countries repaired to the
castle of Fredericksborg, in the island of Zealand, and passed some
days together in feasting and rejoicings. The Queen of Denmark,
Sophia Amelia, took the greatest pains to entertain the Swedish
king with every degree of magnificence and pomp, which so joy-
ous an occasion called for. But the very hospitalities and attention
shevi'n him in Denmark, only tended to confirm Charles Gustavus
in his predetermined purpose of breaking the peace, as soon as he
had completed his preparations for war. For the Danish queen,
though a woman of fine understanding, rather imprudently display-
ed all the riches and splendor of Fredericksborg, and tlie king
^ Macdona'Id's Travels thrcngh Denmark and part of Sweden, during the
•wioter and spring of i809. Vol. y. page lua.
* App«al to the wations of Europe, pa^e 64.
iijiii
ni^ I
273
of Sweden became so attached to the place, that he resolved to en-
joy its charms more at ease ' than he could do a?, a casual visitor.
He accordingly soon returned to Fredericksborg in the character
of master, and commenced leisurely an inspection, which but for
a disastrous accident by sea might have yielded perhaps as hand-
some a sum to him as his illustrious successor, Bernadotte, would
have netted from the sundry pieces of plate, candlesticks, &c. bear-
ing the arms of almost all the states of Germany, had they not been
rudely taken out of his trunks in Poland.
Now, although Bernadotte has not the benefit of a personal
view of the splendor and riches of England ; there is enough in
his character and conduct as well as in the genius and dispositions
of the cabinet over which he presides, to impress the Norwegians
with just and serious fears relative to the future views of the
Swedish government, especially with regard to England. A
people who are nationally and individually distinguished by genuine
simplicity of heart — that healing and cementing principle — may
well dread subjection to rulers, who place their chief pride and a
kind of demoniacal delight in refined policy, which, as Burke
observes, *' ever has been the parent of confusion ; and ever will
be so, as long as the world endures." ^ Who will undertake to sa-
tisfy the Norwegians that their blood shall not be shed for objects,
not only foreign, but absolutely injurious to them in every view of
the subject ? Nothing is naturally dreaded and deprecated so much
by the Norwegians as a state of hostility with England •, in fact the
hope of precluding as far as lies in their power, the recurrence of
war with England forms one of the principal features of the resis-
tance made to Sweden. When the latter country shall have become
perfect mistress of the Baltic, Bernadotte may think it highly ex-
pedient to throw out for consideration in certain quarters various
queries, grounded on reflections like Burke's. *« I must fairly say,
I dread our omi povi^er and our oison ambition ; I dread being too
much dreaded. It is ridiculous to say, that we are not men ; and
that as men we shall never wish to aggrandize ourselves in some
v.-ay or other. Can we say, that even at this very hour we arc
not invidiously aggrandized ? We are already in possession of al-
most all the commerce of the world. Our empire in India is an
awful thing. If we shou.d come to be in a condition not only to
have all this ascendant in commerce, but to be absolutely able,
without the least controul, to hold the commerce of all other
nations totally dependent on our good pleasure ; we may say, that
we shall not abuse this astonishing and unhcard-oi power. But
' Portrait of queen Sophia .A.melia of Denmark. Historical works of
N. D. lliegels, Vol. 1. page 28r.
' Speech on conciliation with America. 3. Vol. page SI;
No. VII. Fam. Vot. IV. S
h.
274
r: 'ii
II
.**■
every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible
but that sooner or later, this state of things must produce a com-
bination against us which may end in our ruin." ' Indeed what,
man can be deemed more inclined to pursue objects inimical to
the repose of mankind than the one who is raving and ranting
about making the Norwegians free and independent soldiers, at a
•moment, when Europe prepares to turn the swords into plough-
shares, and the spears into pruning hooks.
Let Bernadotte apply himself to the arts of peace, although he
has arrived at an age, when a change of conduct may be supposed
to be rather irksome and diflicult. But really his own intercuts, not
less than thos>* of Sweden, require that he should abandon his in-
famous and qiixotic attempt on Norway. The feeling of Ey.rope
as well as the immutable principles of right and justicfe are
decidedly against him ; and though he should acknowledi^e him-
self guilty of an error in judgment, let him console himself with
the reflection, that strength is liable to error as well as weakness.
He had infinitely better draw up a respectful and candid memo-
rial to the Emperor Alexander, expressive of his regret at not
having availed himself of his Imperial Majesty's most gracious
offer to restore Finland to the Swedish crown, and thus declaratory
of his anxiety to fulfil as speedily as possible those distinct pro-
mises to Sweden, relative to the restoration of Finland, which
smoothed the way to his present elevation. Such an arrangement,
(to the practicability of which Lord Holland alluded, in the most
pointed terms, in tlie debate on the blockade of Norway), would
prove the best pledge which Bernadotte could give of sincerely
pacific sentiments. Hj probably long ago thought, that he had ac-
quired trophies enough j let him prove himself anxious to deserve
those honors of peace, to which nations and rulers can now, thank
God, once more aspire. Instead of priding himself in having re-
duced one of the freest nations in Europe to slavery, let it be his
boast, that lie diffused the blessings of liberty to all classes of the
nation, which he already rules.
In attempting to abolish the hardships and ignominy of vassalage,
by which the peasantry in some of the most populous provinces of
Sweden are oppressed, especially those that formerly belonged to
Denmark, I am aware that Bernadotte might be some-what startled
by a recollection of the hapless fate of his immediate predecessor. "
* Burke's Works Vol. 7, page 103. Jiomarks on the policy of the Allies.
^ Whf^n Tlfrivaflottt^ lirst i.-itidci! in Swrden cu his :i!![!i:i!Ument to be
Crown Prince, lie was adHressed hy a depiitatioii ot' i!ie iNohilil}', In reply,
he fUveit most puUieticaliv on the lametiialilc tiite ot' tlie lonner Crown
Prince, uiid in infiay plain ttrniS) mtiuiatf.d iliat lit "ilit.uKl avoid lollowing-
his steps. Tlie hint has no dunbt been uiuiually bt.ntlii.ul.
273
For the aristocracy of Sweden is, I doubt not, an overmatch for
him, at present ; though he may flatter himself to be able by the
subjugation of Norway, to gratify the ambition, humor the ca-
prices, and supply the wants of all the noble drones in Sweden.
Norway, it is true, is not exactly a land flowing with milk and
honey. Still by the aristocracy of Sweden it is viewed, as if it
were the land of promise, and thus it is more particularly incum-
bent on the Norwegians to resist the pretensions of Sweden. It
is therefore to be ardently hoped, that Swedish nobility may be
favored with a sight of Norway and no more.
After having sketched, though slightly and indistinctly, the no-'
ble and lofty grounds on which the Norwegians are prepared to
oppose the pretensions of Sweden, it might seem beneath the dig-
nity of the subject to consider what share a view of their interest
may have had in the patriotic and courageous resolution of the
Norwegians. But since the organ of Bernadotte thinks fit to
assert, that "II est clair que les interots des deux royaumes unis de
la Scandinavie sont essentiellement les memes," it is necessary to
observe, that far from that being the case, the interests of both
kingdoms (Bernadotte will excuse me for not styling them united)^
are diametrically opposite. The products of both countries being'
just the same, they would both become commercial rivals ; and
Sweden possessing the power of regulating the concerns of both,
she would not of course forget, that charity begins at home. I
purposely abstain from pursuing any farther comparison of inte-
rest between two countries, which bear about as much resem-
blance to each other as the powers of light and darkness.
That the Swedish government, must actually be a power of
darkness, and that it lias no notion whatever of the force which
plain good intention possesses in the government of mankind, will
be fully evident from the measures, which it has had recourse to
and still pursues with a vicv/ to perplex and pervert the Norway
question, chiefly for the sake of imposing upon the goveranient and
people of England.
" Le Prince Chretien," says the most shameless of Bornadotte's
advocates, " en anticipant sur les fonctions ^ de souverain, se donne
I'air de nomm.er des ambassadeurs. On sr.it qu'il a envoye un pleni-
potentiaire en Angleterre, pour disposer la gouveniemer.t Britanni-
que en sa faveur."
" Nous ignorons quels argumens ce nouveau diflplKate aura em-
ployes pcur plaider sa cause, mais on aurait pu lui repondve de la
miniere suivante ; « Quel motif si pressant vous povte a de: lander
notre assistance, lorsnue sans Tintervcntion de rAa^^letene vous etes
» Rc.*?exions, kr, pagn 10. * .U('fle.\ioaS; pagt 1?.
li t''
tP :!■■■ ' ^
276
m
■ X IRt
au moment dc passer d'un regime absolu a un regime constitu-
tioiinrl ?" , • I r 1 1
Admitting, that this vvritor ought not to be deprived of the be-
nefit of his plea of ignorance, for which in reality, I dare say, he
-will not thank me, I must beg leave to refer him to Yattel, where
he discusses the nullity of treaties.
" A treaty made for an unjust and '^' '•'^nes!: intention is abso-
lutely null, nobody having a right to d - contrary to the law
of nature. Thus an offensive alliance . ve to ravage a nation
from whom there has been no injury received, may, or rather
-ought, to be broken." Book II. ch. xn. § 161.
«« We oua;ht not to assist him, whos* course is unjust, whether
he be at war with one of our allies, or with another btatc : for
this would be the same, as if we contracted an alliance for an un-
just purpose which is not permitted. No one can be validly
engaged to support injustice." § 168.
Now, from the reluctance uniformly shown by His Btitannic
Majesty's Ministers to countenance and sanction the infamous
project of Sweden against Norway, had not tlie inhabitants of the
latter country the clearest and most undoubted right to make a
direct appeal to a government, so deeply interested -with reference
to Its own character and that of the nation, indepeiidently of other
most weighty considerations—in annulling the proceeding against
Norway ? . i • • i r
The Norwegians knew, that restoration was the principle ot
the good cause, and they may have heard, that that principle was
intended also to be applied in the case of Finland, which, on the
authority of the writer whom I now refute (if he should happen
to be, which I suspect, a Swedish diplomatist high in rank),
Sweden might have recovered, agreeably to the spontaneous ofier
of the Euiperor Alexander, who would be most properly addressed
in behalf of Norway through the medium of England.
In appealing to England, the Norwegians conhdently relied on
the hearty good wishes of the people of this country ; and in this
respect their hopes have been fulfilled, perhaps, beyond the ardent
expectations of the most sanguine. ^
They moreover anticipated the cordial aid of a certain class ot
men, who, from their unwearied efforts in the cause of humanity,
from their universally acknowledged respectability, and from their
presumed political independence, would, it was fondly hoped,
have gladly stood for^M to impel the wavering decisions ot mi-
_!_._..„ :,, -ho*- A\r^nt\nn v.-Mrh would prove congenial to the
feelings, principles, and prejudices of Englishmen If the ex-
pectations of the Norwegians from the body alluded to have been
^rievouslv disappointed, it is however some consolation to knor.
11
277
the cause to which the disappointment is to be attributed. That
cause is to be found in the machinations of Bcrnadottc's agents.
When the Norway question was lirst i<g:tated in tliis country, it
was, as Mr. Whitbread justly observec', very little und^TStood :
indeed tlie Norwegians must, I fear, be content to yield the palui
of diplomacy to tlieir opponents ; but, thank God, ih-y can afford
to do it. Accordingly, the case of Norway became ti:vcloped in
a labyrinth of doubts, surmises, sly insinuations, and daring- mis-
representations, which the good genius of Norway could not
dispel, being then in imaginary league with Danish hifluence, that
horrid phantom to some ministerial minds, which the Swedish
ambassador here, with an address imd ingenuity which would ha^e
done honor to Perillus, and Sir William Congreve, incessantly
managed to conjure up •, so that ministers and their immediate
friends, and many other most excellent chariicters, would have
been very glad to think as they felt in regard to Norway, neither
could see nor even feel their way. But the Noi-wyj.;lan sword will
probably by this time have cut the Gordiaii knot by which the
honor of England has been linked to the infamy of Sweden*, and
the cause of Norway will, I am intimately persuaded, eventually
behold in Mr. Wilberforce the same humane ai:id zealous advocate,
who successfully pleaded with the British Government for the
sufferings of the poor starving Greenlanders, wlio has uniformly
promoted the comforts of the Danish prisoners of war in Eng-
land; and who has, in many other respects, exerted himself to
lessen the evils of those measures of hostility, which, instead of
not being carried beyond the limits of the necessity which pro-
duced them,' have ultimately terminated almost in the political
annihilation of a kingdom, which did not at least provoke the
war.
Indeed, every succeeding day affords fresh grounds for hoping
that England will be able to terminate the long, eventful, and
fatal drama oi" continental oppression in the oidy manner that it
can be satisfactorily fiftished : for, while parallels to the aggres-
sions of Buonaparte are to be found, the freedom and happiness of
Europe cannot surely be said to be established on a firm and sound
basis. Norway, in the possession of Sweden, would prove to
future generations what Poland will, I trust, shortly cease to be
to our age — a wretched monument of the abuse of power, in the
erection of which the people of England, however, have had as
little share as ii\ the case of Poland. On the contrary, it may le
baiuly aihrmed, that their sentiments have been very accurately
His RritHnnic "M.ijesly's (jcchinuion agiiinsf D'^ilmdik of the V.j'U of
Sqiiemb. r, iHoT.
i278
I itiii
Stated in the protest entered on the Journals of the House of Lordt
by tlu'lv lloyA Highnesses tlie Dukes of Sussex and Gloucesteti
the Duke ol Norfolk, j-.nd Lords Grey, Essex, Grenville, Rosslyu,
Cilfloii, Fitxwiiliani, St.inhope, aiul Lauderdale.
" 1. Because they cuiislderod the attempt to subjugate Norway
to the crown of Sweden as a manifest violation of the sacred rights
of n .iiond independence ; and could not reconcile themselves to
conibit in this ca;'.e tho s.ime principles, in tlefence of which His
Majosty and his allies liave in the case of the other nations of
Europe so gloriously and successfully contended.
" 2. Because it was contended in debate, and to their appre-
hension not sufliclontly answered, that, even if such ati engage-
ment could bo considered as lawful, the conditions of the Brhish
treaty witli Sweden had no view to the resistance mi the people of
Norway to tiie proposed cession of their country by Denmark, and
did not bind England by any obligation of good faith to assist in
reducing by foree that unoOending and independent people.
*' S. Because they could not see, without the deepest regret,
the employment of the British flag to infilct upon a people, whose
fvleiidship it is the natural policy of this country to cherish and
cultivate, the dreadful calamities ')f famine, for the purpose of
enforcing so odious and unjuatifiablo a project."
But, continues Bcrnadoite's advocate, in his queries to the
NorwCj^ian deputy, " Si vous avicz une t.i grande envie d'etre
iiidcpenc'.cns, vous autres Norvegiens, pouiquoi n'avez vous pas
saisi I'epo.jUe oa votre gouvernement vous opprimait en vous
assujetisi-ant an cy.teme continen'cal, et en exposant vos cotes a
c:xQ blocjuee; ? li y a trois ou quatre ans qu^i votre cause aurait
pu tvouvcr de la f::vear eu Angieterre, car alors en vous aidant a
vcus deticher du Danncinarc, nous aurions aiiaibli un cnnemi
opiniatre."
In refutation of charges of oppression on the part of the Danish
govor.unent, it is only necessary to appe.d to the experience of the
S Weill j}i government in ail its atLcmpta on the loyalty of the
Norw?f,u.iiS. That experience is the ablest and most eloquent
commenta-'y on the political relation,': of Denmark and Norway.
Truly, it is a singular way of coiicillating the respect and confi-
dence of the Nor\v3gian people, by supposing them capable of
t'arowlng oiF their allegiance at a period when they were over-
v/helmed by all the poi-;naat sjllerlngs and bitter regrets, of which
the EiigUsh attack on Copenhagen proved as copious a source in
Norway as in Denmark.
As for the application of tlie continental system, and the
blockade of the coasts of Norway, the writer in question has
ventured to exercise t!;at degree of hardihood which may be ex-»
279
pectctl from a party whose favorite motto is, " yhtiacter calum-
nlare^ semper aliquid haret:' The truth is, that the gang of
Douanierst wlio citlier attimded or were expected shortly to follow
liernatlotte on his journey from France to Sweden, with a view
to establish the Napoleon system of commercial surveillance in the
nortli, wouKl never have dared to touch the soil of Norway. The
commercial intercourse between this country and Norway since
the month of August IHOd, and until it was interrupted by the
machinations of Sweden, is a matter of too great notoriety to
require any observations. The blockade of Norway, strictly speak-
ing, ceased on the conclusion of peace between Denmark and
Sweden in 1809 ; and I defy the calumniators of Norway to prove,
that privateering out of the ports of that country was not put a
stop to on the revival of trade with England. The merchants of
Norway felt asliamed of committing any depredations (to use the
technical phrase, when applied to captures not made by ourselves)
on tlie commerce of England, the moment that Norway began to
be benefited, though but partially, by an intercourse with England,
which she of course regulated. I speak from personal observa-
tion when I assert, tliat in the immerous harbours on the whole
range of coast from Frederickshald to Christiansand, in the sum-
mer of 1810, I only saw a sohtary privateer i and I believe she
was shortly afterwards put out of service.
With regard to the aid which Norway might or ought to have
afforded England in subduing such an obstinate enemy as Den-
mark, it is scarcely worthy of any reply. Suffice it to observe,
that the dismemberment of Denmark, and the destruction of a
balance of naval power in the north, are not legitimate objects of
English policy, which that great expositor, time, will not fail to
illustrate.
To continue the queries to the Norwegian deputy :
" Mais alors vous aimiez mieux armer en course contre nous, et
vous enrichir comme les autres sujets Danois, des prises faites sur
Ic corntTterce Britanniquc. Et a present, pour recompense de ces
hostiiites, vous nous demandcz de rompre nos engagemens avec un
etat allie, et d'eluder un traite conclu sous notre'^influence f"
Qu'y a-t-il a opposer a tout cela.?
With reference to what I have already stated on the subject of
Norwegian privateering, it certainly cannot be denied, that some
merchants at Christiansand, particularly, may have gained a few
per cents on the 4-7 ships and cargoes which were captured by the
King's vessels in 1810. But on striking a balance, Norway will,
I fear, be found to b? a considpvahh^ l.ispr U\t nil"' «•'-""-; n-r it^*-
because she had not the means, but because she wanted the incli-
nation, to benefit herself by a system, by which other countries,
lif^
i
MS.
280
or, to be perfectly correct, certain classes of men in other coun-
tries, such as proctors, brokers, &c. had amassed princely for-
tunes At her expense. And there is no manner of doubt, that my
Lord Liverpool caimot have known what he advanced in the de-
bate on the blockade of Norway, when he asserted that " Norway
had done England ten times more mischief than all the rest of the
Danish donunlons." This is abso'itcly unfounded in factj and
if the noble Lord's commercial friend, Mr. Rose, had been at his
elbow, the greater part of the assuiti(;:'., at least four fifths, would
certainly ha\e been explained nway. But I most heartily concur
in the sentiments of the noble Lord, that the witl\holding of naval
supplies, and the great number of her harbours, gave Norway a
power of molesting the trade of England ; which Norway, how-
ever, by the admission of the noble Lord, did not exercise frori
any particular enmity on the part of the inhabitants. If that were
the case whi^n her f ite was coiniccted with that of Denmark, how
much more will she be disposed, in a state of unqualified inde-
pendence, to consult the interests of Enghmd. Will Norway, as
a conquered province of Bernadottc's, be able to follow the bent of
her own mind .? Qu'y a-t-il a opposer a tout cela .?
Truth, however, I am perfectly satisfied, is not the object of
any inquiry set on foot by Bernadotte and his pnrty ; and if I shall
be able, in conclusion, to impress the same conviction on my
readers, I shall indulge the cheering hope, <;bat I have not pleaded
the great and glorious cause of Norway altogether in vain.
" Les habitans du baill'age de Drontheim, ceux des cotes et
des frontiers et dts frontiercs, ayant des vues plus etendues et
reconnaissant les avantages des communications retablies et multi-
pliees par terre et par mcr, sont pour la reunion," says the author
of the HeflexianSi SjC.
It is somewhat remarkable, that an English publication, which
fi'om its congeniality of political views might have been supposed
to be well inclined towards Sweden (as far as English writers can
be deemed unfavor'^M^? to the cause of freedom), should have
committed the egregioi.s blunder of confuting the only writer ' who
has dared to make a regular attempt to bespeak some portion of
favor to the unprincipled views of Sweden. The last immber of
the Quarterly Review, in a criticism of various works relative to
Norway and the north of Europe, generally, has actually con-
' It deserves to be recorded, that the ministerial papers, in diycussing
thrr Norway question, have gcnendly preserved a tone, from which it is
(bvious how nnnattiral it, is I'or Kn'.'.lishnien to espouse the iuli;rests of
tyr.inny. 'i'he J.ditui ol the 'I'lnies in particular deserves to be coinmcnded
lor not being huse eMOU;;li to liiiic up iht; cuii'-e ol feAveden, uli' ii he proved
huusclf dasiurdly enough to abandun ihai of Norway.
281
victed the author of ReJlexio7is either of consummate ignorance
or, which may perhaps flatter his vanity more, of a wilful dispo-
sition to conceal and pervert the truth. Happening to possess tlie
original of Buch's work, from which tlie Quarterly Review in-
troduces a passage on the patriotism of the inhabitants of Dron-
theim, I shall give the passage in question more fully, that the
reader may be the better enabled to decide between the unbiassed
and unbougiit opinion of x impartial traveller, who is very gene-
rally commended for the acuteness and judiciousness of his re-
marks, and the bold speculations and unfounded statements of a
party to whom truth
is a inon«!)cr of so frisihtfdl mien
A^ lu he hated, needs but to bi been."
Von Buch fp. 223, vol i. of the German original) observes,
«« It must bo aliowotl, that no part of Norway posse^.ses a greater
share of attaclun-nt to the country, true patriotism, and public
spirit, th.m Drontheim. The inhabitants are no where capable of
making greater sacrifices, and no where more ready to unite for
any purpose beiieficial to the country. But the causes may be
easily traced. The patriotism of Drontheim is more centered in
the country, and less exposed to be diverted. When Christian*
sends boards and logs to England, and in return draws the means
of good, comfortable, and even splendid subsistence, that part of
Norway will naturally wish success to England, because business
is done wit'- her to advantage and satisfaction. Thus commerce
extends the limits of the country, while it gives an enlarged scope
to the feelings of interest. Bergen sends fish to Holland, and
expects vegetables in return. The inhabitants of Bergen cannot
therefore be indifFerent to what is going on in Holland, and they
Iwve rather reason to wish that Holland may prosper than other-
wise. But in Drontheim, on the contrary, those foreign rela-
tions are not so precisely defined ; the views of the inhabitants are
limited to their own country, in which they live quietly and
securely ; and every attempt to disturb their tranquillity rouses all
the energies inherent in the impulse of self-defence ag?.inst any
foreign attacks that might endanger the safety of the country.
Drontheim is distinguished by tlie patriotism and public spirit of
an insulated republic j while Christiana is actuated by the views
of an extensively connected trading town in a prcat monarchical
state."
So much for the lukewarmness of the brave inhabitants of
Drontheim in the cause of their country, as Bernadotte's advocate
would seem to insinuate. Now let us examine how the case
stands with the Norwegians on the coasts and on the frontiers.
W V
'li
I'll
282
It is out of my power to express the admintion and joy with
which I am penetrated while I contemplate this part of the Norway
question. I here behold the surest pledge of the preservation of
that noble country, not from subjection to Sweden, for an over-
whelming hostile force may, perhaps, though I anxiously hope not,
effect that abominable purpose; but Norway, thanks to Provi-
dence, tlvniks to the -lorious feeling of liberty, and thanks to the
wisdom of the imnio 1 leader of the brave people of that much-
injured country, is proseri/ed from the disgrace of bartering away
her indcpendc.ue. It is next to a miracle that the macLmations of
the Swcdir.h C.ibinct did not, at least in part, undermine one of the
chief supports of Norway. But the efforts of the Swedish Go-
vernment have most unquestionably sustained a most serious, be-
cause perhaps rather an unexpected, repulse, when it was ascer-
tained that Norway did not afford shelter to traitors, who
With diinih (lp«p;tir their country's wrongs behold,
And, dead lo iii;lory,^oiily burn for gold."
The statesmen of Sweden may be said to have reckoned with-
out their host, when they boldly imagined that a sense of the in-
juries which they have had the means of hiflicting on the mercantile
portion of the Norwegian people, however keen, would be speedily
absorbed in fond anticipations of advantages that would immedi-
ately rerult from the union of both countries. Money, Berna-
dottc's advisers, judging rightly from their own case, would esteem
the very sinews of war ; but the reasoning proved fallacious, when
an inference was to be applied to a people who fight for their
national existence. Thus, if there were any individuals in Norway
who had discovered that private happiness has but little depend-
ence on the nature of the government ; who might apprehend an
alarming diminution of their fortunes, in the event of resistance to
Sweden •, and who would, in consequence, deem the situation of
the country pregnant with danger, to an indulgence of that Epicu-
rean and ignoble strain of sentiment from which they had derived so
much satisfaction -, if there have been some such individuals, we
find that they have nolly sacrificed their own individual opinions,
feelings, and habits, to the unbending purpose of the nation at
large. It will be difficult for the Swedish Government to point
out an inhabitant of Norway to whom Cowper's lines could be
applied :
The m xn that i'? not moved with wliat he reads,
That takes not firo at their hrroic deeds;
rinvoiihy of the hlessings of the brave,
Is base in kind, and born to be a slave.
« Palestine; an Oxford Prize Poem for 1803, by Reginald Ileler, p. 77.
283
.■if^>"i»
But the Swedish Government will probably give the Norwegians
no further trouble. In fact, it appears to be flinching already.*
Having fully succeeded, by its conduct towards tJorway, to rendiar
itself odious to all the world, it now rapidly fills up the climax of
its degradation by making itself quite ridiculous. The world
smiled when his Majesty the late King of Rome was exhibited on
the great stage of affairs to perform various feats, such as revif iw-
ing the troops, pulling off his hat most condescendingly, and t.ell-
ing the national guards at Paris, « Messieurs I the King of Rome
salutes you," ike. ; for it was rightly concluded that his fathef ap- .
pciired to be conscious of the impending ruin of his tottering for-
tunes. May the world not be excused for laughing outrigl it (if
old afTc were not in the case) when Bernadotte threatens to open
tlie attack on Norway with a sea fight, to be conducted by his poor
old father, who has most graciously condescended to volunte- er his
services on the occasion. The boldness of the design is the more
surprising, when it is considered that it is attempted in open defi-
ance to the opinion of the ablest advocate Sweden has fou nd in
England. Mr. Cantiing obligingly told us, that ships coult I not
scale the mountains of Norway : but however great the extei it of
his information may be, he does not appear to know what the 1 Cing
of Sweden, when fully habited in his admiral's uniform, bo oted
and spurred, may attempt. I believe once in the Baltic, on a visit
to Sir Jiimes Saumarez, h' afforded the crew of the Victory a j ;ood
deal of mcniment ; and 1 have no manner of doubt that the ) iSTor-
wegian sailors will be obliged for as much to his Swedish Ma-
jesty. But a recent occurrence has perhaps already opened an other
and a more congenial scene of enterprise to his Swedish Maj esty's
thirst for naval glory •, the rather so, as his hopeful son niaj r per-
haps thus have another opportunity of making and receivi ng an
overcharge for his services. The French papers, with a deg ree of
effrontery exceedingly unseemly at this period, propose the extir-
pation ot the states of Barbary as an object more worthy < ^f Eu-
rope than the abolition of the slave-trade; and as Sweden h: is just
been most grossly insulted by the Dey of Algiers, * Bemad otte is
now exactly in the predicament of the dog in the fable, wl lo held
one piece of beef in his mouth and saw another nn the water.
' Tlie very last accounts from Sweden inform us, that N orway can only
• be cc.nqiieml by fiiniue; tliat great stores u'i provisions ha ve betni laid in;
and that the f()rtross«;<; arc in the best state of defence, that of Frederikshald
leing impio^ricilde. Sweden at the same time puts the sigi nficant question,
" Will the Allies assist us ni subduing Norway ?"
» If ;. ., .,...^1 f...t,....,tp r-ir<iniiwi-i.iif<i thiit ihf> !1pv (if A bfifirs has mad«
free with sour- Daiii li vliips also; otherwise Bernadotte would certainly
trnisp the Kins: of Drum irk of liavinu: commenced a frioc dship with that
barbarian, in oidcr to create a ^iversion in fuvor of Norway,
!i;
284
':| (
i^l^
llRAlfe .
m\
There can be little doubt that Sweden ought not to put up with
the insolence of the Dey of Algiers; but the difficulty of resenting
the affront will be materially increased by the necessity of making
a show of doing something against Norway. In this dilemma,
Bernadotte will perhaps most consult his honor by raising the
blockade of Norway, to proceed with all possible speed to chastise
the Dey of Algiers. And if in this also he should fail, let him be
cheered by the consolation, that the Mediterranean possesses the
most commodious and pleasant harbour, in whicli his shattered
vessel could find safety.
By this time the British Goverimicnt will have received, from a
trustworthy and sagacious observer, ' full and fair information rela-
tive to the state of Norway; and that information will, I am satis-
fied, greatly tt-nd to raise the King and people of that country in
the opinion of his Britannic Majesty's Ministers.
They will likewise have been put in possession of ample details
of the proceedings of the Swedish Government ; which, I venture
to predict, will, in consequence, feel itself much lowered in the
estimation of the Government of this country.
• Thus his Britannic Mijesty's Ministers will, T devoutly hope, be
fuUj- satisfied of the justice, propriety, and policy of acceding to
the ^^eneral wish of the English nation, by giving their powerful
voice in favor of Norway. The cause of humanity, truth, virtue,
and all that is honorable and gratifying to our nature, will, I doubt
not, find England as ever, that
'' \iln(.ii,--*ti;l pjonipt t!,c captive's wront; lo'nif],
Anfl wi( id ill trcfrloin's cause the heeinaii's generous blade."*
Should a dlifcrent result attend the glorious strugs^le of Nor-
way ; the noble inhabitants of that country will not at least have
cause to regret the part which with so great unanimity, firmness,
and z.eal, they determined to act. They will live or die in the
hope, that their animating example may not be lost on posterity.
For, as Locke expresses himself, " If God has taken awav all
means of seeking remedy, there is nothing left but patience. But
my son, when able, may seek the relief of the law, which I am
d.'uied : He or his son may renew his appeal, till he recover his
right. But the conquered, or their children, have no court, no
avbirratcr on earth to appeal to. Then they may appeal, as
J^phtha did, to heaven, and repeat their appeal, till they have reco-
vered the native right of their ancestors, which was to have such
a legislative over them, as the majority should approve, and freely
' Mr. iMoricr, the Kniilish Coninusbioner to Xorwuy, w Iio returned to
London on the SOtli of July.
* Paiciline; an Oxford Prize PGCin, by KcginalJ Ilebcr.
■•HiHMMMIMa
285
acquiesce in. If it be objected, this would cause endless trouble.;
I answer, no more than justice does, where she lies open to all,
that appeal to her. He that troubles his neighbour without a
c;iuse, is punished for it by the justice of the court he appeals to.
And he that appeals to heaven, must be sure he has right on his
side ; and a right too, that is worth the troubk' and cost of the
appeal, as he will answer at a tribunal that cannot be deceived,
and will be sure to retribute to every one accord:- ,; to the mis-
chiefs he hath created to his fellow subjects •, that is' any part of
mankind. From whence 'tis plain, that he that conquers in an
unjust war, can thereby have no title to the subjection and obedi-
ence of the conquered." Locke's Essay on Government, Ch. xvi.
$. 176. Pag. 304. Ed. 1698.
But I fondly cling to the hope that the high spirited and gallant
people of Norway may themselves long enjoy, and hand down un-
impaired to their latest posterity, the blessings and honors which
may be anticipated from a successful issue of their just, necessary,
ijnd resolute struggle; for the physical strength of Norway can
only give way to afford a more illustrious and affecthig display of tlie
workings of that moral power, wliich has been so finely described
in the following lines :
Thus fought Britannia's sons; — but wlien o'erlhrown,
More keen and fierce the ilame of freedom shone :
Ye woods, wiiose'cold and leiigthen'd tracts ofshiide
Hose on the daj^, when sun and stars were made;
Waves of J,0(lore, that fr»»ui the mountain's brow
Tumble your ilood, and !-,hake the vale below;
Majestic Skiddav.-, round whose trackless sleep
'iVIid the bright sunsliine darksome tempests sweep:
To you the patriot fled ; his native land
lie spurn'd, when proffer'd by a conqueror's hand;
In you to roam at large, to lay hh head
On the bleak rock, uuclud, uuhous'd, unfed :
Hid in the aguish fen,' whole days to rest,
The numbing waters gatlier'd round his breast:
'J'o see Despondence cloud each rising morn,
Ajid dark Despair hang o'er the years unborn ;
"Yet here, ev'n here, lie greatly dared to lie,
And drain the luscious dregs of libcity ;
Outcast of nature, fiiiuting, wasted, wan.
To breathe an air his own, and live a n»an.*
> Many writers assert, that the Britons in their retreat would hide them-
selves in the bogs, up to their thins in water.— Dio Nica'U?,tSic,
* The Aboriginal Britons, an Oxiord I'rize Poem, for 1791, by George
Kichards, B. A. of Oriel College, p. W.