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but to shew the description of medical officers which were introduced into the service in that country by the late Physician-general and his Deligado. They have no idea of the use of the cold bath in fever; and so afraid are many of exposing the patient to the air, that the beard was seldom or never allowed to be shaved; and I have known a Physician visit a sick soldier in the hospital daily for two months, without ever thinking of ordering his hands and face to be washed, or of even suggesting a change of linen. This circumstance occurred in the hospital at Abrantes, and the Physi cian's name was "Santos." 193

• To sum up the whole, they had not the smallest idea of that active and decided practice by which acute diseases are often arrested in their progress at the beginning, and by which, in the military service, the soldier is at once restored to health and his duty. The use of calomel, of antimony, and of the stronger purgatives, and, in short, of every active remedy whatever, was little known, and the patient was often left, without any real assistance from medicine, to take his chance in the crowded wards of the hospital, while the disease run its course. The delirium consequent upon the doctrines of Brown, when ill understood, strongly pervades the younger part of the profession in Portugal, and its effects are manifested in their practice, by a strenuous cultivation of costiveness, and the administration of wine, animal food, and other heating articles, at the beginning of all acute, febrile diseases. In chronic ailments, when the routine of decoction had failed to perform a cure, or rather when the disease had failed to des troy the patient in the usual time, he was generally sent to the warm baths at Caldas, where, in the summer months, some hundred of Malingerers were frequently collected. It required the positive command of Marshal Beresford to oblige the army Physicians to use mercury in syphilis; and when the British medical officers were introduced into their hospitals, they found patients who had been eight or ten months in the hospital with the common itch. p. 270-272.

The agriculture of Portugal is, as might be expected, in a very low state; the roads are bad, the cross roads mere foot. paths, and the tillage of their productive soil, neglected by the Portuguese for the more profitable and less laborious culture of the Vine, the Olive, and the Fig. The population is calculated at 2,876,591; and the number of pipes of wine exported from January 1793, to December 1811, amounted to 791,863. Dr. Halliday's observations on Lusitanian literature are very superficial and unsatisfactory, and the sketch of the campaigns of 1810, 1811, and 1812, a mere and spiritless compilation from the Gazettes. To the first edition, several maps were added, but the second is entirely destitute of this indispensable appendage,

Art. V. An Historical Sketch of the last years of the Reign of Gustavus the 4th, Adolphus, late King of Sweden, including a Narrative of the causes, progress, and termination of the late Revolution; and an Ap. pendix, containing Official Documents, Letters, and Minutes of Con versations between the late King and Lieut. General Sir John Moore, General Brune, &c. &c. Translated from the Swedish. 8vo. pp. 324. Cawthorn, 1812.

THE Abbé Vertot did not bring his history of the Revolutions

in Sweden down any lower than the year 1560, and it is a matter of regret, that since his time no author equally lively. and instructive has arisen, to profit by the abundant materials: which that country has in the meanwhile afforded for a continuation of his work. It is not a little remarkable, that during a period in which the people of all other European countries were living contentedly under the constitution handed down to them by their forefathers, this most northern nation should have been under the dominion of three. different constitutions, all extremely despotic; and that all these changes should have been produced with little more heat or ferment than occurs in this country during a parlia mentary election.

In the reign of Charles XII. as the state of the country at the period of his death abundantly testified, the constitution-if a nation so governed can be said to possess a constitution—was. a pure despotism, to which they submitted with an obedience so tame and abject, that the threat of that monarch, to send his boots to govern them, is but little surprising. Upon his death, however, while smarting under the wounds that the gratification of his mad ambition had inflicted upon them, the Swedes, it appears, determined to revenge themselves on the royal dignity, and accordingly reduced the power of the crown, from the absolute state in which they found it, to a mere cypher, depriving the monarch not merely of the legislative but of almost the whole of the executive power.

Such was the constitution established in 1720; and as any change which afforded to the people a chance of exemption, or even partial relief, from the grinding and oppressive system under which they had groaned, was likely to obtain their support, it is not strange that the new form of government, however prejudicial it might be to the numerous and influential classes, who would have profited by the reign of arbitrary power, was introduced and established without resistance or complaint.

But whatever expectations the people formed of finding an amendment in their condition, from the supposed amendment of their constitution, they were speedily awakened from their

delusion; they soon found, that extremes always meet; and that in the rebound from an arbitrary despotism to the shadow of a monarch, oppression was still their lot; the only difference being, that instead of having it dealt out to them by the hands of an individual, they received it from a domineering aristocracy.

The constitution too that was established in 1720, carried within it the germ of its own dissolution. The title of king conferred none of its attributes, and the monarch was perpetually exposed to the mockery of supplications, having all the weight and authority of commands: and, though surrounded with all the external marks of power, constantly subject to the most humiliating restraints.

There being thus scarcely any thing to lose by a change, and a chance of gaining much, no motives were wanting on the part of the sovereign to induce him to attempt the extension of his own authority. But during the two first reigns after the Revolution of 1720, as the sovereigns were both of them foreigners elevated to the throne by the choice of the people, and by no means of ambitious or enterprising characters, they were content with the slender share of authority allotted to them, and made no endeavours to shake off restraint and thraldom.

Far different however was the character of their successor, Gustavus the Third. He was singularly qualified for succeeding in the most arduous and delicate undertakings, ambitious, enterprising, of a commanding oratory, a persuasive and insinuating address, little scrupulous as to the means of effecting his purposes, and constantly accessible to his subjects, of all ranks, listening to their complaints with the dignity indeed of a sovereign, but with all the ardour of a zealous friend and equal. The established constitution was not likely to resist the attacks that a man of such endowments might make upon it. We find accordingly that by the assistance of foreign powers, and a system of the most artful and wily intrigue, he compelled the aristocracy in 1772 to surrender up the whole of the authority with which they had been invested, and restored the monarchy to that plenitude of power which it had possessed previously to the revolution of 1720. In order to shew this, it will be necessary to notice only four articles of the Constitution of 1772, as they are given in Sheridan's account of the revolution of that period: the whole consisted of fifty-seven articles-but by one his Majesty was to assemble and separate the states whenever he pleased. By another he was to have the sole disposal of the army, the navy, finances, and all employments, civil and military. By a third, though his Majesty did not openly claim a power of imposing taxes on all

occasions, yet such as already subsisted were to be perpetual, and, in case of invasion or pressing necessity, the King might impose some taxes till the states could be assembled: but his Majesty was to be the judge of this necessity, and the meeting of the states depended wholly on his will and pleasure. By a fourth when these were assembled, they were to deliberate upon nothing but what the King thought proper to lay before them*.

With such a catalogue of revolutions before him, exhibiting as they do the character and temper of the nation in which they were effected, the reader will be the better prepared for the work before us. We must, however, at the outset, confess, that with respect to the accuracy of the details that are contained in it, it is presented to us under auspices that are calculated to excite no small degree of suspicion. The advertisement prefixed to the translation tells us that it was "originally published in Stockholm. It does not (it is observed) bear the sanction of government, but as in that country nothing on such a subject could flow but from that source, it may consequently be considered as authentic." With respect to the work in question having been published under the direction and with sanction of the government, after having perused it, we think it is impossible to entertain a doubt; but when we consider that it was written for the express purpose of justifying the measures of the government-that in Sweden where that effect was designed to be produced, no one would dare to contradict any of the statements contained in it, or publish any other account of the facts that it narrates, than what was sanctioned by the court, we think it will not be considered as going too far to suppose that if events have not been altogether falsified, they have at least received such a colour as would be most agreeable to the persons principally affected by them.

But having thrown out those points for the consideration of the reader, we shall proceed to the work itself. It is divided into three parts, the first consisting of "the War in Germany;" the second of "the War with Russia and Denmark;" and the third, "of the Finances and Revolution."

That the reader may not be altogether without some clue to assist him in comprehending the singular manner in which the war in Germany appears to have been conducted, we think it necessary to depart in some degree from the plan of our author, and begin by solving the riddle before we give the riddle itself. The solution of the whole difficulty will be found we think in the character given of the King.

*See Sheridan's "History of the late Revolution in Sweden." p. 307, 8.

His character (it is said) naturally severe and unbending, was rendered more so by his religious tenets. His education, carefully conducted, had enabled him to judge superficially, and to discover insignificant distinctions; but nature had denied him the comprehensive mind necessary for a King. Captivated and occupied with trifles, he betrayed childish satisfaction in the invention of a new uniform, a passion for ceremony, and in particular for military parade, in which he supposed the whole art of war to consist.

To his own misfortune and that of his country, the King had become acquainted with a commentary on the Revelations of St John, which had been published in Germany, and translated into Swedish. Although not addicted to study, it now became his greatest pleasure to read the revelations and the commentary: and it is not unlikely that mysteries, which have always the strongest effects on the weakest minds, may in that respect have perverted his understanding. Some idle calculators had discovered that the letters in the name of the French Emperor composed the number 666, which the Evangelist says is that of the beast.' &c. pp. 61-62.

Our author then proceeds to state that in order to accommodate this theory the King himself, and by his order his ministers, always wrote the name of the French Emperor Neapoleon Buonaparte, and that as having some connection with the same subject an order was issued by him to cut down 888 oaks in the Royal Park for the use of the Fleet during the war with Russia. p. 64.

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A mind thus constructed, and relying upon such expedients for subduing his enemies, was not the best calculated for conducting the Swedish armies to the restoration of the Bourbons,-in his view the only legitimate cause of the war,* and accordingly it appears that the whole of his conduct as a General, exactly corresponded with what might have been predicted.

The King after a variety of delays, proceeding from the most puerile causes, and after quarelling half a dozen times with the Courts of Russia and Prussia who had alternately been allies, neutrals, and enemies, began his campaign on the continent, by the help of a subsidy from this country, with landing in Pomerania the Swedish army, preparatory to the commencement of operations in Hanover.

The Governor General and others (it is said) acquainted with the Country, were not consulted concerning the order of march; and then it often happened that the troops were ordered to take up their quarters in villages which were no where to be found but on paper. Thus the battalion of Guards and, the King's Regiment, were left without shelter on the 26th of November, and, in the most dreadful weather.' p. 21.

The subsequent operations were such as the commencement promised. The French having shortly after put their troops in

* Historical Sketches, p. 11.

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