Many Individuals I Believe Have
Suffered By The Seizures Of Their Vessels; Still I Am Persuaded That
The English Government Has Been Very Much Imposed Upon In The
Charges Made By Merchants Who Contrived To Get Their Ships Taken.
This Censure Is Not Confined To The Danes.
Adieu, for the present,
I must take advantage of a moment of fine weather to walk out and
see the town.
At Christiania I met with that polite reception, which rather
characterises the progress of manners in the world, than of any
particular portion of it. The first evening of my arrival I supped
with some of the most fashionable people of the place, and almost
imagined myself in a circle of English ladies, so much did they
resemble them in manners, dress, and even in beauty; for the fairest
of my countrywomen would not have been sorry to rank with the Grand
Bailiff's lady. There were several pretty girls present, but she
outshone them all, and, what interested me still more, I could not
avoid observing that in acquiring the easy politeness which
distinguishes people of quality, she had preserved her Norwegian
simplicity. There was, in fact, a graceful timidity in her address,
inexpressibly charming. This surprised me a little, because her
husband was quite a Frenchman of the ancien regime, or rather a
courtier, the same kind of animal in every country.
Here I saw the cloven foot of despotism. I boasted to you that they
had no viceroy in Norway, but these Grand Bailiffs, particularly the
superior one, who resides at Christiania, are political monsters of
the same species.
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