They Are Usually The Spawn Of Great Cities - The Effect
Of The Spurious Desires Generated By Wealth, Rather Than The
Desperate Struggles Of Poverty To Escape From Misery.
The enjoyment of the peasantry was drinking brandy and coffee,
before the latter was prohibited, and the former not allowed to be
privately distilled, the wars carried on by the late king rendering
it necessary to increase the revenue, and retain the specie in the
country by every possible means.
The taxes before the reign of Charles XII. were inconsiderable.
Since then the burden has continually been growing heavier, and the
price of provisions has proportionately increased - nay, the
advantage accruing from the exportation of corn to France and rye to
Germany will probably produce a scarcity in both Sweden and Norway,
should not a peace put a stop to it this autumn, for speculations of
various kinds have already almost doubled the price.
Such are the effects of war, that it saps the vitals even of the
neutral countries, who, obtaining a sudden influx of wealth, appear
to be rendered flourishing by the destruction which ravages the
hapless nations who are sacrificed to the ambition of their
governors. I shall not, however, dwell on the vices, though they be
of the most contemptible and embruting cast, to which a sudden
accession of fortune gives birth, because I believe it may be
delivered as an axiom, that it is only in proportion to the industry
necessary to acquire wealth that a nation is really benefited by it.
The prohibition of drinking coffee under a penalty, and the
encouragement given to public distilleries, tend to impoverish the
poor, who are not affected by the sumptuary laws; for the regent has
lately laid very severe restraints on the articles of dress, which
the middling class of people found grievous, because it obliged them
to throw aside finery that might have lasted them for their lives.
These may be termed vexatious; still the death of the king, by
saving them from the consequences his ambition would naturally have
entailed on them, may be reckoned a blessing.
Besides, the French Revolution has not only rendered all the crowned
heads more cautious, but has so decreased everywhere (excepting
amongst themselves) a respect for nobility, that the peasantry have
not only lost their blind reverence for their seigniors, but
complain in a manly style of oppressions which before they did not
think of denominating such, because they were taught to consider
themselves as a different order of beings. And, perhaps, the
efforts which the aristocrats are making here, as well as in every
other part of Europe, to secure their sway, will be the most
effectual mode of undermining it, taking into the calculation that
the King of Sweden, like most of the potentates of Europe, has
continually been augmenting his power by encroaching on the
privileges of the nobles.
The well-bred Swedes of the capital are formed on the ancient French
model, and they in general speak that language; for they have a
knack at acquiring languages with tolerable fluency.
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