LETTER XXXVIII.

Stockholm, February, 1808.

HAVING presented you at court, I shall now conduct you to parade; and show the monarch of Sweden in the midst of his soldiers. On great occasions he is always attended by his drabant, or body guard, which is composed wholly of nobility. Their dress is particularly martial; and, I understand, is in the same fashion they wore in the reign of Charles the Twelfth.

The number of the drabants is now confined to forty; but under Charles they were more numerous, being ever an almost impregnable belt of brave hearts around him. At the terrible battle of Pultowa, when the litter in which the wounded king lay was shattered to pieces by a volley from the Russian cannon, twenty-four of these young nobles were killed by the explosion, and the rest, all excepting seven, slain in the contention over their fallen sovereign. In honour of this valiant remnant, who carried off the almost expiring Charles, the corps, hereafter, wore seven buttons on a particular part of their dress, in commemoration of the circumstance.

Every individual of the drabant being noble, even to the privates, they all have military rank. On days of state they stand round the person of the king as our yeomen of the guards attend on king George. Their cuirasses are of polished steel, and have three golden crowns, the arms of Sweden, embossed upon them. Their sleeves, breeches, &c. are of buff cloth; their boots are high, with long spurs. A superb casque of gilded brass, splendidly plumed, and crested with a lion, is worn on the head. Their weapons are a carbine and sword. The effect of such a guard is regal; and becoming a military monarch.

The foot guards of his majesty are comprised in three regiments, under the titles of the first, second, and Finish guards. Formerly, each regiment contained eight hundred men, but now they are reduced to five hundred. I also saw the only corps of life guards à cheval; they were wretchedly mounted,

and not very martially attired; their dress being white with blue returns; round hats awkwardly ornamented with bear skin, and other accompaniments not at all conducive to their soldierlike appearance. The heads of the foot guards, also, are covered with a round hat, turned up on one side with a yellow cockade and feather: all the infantry have this latter decoration.

The navy wear blue, with a metal epaulet; round hats, and very high feathers, rather a troublesome appendage, I should suppose, in a gale of wind. But useless, or rather inconvenient as the plume may be at sea, there is yet another orderedessential in their dress ten times worse in both respects: spurs! Not only officers of every description belonging to the army wear them, by a special ordinance, but even the naval officers are obliged to put them on. These last gentlemen, until they arrive at the rank of admiral, are distinguished by the military titles of major, colonel, &c.

The forces of the line are raised in the provinces on a similar plan with our militia; each district being obliged to furnish a given number of infantry or troops. These regiments do not remain embodied, as a continued standing army, but serve merely during the war. I am told, that in less than six hours a battalion of a thousand or two men can be got together, armed and equipped for instant service. In the province to which they belong, the peasantry are constrained, by an order of state, to convey them in wagons to a certain rendezvous, and leave them there within a given period; so as to insure the assembling of the strength of the kingdom, at any fixed point, in a short time.

During the absence of the soldiers, their fellow peasants are obliged to till the ground belonging to each military individual, that his family may not suffer by the service he is gone to render to his country. Surely there is reason in this; wisdom as well as humanity. A subsistence being provided for the wives and children of soldiers, much wretchedness, and its consequent beggary and plunder, are prevented: instead of mendicants and robbers, useful citizens are reared to the state. And one prevention to insure the health of the body politic, is

worth half a score remedies to heal a constitution, which must be crazed by repeated disorders. Should the soldier be killed, or die in the service, the neighbour peasants continue their 'care of his family, till the boys be old enough to cultivate for themselves. By this arrangement, the Swede goes forth for the defence of his country with a free mind: while he is absent, that country will protect his family; and should he die, the same would provide for them, till years and strength render it no longer necessary.

The officers have houses and lands assigned them according to their military rank; on each individual's death' it devolves to his regimental successor: so that in time of peace they live amongst the peasants who have formed, and may again, hereafter, their respective corps. Consequently the attachment of the men to their commanders is often so firm, that in the defence of some of their officers, they have been known to stand till they were cut piecemeal. The plan is not unlike that of the clanships of Scotland, where the chief, by his title of superiority, residence amongst a certain race, protection and kindness, makes himself such a power in their hearts, that they are ready to follow him to the extremity of the globe, to life or death. There is something very patriarchal in this mode of national defence; its sufficiency seeming to depend more on the affection of the people than the authority of the king. Such a foundation is the strongest: it was the ground of the mighty Gustavus of Sweden. And who will say, but to be thus a monarch, is to reign indeed!

The noble Swede who was my conductor through the military department, next led me to view the architectural ornaments of Stockholm. The first we visited was the church of Adolphus Frederic, the grandfather of the present king. He was much beloved by the country; and during his reign made many beneficial alterations in the laws. His memory rendered the building interesting; although its architectural perfections were few indeed. Being the most modern religious edifice of consequence in Stockholm, it is regarded with admiration by the inhabitants. Nothing without or within deserves their

eulogiums excepting the altarpiece and a fine monument, both the work of Sergal.

The first is plaster of Paris, a basso relievo of the resurrection of our Saviour. The subject is simply and beautifully treated. Christ is ascending with extended arms, his face elevated towards heaven. Three angels harmoniously group with his divine figure, being in the attitude of supporting the stone which has opened from the tomb. The drapery in which the body had been wrapped, is exquisitely disposed, and admirably unites the design. In the corner, at the bottom, sits a soldier, the only mortal in the scene; and he sleeps! The sentiment of the sculpture teems with thought: I leave it not in unprofitable hands when I resign it to yours.

A little to the right of the altar is a monument erected in the year 1777, to the memory of a nobleman who died in 1560. It is of bronze, and surpasses almost every specimen of the kind I have seen: in short, I cannot speak too highly of the design, or sufficiently eulogize the undescribable beauty of its expression. It is an angel holding up in his left hand the torch of life, which is extinguished; with his right he unveils the world by raising a piece of drapery: emblematic, I suppose, that death, while it destroys our mortal fires, opens the universe to the sight of our unembodied spirit. If this be not the explanation of Mr. Sergal's allegory, I have read his sculptured eloquence amiss; but though I may be mistaken in that mystery, you will not discredit my eyes when I tell you, that the execution of this monument, the globe, the drapery, and the cloud, so judiciously blending with the angel, gave me a thousand times the pleasure I received from the altarpiece, or the newly erected statue of the late king.

It would be dangerous to step forward as the first criticiser of the latter work. I dare hardly allow myself to see any thing but beauties in this great and last labour of genius. Only a few, the inhabitants of Stockholm and its environs, have yet seen it; and how can I presume to judge of what deserves the suffrages of a world. Being but a young scholar in the school of arts, I fear to speak before my seniors in experience; and besides, respect for the venerable artist, who dedicated so much

anxiety to the completing of the statue, hoping, as it would be his last, it would also prove his most perfect work, rather withholds me from saying aught in its prejudice. However, as writing to you is only another mode of thinking, I will make no further hesitation, but hazard a few remarks on what really struck me as adverse to its merit, when I had an opportunity of visiting it alone, and of inspecting it at my leisure.

Its situation is excellent. The rising ground, which gradually ascends in front of the statue, enables the observer to view it on any plain, and at any distance. Indeed it may even be looked down upon: so commanding is the opposite ascent. But here art contradicts nature. When a proper point is discovered to see it from to the best advantage, you find yourself too far removed; as all its minor beauties are lost in the distance. This fault arises from the height of the porphyry pedestal, which is not only of itself too high, but is additionally elevated by three or four lofty steps. These foundations raise the figure so much above the proper level, that its grandeur is impaired, and the effect, as a colossal statue, totally lost. So far the pedestal only I blame. The figure itself is full of majesty; but there is a something about the shoulders extremely awkward; an appearance of being shrugged. It cannot be meant as the form of the king, but must be an error in the disposition of the drapery; however, it is very unfortunate, as it deprives the figure of that ease it would otherwise have possessed. The head seems much too small; as bad a defect in the one extreme, as too large a one is in the other. The face, I am told, is a striking likeness of his late majesty; and bears in every feature the stamp of greatness, with an expression of goodness that recals his fate with redoubled regret. Take the whole of the lower part of the figure, and it appears too slight for the shoulders; and when is added to them, a vast redundancy of robe, the effect is altogether heavy and discordant. With due deference to the genius and taste of Mr. Sergal, I think he might have arranged the drapery of this admirably picturesque dress much better. The parts of it are well adapted to the full display of the finest human proportions; and as the king was beautifully shaped by