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and peace or war opens to me all my joys, or shuts them from me, with bars more impenetrable than walls of iron.

Having left Aberforce, which is nothing more than a long line of hills, well defended with huge bulwarks of granite, I passed over a low piece of neutral territory, that in a few moments brought me to the Swedish frontiers. Here I found a very slender guard; and after the usual formalities, passed through them with great ease. I was rather surprised to find so slight a defence opposed to the coming enemy; but as I proceeded my astonishment increased, as I rarely saw any thing bearing the least affinity with arms: and when I recalled the large army I had just quitted, on the full march to overwhelm this country, I was totally at a loss how to account for so unguarded a security. Either the information they receive must be very bad, or some policy is carrying on beyond my comprehension; for, I cannot seriously suppose that Baron de Steddinge, the worthy representative of the royal Gustavus on the frontiers, would allow so hostile an appearance to escape his vigilance. Whatever may be the occult reason for the present tranquillity, all is at perfect rest in Swedish Finland. Liberty and comfort smile every where; peace sits on every countenance, and decorates the landscape, as if this had been her chosen reign for many a year. The view was delightful; and had I not been sure that Bellona was at my heels, ready to burn up their present and promised happiness, I might have enjoyed the scene; but the prospect of its impending destruction, like the mystical lore of the Scottish wizard, disturbed my fancy; and I was glad to press forward.

The means of travelling rapidly do not fall off in Swedish Finland. The horses are smaller than those on the Russian side; but their motion in descending the hills is so swift, as to be really terrific. Every thing seemed to partake of the activity of these animals; for although they were obliged to be sent for, at different stages, from the neighbouring boors, yet all was despatched with such promptitude that I was detained a very short time at the posthouses, and speeded on my journey almost as quickly as in England.

There is nothing particularly striking or singular in the

dress of the people. Their countenances resemble the lower class of Germans; and their manners are goodnatured, with a little alloy of inquisitiveness, which, though teasing to strangers, is a sign of their being on the alert; a sure promise of future improvement. Curiosity is the soil for a rich mental harvest: and where it is not, you may sow and sow; but it rots where it lies, having no vigour in the bed to change its state and excite it to fructify. It is a duty of a legislator to put to good use this propitious disposition in a people.

I cannot pass any encomiums on the towns and villages I travelled through in my way to Abo. The road leading to this city grows very hilly, and in the line of country strongly resembles the north of Ireland. Cultivation seems not to be neglected, for through the snowy veil which covered the face of the ground, I could perceive the signs of numerous inclosures, intersecting the valleys, and climbing up the sides of the hills. These divisions were marked with long thin bodies of felled trees, laid in an oblique direction, and supported at due distances by uprights of stronger wood, like the fences used in the northern parts of America.

Abo is a place of great repute, is considered the capital of Swedish Finland, and is situated in a hollow between two high and naked granite hills, on the point where the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland unite. The town has a good harbour, with every other maritime convenience. In 1620, that mirror of princes, the great Gustavus Adolphus, founded a gymnasium here, which his daughter the queen Christina, a few years afterwards changed into an academy, and endowed with the same privileges as Upsala. The only royal court of judicature in Finland is held at this place; and here the governor of the province usually resides. It is also a bishop's see. The church is large and of brick; built, they tell me, by a Metropolitan named Henry, who was an Englishman. I did not look at it with the less regard, you may believe, from these circumstances. The organ may be ranked amongst the best in Europe; its tones indeed equalled any I had ever heard: and as the notes of the singers accompanied them, I know not whether there were really a resemblance, or that the idea of the

founder put fancy in the place of fact into my head, but certainly I thought the voice of one of the choristers resembled the tones of one with whom you are very well acquainted; but he rose from his seat, and there ended the likeness. Surely nothing more quickly recals the images of the absent, than hearing tunes that they have admired, or sounds resembling their own voice. I started when I heard those in the church of Abo; and almost thought I was in the parlour in G-, listening to the air with which you sung the words of our favourite hero, The plume of war, with early laurels crowned! Nature, you see, is very consistent. What reminds travellers of their friends, recals exiles to their country: who can forget the power of the Ranz des Vaches, over the Swiss soldiers? And which of us Britons, were we even enjoying all the luxu ries of life in a foreign clime, could suddenly hear the well known notes of Rule Britannia, and not feel his heart and soul fly back to England?

Having left the choir, I examined the monuments of the church; but met with little gratification, as they possessed no interest, except to the families whose relatives they cover. They are generally flat stones on the pavement, or against the walls, without graces, either of architecture or inscription. One I observed rather more eminent than the rest; and found it to be the last bed of general Wedderburn, a Briton who died in the service of Sweden about two centuries ago. I visited the university. The institution is admirable; and the new edifice for the use of the students is in great forwardness, and seems to promise both convenience and beauty. The streets of the town are narrow, and the houses generally built of wood, precisely in the common Russian style; differing only in the dear essentials of being always aired and clean. The river Aurojochi winds through the city to the gulf; and when the navigation is open, this is a place of considerable trade and consequence. During the period of traffic (when spring unlocks the seas), regular boats are kept for the purpose of conveying passengers and their equipages direct across to Stockholm; which short voyage generally lasts no longer than from fourteen to twentyfour hours. Thus gliding gently over the waves, the happy he

who travels under summer suns, avoids the inconveniencies of stoppages, the expensive wretchedness of the islands, and lands himself fresh and gay on the opposite shore.

The winter vehicles of this country differ materially from those of Russia, being extremely light, narrow and long, seldom shorter than ten feet. The person or persons sit in the centre; and he who drives stands behind: a seat is sometimes affixed, whereon the whip may sit if he pleases.

Having seen all worthy observation at Abo, although the Russ consul Mr. Brumm, and also the governor, to whom I brought letters, have behaved with the greatest attention to me, yet I shall remain as short a time as possible; being eager, by immediately facing the dangers of a passage through the gulf, to prevent the accumulation of more, and to get over the present collection, as fast as possible. I am told that Ulysses never met with more horrible perils amongst the isles of the Syrens, than I am to encounter amidst the isles of Bothnia. I fear they will be in less agreeable shapes than beautiful women; and expecting rather to meet with sea storms than sea nymphs, I commit myself to your orisons; hoping soon, from Stockholm, again to sign myself your faithful friend.

LETTER XXXV.

Warsala, Isles of Bothnia, December, 1807.

I AM now ingulfed, my good friend! When I shall set foot on terra firma again I cannot prognosticate. Nought is around me but shoals of ice and barren rocks: if I had an enemy wicked enough to enjoy my polar banishment, how happy would he be now! I am arrived to the very acmé of northern discomfort; and could scarcely be worse off were I encountering, with the unfortunate Ajust, the cimmerian depths of the Greenland seas. But I will not anticipate my narrative; in due order you shall have my exit from Abo.

Well then, on Monday morning, I, and my faithful Squire, sallied forth in our kibitkas towards Elsing, a village about six Swedish miles from Abo, and the last collection of houses that is resorted to by passengers taking the direct road across the gulf to Stockholm. Here I rested a little while to reconnoitre my movements; and so dreary was the prospect, and dismal the accounts which the natives gave of the voyage at this season of the year, that my impatience to reach the Sewdish capital, seemed hardly an excuse for the boldness of the enterprise. However, I had reason enough to determine me: Schmidt was willing to follow his master; and notwithstanding the fearful portents, we prepared to attempt the first island. What increased the hazard, was the unsettled state of the weather; which, freezing one hour, and thawing the next, rendered the greater part of the ice on the gulf too weak to bear our kibitkas, and yet too strong to allow of its being broken to admit the action of a boat. This representation did not quite convince me; and on inquiring further I was told, that on examining the passages, it was found that an intermingled fluid and frozen mode of conveyance might be pos

sible.

I therefore sought for a part of the gulf hard enough to start from; and at last lit upon a pretty open space still in a liquid state, at some distance from which the ice seemed thick

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