than degraded by wretchedness.

In Norway there are no notes in circulation of less value than a Swedish
rix-dollar. A small silver coin, commonly not worth more than a penny,
and never more than twopence, serves for change; but in Sweden they have
notes as low as sixpence. I never saw any silver pieces there, and could
not without difficulty, and giving a premium, obtain the value of a rix-
dollar in a large copper coin to give away on the road to the poor who
open the gates.

As another proof of the poverty of Sweden, I ought to mention that
foreign merchants who have acquired a fortune there are obliged to
deposit the sixth part when they leave the kingdom. This law, you may
suppose, is frequently evaded.

In fact, the laws here, as well as in Norway, are so relaxed that they
rather favour than restrain knavery.

Whilst I was at Gothenburg, a man who had been confined for breaking open
his master's desk and running away with five or six thousand rix-dollars,
was only sentenced to forty days' confinement on bread and water; and
this slight punishment his relations rendered nugatory by supplying him
with more savoury food.

The Swedes are in general attached to their families, yet a divorce may
be obtained by either party on proving the infidelity of the other or
acknowledging it themselves. The women do not often recur to this equal
privilege, for they either retaliate on their husbands by following their
own devices or sink into the merest domestic drudges, worn down by
tyranny to servile submission. Do not term me severe if I add, that
after youth is flown the husband becomes a sot, and the wife amuses
herself by scolding her servants. In fact, what is to be expected in any
country where taste and cultivation of mind do not supply the place of
youthful beauty and animal spirits? Affection requires a firmer
foundation than sympathy, and few people have a principle of action
sufficiently stable to produce rectitude of feeling; for in spite of all
the arguments I have heard to justify deviations from duty, I am
persuaded that even the most spontaneous sensations are more under the
direction of principle than weak people are willing to allow.

But adieu to moralising. I have been writing these last sheets at an inn
in Elsineur, where I am waiting for horses; and as they are not yet
ready, I will give you a short account of my journey from Gothenburg, for
I set out the morning after I returned from Trolhaet