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. This may be reckoned an
advantage in some respects; but it prevents the cultivation of their own,
and any considerable advance in literary pursuits.

A sensible writer has lately observed (I have not his work by me,
therefore cannot quote his exact words), "That the Americans very wisely
let the Europeans make their books and fashions for them." But I cannot
coincide with him in this opinion. The reflection necessary to produce a
certain number even of tolerable productions augments more than he is
aware of the mass of knowledge in the community. Desultory reading is
commonly a mere pastime. But we must have an object to refer our
reflections to, or they will seldom go below the surface. As in
travelling, the keeping of a journal excites to many useful inquiries
that would not have been thought of had the