vanced price.

The restriction which most resembles the painful subordination of
Ireland, is that vessels, trading to the West Indies, are obliged to pass
by their own ports, and unload their cargoes at Copenhagen, which they
afterwards reship. The duty is indeed inconsiderable, but the navigation
being dangerous, they run a double risk.

There is an excise on all articles of consumption brought to the towns;
but the officers are not strict, and it would be reckoned invidious to
enter a house to search, as in England.

The Norwegians appear to me a sensible, shrewd people, with little
scientific knowledge, and still less taste for literature; but they are
arriving at the epoch which precedes the introduction of the arts and
sciences.

Most of the towns are seaports, and seaports are not favourable to
improvement. The captains acquire a little superficial knowledge by
travelling, which their indefatigable attention to the making of money
prevents their digesting; and the fortune that they thus laboriously
acquire is spent, as it usually is in towns of this description, in show
and good living. They love their country, but have not much public
spirit. Their exertions are, generally speaking, only for their
families, which, I conceive, will always be the case, till politics,
becoming a subject of discussion, enlarges the heart by opening the
understanding. The French Revolution will have this effect. They sing,
at present, with great glee, many Republican songs, and seem earnestly to
wish that the republic may stand; yet they appear very much attached to
their Prince Royal, and, as far as rumour can give an idea of a
character, he appears to merit their attachment. When I am at
Copenhagen, I shall be able to ascertain on what foundation their good
opinion is built; at present I am only the echo of it.

In the year 1788 he travelled through Norway; and acts of mercy gave
dignity to the parade, and interest to the joy his presence inspired. At
this town he pardoned a girl condemned to die for murdering an
illegitimate child, a crime seldom committed in this country. She is
since married, and become the careful mother of a family. This might be
given as an instance, that a desperate act is not always a proof of an
incorrigible depravity of character, the only plausible excuse that has
been brought forward to justify the infliction of capital punishments.

I will relate two or three other anecdotes to you, for