Viewing page 30 of 285

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

48]                ANNUAL REGISTER
Liberty, and to acknowledge that he was accountable to none but God for his actions. He afterwards, in the same manner, despoiled the nobility of Livonia and Esthonia, of their estates; though they had voluntarily surrendered tot he government of Sweden; that, their property and rights were secured to them by treaty, and confirmed upon oath at the accession of every king; and that the title to their lands were sheltered under the sanction of a remote antiquity.  The Swedish soldiers now repaid the compliment, which their nation owed to the Livonians, and were the agents to dispossess them of their estates, in return for their own liberties.  It was this transaction which gave rise, to the calamities and deplorable fate, of the celebrated and unfortunate John Patkul.  And to this transaction might also in a great measure be attributed, the succeeding loss of Livonia and the adjoining provinces, to the irreparable damage loss Sweden.
  As the education and conduct of this monarch were equally singular, and are in many respects out of the common course of things, the extraordinary nature and importance of the subject, may excuse our taking some small notice of it.  As the death of his father left him a minor at the early age of five years, the care of his education was entrusted in the hands of the queen his mother, and of five of the great officers of state.  The senate complimented the Queen with the choice of the governor, and the, though an excellent princess in other respects, gave way upon this occasion to her private affection, and to the amazement of all mankind appointed a nobleman to that office, whose principal qualification consisted, in his being one of the hardest drinkers in the kingdom.  It is said that the course of the young prince's studies, was confirmed to the knowledge of two great principles, which were continually instilled into his mind, and were laid down as the  general and invariable rules for the future government of his life. The first of these principles, was to practice at all times the most profound dissimulation; and the second, to persevere in all his own resolutions.  One religious, and one moral duty, were inculcated with equal care and effect; the first was, to say his prayers twice a day, and the second, to shew himself affectionate and dutiful to hi mother.
  As to other matters, this prince was so totally illiterate, that he scarcely was able to make his signature; and so deficient in words and matter, that though he did not want natural parts. he was not capable of holding a discourse with any stranger, upon the common topicks of conversation.  It is said, that one of the first nobility of the kingdom, having remonstrated freely with the queen upon the shameful state of his education, she replied with great warmth and indignation, that neither of her brothers and ever submitted to learn any thing, and yet they were both excellent princes, and highly beloved in their country.
  Under the government of a monarch so deplorably ignorant, and whose mind received so fatal a bias, it is not to be wondered that his subjects suffered the most unparalleled oppressions, and that the poor remains of the constitution were 

                  For the Y E A R 1772             [49
totally annihilated.  As his pleasure lay wholly in violent and athletic sports and exercises, the most able bodied, [[profigate]], and ignorant men in his dominions, became naturally his friends and favorites.  As such men could have no regard for laws which they did not understand, and from the meanness of their own birth had a natural aversion to the nobility, whom they besides considered as the only obstacles in the way of their ambition, they pursued the destruction of both with the most unremitting ardour. As they increased their power, by the command of great armies, which they made it necessary to raise; and that they saw all the powers in the state, were lodged between the King and themselves, they extended their views still farther, and began to consider his a their only rival.  They accordingly precipitated this prince into the most violent and dangerous measures, in hopes that he might have fallen a victim to the rage of the people; and when that design failed of effect, practiced upon the natural impetuosity of his courage in such a manner, as to throw him headlong into personal dangers in war, where his destruction seemed inevitable.  Thus was a monarch, who did not want understanding, who was not addicted to pleasure or expense, but was equally industrious and parsimonious, and who to great courage in war, added the most [[profigate]] of mankind, to become the curse and ruin of his people; at the same time that he was made the constant dupe to all their treacherous designs against himself, and was never capable of feeling the danger.  They however failed in all their designs against the king; but were successful in those against their country.
  Charles the Twelfth, inherited the intrepidity, obstinacy, harshness, and violence of his father, without his dissimulation.  He carried despotism to a still greater height, as he threw by all the forms and appearances of law, and decided [[?]] in every thing, without admitting of any discussion.  The events and fortune of his life are too generally known, to require any illustration.  His obstinacy and implacable disposition, at length brought on his ruin, after a life dedicated to heroic actions and absurd pursuits; and having reduced his country from the height of power and glory, to the lowest ebb of weakness and misery.  Such was the situation of Sweden at the time of his decease, that if other states had not been more attentive to the general interests of Europe, than they seen to have been since, the partitioning powers would not now, probably, have wanted a recent precedent for the division of Poland.
  The Swedes loft their finest provinces by the war, and the remaining part of their country was so miserably desolated by the cruel depredations of the enemy, as to be scarcely recoverable by time and industry.  The Russians penetrated into the bowels of their mountains to destroy the valuable copper mines, and carried off at the same time, the wretched inhabitants of all sexes and ages, to cultivate their remote forests. To balance these misfortunes, they recovered their ancient consi-