A Hundred Years Ago
" THE SPECTATOR," JUNE, 1834.
It may be advanced with perfect safety, that no part of Europe at present offers such advantages to new commercial or manu- facturing speculations as Sweden. If the real state of things should be made known in England, private individuals of fortune, as well as large associations, would undoubtedly turn their attention towards the Gulf of Bothnia ; where, in consequence of a total absence of competition, large and quick returns of capital can be effected with comparatively very little risk or trouble. Sweden enjoys the highest degree of true liberty under a constitutional government, which affords, if possible, a greater protection to person and property than that which has brought England to her present eminence. The natural hospitality of the Swede opens his house and heart to foreigners, but more particularly to Englishmen, and the sole fact of being English acts as a powerful introduction throughout Sweden.
At the late Frankfort fair, fifty thousand copies were rapidly sold of translations in the German and French languages of the English pamphlet, entitled " The Reform Ministry and the Reformed Parliament." The sale was so quick that the authorities, if so disposed, had no time to suppress their circulation_ The circumstance shows the avidity with which everything is sought and read, particularly in Germany, which relates to a representative form of Government.
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