Several controverfial pamphlets have already appeared, in which the affirmative and negative fide of the queftion relative to the authenticity of these remains, are maintained; but the public expectation is particularly excited by an announced work of Mr MALONE, which he entitles a Detection of the Forgery, and the appearance of which is only delayed by the time requifite for finishing certain engravings. Meantime, the play of Vortigern is preparing for exhibition at the Theatre Royal of Drury Lane; and it cannot be doubted, that attack on one fide will be forcibly repelled by defence on the other. A NEW VIEW OF THE CITY OF COPENHAGEN. WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE CHARACTER AND MANNERS OF THE DANES. FROM THE SAME. THE HE distance from Elfineur to the dust and rubbish it had left, afCopenhagen is 22 miles; the frighted by viewing the extent of the road is very good, over a flat coun- devastation; for at least a quarter of try diverfified with wood, moftly the city had been deftroyed. There beech, and decent manfions. There was little in the appearance of fallen appeared to be a great quantity of bricks and ftacks of chimneys to alcorn land; and the foil looked much lure the imagination into foothing more fertile than it is in general fo melancholy reveries; nothing to atnear the fea. The rifing grounds were tract the eye of tafte, but much to very few; and around Copenhagen it afflict the benevolent heart. The is a perfect plain, of courfe has no- depredations of time have always thing to recommend. it, but cultiva- fomething in them to employ the tion, not decorations. If I fay that fancy, or lead to mufing on fubjects the houfes did not disgust me, I tell which, withdrawing the mind from you all I remember of them; for I objects of fenfe, seem to give it new cannot recollect any pleasureable fen- dignity: but here I was treading on fations they excited; or that any ob- live afhes. ject, produced by nature or art, took me out of myfelf. The view of the city, as we drew near, was rather grand, but without any ftriking feature to intereft the imagination, excepting the trees which fhade the foot-paths. Juft before I reached Copenhagen, I faw a number of tents on a wide plain, and fuppofed that the rage for encampments had reached this city; but I foon discovered that they were the afylum of many of the poor families who had been drien out of their habitations by the late fire. Entering foon after, I paffed among The fufferers were ftill under the preffure of the mifery occafioned by this dreadful conflagration. I could not take refuge in the thought; they fuffered-but they, are no more! a reflection I frequently fummon to calm my mind, when fympathy rifes to anguifh: I therefore defired the driver to haften to the hotel recommended to me, that I might avert my eyes, and fnap the train of thinking which had fent me into all the corners of the city, in fearch of houseless heads. This morning I have been walk. ing round the town, till I am weary of obferving the ravages. I had of ten heard the Danes, even thofe who had feen Paris and London, fpeak of Copenhagen with rapture. Certainly I have feen it in a very difadvan tageous light, fome of the best streets having been burnt, and the whole place thrown into confufion. Still the utmost that can, or could ever, I believe, have been faid in its praife, might be comprised in a few words. The streets are open, and many of the houfes large; but I faw nothing to rouse the idea of elegance or grandeur, if I except the circus where the king and prince royal refide. The palace, which was confumed about two years ago, must have been a handfome fpacious building: the ftone-work is ftill ftanding; and a great number of the poor, during the late fire, took refuge in its ruins, till they could find fome other abode. Beds were thrown on the landing places of the grand ftaircafe, where whole families crept from the cold, and every little nook is boarded up as a retreat for fome poor creatures deprived of their home. At prefent a roof may be fufficient to fhelter them from the night air; but as the feafon advances, the extent of the calamity will be more feverely felt, I fear, though the exertions on the part of government are very confiderable. Private charity has alfo, no doubt, done much to alleviate the mifery which obtrudes itself at every turn; ftill public fpirit appears to me to be hardly alive here. Had it exifted, the conflagration might have been fmothered in the beginning, as it was at last, by tearing down feveral houfes before the flames had reached them. To this the inhabitants would not confent; and the Prince Royal not having fufficient energy of character to know when he ought to be abfolute, calmly let them purfue their own course, till the whole city feemed to be threatned with deftruction. Adhering, with peurile fcrupulofity, to the law, which he has impofed on himself, of acting exactly right, he did wrong by idly lamenting, while he marked the progrefs of a mifchief that one decided step would have ftopt. He was afterwards obliged to refort to violent measures; but thenwho could blame him? And, to avoid cenfure, what facrifices are not made by weak minds! A gentleman, who was a witness of the fcene, affured me, likewife, that if the people of property had taken half as much pains to extin guish the fire, as to preferve their valuables and furniture, it would foon have been got under. But they who were not immediately in danger did not exert themfelves fufficiently, till fear, like an electrical fhock, roufed all the inhabitants to a sense of the general evil. Even the fire engines were out of order, though the burning of the palace ought to have admonished them of the neceffity of keeping them in conftant repair. But this kind of indolence, refpecting what does not immediately concern them, feems to characterize the Danes. A fluggish concentration in themselves makes them fo careful to preferve their property, that they will not venture on any enterprise to increase it, in which there is a fhadow of hazard. Confidering Copenhagen as the capital of Denmark and Norway, I was furprised not to fee fo much industry or taste as in Chriftiania. Indeed from every thing I have had an opportunity of obferving, the Danes are the people who have made the fewest facrifices to the graces. The men of bufinefs are domeftic tyrants, coldly immersed in their own affairs, and fo ignorant of the state of other countries, they dogmatically affert that Denmark is the happiest country in the world; the Prince Royal the best of all poffible princes; and Count Bernstorff the wifeft of minifters. As for the women, they are fimply ply notable housewives; without accomplishments, or any of the charms that adorn more advanced focial life. This total ignorance may enable them to fave something in their kitchens; but it is far from rendering them better parents. On the contrary, the children are fpoilt; as they ufually are, when left to the care of weak, indulgent mothers, who having no principle of action to regulate their feelings, become the flaves of infants, enfeebling both body and mind by falfe tenderness. I am perhaps a little prejudiced, as I write from the impreffion of the moment; for I have been tormented to-day by the prefence of unruly children, and made angry by fome invectives thrown out against the maternal character of the unfortunate Matilda. She was cenfured, with the most cruel infinuation, for her management of her fon; tho' from what I could gather, he gave proofs of good fenfe, as well as tenderness in her attention to him. She ufed to bathe him herself every morning; infifted on his being loosely clad; and would not permit his attendants to injure his digeftion, by humouring his appetite. She was equally careful to prevent his acquiring haughty airs, and playing the tyrant in leading-ftrings. The Queen Dowager would not permit her to fuckle him; but the next child being a daughter, and not the heir apparent of the crown, lefs oppofition was made to her discharging the duty of a mo ther, Poor Matilda! thou haft haunted me ever fince my arrival; and the view I have had of the manners of the country, exciting my fympathy, has increafed my refpect for thy memory! I am now fully convinced, that fhe was the victim of the party the difplaced, who would have overlooked, or encouraged, her attachment, had her lover not, aiming at being ufe ful, attempted to overturn fome eftablished abuses before the people, ripe for the change, had fufficient fpirit to fupport him when struggling in their behalf. Such indeed was the afperity tharpened against her, that I have heard her, even after fo many years have elapfed, charged with licentioufness, not only for endeav ouring to render the public amufements more elegant, but for her very charities; because the erected, among other inftitutions, an hofpital to receive foundlings. Difgufted with many cuftoms which pafs for virtues, though they are nothing more than obfervances of forms, often at the expence of truth, the probably ran into an error common to innovators, in wishing to do immediately what can only be done by time. Many very cogent reafons have been urged by her friends to prove, that her affection for Struenfee was never carried to the length alleged against her, by thofe who feared her influence. Be that as it may, she certainly was not a woman of gallantry; and if he had an attachment for him, it did not disgrace her heart or understanding, the king being a notorious debauchee, and an idiot into the bargain. As the king's conduct had always been directed by fome favourite, they alfo endeavoured to govern him, from a principle of felf-prefervation, as well as a laudable ambition; but, not aware of the prejudices they had to encounter, the fyftem they adopted displayed more benevolence of heart than foundness of judgment; as to the charge, ftill believed, of their giving the king drugs to injure his faculties, it is too abfurd to be refuted. Their oppreffors had better have accused them of dabbling in the black art; for the potent fpell ftill keeps his wits in bonddage. I cannot defcribe to you the effect it had on me to fee this puppet of a monarch moved by the ftrings which Count Bernstorf holds faft; fit, with vacant eye, erect, receiving the homage of courtiers, who mock him with a fhew of refpect. He is, in fact, merely a machine of ftate, to fubfcribe the name of a king to the acts of the government, which, to avoid danger, have no value; unless counterfigned by the prince royal; for he is allowed to be abfolutely an idiot, excepting that now and then an obfervation, or trick, efcapes him, which looks more like madness then imbecility. What a farce is life! This effigy of majefty is allowed to burn down to the focket, while the haplefs Matilda was hurried into an untimely grave. "As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; "They kill us for their fport. BUSINESS having obliged me to go a few miles out of town this morning, I was furprised at meeting a crowd of people of every defcription; and inquiring the cause of a fervant who spoke French, I was informed that a man had been executed two hours before, and the body afterwards burnt. I could not help looking with horror around the fields loft their verdure-and I turned with disgust from the well-dressed women, who were returning with their children from this fight. What a fpectacle for humanity! The feeing fuch a flock of idle gazers, plunged me into a train of reflections, on the pernicious effects produced by falfe notions of justice. And I am perfuaded, that, till capital punishments be entirely abolished, executions ought to have every appearance of horror given to them; inftead of being, as they are now, a fcene of amusement for the gaping crowd, where fympathy is quickly effaced by curiofity. immoral tendency; but trifling when compared with the ferocity acquired by viewing the reality as a fhow; for it feems to me, that in all countries the common people go to executions to fee how the poor wretch plays his part, rather than to commiferate his fate, much less to think of the breach of morality which has brought him to fuch a deplorable end. Confequently, executions, far from being useful examples to the furvivors, have, I am perfuaded, a quite contrary effect, by hardening the heart they ought to terrify. Befides, the fear of an ignominious death, I believe, never deterred any one from the commiffion of a crime; becaufe, in committing it, the mind is roufed to activity a bout prefent circumftances. It is a game at hazard, at which all expect the turn of the die in their own favour; never reflecting on the chance of ruin, till it comes. In fact, from what I faw, in the fortreffes of Norway, I am more and more convinced that the fame energy of character, which renders a man a daring villain, would have rendered him ufeful to fociety, had that fociety been well organized. When a ftrong mind is not difciplined by cultivation, it is a fenfe of injuftice that renders it unjust. Executions, however, occur very rarely at Copenhagen; for timidity rather then clemency, palfies all the operations of the prefent government. The malefactor who died this morning, would not, probably, have been punished with death at any other period, but an incendiary excites univerfal execration; and as the greater part of the inhabitants are ftill diftreffed by the late conflagration, an example was thought abfolutely neceffary; though, from what I can gather, the fire was accidental. I forgot to mention to you, that I was informed. by a man of veracity, that two perfons came to the stake Dd I have always been of opinion, that the allowing actors to die in the prefence of the audience, has an Ed. Mag. March 1796. to to drink a glass of the criminal's blood, as an infallible remedy for the apoplexy. And when I animadverted in the company, where it was mentioned, on fuch a horrible violation of nature, a Danish lady reproved me very feverely, afking how I knew that it was not a cure for the difeafe? adding, that every attempt was juftifiable in fearch of health. I did not, you may imagine, enter into an argument with a perfon, the flave of fuch a grofs prejudice; and I allude to it, not only as a trait of the ignorance of the people, but to cenfure government, for not prevent. ing fcenes that throw an odium on the human race. Empiricifm is not peculiar to Denmark; and I know no way of rooting it out, though it be a remnant of exploded witchcraft, till the acquiring a general knowledge of the component parts of the human frame become a part of public education. Since the fire, the inhabitants have been very affiduously employed in fearching for property fecreted during the confufion; and it is aftonishing how many people, formerly termed reputable, had availed themselves of the common calamity, to purloin what the flames fpared. Others, expert at making a diftinction without a difference, concealed what they found, not troubling themfelves to inquire for the owners, though they fcrupled to fearch for plunder any where but among the ruins. To be honester than the laws require, is by most people thought a work of fupererogation; and to flip through the grate of the law, has ever exercfed the abilities of adventurers, who with to get rich the fhortest way. Knavery, without perfonal danger, is an art, brought to great perfection by the statefman and fwindler; and meaner knaves are not tard in following their footReps. It moves my gall to difcover fome of the commercial frauds practifed during the prefent war. In short, under whatever point of view I confider fociety, it appears, to me, that an adoration of property is the root of all evil. Here it does not render the people enterprising, as in America, but thrifty and cautious. I never, therefore, was in a capital where there was fo little, appearance of active industry, and as for gaiety, I looked in vain for the fprightly gait of the Norwegians, who, in every respect, appear to me to have got the fart of them. This difference I attribute to their having more liberty: a liberty which they think their right by inheritance, while the Danes, when they boaft of their negative happiness, always mention it as the boon of the prince royal, under the fuperintending wifdom of Count Bernstorff. Vaflalage is neverthelefs ceafing throughout the king. dom, and with it will pafs away that fordid avarice which every modification of flavery is calculated to produce. -If the chief ufe of property be power, in the fhape of the refpect it procures, is it not among the inconfiftencies of human nature most incomprehenfible, that men fhould find a pleasure in hoarding up property which they fteal from their neceflities, even when they are convinced that it would be dangerous to display fuch an enviable fuperiority? Is not this fituation of ferfs in every country: yet a rapacity to accumu late money feems to become ftronger in proportion as it is allowed to be ufelefs. Wealth does not appear to be be fought for, among the Danes, to obtain the elegant luxuries of life; for a want of tafte is very confpicuous at Copenhagen, fo much fo, that I am not surprised to hear that poor Matilda offended the rigid Latherans, by aiming to refine their pleafures. The elegance which the wish |