HISTORY OF EUROPE. 247 



men who served him as spies, who 

 were ever on the watch to excite 

 civil discontent and commotion, 

 and to lend their hand to the exe- 

 cution of any design of their em- 

 ployers. By those agents a mob 

 was excited^ and directed with 

 perseverance, as appeared particu- 

 larly by the return of a party to 

 beset the house in wliich count 

 Fersen had taken refuge, after 

 great numbers, on the assurance 

 of baron Silversparre, tliat he 

 should be judicially triad, had be- 

 gun to disperse. 



About this period a Swedish 

 journal made its appearance, not 

 only under French influence, but 

 generally believed to have been 

 set up at the expense of Berna- 

 dottc. It was entitled, L'Organc 

 tie I'Ojunion Publiquc, and printed 

 at Orebro, where the States of 

 Sweden held their meetings.* In 

 the first, second, and third num- 

 bers of this paper, of the 4th, 7th, 

 and 11th of July, the editor la- 

 boured to make it appear, that 

 count Fersen's murder originated 

 in a conviction, well or ill-found- 

 ed, that he had poisoned the prince 

 of Augustenburg, on whom the 

 people rested all their hopes of 

 the future glory and prosj)erity of 

 Sweden, 1 licy cunsidered the act 

 of poisoning as a slain on the na- 

 tional character of the Swedes, to 

 be cfl'aced onl}' by the shedding of 

 blood. Therefore they took the 

 vindication of the national ho- 

 nour into their own hands; for they 

 had no hopes that it v>'ould be 

 vindicated otherwise. True it was, 

 that the Kinjj; had ordered an in- 

 ijuuy to be instituted respecting 

 the sudden death of the Crown 



Prince. But that inquiry was not 

 carried on publickly ; nor had the 

 magistrates who were charged 

 with it any other information to 

 direct them in the prosecution 

 of it than the report of Mr. Uos- 

 sie (above mentioned), which 

 could not be considered as legal 

 evidence. On the whole, till 

 the result of the investigation 

 respecting the poisoning of the 

 prince should he known, the peo- 

 ple were, though not enli'dy 

 excusable, as they condemned and 

 executed count Fersen without a 

 trial, entitled to some degree of 

 sympathy and indulgence, «» a^* 

 countof their exquisite sensibility, 

 and zeal to wipe oft' a deep stigma 

 of the nation. Yet, at the same 

 time that the Sieur Morville pal- 

 liates the crime of the Swedes, on 

 the ground of a desire to vindicate 

 the honour of the nation by the 

 shedding of blood,— such are the 

 inconsistencies into which men 

 are liable to fall, when they 

 transgress the bounds of simplici- 

 ty, candour, and truth !— he la- 

 bours hard to propagate a belief, 

 that the murder of count Fersen 

 was not a preconcerted deed, but 

 the effect of a sudden impulse, an 

 accidental and momentary irrita- 

 tion, which often carried men far- 

 ther than they at first intended to 

 go. In short, the pains taken by 

 -tlie journalist to shew, that the 

 assassination of the count Fersen 

 was not premeditated, only served 

 to confirm the universal persua- 

 sion that it was premeditated, and 

 also to support a pretty general 

 opinion, that the death of count 

 Fersen, and that of the prince of 

 Augustenburg, both of them ori- 



<* The editor was a Sicur Morville, a Frenchman. 



