178 VISIT TO DENMARK [1799. 



others, as clerks, &c., to drink his health ; Suwarow's 

 was drunk in cold water ; and the French consul, 

 who presided, gave the fraternal embrace once round, 

 and then again ; and being asked a third time (as the 

 story goes), was so fatigued he could not. A singer 

 (Dupuis) was immediately sent out of the country 

 for having sung there, but was to have been pardoned ; 

 but coming on the stage one night when the king 

 was there, the first sentence of his part happening to 

 be " I don't go, but stay here " was prodigiously 

 applauded as being apropos. The king said to the 

 officer who sat with him, " But he shall go." Accord- 

 ingly the man was sent off, but a great subscription 

 made for him, and loaded with presents, and impos- 

 tures were practised to get more from the king. The 

 French consul, too, sent to make his apology to the 

 minister of foreign affairs. 



The wives of ministers are not received at Court 

 unless they wear the Swedish Court dress. The only 

 one who has submitted to this is the Portuguese min- 

 ister's lady, Madame de Correa, who does not find 

 herself a whit better received than before. This dis- 

 pute about the dress originated with a minister of the 

 emperor, whose wife was literally turned out of a 

 ball-room by order of the late king. 



The population of Sweden does not exceed three 

 millions, of which one must be allowed to Finland 

 and Lapland. The last has now only 10,000 in- 

 habitants. 



The army nominally amounts to 80,000 men, in- 



