94 
TRAVELS 
but on the birth of the prefent king’s fon the old mode of exor- 
cifm was revived ; and the devil was exprefsly ordered to quit the 
body of the prefent prince royal. 
The liberty of the prefs in Sweden at the prefent moment is 
entirely fubdued; the reign of ignorance and bigotry gains 
ground, and will perhaps foon be as unlimited, and produce the 
fame difmal gloom as now prevails in Spain and Portugal. Guf- 
tavus III. while he publicly encouraged the freedom of the prefs, 
privately bound it in fetters. He liked to be thought a liberal 
and philofophic prince ; and he did not apparently reflrain authors 
from writing whatever they pleafed : but flill they were expofed 
to many unknown confequences, if they happened to publilh any 
thing offenfive to the court. At prefent a cenforial commiffion is 
eftablifhed, which mutilates works, or fuppreifes them altogether 
at pleafure : and what is ftill worfe, and unheard of in any other 
country, when the cenfors have patfed a work, its publication may 
be prohibited by the king afterwards. An inftance of this kind 
happened during my flay at Stockholm, in the cafe of a work, 
entitled, “ Thoughts on the Refloration of the Old Monarchy 
si in France.” After this flatement of fads, it will not be diffi¬ 
cult to conjedure the fituation of the fciences and of philofophy 
in a country where fuch meafures are purfued by the government. 
The contrail in thefe refpeds between Sweden and Denmark, is 
flrongly marked by the number of journals and other periodical 
publications ifluing from the prefs annually in the two countries. 
In Denmark I reckoned up more than twenty ; but as for the 
neighbouring 
