THROUGH SWEDEN. 
163 
where ignorance, and cabal, and envy, have borne him down, per¬ 
haps never to rife again. If Guftavus III. had lived, this man would 
have probably coft Sweden feveral millions of rix-dollars. It was 
he who finifhed the defign of the new palace at Haga ; the ground¬ 
work alone, on which it is now built, has coft an enormous fum to 
fo poor a country. ProjeCt was concerted after project, and the 
reftlefs and exalted imaginations of thofe two enthufiafts (the king 
and Deprez) muft have exhaufted the public treafury. Mr. De- 
prez, perceiving the impoflibility of finding employment in a 
country where the finances are fo narrow as in Sweden, and where 
every thing is under the reign of intrigue, gives himfelf up for the 
prefent to the reveries of imagination ; and the greater part of his 
defigns in architecture are truly caftles in the air. He amufes his 
leifure with drawing plans of edifices, more magnificent and 
fumptuous than the ancient pyramids of Egypt: he forms proje&s 
of piles and monuments a thoufand times more expen five than 
any recorded in the hiftory of the world. He has lately conceived 
the idea of a pyramid, the bafe of which could not be fixed any 
where elfe than in the deferts of Arabia, in which ftatues of all 
the great men in the world, of every poffible kind of celebrity or 
diftinCtion, are to be depofited. He admits himfelf, that in order 
to carry this defign into execution, it would be indifpenfibly ne- 
ceffary for all fovereign powers to join in one fbciety, or club, for 
defraying the expences. Mr. Deprez is alfo an hiftorical painter ; 
but his colours are wretched. I have feen feveral of his pictures 
of naval engagements; in fome of which you perceiye nothing 
Y 2 but 
