THROUGH SWEDEN. 
had already met the public eye, it muft not be thought that 
Mr. Coxe publilhed them again as a plagiarift or compiler ; but 
it arofe from his not knowing, or from overlooking their exig¬ 
ence in the literary w T orld. The republication of them, by con¬ 
firming what others had noticed before him, gave an additional 
value to his work, wdnch is one of therichefr mifcellanies that ever 
has appeared under the name of travels. This teftimony to the 
induflry of Mr. Coxe, it would be ungenerous in me to withhold ; 
although I, as well as all other travellers who came after him, 
fuffered, in thofe places w 7 here he had been, fome trifling incon- 
vcniencies from the ardour of his zeal in purfuit of information. 
I was told by different perfons, that his eagernefs and impatience 
to obtain inffrudion on feveral points of public oeconomy, for the 
improvement of his ftatiflical tables, w 7 as fo great, that he was 
always ready to put queftions, but never to anfwer any. The 
Swedes naturally expected that a flranger w r ould contribute to 
their entertainment, as they were willing to facilitate his labours : 
but Mr. Coxe, I was told, declined all free and communicative 
converfation, and was intent folely on his own private views of 
making a publication. He did not hefitate to requefl: gentlemen 
to colled; materials for him, and to favour him with their ftate- 
ments in w r riting. All this might be excufable and even laud¬ 
able, in a philofopher, yet it w r as not quite fatisfadory to the 
people whom he vifited : they wiflicd to have their own curiofity 
in fome meafure gratified, by an interchange of information: 
they expeded fomething more from the reverend Englifh traveller 
Z 2 than 
