THROUGH LAPLAND. 
*7 
and high clergy abufed their riches. As a politician he was a de¬ 
termined enemy to every thing defpotic ; he had infinite rcfpedt 
for Bonaparte, and one would have thought he entertained fome 
idea that the conqueror of Italy might one day come to Muonio- 
nifca, and make him fuperintendent minifter of Lapland. He 
was particularly hoftile to Ruffia and its government, which he 
faid debafed the people, and kept them, from policy, in a Rate 
of brutifh ignorance. Sometimes he would difcourfe on the abufes 
of birth and hereditary fucceffion, in a manner which I was afto- 
nifhed to hear from a man, who had nothing in the world but a 
fhirt, a pair of breeches, and the fhoes on his feet. I imagined 
that fome modern book on thofe fubjedts had fallen into his 
hands ; but when he gave me an account of the works that com- 
pofed his library, I found it had confifted of nothing but tradls of 
divinity, and books on theological controverfy. What aftonifhed 
me mold was, that this fort of reading had not bereft him of the 
good fenfe nature had given him ; hut he affined me he had 
ftudied thofe volumes as little as poffible. He was the better pleafed 
to fee travellers, becaufe they never could be any inconvenience to 
him, fince being very ill lodged himfelf, it could not be expected 
he fliould find them accommodation ; and befides, by their arrival 
he was fure of fome glades of brandy, with which we ufed to re¬ 
gale him as often as he came to fee us. He declared our brandy 
was delicious ; and with each glafs he fwallowed, pronounced its 
eulogium in a manner equally energetic and fincere. In this coun¬ 
try, far removed from the infedion of our corrupt manners, flat- 
Vol. IL D tery 
