wardrobe, and their amours during the tour; and, in truth, after the first impression had worn off, the king's state of health, which had never been satisfactory, proved of what nature the amusements of the friends must principally have been. The incessant variety of stupifying amusements, and, at the same time, an excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures, had evidently exhausted the king, and undermined his moral and physical powers. We can quite understand how the complaints about augmentation of the taxes grew louder when it was found that the chief object of the tour, the moral improvement of the young king, had been an utter failure. Enormous sums had to be found to pay for the articles purchased in England and France, and fresh loans, as a necessary result, raised. Matters now came to such a pitch that the Treasury was unable to satisfy the current expenses, which caused great embarrassment. And it must be borne in mind that the Danish population was not in a condition to endure any increased taxation. Prince Charles of Hesse gives us a dreadful picture of the country as it remained from the time when he first visited it up to the reign of Frederick VI. The peasant was a serf in Denmark in the fullest meaning of the term. There was no justice for him; no protection against his owner. Many of the latter had been the bailiffs, who had ruined their absent masters, and eventually purchased their estates. The wretched Danish peasant stood under the merciless whip of these vile men. He was at the mercy of his master, who compelled him to take a poor farm and put it in order, and when he had got it into a good state by the sweat of his brow and his industry, drove him out to do the same at another farm. The master forced him to marry whomsoever he thought proper. At the slightest opposition, he handed over the wretch to the militia, or sold him for 50 crowns to a captain, on condition that he would never again be allowed to set foot in his native province.