

SWEDEN. 



SWITZERLAND. 



7 II 



_ and Oaasl wars confirms! to Sweden, and tha claim of the 

 kings to the Swedish crown was given up. In the war with 



, and Denmark (1675-79), the Swedes were worsted, but at the 



nat*e of Fbntainebleau (1679) they regained all that they had lost. 

 Tlii* rsif* was also the epoch of the first struggle between the crown, 

 supported by tha burghers and peasants, and the power of the senate 

 and noble*. In 1693 the king was formally declared absolute by an 

 act of the dial He died in 1697, leaving his dominions to his son, 

 tha famous Charles XII. (1097-1718), then only fifteen, in the highest 

 state of prosperity and organisation ; but tha inexperience of the 

 tha attacks of bis neighbours, and a coalition 



him (1699) by Poland, Denmark, and Russia. 

 Charles assumed the offensive, and leading bis forces first against 

 Denmark, in six weeks reduced the king to sue for peace : he next 

 utterly routed the oar before Nrra ; then invading Poland ho ex- 

 pelled the king, Frederick Augustus, elector of Saxony, and dictate^ 

 the election of Stanislaus Lecxtaki (1701) in his room. But bis inva- 

 sion of Russia (1708-9) was fatal to his schemes of ambition, and in 

 the eoone of a year or two all his conquests, in spite of the efforts 

 of his generals, were lost as rapidly an they had been gained. In 1715, 

 while be was endeavouring to re-establish his power both by arms and 

 by the diplomacy of hit minister Oortz, he fell nt the siege of Frederic- 

 shall in Norway, tearing his kingdom on the verge of ruin. His sister 

 Ulrioa-Eleonora (1718-20), after she had been compelled to renounce 

 her hereditary right, resigned the crown in favour of her husband 

 Frederick of Hesso-Caasel (1720-51). The treaty of Nystad with Russia 

 (1721) at length gave peace to the exhausted kingdom; but Ingria, 

 Livonia, Esthonia, Carelia, Oesel, &c., were ceded to the czar. For 

 the next twenty years the court of Stockholm was a scene of foreign 

 intrigue and corruption, in which the Hats, or French party, and the 

 Cap*, or Russian faction, alternately predominated. Agriculture and 

 commerce nevertheless flourished. Linnams and his disciples gave a 

 new impulse to science, and legislation was improved by the publica- 

 tion of a new code (1784). The ascendancy of the Hats led to a war 

 (1741) with Russia, in which the Swedes were everywhere defeated, 

 and at the peace of Abo (174S), through British mediation, part of 

 Finland was ceded to Russia. 



The reign of Adolphns Frederick (1751-71) was peaceful in its foreign 

 relations, with the exception of the share taken against Prussia, 

 through the influence of the Hats, in the Seven Years' War. Hia 

 son OusUvus III. (1771-92), in 1772, supported by the army and the 

 body of the people, forcibly repealed the constitution of 1720, re- 

 establishing the relative powers of the various branches of govern- 

 ment nearly as before 1680 : while the party names of Hats and Caps 

 were for ever prohibited, the use of torture abolished, and the press 

 declared free. In 1780 Sweden joined the Armed Neutrality of the 

 northern powers against England, headed by the czarina; and in 1783 

 a commercial treaty was concluded with the United States of America. 

 An alliance with the Porte (1787) led to a war the next year with 

 Russia, and with Denmark as her ally : but the mutinous conduct of 

 the Swedish officers, who refused to invade Russia without orders from 

 the States, produced the Act of Safety (1789), which gave the king 

 absolute power of war and peace, at the same time abolishing the 

 senate, the hut stronghold of aristocratic power. The peace of Werela 

 (1 790) was concluded on the basis of mutual restoration. In 1 792 Qus- 

 tavus was assassinated, and his successor, Gustavus IV. (1792-1809), 

 formed an alliance in 1805 with Russia and England against Napo- 

 leon I.; but the French occupied Pomerania andStralsund (1807); and 

 Russia, after the conferences of Tilsit, turned her arms against her 

 lat ally, and seized upon Finland, the impregnable fortress of Svea- 

 borg being, it is said, betrayed by the governor. An auxiliary force 

 of 1 1,000 English, under Sir John Moore, was dismissed without effect- 

 ing anything : the Danes also declared war ; and Tornea and the Aland 

 Isles were taken by the Russians (1809). These multiplied misfor- 

 onas were ascribed to the incapacity of the king, who was considered 

 to have shown symptoms of mental derangement ; and he was deposed 

 II) by a conspiracy of military officers, hi uncle Charles XIII. 

 ) being called to the throne to the exclusion of the son of 

 Ou>Uun, who was declared incapable of ever inheriting. The pence 

 of Frsderieksham with Russia (1809) was dearly purchased by the 

 r inland, East Bothnia, and Aland (or nearly one fourth of 

 * territory, with one-third of the population, of the kingdom) : but 

 ea restored Pomerania (1810) on the adoption of the continental 

 !*m prescribed by Napoleon I. In 1810, on the election of a 

 ['rjncc, in consequence of the age of the king and the want of 

 heir, the choice of tho states fell on Bernndotte, prince of Ponte- 

 rro, the ablest of the marshals of Napoleon L Bernadotte assumed 

 rains of government ; but though compelled by Franca to declare 

 r against England, he too clearly perceived the true interests of 

 drn to enter on active hostilities j and, on the reveries of Napo- 

 . in Roaaia, peace and alliance was concluded with England at 

 Orebro, and with Russia at Abo. During the War of Liberation (1813) 

 Germany tha Swedish troops were Ted by the crown-prince, nnd 

 ieiTioa ware rewarded (1814) by the acquisition of Norway, 

 which Denmark was compelled to cede by the peace of Kiel, Sweden 

 a same time resigning to Prussia Pomerauia and her remaining 

 man jxMseanoos. Tho two crowns were declared indissolubly 

 HO, though each kingdom retained its separate constitution. On 



the death of the king in 1818 the crown-prince mounted the throno 

 as Charles XIV., and was crowned at Stockholm and Trondhjem ; 

 :ui.l IIH rule was marked by the uniform and increasing prosperity of 

 the Scandinavian kingdoms. Notwithstanding the loss of Finland, the 

 commerce of Sweden is now more than double what it was in 1800, 

 and the opening of the Qotha Canal in 1832 greatly added to the 

 facilities for internal water-communication. The present sovereign, 

 Oscar I., succeeded his father in March 1844. 



By the Swedish constitution of 1809 the crown is declared heredi- 

 tary in the male line, and the king is required to profess the Lutheran 

 religion, which is the established creed of the realm. The state-council 

 consists of nine members, of whom six are appointed by the king, but 

 three of these must be civil functionaries : the chancellor and the 

 ministers of justice and foreign affairs are ex-oflicio members ; and 

 the four secretaries of state may be summoned to give advice on 

 matters relating to their own departments. The king has a negative 

 voice on the resolutions of the diet, and the right to introduce 

 measures for their consideration : but lie can neither control the 

 freedom of their deliberations, nor (without their sanction) impose 

 new taxes, contract loans, or alienate any part of the territory. The 

 diet, or parliament of the kingdom, in which resides the supreme 

 legislative power, consists, as of old, of the four orders of nobles, 

 clergy, burghers, and peasants (landholders who are not noble). In 

 the house of nobles, the head of each of tho 2300 noble families has 

 a seat by right, but seldom more than 400 to 500 attend. The eccle- 

 siastical order (of which the archbishop of Upsala is always president) 

 consists, besides the twelve bishops, of about sixty deputies from tho 

 various dioceses. The presidents of the burgher and peasant houses 

 are named by the king, and a small property qualification is required 

 for a deputy : the proper number of burgher representatives is 97 ; 

 the peasant deputies should be 144, returned by different districts ; 

 but the full number rarely if ever make their appearance. The four 

 orders sit nnd deliberate sometimes separately, and at other times 

 altogether ; and in ordinary cases the question is carried or lost by a 

 simple majority. The diet meets at Stockholm every fifth year, and 

 the session should close at the end of three months, unless prevented 

 by press of business. 



SWINDON, Wiltshire, a market-town, and, conjointly with Hton- 

 WOBTH, the seat of a Poor-Law Union, in tho parish of Swindon, is 

 situated on au eminence, in 51 33' N. lat., 1 45' W. long., distant 

 19 miles N.E. by N. from Devizes, 80 miles W. from London by road, 

 and 77 miles by the Great Western railway. The population of the 

 parish of Swindon in 1851 was 4876. The living is a rectory in the 

 archdeaconry of Bristol and diocese of Gloucester and Bristol. 



Swindon has been considerably increased since the establishment of 

 the railway station here. The streets are lighted with gas. A new 

 town has sprung up in connection with the locomotive engine-factory 

 of the Great Western railway company. A new church, a parsonage, 

 and several chapels have been erected. There are a handsome new 

 gothic parish church ; chapels for Wesleyan Methodists and Inde- 

 pendents ; National schools, partly endowed ; and a savings bank. 

 There is a new market-house of stoue in the Doric style. The market 

 is on Monday for corn and provisions, and for cattle every alternate 

 Momlay : there are five yearly fairs. 



S\VINEFORD, county of Mayo, Ireland, a market-town and the seat 

 of a Poor-Law Union, is seated on a feeder of the river Moy, in 53 57' 

 N. lat, 8 54' W. long., distant by road 16 miles N.E. by E. from 

 Castlebar, 131 miles W.N.W. from Dublin. The population in 1851 

 was 997. Swineford Poor-Law Union comprises 22 electoral divisions, 

 with an area of 152,594 acres, and a population in 1851 of 46,922. 

 The town contains a church, a Roman Catholic chapel, a court-house, 

 market-house, dispensary, the Union workhouse, a constabulary bar- 

 rack, and bridewell. Quarter and petty sessions are held. There are 

 three annual fairs. 



SWINEMONDE. [STETTIN.] 



SWINESHEAD, or SWINSTEAD. [LINCOLNSHIRE.] 



SWINFOKD. [STAFFORDSHIRE.] 



SWITZERLAND (Schweitz, Suisse, Svizzera), a mountainous 

 country in Europe, situated between 45 48' and 47 49' N. lat., 

 5 65' and 10 80' E. long., is bounded W. by France, between 

 Basel on the Rhino and Geneva on the Rhone, the boundary being 

 formed by one of the ridges of tho Jura Mountains, and by the 

 river Doubs, an affluent of the Rhdne ; S. by Savoy, Piedmont, and 

 Austrian Italy, the boundary-line being formed generally by the Lake 

 of Geneva, high ranges of the Alps, and a part of the crest of the main 

 chain of that great mountain system ; E. by the Tyrol and Bavaria, 

 from which it is separated by lofty mountain ranges, and by the Rhine 

 from Sargans to the Lake Coustauz ; and N. by the Lake of Constanz 

 and the Rhine, which divide Switzerland from Wiirtemberg and Baden. 

 The territory of the canton of Schaff hausen, and the territory of 

 Eglisau, belonging to tho canton of Zurich, however, lie on the Baden 

 side of the Rhine. The town of Constanz and a small tract round 

 it, on the south side of the Lake of Constanz, belong to Baden. 



Switzerland extends a little more than 180 miles near 46 80' N. lat., 

 where its length from west to east is greatest, and about 130 miles 

 at 9 E. long., where it is widest. The boundary however is most 

 irregular : from the head of the Val Formazza in Piedmont to the 

 Rhino below Eglisau the width is only 76 miles; and between the Val 



