SWEDEN AMD NORWAY 



475 



opinion that his succession to the throne was guar- 

 antied by Russia. Soon afterwards, the marriage 

 of the prince with Josephine Maximiliana, daughter 

 of Eugene Beauharnais, duke of Leuchteuberg 

 (whose wife was Augusta Amelia, princess of 

 Bavaria), took place at Stockholm, June 19, 1823. 

 The first fruit of this marriage, Charles, born May 

 3, 1826, is styled duke of Schonen ; the second, 

 Francis, born July 9, 1827, duke of Upland ; the 

 third, born 1829, duke of Gothland. Some intrigues 

 and conspiracies for the restoration of the family of 

 Wasa have occurred in Sweden ; but the estates 

 took this opportunity (1823) to give the king and 

 the crown-prince the strongest assurances of fidelity. 

 The king and Swedish estates, in order to inter- 

 rupt all communication with the exiled family, de- 

 termined to transfer to it all its property remaining 

 in the kingdom, and to extinguish its pension by 

 the payment of a certain sum mutually agreed upon 

 by the two parties, which was done in 1824. The 

 personal character and constitutional principles of 

 the king have secured him the love and fidelity of 

 his subjects. He often visits the remote provinces 

 of his two kingdoms, relieving distress wherever he 

 finds its, usually from his private purse, and takes 

 no important measures without being assured of the 

 concurrence of the estates, which meet every six 

 years, and of the majority of the nation. 



It has been the object of the government in Swe- 

 den to give unity to the administration ; and the 

 minister at the head of each department is responsi- 

 ble for its measures. The constitutional committee 

 of every diet has the right to examine the journals 

 of the cabinet, to discover any violation of the con- 

 stitution. Since 1821, the judicial power has been 

 separated from the executive. The administration 

 of justice has been essentially improved. The new 

 Swedish constitution of June 7, 1809, is given in 

 the second volume of Constitutions of the European 

 States (in German, Leipsic, 1817). To separate 

 the royal power more completely from the judicial, 

 the king proposed, in the diet of 1823, the abolition 

 of his right to preside in the supreme court. The 

 proposal of the estates, in 1823, to make their ses- 

 sions and those of the supreme courts public, was, 

 nowever, negatived by the king. The finances and 

 credit of the state were restored by careful manage- 

 ment and great economy. The public accounts 

 were rigidly inspected, and reduced to perfect or- 

 der, and government soon had it in its power to pay 

 off, annually, 120150,000 dollars of the national 

 debt, which amounted, in 1820, to 6,500,000 Swe- 

 dish rix dollars. The diet of 1823 fixed the total 

 expenditure of Sweden at 8,121,357 dollars banco. 

 Still complaints were made of the expenses of the 

 court, and the state of the currency stood in need 

 of further changes. The organization and discipline 

 of the army have been improved, while the burden 

 of military service and the expenses of the military 

 establishment have been diminished. The army is 

 composed of 45,203 men, and the whole armed force 

 amounts to 138,569 men, exclusive of the naval 

 service. The number of officers in the army is very 

 small : there is not more than one officer to forty 

 men ; while, in the French army, there is one to 

 every ten men. The navy consists of twelve ships 

 of the line, thirteen frigates, sixty smaller vessels, 

 and a Scheeren fleet of 342 sails. (See Scheeren ) 

 The Swedish soldiers are employed, in peace, in 

 building canals, roads, forts, and other public works. 

 The freedom of the press is established by law, but 

 under such restrictions that it is little more tl^n 



nominal. Still the journals often speak with great 

 freedom, and exercise considerable influence upon 

 public opinion. Political clubs and friendly socie- 

 ties cannot exist without the consent of the govern- 

 ment ; and a society modelled on the plan of our 

 common debating societies, was put down. In con- 

 formity with the principles of the prohibitive system, 

 which prevailed in 1820, but has since been modi- 

 fied, the government attempted to encourage the 

 domestic industry by laying restrictions on foreign 

 manufactured articles. Foreign manufacturers were 

 encouraged to establish new branches of industry in 

 Sweden by bounties. The abolition of guilds, which 

 was attempted under the direction of the king, was 

 not accomplished. The whole system of policy in 

 regard to commerce and manufactures was abolished 

 in 1821, and a new tariff has been adopted since the 

 beginning of 1825. Since 1820, the navigation of 

 the rivers, especially in the northern provinces, has 

 been improved. Steam navigation has also been 

 introduced, and canals have been constructed. 



The government of Norway is prompt and regu- 

 lar, and much more economical and simple than 

 that of Sweden. The organization of the courts, 

 and the administration of justice, are also better ; 

 thus, in the supreme court of Christiania, publicity 

 of procedure and oral pleadings have long been 

 established. The families of the ancient national 

 nobility in Norway had gradually sunk to the rank 

 of peasants, while Danish and German families had 

 taken their place, by being appointed to offices of 

 government formerly held by Norwegian noblemen. 

 The constitution of 1814 prohibits the creation of 

 counties, baronies, &c., and admits no hereditary- 

 rank. The Norwegians further wished to abolish 

 the existing nobility ; and resolutions to that effect 

 passed the Norwegian diets of 1815 and 1818; but 

 the royal sanction could not be obtained for them. 

 In the storthing of 1821, a majority voted a third 

 time for its abolition ; and the measure, having 

 been approved by three successive storthings, be- 

 came a law without the royal sanction. The king 

 asked for a delay, at least, in the measure, but it 

 was refused, and endeavoured to obtain the right of 

 creating a new nobility in Norway, as a reward for 

 distinguished services ; but without success. The 

 storthing also rejected a proposal of the king to 

 establish a jury for the trial of offences of the press, 

 a censorship and jury not being consistent with the 

 legislation of Norway, although offences of the 

 press were, in fact, punished by imprisonment, and 

 in 1825, by a fine. It was not till after a long op- 

 position, that the storthing finally consented to pay, 

 within eight years, the Norwegian debt to Den- 

 mark, whose demands were supported by Austria, 

 Russia, Prussia and Britain. These proceedings 

 induced the king to visit Christiania in person ; and 

 Swedish and Norwegian troops, with a squadron of 

 ships, were assembled in the neighbourhood of the 

 capital, seemingly with the purpose of overawing 

 the storthing. No measures, however, were taken ; 

 and it is said that a note from the emperor Alex- 

 ander, as a guarantee of the peace of Kiel, dissuaded 

 any innovation upon the constitution of Norway. 

 The acts of the storthing, during the session of 

 1824, attracted much attention even in foreign 

 countries. The king had appointed his son viceroy 

 of Norway, and thus made him commandei -in-chief 

 of the land and sea forces. The presence of this 

 prince was, perhaps, designed to countenance the 

 propositions for changes in thirteen sections in the 

 constitution, namely, the introduction of the abso. 



