SWEDEN. 10! 



form of government, which he offered to the states for their accep- 

 tance. As they were surrounded by an arjrned force, they thought 

 proper to comply with what was required of them. The marshal of 

 the diet, and the speakers of the other orders, signed the form of go- 

 vernment ; and the states took the oath to the king, which he dictated 

 to them himself. He afterwards gave them to understand, that he 

 intended in six years time again to convene an assembly of the states. 

 Thus was this great revolution completed without any bloodshed, in 

 which the Swedes surrendered that constitution which their forefa- 

 thers had bequeathed to them after the death of Charles the Twelfth, 

 as a bulwark against any despotic attempt of their future monarchs. 



The exorbitant power which Gustavus the Third had thvis assum- 

 ed, he exercised with some degree of moderation ; and at an assem- 

 bly of the states in 1786, after many points were referred to them by 

 the king, and debated with great freedom, he dismissed them with 

 condescension and gentleness, at the same time remitting a tenth 

 part of the subsidy which they had granted him. 



On the 12th of July, 1788, hostilities commenced on the frontiers 

 of Finland, between a body of Russian light troops and a detachment 

 of the Swedes posted on the bridge of Pomalasund. After various 

 engagements both by land and sea, in which Gustavus displayed the 

 greatest abilities, a peace, fixing the frontiers of Russia as they were 

 before the war broke out, was signed at Werela, on the river Ky- 

 mene between the plenipotentiaries of the empress of Russia and 

 the king of Sweden. 



The reign of this king was terminated 'by a premature and tragic 

 end. On the night of the 16th of March, 1792, while at a masque- 

 rade in the opera-house at Stockholm, he was shot with a pistol, by 

 an assassin named Ankerstroem, in consequence of a conspiracy 

 among some of the discontented nobles ; and having survived in 

 great pain till the 29th of that month, expired, in the 46th year of 

 his age and 22d of his reign. 



The prince-royal, being fourteen years of age, was immediately 

 proclaimed king, by the name of Gustavus Adolphus ; and the duke 

 of Sudermania, his uncle, and brother to the late king, in compliance 

 with his majesty's will, was declared sole regent, and guardian of the 

 young sovereign, till he should attain his majority, which was fixed 

 at the age of eighteen, at which time he assumed the reins of go- 

 vernment. Gustavus entered into the confederacy formed by the 

 northern powers against England, by signing what was called the 

 convention of neutrality. But the victory obtained by lord Nelson, 

 in the battle of Copenhagen, and the sudden death of the emperor 

 Paul of Russia, completely dissolved this coalition, and the relations 

 between England and Sweden were again placed upon an amicable 

 footing. 



In 1807, Sweden was the only nation on the continent which refus- 

 ed to adopt the French commercial regulations. With a heavy na- 

 tional debt, a limited revenue, and a thin population, she became an 

 object of enmity to all the surrounding nations. Early in the spring 

 of 1807, the emperor Alexander, without giving any notice to the 

 Swedish government, sent a large army to take possession of Fin- 

 land. Having overrun the greater part of the country, he then issued 

 a declaration of war, which was followed by a similar declaration 

 from the court of Denmark. Gustavus, collecting all his forces, 

 sent a part of them to oppose the progress of the Russians, while 



