49 6 Account of the Kingdom of S w e D e Book II. 
fiich Impofidorts as .are laid on tlie Inhabitants to fupport 
the Government of the City, which pays all its Officers 
and Servants, and maintains a Guard of 300 Men, and 
defrays the Charge of ail public Buildings and Repairs. 
* To fupport this Expence, befides a Duty belonging 
to the City upon Goods imported and exported (which is 
above four per Cent, of the Cuftoms paid the King, and 
amounts to about four thoufand Pounds the 
Magiftrates impofe a yearly Tax on the Burghers, in 
which they are affifted by a Common Council of forty- 
eight (which chufes its own Members every Spring) 
to proportion the Payments lor the enfuing Year. On 
the richer Traders they ufually impofe forty, fifty or fixty 
Pounds Sterling •, and upon others of a meaner Condition, 
as Shoemakers, Taylors, &c. five or fix Pounds, and 
no Houfekeeper lefs than fifteen Shillings, befides quar- 
tering the Guards, inferior Officers, and Servants of the 
Court with other lefs Charges, which all together would 
be thought a great Burthen, even in richer Countries ; 
neither is it otherwife efteemed by the Inhabitants of this 
City, who can fcarce be kept in Heart, by the Privileges 
they enjoy, as well in Cuftoms as the Trade of the Place 
which muft needs pafs through their Hands. The Na- 
tives of other Parts of the Kingdom as well as Foreigners 
being obliged to deal only with the Burghers, except 
thofe of the Gentry that make Iron, who have a Privilege 
to fell it immediately to Strangers. This City is in a 
manner the Staple of Sweden^ to which moft of the 
Goods of their own Growth, viz. Iron, Copper, Wire, 
Pitch, Tar, Mafts, Deals, &c. are brought to be ex- 
ported. The greateft Part of the Commodities imported 
from Abroad come to this Port, where there is a Haven 
capable of receiving a thoufand Ships, and has a Bridge 
or Key near an Englijh Mile long, to which the greater 
VelTels may lie with their Broadfides. The only Incon- 
venience is, that it is ten Miles from the Sea, and the 
River very crooked, and no Tides. 
5. The Laws of Sweden were antiently as various as 
the Provinces were numerous *, each of which had Statutes 
andGuftoms peculiar to itfelf, enafted, as Occafion re- 
quired by the Laghman or Governor of the Province j 
who was chofen by the People, and invefted with great 
Authority, efpecially while the King was eledlive ; 
his Suffrage concluding the Province he governed. 
This Variety was neceffarily attended with great 
Confufion ; for Remedy whereof, about fourfeore Years 
ago one Body of Laws was compiled for the Diredlion 
of the whole Kingdom : Yet this Colledlion is but an im- 
perfedt Piece, and the Laws fo few, and conceived in 
fuch general Terms, that in moft Cafes they need the 
Afliftance of the Civil Law j and after all, the final Deter- 
mination depends much upon the Inclinations of the 
Bench ; which in a poor Country, where Salaries are fmall, 
is often filled v/ith fuch as are of weak Parts, and fubjedt 
to Corruption on very fmall Temptations. 
The Effedls of this would be more vifible, if each fu- 
perior Court did not keep a Check upon the Lower, and 
the King’s Court of Revifion over-awe them all ; to 
which all Civil Caufes, exceeding the Sum of feventy 
Pounds, are appealable *, and very few end before they 
have been brought thither. In this Court the Prefident 
of the Chancery and two or three other Privy Coun- 
fellors alfo fit, fo does the Chancellor of the Court 
(an Officer next in Degree to the Privy Counfellor) who 
is Prefident of the under Revifion, where he and two 
Secretaries put Btifinefs into a Method fit to be brought 
before the King. The Courts of Juftice inferior to this 
are of three Degrees ; of the loweft Degree, or firft In- 
ftance, there is one in each Corporation (befides Stock- 
holm., in which there are three) as alfo in each Diftridl or 
Territory, whereof every Province contains feveral, fome 
above twenty. In the former (Cities) an Alderman or 
Counfellor prefides, and has fome of his Brethren for Af- 
fiftants *, in the latter the Governor of the Territory v/ith 
a ftanding Jury 5 his Courts being ambulatory are ufually 
near or upon the Spot where the Fadt or Trefpafs v/as 
committed. In thefe Courts Examinations are taken, 
and Matters not exceeding forty Shillings are determined, 
the reft tranfmitted to the next fuperior Court ; of which, 
2 ■ 
in every Corporation the Prefident thereof retains the 
Name of Laghman, without other Authority than that 
of a Judge. From thefe all Caufes of Blood muft be 
tranfmitted to the refpedtive national Courts, where they 
are determined without farther Appeal ; and thither alfo 
all Civil Adlions, not exceeding twenty Pounds, may be 
appealed. 
Of thefe national Courts there are three, one for the 
Kingdom of Sweden, held at Stockholm, another for the 
Kingdom of Gothia, kept at Jencopingh, and a Third for 
the Dukedom of Finland ; in each of thefe a Privy 
Counfellor is Prefident, and above half the Affeffors are 
to be Gentlemen. All thefe Courts fit continually, or at 
moft have but ffiort Vacations, and not being peftered 
with too much Formality, give Caufes a fpeedy Difpatch, 
unlefs they be retarded by fome underhand Engagements. 
Adlions relating to the Sea are tried in the ordinary 
Courts, according to their Sea Laws founded upon thofe 
antient Ones of JViJby in Gothland, which have formerly 
been as famous in the Baltic Sea as the Laws of Rhodes 
and Oleron in other Places. The Court of Admiralty 
has not any peculiar Jurifdidlion in the Adminiftration 
of thefe Laws, but only in fuch Matters as diredly con- 
cern the King’s Fleet, and in fome Places that belong 
immediately to the Admiralty. 
For Caufes Ecclefiaftical there is a Confiftory in each 
Diocefe, of which the refpedlive Biffiop is Prefident ; 
where Caufes of Baftardy, Contradls of Marriage, and 
other Caufes of that Nature are tried, and Church Cen- 
fures of Penance, Divorce, inflidled. Thefe Courts 
have no Power to adminifter an Oath, nor to iaflidl any 
corporal Puniffiment ; from them there lies an Appeal 
to the refpedlive national Court ; and in fome Cafes to 
the King, as is in all other Matters. 
For Matters* relating to the Mines, befides inferior 
Courts and Officers fettled in the refpeftive Parts of the 
Country, a general Court, called the College of the 
Mines, fits at Stockholm, of which moft commonly the 
Prefident of the Treafury is Chief, with a Vice-Prefident 
and other Affeffors. The Laws, in this Regard, are 
more ftrid and particular than in other Matters, and for 
the moft Part Juftice is very carefully adminiftered. 
The Power of executing all judicial Sentences is lodged 
in the Governors of Provinces, the Stadtholders of Stock- 
holm, and other Places, and from them derived to infe- 
rior Officers, who are accountable to the national Courts, 
whither they may be convented and puniffied upon plain 
Proof of Default ; but the Proof being difficult, and 
Minifters of Juftice apt to favour one another, they take 
great Liberty to delay Execution, or to arbitrate and 
put their own Senfe upon Sentences ; fo that their Part 
of Juftice is adminiftered the worft of all others, and has 
an Influence not only at Flome, but leffens the Credit of 
the Swedijh Subjedts Abroad, againft whom Juftice can- 
not be obtained without great Difficulty. 
The ordinary Charges of Law Suits are no where 
more moderate than in Sweden •, the greateft Burthen 
arifing from a late Conftitution, that all Declarations, Atfts 
and Sentences muft be written upon fealed Paper, of dif- 
ferent Prices, from Two-pence to Seven Shillings a Sheet, 
according to the Qiiality of the Caufe ; the Benefit of 
which accrues to the King, and is computed to bring in 
about 3000 /. a Year. Other Charges are very few, 
every Man being permitted (in criminal A.6lions com- 
pelled) to plead his own Caufe. Accordingly the Prac- 
tice of the Law is below a Gentleman, and rather the 
Refuge than the Choice of meaner Perfons, who are very 
few in Number, and for the moft Part very poor. The 
Cuftom of a Jury of twelve Men is fo antient in Sweden, 
that their Writers pretend it had its Original among 
them, and was thence derived to other Nations ; but at 
prefent it is difufed every where, except only in the 
lower Courts in the Country, and there the Jurymen are 
for Life, and have Salaries. They have this peculiar to 
themfelves ; that among them there muft be an unani- 
mous Concurrence to determine a Caufe, which in other 
Courts is done by a Majority of Voices. Titles to 
Eftates are rendered more fecure, and lefs fubje6l to 
Contefts, by the Regifters that are kept of all Sales and 
Alienations, as well as of other Engagements of them. 
