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2 SC)
MEDDELANDEN OCH AKTSTYCKEN
question be put to Lord Aberdeen in the House of Peers, he might
make this very distinction, and the report of his speech in the
public papers, so far from helping you in Sweden, would only encourage
your enemies to a more determined opposition.
There is another point, however, of great importance to which
1 must refer. We doubt whether the explanations given in your
later letters sufficiently account for the outburst of popular violence
against you, and the apathy or indifference of the government. The
fact that you said something in America, deemed derogating to the
national character, seems rather to be a cover to conceal the true
reasons of the popular movement; and the influence of the radical
press hardly accounts for the non-interference of the Government.
The mere presence of a number of police officers in plain clothes,
was quite sufficient, as you show, to prevent a riotous outbreak on
one occasion; and one is led at this distance to infer that if the
Government chose, they could protect you from interruption.
Your first letter addressed to the Mission House after your
return from America seems to afford another clue to the whole affair.
You there explicitly state that you were fully expecting an explosion;
that when the new agencies which you had been the means of
creating should be brought to bear in Sweden, the strong man armed
would make a desperate effort to preserve his house in peace. Now,
as you published in your American book a full account of all the
apparatus which was to be brought to bear upon Sweden, and as
they undoubtedly know in Sweden all that you published in
America, — has not this mainly contributed to bring about your own
prediction? The strong man is alarmed, and seeks to destroy you
as the author and director of all the new agencies by which he is
to be assailed.
Then again in the same letter you inform us that you met with
a friend on the road from London to Stockholm with whom you
confidentially consulted as to the best means of bringing all your new
American means and agencies into operation without awakening the
jealousy of the Swedish Authorities. Well, but have not the Swedish
Authorities become acquainted with your plans, by means of your
own book, and other communications, from America? Perhaps the
Swedish Ambassador in America has laid the whole of your
American proceedings before his government; and may not this best
account for the indifference of the Government, — its neglecting to
interfere in your behalf? The King, however, well disposed to
yourself, may possibly dread the introduction of agents from a republican
State, lest they should prove political, rather than religious,
Missionaries.
On the whole, with our present information, we are disposed
to conclude that your visit to America has led to an entire change
in your position in Sweden. It appears to us that it is no longer
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