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266
SWEDEN IN 1914 [chap. xv.
was incurring, and gave way to extreme agitation
throughout the country, in favour of extraordinary
measures in order to secure the safety of their realm.
This agitation ended in the celebrated Bondestog—
the peasants’ procession. At the beginning of February
thousands of peasants from the old and famous province
of Dalsland (Dalecarlia), in their beautiful national
costume; students from the two universities of Sweden—
Upsala and Lund—with their caps, their "colours," and
their flags ; ecclesiastics from different parts of the
kingdom, and other persons who joined in, made their solemn
entry into Stockholm, were put up there by the
middle-classes and the nobility of the town, and the next day,
accompanied by a huge crowd, marched past the Palace,
cheering when the King and his family appeared on the
balcony; the heads of the demonstration harangued His
Majesty in vehement terms, assuring him of the devotion
of the Swedish people, and entreating him to take all
measures necessary to secure the safety of the country,
measures which the country would be delighted to
sanction, whatever sacrifices they demanded. The King
then spoke and promised that the measures should be
taken, and that the question of national defence should
be settled with as little delay as possible.
This answer of the King’s to the processionists of the
Bondestog caused a difference between His Majesty and
his Ministers. The latter, and the Press of their party,
alleged that from the constitutional point of view the
King had no right to speak and to make promises to the
processionists without having first taken the advice of
the Cabinet and discussed his speech with his Ministers.
The King, on the other hand, asserted that no one could
prevent him speaking to his people, and mentioning his
patriotic convictions to them.
This difference of opinion between the King and his
Ministers having become accentuated and having got into
the Press, the Liberal Cabinet resigned, and the King
accepted the resignation.
According to the constitutional laws of Sweden, when
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