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Charles XIV John 325
Queen Eugenia Desideria (Bernadotte).
camp. He now had be-
side him a Council of
State and a Riksdag,
who in no wise accepted
all his measures and,
plans, but who instead
demanded a number of
reforms, which he re-
garded as unnecessary
and even harmful. His
hot southern temper
then blazed up, and the
vehemence he showed
at the least opposition
"appeared to the north-
erners worse than it
was. Perhaps the son
of the South found it equally difficult to understand
the northern temper. Unfortunately the king never
learned to speak Swedish and in consequence remained
a stranger to his people.
The Period of Reaction. The former republican Ber-
nadotte did not become the friend of popular liberty
and reforms that one might have expected. He had so
often seen the name of liberty made to serve violence
and oppression that he now feared its abuse and even
liberty itself. It seemed safer and more comfortable
to him to hold fast to what was old and tried, even
though it might be defective. In almost every effort at
reform he saw a danger to the present order, and
especially to his own throne. It required only a
thoughtless expression to expose one’s self to a charge
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