88 Ellen Key last decade, from platform and press, had rashly attacked "the good old order," had dared to disturb the "established status" and proposed radical social transformations, an old legal statute, with imprisonment for blasphemy against God, was invoked. For months the prison gates were closed upon a number of Swedish citizens who had been found guilty of this offence. The persecution of advocates of the new ideas became general on the part of those who were in authority. Scholarships were withdrawn from young students at academies on account of their "heretical" views. And many other things happened, both within family circles and in the community, which made it evident that the reactionaries ruled. A long time had passed since the statute dealing with "blasphemy against God" had been applied. In the year 1850, so little pro- gress had been made in the revision of laws that a prosecutor demanded that F. Th. Borg, the "criminal," the great champion of liberty and truth, be sentenced according to Act I, Sec. I, Criminal Code, with capital punish- ment for blasphemy against God. He was finally acquitted. That Borg later was twice elected a member of the First Chamber, though