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II. THE SWEDISH PEOPLE.
belongs, perhaps, to Axel Oxenstierna, who was probably the most enlightened
and many-sided statesman of his day. But in this respect Queen Christina too,
is worthy of a gratitude which her administration in other matters certainly does
not deserve.
The Period of the Predominance of the Riksdag (1718—72). The
death of Charles XII gave the signal for a fundamental change in the form of
the Swedish government. The terror caused by the misuse of royal autocracy
during the period of the great war was so general and so deep-rooted that
Sweden abruptly rushed into the opposite extreme, becoming subject to a Riksdag
which possessed itself, not only of all legislative power, but also of a great part
of the executive.
In the section of this work which treats of the history of the Swedish
Constitution, a more detailed account is given of the form of government during
this period. Here, we but mention that the Riksdag still consisted, as it had
done for many hundred years previously, of four Estates: the Nobility, the Clergy,
the Burghers, and the Peasantry. Of these, the Nobility, especially the numerous
class of the Lesser Nobility, now acquired the greatest influence. By
degrees, the greater part of the power of the Riksdag came into the hands of a
delegation of the members, called the Secret Committee, on which only the three
first Estates were represented.
During the period in question the royal power was a perfect shadow, and the
monarchs themselves (Frederick I and Adolphus Frederick) personally inspired
but little respect. As a matter of fact, Sweden was, during this half century,
a republic ruled by an oligarchy — a peculiar phenomenon at a time when in
all the states of continental Europe, almost without exception, the strictest
monarchical absolutism held sway.
There is no doubt but that the government of Sweden, during this so-called
"Period of Liberty", suffered from essential defects, of which the most fatal was
the general corruption which prevailed towards the close of the period, recalling
the state of things which had existed a little earlier in England under the
government of Walpole; but this was all the more dangerous in Sweden, as it was
to a great extent brought about by foreign Powers for the promotion of their
own interests. But, on the other hand, Sweden had here the opportunity of
learning its earliest lessons in the school of modern parliamentarism, and earlier
than any other European nation with the exception of the British. And if
in our own days the Swedish form of government has attained to a high degree
of constitutional maturity, this is due, in no small degree, to the experience
— both for good and evil — gained during this period, which is not infrequently
judged by Swedish historians with unjust severity.
Thus, if Sweden, during this time, made important progress in its political
development, the greatest merit of the period is the revival it brought in the
economic and scientific spheres. Excluded from its former influence on the
military and the diplomatic destinies of Europe, the Swedish nation flung itself
with youthful enthusiasm into the pursuits of peace. The name that is here the
most illustrious is that of Linnceus, surrounded by those of his numerous pupils,
Thunberg, Kalm, Forskål and many others; but Sweden at that period also
produced chemists, such as Scheele and Bergman; physicists, such as Celsius; and
the universal genius, Swedenborg. At this time also lived the astronomer
Wargentin, the celebrated founder of the science of population statistics in Sweden.
Contemporaneously, Alströmer was blazoning his name on the annals of Sweden
as the creator of Swedish industrialism. The period was also rendered illustrious
in the domain of letters, modern Swedish as a literary language being inagurated
at this time by Dalin, and modern Swedish poetry by Creutz and Bellman.
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