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514 SWEDENBORG IN THE HOUSE OF NOBLES. [Doc. 180.
law, nor obey it as their only sovereign. It may be seen
hence that our government is so wisely fitted together and
subordinated, that no one, whoever he may be, can do any
thing arbitrarily or illegally ; and that every one who is
right is, able to obtain right, and if wronged is able to have
the judgment reversed. Yet it is impossible to escape all dis
tortions of right, and all wrong interpretations of law, since most
men are subject to human weaknesses, and hence are inclined
to one of two parties either by friendship, relationship, hope
of promotion, or of presents, and this mal-practice cannot be
uprooted under any government, however excellent it may be.
.
But, notwithstanding all this, that one ruby shines in the
sceptre of the Swedish government, that all are safe with
regard to their life, property, and vocation ; that every rank
is safe in the enjoyment of its privileges, and especially the
agriculturists, whose fields yield them their increase, so that
it may be said in truth, that we are a free people, and that
no one is a slave who leads the life of a useful citizen . 6. I
beg, that what I have just stated may be accepted as
counter-balance to a different statement, which may be filled
with charges of mistakes and short-comings: for justice is like
a pair of balances, with which it is also compared, where all
the good is placed in one scale, and all the bad in the other,
and where it will be found that the good in our government
far over-balances the bad. 7. As the large Commission is
going to enter upon its duties to -day, I desire most earnestly
by the above considerations, to prevail upon it to examine
and settle, in accordance with justice, the small and great
mistakes that are supposed to have been committed since
the last session of the Diet; to excuse the failings caused
by weakness, to rectify those that arose from ignorance, and to
punish those that have been committed from an evil purpose.
But above all I desire it to take care lest by an enumeration
of too many short-comings, it create among the people them
selves, and among the Houses of the Diet now assembled,
discontent with the excellent government established among
us: for in accordance with the old proverb, it might in that
case happen that in avoiding Charybdis one falls into Scylla,
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