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542 SWEDENBORG IN THE HOUSE OF NOBLES. (Doc. 196.
in defending and watching over our present form of govern
ment, and over that alliance which is founded upon the interests
of the country, as the remaining senators, since they are
gentlemen of enlightened understanding and prudent con
sideration : yet with the three senators alluded to we may
rest perfectly assured on this subject, as they have manifested
and furnished positive proof of this in their past lives.
EMAN. SWEDENBORG.
[It is important for those who desire to have justice done
to the memory of Swedenborg to understand well the bearing
and object of the two state papers which constitute our
Documents 195 and 196 ; as they furnish the means by which
we are enabled to prove the spuriousness of another state
paper bearing the date of that period, which has been
falsely imputed to Swedenborg, and which would, if true, place
his character as a member of the Swedish House of Nobles
in a most unenviable light. But to enable our readers to
judge for themselves, it will be necessary to present to them
briefly the circumstances which induced Swedenborg to prepare
the two preceding papers.
The three senators mentioned in Document 194, Barons
von Höpken ,28 Palmstjerna,136 and Scheffer136 had filled their
offices for many years ; von Höpken and Palmstjerna from 1746,
and Scheffer from 1751. They all belonged to the party of the
"hats,” and were in favour of limiting and confining the power
of the Swedish kings, a policy which constituted the chief
feature of the government of Sweden since 1719, and which
is so much approved by Swedenborg in the same document.
This curtailing of the royal power in Sweden was carried so
far, that when the King, in 1756, refused to sign measures
which had been resolved upon by the Senate, i. e. by the
privy executive council, the Swedish Diet in its session of the
same year empowered the privy council, to imprint upon such
documents the royal signature by a stamp.
In order to oppose the influence of the Diet, King Adolf
Frederic,11 and his Queen, Louisa Ulrica,11 sister of Frederic
the Great, organized a court party, whose object it was to
revolutionize the existing form of government, and to enlarge
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