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546 SWEDENBORG IN THE HOUSE OF NOBLES. [Doc. 196.
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looks as if the storm had threatened even him who had risen
in their defence. Herr Swedenborg found it necessary to op
pose most zealously Renhorn’s defenoe of "the gravest crime
committed against the state,’ that of ’high -treason, on account
of which Senators Palmstjerna and Scheffer had been justly
removed from the Senate ; considering it as ’crack -brained
and devilish -minded’ (vettlöst och djevulsinnadt) to deny that
these Senators for criminal intent by right and fact (pro in
tentione delicti jure et facto) ought ’without delay’ to be cen
sured, condemned, and punished by law for having been guilty
of the death of twenty thousand souls, and of a loss to the
state of many thousand tons of gold. It was plainly the in
tention, if not of this speaker, at least of those who thought
to avenge the bloodshed of 1756,137 to renew the scenes of
July 16, and August 4, 1743, when two generals132 laid down
their lives upon the executioner’s block. The effort also does
not seem to have been badly planned. Swedenborg exclaimed :
Here we write, here we speak, here we complain so as to
move the very stones in the wall ; yet, behold, those assembled
pay not the slightest regard to it .... it is enough to drive
hell itself mad’ (sådant föder ett helvetes raseri, Vol. XI, p.191).
Nevertheless, the ’madness’ which burst out in Swedenborg’s
speech on March 2, 1761, was satisfied, when von Höpken,
Scheffer, and Palmstjerna (on February 28, 1761) left the
Senate, although the two former were soon called back again.
Palmstjerna, perhaps on his own account, was also called back
again on July 28 of the same year ; but he answered : I
am afraid of the footprints [of the past] (vestigia terrent).”
The real facts of the case are the following. Sweden
borg, immediately upon hearing of the removal of Baron
von Höpken from the senate, addressed a memorial (Docu
ment 195) to the Diet, in which he spoke strongly in
his favour, and expressed a hope that the “ Honourable
Houses of the Realm would continue to extend their con
fidence to him;" and in Document 196, which was written
by Swedenborg between March and July 1761, he used the
following language: “ Now, as three of the senators, Baron von
Höpken, Baron Palmstjerna, and Baron Scheffer have fur
nished proofs of their care for our excellent form of govern
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