^ °x° K Bates 5 aW queflions of privilege and taxation excepted,, in which
— > the unanimous confent of the four houfes ihould he requifite.
refpect to the iecond point, the power of removing perrons
from public employments, it was refolved that, whereas the
king, in the fecond article of the form of government, promifes
noti to ruin any. man as to his life and honour, body or welfare,
unlefs lawfully convidted and judged ; under the word ’welfare
are included public offices and employments : no man, therefore,
can be deprived of any civil, military, or ecclefiaflical employment,
. without previous trial or judgment, according to. the
laws of the land,, excepting thofe public officers of Hate, and
committees mentioned in the form of government, who are liable,
as before, to be removed by the king..
As to the third point, it was decreed, that the fubftdies voted at
the preceding diet to remain in force till the next meeting of the
Hates, ihould now be. continued for four years only ; , and that
one per cent. Ihould be deducted; a deduction which, however
fmall, was made in order to prove, that the grant of the extraordinary
revenues depended entirely on the good pleafure of the
diet, and that the revenue of the crown was by no means fixed
and permanent.. An.important regulation,.which almofl renders
it necefiary for the king to fummon the diet in four years, unlefs
he can render (what is not poffible) his fixed revenue equal to
the public, expenditure.
But as an additional proof that the king, by the.revolution'of
W L
s T O C K It Ó L M.
1772, was not defpotic, it is only necefiary to add, that he has
lately obtained new prerogatives ; and has effe&ed, with the confent
of the Hates, fome changes in the form of government,
which render him Hill more powerful.
When the king was leading his army into Ruffia, and was preparing
to befiege Frédericfham, which if he had taken he
might have marched perhaps almofl without interruption to the
gates of Peteriburgh, he was checked in the midfl of his career
by the revolt óf feveral òf his officers, who refufed to pafs the
limits of SWedifh Finland, under the pretence that the king had
no power to carry on òffenfive war without the confent of the
Hates.
A defpotic fovereign would inflantly have arrefled and condemned
the refradlory officers to death, have appointed others in
their places, and have continued his progrefs againfl the enemy.
But the king, who was not defpotic, arrefled the officers, but lent
them to Stockholm, to be tried according to the laws of their
country, and immediately recalled his troops from the Ruffian
territory.
Not long afterwards he convened the Hates, laid before them
the motives which induced him to attack Ruffia, obtained from
the majority of the four houfe.s an approbation of his conduit,
and fupplies for the fupport of the war.
Convinced alfo from recent experience, that the king ought
to poffefs the power of declaring offenfive war, and of dif-
pofing of all military commiffions under him, he propofed,
VoL- IIL - N under