under the title of the Aft of Safety, feveral alterations- in- the:
new form of government. The three houfes of clergy, burghers,
and peafants,. acceded to this aft 3. but,, as, the nobles,
peril lied uniformly in oppofmg it, and refufed to regilter it
as, the fenfe o f the Hates, the king ventured to arrefl the
principal, perfons in oppolition3 and fummoning the Hates to-,
his palace, he addreffed the order of nobles in the following
manner:
“ I have, waited with every indulgence the iffue of your long
deliberations, in the hope that patience and refleftion would at
length overcome your oppofition. I find,, however,, that this
hope has proved fruitlefs 5 knowing that the interefls of my
fubjefts will not admit of any longer, delay,, and as the laws
o f the, kingdom,, and the refolutions of the diet in 1786,.
Hate that, every future aft, tending to. explain the conffitu-
tion (and fuch is the Aft of Safety) Ihould become a. law by.
the plurality of the orders of the Hate, I confider that your-
prefident,. Count Lowenhaupt, is fully competent to. fign the.
aft, in the name and on behalf of your order.”
Count Lowenhaupt immediately figned it..
Thefe firong meafures were not. effected without the connivance
of the three other houfes 3 and the bulk of the people
undoubtedly fided with the king.
The king has alfo Hill further extended his o.wn prerogative,
and“ diminiihed the influence of the nobles, by abolilhing the
fenate, which, though deprived of its powers, by the revolution.
o f'
of 1772, "was Hill confidered as the principal fupport of the cha p .
arifiocratical interefl, and was the great channel of political and .
judicial difcuffion. Inflead of a body entirely confined to the
nobles, and confiituting the firH fupreme court of juHice, and
whofe confent was necefiary in order to render valid all afts and
decrees of the crown, the king has appointed a new council,
divided into two departments:
1. Called the court of revifion for judicial affairs, or the
fupreme court of judicature, without appeal, and confiffing of
fix nobles and fix commoners.
2. For matters of inferior oeconomy, confiffing of eight nobles
and four commoners.
But even by thefe increafed prerogatives, conferred on the
crown by the Act of Safety, the king is Hill far from being a
defpot, becaufe he does not poffefs, what I cannot but confider
as the two great features of defpotifm, the power of enacting
laws, and of impofing taxes. Though he now enjoys the prerogative
of declaring war and making peace, yet as he cannot
fupport a war without the grant of fubfidies, and as he cannot
lay on a fingle tax without the confent of the Hates, the declaration
of war muff be confidered as a mere formality, and as ultimately
depending on the approbation of the Hates,
It is not my intention to enter into a controversy, how far
the powers poffeffed by the king o f Sweden are too great for the
fovereign of a free people 3 or whether the Hates have a ¿ted ini
confidently or unwifely in granting fuch an extent of preroga-
N x tive: