thirty men-of-war and nearly three hundred galleys, with which he laid waste the whole coast from Norrkoping almost to Stockholm, burning a great number of houses and villages, and destroying all the foundries, smelting-mills, and iron-works. These devastations, however, had no effect in producing the expected submission, and next year the Czar resumed operations with a powerful squadron, which encountered the Swedish vice-admiral, and, after a sharp engagement, compelled him to retire to Carlscrona.

To arrest the progress of these disasters, the Swedes proposed an armistice, and the states were convoked to deliberate on the necessary steps for removing the only impediment that opposed the general pacification of the North. The winter was consumed in fruitless negotiations, and various circumstances threatened to involve the kingdom in fresh troubles, when the Czar at length consented that plenipotentiaries should attend the congress appointed to sit at Nystad, for adjusting a suspension of arms and preliminaries of peace. The conclusion of this treaty, which was finally signed on the 13th of September 1721, was accelerated by the depredations committed on the coasts and commerce of Sweden by a Russian squadron under General Lesly, who had been sent on a predatory expedition with a view to extort more favourable concessions. By the stipulations of that convention, the provinces of Livonia, Ingria, Esthonia, part of Carelia, the territory of Viborg, and the islands of Oesel, Dago, and Mon, were ceded to the Czar, in lieu of which he surrendered the great duchy of Finland, and agreed to pay two millions of crowns as indemnity for losses sustained in course of the war. The prisoners on both sides were to be set at liberty without reserve, and the privilege was granted to the Swedish merchants of exporting corn to the value of 50,000 rubles yearly from Riga, Revel, and other Russian ports in the Baltic. The sacrifices exacted from Sweden by the treaty were deemed too great, and excited considerable discontent; but in the exhausted and half-ruined state of that kingdom, it was evidently impossible to contend on equal terms with a power then rapidly increasing in military resources, and already mistress of the Northern seas.*

* Voltaire's History of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. Puffendorff, lib. vii. Dumont, Corps Diplom., tome viii., pt. ii., p. 15–36.

Before the completion of these pacific negotiations, Ul rica Eleanora had resolved, to the astonishment of all her subjects, on having her royal consort elected king, and associated with her in the government. Her majesty's proposal was formally communicated to the states, as well as to the senate and the two lower orders of the diet; and after long and violent debates as to the expediency or the advantages of dividing the sovereign authority, it was agreed that the prince should be raised to the throne, the queen consenting to relinquish her share of the supreme power during the lifetime of her husband. An act of election was accordingly drawn out (May 22, 1720), guaranteeing the exercise of the Lutheran religion as the only tolerated faith within the kingdom, and securing the liberties of the nation against any extension of the crown prerogatives, or any legislative measures tending to despotism, agreeably to the stipulations solemnly ratified in the recently-established constitution.

In terms of the act called the Royal Assurance, imposing the new limitations on the regal authority, the monarch had the right of proposing bills or other public measures; but, before these could have the force of law, they were to be submitted to the examination of the states, in whom the legislative power was vested, and without whose assent peace or war was never to be proclaimed. As for the deliberations of the senate, who were conjoined with the crown in the administration, it was resolved that their decisions should be ruled by a plurality of suffrages, the sovereign having two votes and a casting voice besides. The members of that body were restricted in future to the number of sixteen, and, resuming their ancient title, they abandoned that of counsellors to the king, which had been bestowed upon them at the revolution of 1680. In consequence of these restrictions, and the change to which they gave rise, the royal prerogative was greatly circumscribed; nor was it possible to guard against farther encroachments, as the prince, by a radical defect in the new form of government, had no constitutional means of preserving the small remnant of power that was left him.* The exces

* The Articles of the Royal Assurance are recorded in Williams' Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Northern Governments, vol. ii., p. 584-591.

sive zeal of the states for the extension of popular liberty defeated its own object, and the lapse of a few years proved sufficient to overthrow all those securities against despotism which had cost them so much pains to erect.

The establishment of peace and the happy adjustment of foreign affairs enabled his Swedish majesty to expend his whole attention in maturing the fruits of that repose which his harassed and oppressed subjects had at length begun to enjoy. Nor were his efforts unsuccessful. In a short time, order was restored to the provinces; all abuses, social and political, were investigated; commerce revived; industry flourished; the mines and manufactures were diligently cultivated; the treasury was replenished; the army better organized, and the forts and garrisons put in a competent state of defence. In the midst of this tranquillity, some trivial commotion was excited in consequence of alleged affronts being offered to the Dutch resident, and Count Freytag, minister from the Emperor of Germany at Stockholm; but the general harmony was not interrupted by these frivolous disputes about the violation of diplomatic privileges.

Embarrassments, however, of more difficult adjustment arose from another quarter. While attempts were made to implicate Sweden in the disputes that arose out of the treaties of Vienna and Hanover, between Austria on the one side, and England, France, and Holland on the other, the King of Denmark threatened to resume hostilities in consequence of the negotiation which he alleged the Duke of Holstein and the Czar were carrying on for recovering possession of Sleswig. To meet these exigencies, a Swedish fleet was equipped with the utmost expedition, the militia were armed, and bodies of troops despatched for the protection of the coasts; but, fortunately for the peace of Europe, these warlike demonstrations were checked by the interposition of France and England, whose influence defeated the intrigues of the Russian and Imperial courts to detach Sweden from her alliance with Great Britain. The states published their accession to the treaty, declaring at the same time, as the motives upon which their resolutions were formed, that it could be regarded in no other light than a compact merely defensive, with a view to the preservation of the general repose, and contained nothing inconsistent

with the amicable terms in which they stood with the Czar. The king gave his cordial assent to this act of the diet under certain restrictions, unawed by the impotent threats of the Austrian and Russian ambassadors, who evinced their displeasure by a temporary absence from the court of Stockholm.

With respect to the affair of Sleswig, his Swedish majesty considered his closer intimacy with France and England as the most effectual measure for terminating these disputes, as it served to fulfil the treaty with Russia without infringing the engagements contracted with Denmark, and guarantied by so many different powers. This assurance, however, did not satisfy the Duke of Holstein. As only son to the queen's eldest sister, he imagined his hereditary claim on the Swedish crown to be undeniable; and the intrigues which he contrived to pursue for elevating himself to the throne, became at a subsequent period the remote cause of factious disturbances, with which, on a superficial view, they might seem to have had little connexion.

After the successful adjustment of her foreign relations, Sweden passed a number of years in terms of friendship with all her neighbours, and enjoying the fruits of those wise and prudent measures which had been adopted for redeeming the disastrous effects of the late war. The only occurrence that interrupted this domestic tranquillity was the arrest and trial of Count Welling, accused of plotting against the liberties and government of his country, by abetting the mischievous projects of the Baron de Gortz, and holding secret correspondence with the Duke of Holstein, for altering the succession to the throne. Although most of the charges against this aged nobleman were founded in malice, he would have suffered a traitor's death by the hands of the common executioner had not the entreaties of his daughter procured an exchange of his sentence into perpetual imprisoment in his own castle.

CHAPTER IV.

From the Peace of Nystad to the Assassination of Gustavus III., 1792.

Death of Frederic IV.-Pacific and enlightened Policy of Christian VI.-Commercial and Judicial Reforms of Frederic V.Improvement in Arts and Manufactures.-Treaty with Russia.-Internal Dissensions in Sweden.-The Hat and the Cap Parties.-War with Russia.-Defeat of the Swedes and Loss of Finland. Death of the Queen.-Competitors for the Throne.-Treaty of Abo.-Revolt of the Dalecarlians.-Accession of the House of Holstein-Gottorp.-The Seven Years' War.-Treaties of Hamburg and Hubertsburg.-Renewed Dissensions in Sweden.-Struggle between the Hats and the Caps. Attempt to subvert the Constitution-Revolution effected by Gustavus III.-Restoration of absolute Monarchy. -Christian VII. of Denmark.-Administration of Struensee. -His Downfall and Execution.-Divorce and Imprisonment of Queen Matilda.-Triumph of the adverse Faction.-League of the Armed Neutrality.-Spirited Conduct of Prince Frederic. He is associated in the Government.-Misunderstanding with Sweden.-Gustavus implicated in a War against Russia. Failure of the Expedition into Finland.-Changes in the Swedish Constitution.-Renewal of Hostilities.-Battle of Svenkasund.-Peace of Werela.-Revolution in France.Preparations in the North to oppose it.-Assassination of Gustavus III.-Execution of the Regicide Ankarstroem.-Duke of Suderinania appointed Regent.-Accession of Gustavus IV.

DURING the long period that elapsed between the close of the seventeenth and middle of the eighteenth century, the history and policy of Denmark are so intimately blended with those of Sweden, that a relation of the one necessarily comprises the public transactions of the other. The treaty of Stockholm having secured to Frederic IV. all he could reasonably desire, the remainder of his life was passed in a state of unmolested repose; the only event that occurred worthy of commemoration being the destruction of his capital by an accidental fire (1728), which consumed upward of 1640 houses. This monarch died in 1730, in the sixtieth year of his age; he bears the character of a