Frederick Beck, Robert Nisbet Bain, Oskar Dumrath, Osbert Howarth and Edmund Gosse

“ Thus Sweden, as well as Denmark, had become an absolute monarchy, but with this important difference, that the right of the Swedish people, in parliament assembled, to be consulted on all important matters was recognized and acted upon. The Riksdag, completely overshadowed by the throne, was during the reign of Charles XI. to do little more than register the royal decrees; but nevertheless it continued to exist as an essential part of the machinery of government. ”

“ But when the Hats became the armour-bearers of France in the north, a protector strong enough to counteract French influence became the cardinal exigency of their opponents, the younger Caps, who now flung themselves into the arms of Russia, overlooking the fact that even a pacific union with Russia was more to be feared than a martial alliance with France. For France was too distant to be dangerous. She sought an ally in Sweden and it was her endeavour to make that ally as strong as possible. ”

“ Modern Sweden is bounded by the Baltic; during the 17th century the Baltic was merely the bond between her various widely dispersed dominions. All the islands in the Baltic, except the Danish group, belonged to Sweden. The estuaries of all the great German rivers (for the Niemen and Vistula are properly Polish rivers) debouched in Swedish territory, within which also lay two-thirds of Lake Ladoga and one-half of Lake Peipus. Stockholm, the capital, lay in the very centre of the empire, whose second greatest city was Riga, on theother side of the sea. ”

“ To sink in five years from the position of the champion of Protestantism to that of the common enemy of every Protestant power was a degradation not to be compensated by any amount of military glory. Charles's subsequent endeavour, in stress of circumstances, to gain a friend by dividing his Polish conquests with the aspiring elector of Brandenburg was a reversal of his original policy and only resulted in the establishment on the southern confines of Sweden of a new rival almost as dangerous as Denmark, her ancient rival in the west. ”

“ With returning prosperity the necessity for internal reform became urgent in Sweden. The antiquated Riksdag, where the privileged estates predominated, while the cultivated middle class was practically unrepresented, had become an insuperable obstacle to all free development; but, though the Riksdag of 1840 itself raised the question, the king and the aristocracy refused to entertain it. Yet the reign of Charles XIV. was, on the whole, most beneficial to Sweden ”

“ Finland he at once gave up for lost. He knew that Russia would never voluntarily relinquish the grand duchy, while Sweden could not hope to retain it permanently, even if she reconquered it. But the acquisition of Norway might make up for the loss of Finland; and Bernadotte, now known as the crown prince Charles John, argued that it might be an easy matter to persuade the anti-Napoleonic powers to punish Denmark for her loyalty to France by wresting Norway from her. Napoleon he rightly distrusted, though at first he was obliged to submit to the emperor's dictation. ”

“ This momentous change, which was to give a martial colouring to the whole policy of Sweden for the next hundred and twenty years, dates from a decree of the Riksdag of Linköping establishing, at the urgent suggestion of Charles, a regular army; each district in the country being henceforward liable to provide and maintain a fixed number of infantry and cavalry for the service of the state. The immediate enemy was Poland, now dynastically as well as territorially opposed to Sweden. The struggle took the shape of a War with Poland and Russia. ”

“ Climate.—The climate of the Scandinavian peninsula as a whole is so far tempered by the warm Atlantic drift from the south-west as to be unique in comparison with other countries of so high a latitude. The mountains of the Keel are not so high as wholly to destroy this effect over Sweden, and the maritime influence of the Baltic system has also to be considered. Sweden thus occupies a climatic position between the purely coastal conditions of Norway and the purely continental conditions of Russia; and in some years the climate inclines to the one character, in others to the other. ”

“ Sweden itself may be considered in four main physical divisions—the mountains and highland district, covering all Norrland and the western part of Svealand; the lowlands of central Sweden; the so-called Småland highlands, in the south and south-east; and the plains of Skåne, occupying the extreme southward projection of the peninsula.
The first district, thus defined, is much the largest, and includes the greatest elevations in the country and the finest scenery. The highest mountains are found in the north, the bold Northern Highlands. ”

“ Sloth and carelessness speedily invaded every branch of the administration, destroying all discipline and leading to a general neglect of business. Another characteristic of the de la Gardie government was its gross corruption, which made Sweden the obsequious hireling of that foreign power which had the longest purse. This shameful “subsidy policy” dates from the Treaty of Fontainebleau, 1661, by a secret paragraph of which Sweden, in exchange for a considerable sum of money, undertook to support the French candidate on the first vacancy of the Polish throne. ”

“ Hence his alliance with Denmark to defend Stralsund in 1628. There is much of unconscious exaggeration in all this. As a matter of fact the Polish republic was no danger whatever to Protestantism. Sigismund’s obstinate insistence upon his right to the Swedish crown was the one impediment to the conclusion of a war which the Polish Diet heartily detested and very successfully impeded. Apart from the semi-impotent Polish court, no responsible Pole dreamed of aggrandisement in Sweden. ”

“ Journalism The Gustavian period. began to develop; the Swedish Academy was founded; the drama first learned to flourish in Stockholm; and literature began to take a characteristically national shape. This fruitful period naturally divides itself into two divisions, equivalent to the reigns of the two kings. The royal personages of Sweden have commonly been protectors of literature; they have strangely often been able men of letters themselves. Gustavus III. (1746–1792) , the founder of the Swedish Academy and of the Swedish theatre, was himself a playwright of no mean ability. ”

“ At the beginning of the Glacial period the height of Scandinavia above the level of the sea was greater than at present, Sweden being then connected with Denmark and Germany and also across the middle of the Baltic with Russia. On the west the North Sea and Cattegat were also dry land. On the elevated parts of this large continent glaciers were formed, which, proceeding downwards to the lower levels, gave origin to large streams and rivers, the abundant deposits of which formed the diluvial sand and the diluvial clay. ”

“ The high agricultural development of the plains of Skåne appears from the fact that although that province occupies only one-fortieth of the total area of Sweden, it produces 30% of the entire wheat crop, 33% of the barley, 18% of the rye and 13% of the oats. A system of rotation (cereal, roots, grass) is commonly followed, each division of land lying fallow one year as a rule; not more than two ripe grain-crops are commonly taken consecutively. ”

“ The mass of the Swedish people was penetrated by a justifiable fear that the external, artificial greatness of their country might, in the long run, be purchased with the loss of their civil and political liberties. ”

“ The Swedes, irritated by his misrule, superseded him by his nephew, Albert of Mecklenburg (1365) . In Sweden, Magnus's partialities and necessities led directly to the rise of a powerful landed aristocracy, and, indirectly, to the growth of popular liberties. Forced by the unruliness of the magnates to lean upon the middle classes, the king summoned (1359) the first Swedish Riksdag, on which occasion representatives from the towns were invited to appear along with the nobles and clergy. ”

“ In 1660, after five years of incessant warfare, Sweden had at length obtained peace and with it the opportunity of organizing and developing her newly won empire. Unfortunately, the regency which was to govern her during Minority of Charles XI. the next fifteen years was unequal to the difficulties of a situation which might have taxed the resources of the wisest statesmen. Unity and vigour were scarcely to be expected from a many-headed administration composed of men of mediocre talent whose contrary opinions speedily gave rise to contending factions. ”

“ Dairy-farming is profitable, England and Denmark being the principal foreign consumers of produce, and the industry is carefully fostered by the government. A board of agriculture had been in operation for many years when in 1900 a separate department of agriculture was formed. There are one or more agricultural societies in each län, and there are various state educational establishments in agriculture, such as the agricultural high schools at Ultuna near Upsala, and at Alnarp near Lund in Skåne, an important agricultural centre, with dairy schools and other branch establishments. ”

“ Remains dating from the Stone Age are found scattered over the southern half of Sweden, but it is only along the south coast and in the districts bordering on the Cattegat that they occur in any considerable quantity. The antiquities of the Bronze Age are much more widely distributed and reach as far as the north of Helsingland. It is evident that the country must at this time have been fairly populous. ”

“ In ecclesiastical architecture Sweden possesses the noble cathedrals of Lund, Upsala and Linköping; while that of Skara, near the southern shore of Lake Vencr, dates originally from 1150, and that of Strengnäs on Lake Mälar was consecrated in 1291. There is a remarkably perfect Romanesque church, with aisles, eastern apse and ambulatory, at Varnhem in Skaraborg Län, and there are a few village churches of the same period in this district and in Skåne. The monastic church at Vadstena on Lake Vetter is a beautiful example of Gothic of the 14th and 15th centuries. ”