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ANNUAL REGISTER  
For the YEAR 1772. 
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horts the inhabitants, that instead of being influenced by the former yoke, by dissentions or mutual mistrusts, they would with general and united strength, for the restoration of tranquillity among them, at least deliver up that infernal breed, which have been insensibly drawn them into such abjectness and calamity, for that the sword of destruction hung over their heads, over the citizen in his house, the peasant in his field, the beggar in his hut, and the child in his cradle. - It becomes almost necessary to observe, that no yoke past or present, nor no breed of any kind, had been before taken notice of in this declaration.
Such was the cloud, of unknown and undefined dangers, which was spread over the heads of these people. There seem to be some conceptions, which swallow absurdities with greater ease, in proportion to the greatness of their magnitude, while others will boggle at those above a certain size; but those politicians must surely have an accurate knowledge of mankind, who can exactly proportion the other. The prince having impressed such terrors upon the minds of the  people, as were necessary to his future designs, and left such a garrison in Carelscroon, as he could depend upon, marched with such troops as were assembled (having left orders for the others to follow as they arrived) and with some cannon, towards Christianstadt. His brother Price Frederic, taking the same advantage from the danger of the insurrection, put himself at the same time, at the head of the trops in Ostrogothia.
It is said that General Rudbeck, one of the Senators, who happened then to be in those quarters, and immediately set off post for Stockholm, was the first who brought the senate an account of the insurrection, and of the subsequent transactions. This intelligence immediately produced an extraordinary meeting of that body, as well as of the secret committee, the result of which was, the delegating of full powers, for the assembling of the troops, and the taking of all other measures which they should think necessary for quelling the insurrection, to the senator Baron Funck, and to General Pecklin, who were accordingly forthwith dispatched upon that expedition. It is probable, that notwithstanding the obscurity in which it was wrapt, the tendency of Prince Charles's manifesto, was well understood by the senate and the secret committee, as from the instant of General Rudbeck's arrival, they shewed the great jealousy of the designs of the royal family, and they took every possible measure to counteract them. As they knew that the regiments quartered in Stockholm, were too strongly attached to the royal brothers, for them to place any dependence on their fidelity, they accordingly dispatched orders to the regiments of Upland and Sudermania, to march with all possible expedition thither. They then gave orders to the city cavalry, which is composed of the Burghers, to mount their horses, and to fix patrols in all proper and convenient parts of the city and suburbs, and appointed the senator Count Kalling, who was also considered as prime minister, to be commandant general, with al the authority which they were capable of conferring. They also required of the King not to depart from Stockholm, in terms it is said, which amounted to little less than an absolute command; and desired at the same time that he would recall his brothers without delay, under pretence of an apprehension for the safety of their persons, from their vicinity to the rebels.
The King was not consulted upon any of the resolutions that were passed, or the measures that were taken. It is said, that such papers as it was necessary he should sign, were sent to him for that purpose, without any further communication. This prince shewed great marks of surprize, when the account of the insurrection was communicated to him; but absolutely refused to sign the commission that attended it, for empowering the delegates who were going to Scania, to take command of the army. This refusal was however of no consequence for the present, as the senate affixed both his name and seal to it. In the meantime, the King, as to all outward appearance, seemed quite satisfied with what was going forward, and his carriage in the eye of the public was as such, as if everything had been done under his directions; even so far as t visit the posts and patrols of the Burghers, and to thank them for their attention to public safety. Notwithstanding the flights that had been apparently put upon the King in the course of these proceedings, when the secret committee and senate, laid their resolutions, and the measures they had taken, before a full assembly of the states in the diet, everything they had done was approved of and confirmed by that body. From this circumstance, as far as our present view of things will enable us to judge, the present contest was not a trial for the power between the King, and the senate, or a few factious and powerful noblemen, but it was a trial, between the King on one side, and the general body of the nation, by its representatives, on the other, whether he should overthrow the established constitution of the kingdom, or adhere to those terms, upon which his father and himself had received the crown, and submit to those conditions, which he had voluntarily sworn to observe. For notwithstanding the cry that is raised, of the oligarchical power lodged in the senate, which, from its supposed ascendant over the states, is described as being totally arbitrary, and superior to all control, we may well remember that though the late King was not in any degree so popular as the present was, and from his attempts to subvert the constitution, was always regarded with jealousy; yet when the senate presumed to encroach upon his rights, and to exercise powers, which the states did not think properly applied, they, so recently as the diet before the present, not only 1769, passed heavy censures upon their conduct, but degraded and disgraced, on the most exemplary manner, several of the most considerable members of it, and who were of the first nobility in the kingdom.
Though the King seemed totally dormant and inactive with respect to the present transactions, it is evident that he was taking the most effectual measures to accomplish the great design he had in view: