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62 ANNUAL REGISTER
able arbitrary prerogative, or sovereignty as it is called, and esteems it, as before, his greatest honour to be the first fellow-citizen among a virtuous and free people. -By the second, it is recommended to the people to keep within their houses, with their doors locked, and to await quietly the issue of those measures that it shall be necessary to take for the public safety, as the King has been obliged, at the hazard of his life, to  make use of those power which are inherent in him, to rescue the kingdom and himself from that usurpation, which was now, more than ever, intended to be forced upon both. The people are charged not to obey any orders but those which come directly from himself, and are threatened with the consequent punishments if they oppose them. -The third of these pieces does not in any degree answer the avowed purpose of its title, and only gives the people in general to understand, that the King had received information of a design to obtrude an aristocratical government of the kingdom, which had induced him to take resolute measures for its deliverance, of all which they should hereafter be fully informed; and charging them not to be misled by groundless and ill-designed reports, and to obey no orders but those which they should receive from himself or his brothers. All these pieces were published immediately on the day of the revolution, which sufficiently shews, if there could otherwise be any doubt of it, that this extraordinary measure did not hastily arise from any immediate information, or from any transaction that morning with the senate; but was the result of a deep and well concerted design, which provided for every thing previously that could occur in the execution.
The next morning the King received the oaths of the magistrates, the burghers, and the college of Stockholm, by which they were bound to obey him only, and not the senate, or their deputies; and a book was opened in one of the apartments of the palace, wherein all those in general were to subscribe their names, who were willing to take the oath of fidelity. The senators and great offices, who refused to take the oaths, were all strictly confined, among whom were baron Rudbeck, count Heffenftein, the chief magistrate Soenderblad, the fiscal Engerftroem, the King's secretary Helfingius, the secretaries of the nobles, baron Cederstroem, count Kallings, and general Strufenfeldt, the three secretaries of the clergy, th two of the burghers, and the two secretaries belonging to the order of peasants. These were soon after acquianted by the King, that they must take their final resolution, either to swear to the new form of government, or to quit the kingdom for ever, and to give a categorical answer within a month. 
The following day Aug. 21. being appointed abolishing the old form of government, and the establishment of the new, the King assembled all the states in a Plenum Plenorum for that purpose. Such decisive measures were taken for the completion of this great act, as committed nothing to the hazard of chance, or to the caprice of fortune. A large detachment of the guards took possession, in the morning, of the square where the house of nobles stands;

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the palace was invested on every fide with troops; all the garrison were under arms; every thing carried not only the appearance of war, but of the immediate attack of an enemy; while cannon were brought in and planted in the great court of the hall where the slates were assembled. 
Being thus conveniently secured in this place of terrors, it was not a matter of much consideration, whether they should accede to the propositions that were to be made to them. The King opened the scene, by entering the hall in all his regalia; soon after which, having the silver hammer of Gustavus Adolphus in his hand, her made himself the signal for silence, an office which was usually executed by a senator; but none of that body were in the present assembly. 
The King then made a long speech to the slates, in which he represents the deplorable slate to which the nation was reduced by the two great factions that divided the people; that by his means they were severed as it were into two separate nations, who united only in the mangling of their country; that the rancour, revenge, and persecution, that proceeded from this state of discord, was productive of new revolutions, that grew at length into a periodical disease, which disfigured the whole commonwealth; that commotions, which shook the realm, sprung from the ambition of a few; that dreams of blood has been poured, sometimes by one party, and sometimes by another; and that the people were always sacrifices to quarrels, in the event of which they had but little concern. That the only end of their rulers had been to fortify their own power; and that every thing had of necessity been adapted to that purpose; that where the law was clear, the letter of it had been perverted; and where it had been palpably repugnant, it had been broken through. That nothing had been sacred to a people inflamed with hatred and revenge: and that the feeds of confusion had in the end extended so far, that it became a declared opinion, that a majority was above the law; and owned no restrait but it's own pleasure. 
That thus liberty, the noblest of the rights of men, had been transformed into an insupportable aristocratical tyranny, in the hands of the ruling party; which was itself enslaved, and led a pleasure by a very small number of it's body. That the notice of a new assembly of the slates made every one tremble; that, far from considering how the affairs of the nation might be best transacted, they were only busied in getting together a majority of their party, that they might be screened from the insolence and lawless violence of the other. The King then lays, or insinuates, a charge of the blackest dye. He says, if the interior situation of the realm flood thus endangered, how hideous was its external aspect! I blush to speak about it: born a Swede, and a king of Sweden, it should be an impossibility for me to believe that foreign schemes should govern Swedish men; and that the very basest means should have been employed for that purpose. You know what it is I mean: my blushes ought to make you deeply sensible into what contempt the kingdom has been thrown by your quarrels. The 

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