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246] ANNUAL REGISTER revive at once in the minds of my people. All has succeeded happily; and I have saved my parent country, and myself, without injury to one single fellow-citizen. You are greatly mistaken, if you believe here has been any other aim, but liberty and law. I have promised to govern a free people; this now is more sacred as it was voluntary; and what has happened shall never lead me from a purpose, which was not founded merely on necessity, but also on conviction. Far from affecting liberty, it is licentiousness I shall destroy; and, with it, that arbitrary sway with which this country has been ruled: transforming all into an orderly and settled government; such as the ancient Swedish laws establish; and such as Sweden before enjoyed under my greatest predecessors. This is the purpose I have had in view, in all that now is doing: to establish a true liberty, which alone can render you, my dear subjects, a happy people; by security, under the law, and by the law, in all your possessions; by the exercise of all honest professions; by an impartial distribution of justice; by regular order in cities, and throughout the country; by careful endeavors to promote the common good; by giving to every one the enjoyment of it, in peace and safety; and, to crown all, by a true piety, free from hypocrisy and superstition. All this can be obtained alone by establishing for the government of the kingdom, a fixed, unalterable law, whose very letter must not be perverted: which must bind not the king alone, but must bind in the same manner also the states; and which must be incapable of being repealed or altered, otherwise than by the free consent of both: which shall permit a sovereign, zealous for the prosperity of his country, to confer with the states, without their looking on him as an object of terror: and which shall finally unite together the king and the states, in one common interest, the welfare of the kingdom. Such a law, as binding to myself as you, is that which I shall now direct to be read before you. You will perceive easily, by all I now have spoken, that, far from following any private views, all has been done for the sake of the country: and if I have been compelled to display before you truth, in its full light, I have done it, not in animosity, but only out of regard to your real welfare. I doubt not therefore you will receive all with thanks; and that we shall together by these means, lay a substantial and firm foundation for your true happiness and liberty. Great kings, immortal in their fame, have swayed the scepter I now hold. It would be the highest presumption in me to aim at a resemblance of them: yet in my zeal and love for you, I emulate them all: and if you wear the same heart with me, for our parent country, I hope the Swedish name will regain that honour and respect, which it acquired in the years of our ancestors. The Almighty God, from whom nothing is hid, sees my heart, and all its secret thoughts this moment. May he shower down his grace and blessing on your determinations! His Majesty's gracious Assurance, given to his faithful Subjects, all [247 For the YEAR 1772. all the States of Sweden, at the Great Hall of the Realm, August 21, 1772. BY the grace of God, GUSTAVUS, King of Sweden, Gothia and Wandalia, heir to Norway, Duke of Schlesswig-Holstein, Stormain, and Ditmarschen, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, &c. Be it known, That whereas the wonderful Providence of God has so ordered, that the licentiousness, which through the course of many years, has been prevalent in this kingdom, and was founded upon a contempt of the laws, has been eradicated to the very ground; the ancient Swedish liberty revived; and the former Swedish laws, such as they were before the year 1680, restored in their most substantial parts, by a new fundamental law: We therefore do most earnestly declare by this, that we will govern and rule this kingdom after the now received fundamental law; renouncing hereby, as we already have done, the hated, unlimited kingly power, or the so called sovereignity*, and esteeming as our greatest glory, to be the first citizen among a truly free people; all which, as we have resolved on it, unforced and unconstrained, with a free will and well-considered determination; so we confirm with our proper signature and personal oath, to follow and fulfil it all: so help me God, in life and soul. STOCKHOLM, Aug. 21, 1772. GUSTAVUS. His Majesty's Speech to the States, in the Great Hall of the Realm, August 25, 1772. IT is with the highest acknowledgement of the favour of the Almighty, that I address myself to you this day; with that confidence and that ancient Swedish simplicity, which was in use in the days of my ancestors. After so many shocks, after so many differences of opinion, we all have now only one common aim, the good of the realm. This requires, that the present assembly of the state, which has now subsisted fourteen months, be soon terminated: with that purpose, I have reduced my proposals † to you, as much as possible. The exigencies are great; but they are alone those of the kingdom: and on my part frugality shall not be wanting. Mutual confidence and concord in your deliberations, will be the most proper way to take salutary resolutions: and what you allow me, shall only be employed to your own good. The King's gracious Proposals, delivered to the States of the Realm, August 25, 1772. SINCE by Divine Providence the transactions of government have taken such a turn, that no impediment can thence arise against the speedy closing of the dyet; yet the states of the realm neither * The term Sovereignity in Sweden always expresses Arbitrary Rule. † Kongl, Majtts Nadiga proposition. In Sweden the king proposes to the dyet the business of the state. [R]4 would,
