Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - First part - III. Constitution and Administration - 1. Constitution - Historical Account and present Constitution, by E. Hildebrand, Ph. D., Chief of the National Record Office, Stockholm
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174 iii. CONSTITUTION AND ADMINISTRATION OF SWEDEN.
by a new clause to the Constitution Act, called the Act of Union and Security
(Förenings- och säkerhetsakten) he obtained for himself complete liberty in the
government of the kingdom, the right to declare war, etc. The power of the
Riksdag was further restricted, the time-honoured Council of the Realm was dissolved,
and the King sought counsel of a ministry appointed in a somewhat arbitrary fashion.
For the administration of justice in its higher branches, a special High Court of
Justice was instituted; and for the administration of the National Debt, a special
board was appointed under the direction of the Estates. The distinctions between
the nobility and the other Estates were to some extend expunged. Commoners
were allowed to hold most of the offices of State, and the position of the peasantry
as a class was materially improved. The form of government had, however, once
more approximated to that of absolutism.
Gustavus IV Adolphus (1792/1809) proved incapable of taking advantage
of the vast power placed in his hands by law, and having brought the country
almost to the verge of ruin by his insanity and having been consequently
dethroned (March 13, 1809), the Estates of the Realm met in assembly and bad the
solution of a difficulty thrust upon them, resembling that presented to their
predecessors on the death of Charles XII. The task they had to perform was the
forming of the constitution of the country anew: that it required reforming, therein
all agreed.
The Resolutions passed by the Riksdag in 1809 inaugurated the polity
in Sweden that still holds. In framing its provisions, advantage could
be taken of the very great experience, drawn from the varying
constitutional experiments during the foregoing centuries, and the framers
showed that they were fully able to cope with the task set before
them. They were careful to strike a moderate middle course, avoided
bestowing a preponderance of scope to either autocracy or oligarchy,
and laid a firm constitutional basis in the truest sense of that
expression. Moreover, with. the exception of the stipulations regarding the
composition of the Riksdag, no radical changes have since been made
in the constitutional fabric then bestowed upon Sweden.
In unison with time-honoured custom, the regulations were drawn
up in three divisions — the three fundamental laws: the Constitution Act
(Regeringsformen), of June 6, 1809, now the oldest written fundamental
law in force in Europe, the Organic Law for the Riksdag
(Riksdagsordningen), 1810, and the Act of Settlement (Successionsordningen) 1809;
of these, the former is expressly stated to be the principal one. A fourth
fundamental law was adopted in 1810: the Law on the Liberty of the
Press (Tryckfrihetsförordningen). The last-named was replaced by a
revised act on July 16, 1812, a new Act of Settlement had to be adopted
on September 26, 1810, and the Organic Law for the Riksdag of 1810
was rendered null by the new one of June 22, 1866. The constitution
act still retains its old date, though it has undergone numerous
modifications in matters of detail.
The Act of Settlement of 1810 regulates the rights of hereditary
possession of the Swedish Crown within the family of Prince Johan
Baptist Julius of Ponte Corvo. The hereditary principle is established in
the male line. The King, who comes of age at 18, shall be an adherent
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