CHAPTER XVIII_Sweden（#44624）

_Progress and Prosperity--Oscar II_

Oscar II. ascended the throne at a moment when universal peace was

restored after the great conflict between France and Germany, and when

an age of commercial prosperity for Sweden seemed to have begun. King

Oscar had received the same superior education as his older brothers,

is as brilliantly gifted as they were and of a more scholarly mind.

As a writer on scientific subjects, a poet and an orator, Oscar II.

had distinguished himself before his succession to the throne. The new

king offered the best of securities for a sound administration in his

thorough and versatile knowledge, wide experience in public affairs,

and rich and harmonious endowment. Oscar II. still did not find it easy

to gain the love and admiration of the Swedish people, of which he is

so eminently worthy. He was the successor of one of the most popular

of rulers that the country ever saw, but King Oscar has lived to see

his own popularity almost outrival that of his predecessor. King Oscar

is, at seventy, a handsome, spirited gentleman, with that dignity which

age, rare attainments, high intelligence and a noble soul grant their

common possessor. This the most learned and popular monarch of Europe

is of a tall, commanding figure, six feet three inches in height, of a

handsome, expressive face, with cheeks of a ruddy color and mild blue

eyes.

Oscar II. has shown great discernment in his arrangement of dynastic

matters. Himself married to the fervently religious Princess Sophie

of Nassau, the king has married his oldest son, Crown Prince Gustavus

Adolphus, to Princess Victoria of Bade, a granddaughter of Emperor

William I. of Germany, and a great-granddaughter of Gustavus IV. of

Sweden. His third son, Prince Charles, duke of West Gothland, is

married to Princess Ingeborg of Denmark, a granddaughter of Charles

XV. of Sweden. These unions are well calculated to accentuate the

increasing political, commercial and cultural intimacy with Germany,

the Scandinavian policy of his predecessor and the desire of King Oscar

to see the descendants of the old royal line of Sweden as heirs to the

crown. In giving his consent to the marriage of his second son, Prince

Oscar (Bernadotte), to Lady Ebba Munck, of the Swedish nobility, King

Oscar has given evidence of the fact that he is not a match-maker

regardless of the feelings of the parties involved. Prince Oscar,

formerly Duke of Gothland, upon renouncing his share of inheritance to

the two thrones, was allowed to marry the choice of his heart. King

Oscar has tried to heal the wounds of the past by opening the vaults of

the church of Riddarholm to the sarcophagi of Gustavus IV. and his son,

and by giving Queen Carola of Saxony, the only living granddaughter of

the former, repeated proofs of esteem and considerate distinction.

King Oscar with his crowns had received as an inheritance two important

problems to be solved--the reorganization of the Swedish army and the

settlement of the difficulties in the relations between the two states

of the Union. The latter has not yet found a satisfactory solution,

although the king has devoted to it his most strenuous attention and

the best of his efforts, in honest application to his royal motto: “The

Weal of the Brother Nations.”

The reorganization of the Swedish army was not effected until after

twenty years of parliamentary struggle. The road of a compromise policy

which was opened in 1867 was followed up at the Riksdag of 1873, in all

the long chain of years royal army bills being repeatedly rejected.

In 1885 the government and Riksdag agreed on a remission of thirty

per cent of the military taxes of landowners in exchange for new

regulations for the militia compulsory service. In 1887 the Riksdag

sanctioned the total abolition of the “indelta,” or cantoned troops,

as far as the navy was concerned, which was the first step toward the

reorganization of the navy, and the same year the militia law of 1885

went into effect.

The old Landtmanna, or agrarian party, in 1888 gave place to a new

protectionistic party. A contested election of twenty-two members

from Stockholm gave a sudden majority to the protectionists, O. R.

Themptander, the able minister of state, resigning. The army bill did

not fare well at first. In spite of the fact that the Landtmanna party

was brushed aside, the old enemies of an army reform, the landowners,

nobles and peasants alike, still being strong enough to successfully

oppose it. The Riksdag of 1888 passed a grain tariff, which went into

effect February 14th of the same year, enforcing several other points

of a protective tariff system.

King Oscar called an extraordinary, or special, session of the Riksdag,

October 18, 1892, when royal propositions were offered and accepted.

The land-tax was abolished and a new army bill passed. According

to the stipulations of the latter, the _beværingstid_, or period of

liability for every citizen to bear arms, was extended to embrace

twenty years instead of twelve, viz., eight years in the first ban of

the _landtværn_, or militia, four years in the second ban, and eight

years in the _landstorm_, or final levy. The first ban of militia is in

time of war to form an integral part of the first fighting line, the

second ban forming a reserve for the first fighting line. The final

levy is to be called out for garrison duty exclusively, and for the

defence of the country against foreign invasion. Six military districts

have been established, five distributed along the entire coast of

Sweden, the sixth inland in the western provinces to be a reserve

ready to be used at the point and moment most needed. The reorganized

army in active service is composed of _værfvade_, or enlisted troops,

and _indelta_, or cantoned troops, the expenses also of the latter

being paid by the government. The royal guards, chasseurs, hussars,

artillery, and engineers are enlisted for two years up to eight. The

militia troops are distributed among both the enlisted and the cantoned

troops, the length of service with the colors being ninety days in time

of peace. The infantry in which all the cantoned troops serve consist

of twenty-six regiments and two battalions. The line is armed with

Remingtons of 8.8 millimetres calibre. There are eight regiments of

cavalry and six regiments and six batteries of field artillery, forty

batteries in all, with 240 cannon. The effective of the active army,

in 1896, was 1,953 officers, 571 employees, 1,779 non-commissioned

officers, 1,641 musicians and 38,802 men, with 6,852 horses. The war

effective is 272,994 men, besides 180,000 in the _landstorm_. The chief

fortifications of Sweden are Carlscrona, on the south coast; two

fortresses outside of Stockholm, viz., Vaxholm and Oscar Fredericsborg;

and, in the interior, Carlsborg, near Lake Vetter. The navy comprises

4 turret ships, with 10-inch armor, armed each with 2 10-inch and

4 5.9-inch guns, and having a total displacement of 12,450 tons; 4

armor clad monitors, 9 armored gunboats, 3 corvettes, 9 first-class

and 5 second-class gunboats, 2 torpedo cruisers, 7 first-class and 9

second-class torpedo boats, 5 torpedo launches, and 12 school ships.

The navy is manned by 267 officers and about 4,500 sailors, not

including conscripts to the number of 8,500 men. The entire cost of the

defence of Sweden exceeds ten million dollars a year.

The movement for a reorganization of the defences has not been caused

by any change in the policy of peace, which has faithfully been carried

out by all the rulers of the Bernadotte dynasty. The ruler of Sweden

and her people desire peace, but not as a gift of mercy from the great

powers, but as a self-chosen right which can be effectively defended

if necessary. The ever-increasing armament of the European powers

has made a strengthening of the Swedish arms unavoidable, but the

Swedish government was the first to announce its readiness to accept

the invitation of Czar Nicholas II. of Russia to a conference for the

discussion of a general reduction of the regular armies. Germany was

made the pattern for the reorganization of the army and navy, the

Swedish government having followed the German also in the treatment of

the labor question, with schemes of accident and old-age insurance,

accepted by the Riksdag.

King Oscar, at his succession to the throne, gave evidence of his

desire to meet the reasonable demands of his Norwegian subjects. He

sanctioned, in 1873, the abolition of the office of a governor-general

of Norway, the government at Christiania to be presided over by a

Norwegian minister of state. To the later Norwegian demands for a

separate flag, consular service and ministry of foreign affairs,

King Oscar has been unyielding. The flag question is of subordinate

importance. King Oscar, in 1899, has refused to sanction the resolution

of the Storthing, three times passed, for a flag without the mark

of Union, for the reason that the flag with that mark was offered

to Norway by his father, Oscar I., and gratefully accepted when the

country had no colors at all, except the Swedish. The Swedish people

will carry their old flag with the mark of Union, irrespective of any

changes made in the Norwegian colors. More serious are the questions

of consular and diplomatic service. In 1893, the Swedish government

offered to compromise by establishing a common ministry of foreign

affairs whose head might be indifferently a Swede or a Norwegian. This

was rejected by the Norwegian Storthing. The same offer was made in

1837, when the dispute first arose, provided that the Norwegian troops

should share the duty of the common defence of both kingdoms. The

Swedish Riksdag of 1893 passed a resolution, in compliance with which

King Oscar for a second time refused to sanction the bill of Norwegian

consulates.

The diametrically opposite views which are held in regard to the

relations of Sweden and Norway are, to a great extent, caused by

a misconception of the nature of the Union. In lack of a Union

parliament, it has by many been considered to be only a personal union

of two countries under the same king. Such is not the case. It is

true that the two countries are both free and independent states and

that the king is the only visible bond between them, according to

the Act of Union, but the Union is nevertheless an _actual_ and not a

_personal_ one. If it was only personal, the king could at will, or

when forced to do so, resign his power in one of the countries and

continue his reign in the other. The Act of Union cannot be changed

except upon a resolution, enacted in both of the respective diets,

and with the sanction of the king in behalf of the Union. A change

can be made at the same Swedish Riksdag at which it is proposed, at

the Norwegian Storthing not until the next regular session. As a

consequence the Union cannot be dissolved by the representatives of

either country alone, and the king cannot dissolve it by exercising

any power of his own. The king cannot abdicate one throne without

abdicating the other, for the first paragraph of the Act of Union

stipulates that the two countries shall be indissolubly and irrevocably

united under the rule of the same king. No abdication can be granted,

except by common consent of the two diets in joint session. When the

two thrones are empty, without an heir-apparent, a new king shall be

elected by the two diets in common. What underlies the Norwegian claims

of a separate foreign ministry is, besides to own an outward sign

of the country’s independence, a desire for a closer constitutional

control of diplomatic affairs. From the Swedish side the desirability

of a Union parliament and a greater authority for the Union government

has been expressed. The Swedes have been found unwilling to grant any

change of the constitution of the Union, except the right be added

for the Union government to dispose of the military forces of both

countries, in equal proportion, for the common defence. King Oscar’s

standpoint in the Unionist conflict has contributed much to increase

his popularity in Sweden, where his firm refusal to sanction any

measure which would cause a weakening to the Union has been received

with the highest approval.

A committee to review the relations of the Union and propose a revision

of its charter was appointed in 1897, but failed to accomplish

anything, the views of the Swedish and Norwegian members differing

too radically in their opinions. It is to be hoped that the ultimate

solution of the unionist conflict, whensoever it come or whatsoever it

be, will bring the two countries of the Scandinavian peninsula closer

together, without any great sacrifice on either side, least of all of

their independence.

During the more than eighty years of peace which Sweden has enjoyed

under the rule of the Bernadotte dynasty, she has developed her

constitutional liberty and her material prosperity in a high degree.

The dreams of glory by conquest belong to days gone by, but in the

fields of peaceable industries she has attained a greatness which the

world begins to realize. At the expositions of Paris in 1867, 1878

and 1889, of Vienna in 1873, of Philadelphia in 1876 and of Chicago

in 1893, Swedish industry and art have taken part with honor in the

international competition. The railways of Sweden have incessantly spun

a more and more extended network of steel over the country, opening

connections for enterprises in new districts and furthering commerce

and industrial art in a wide measure. Oscar II. is an enthusiastic

friend of railway improvements, the state having built and acquired

a quite considerable length of road at his initiative. The length

of Swedish railways, in 1896, was 6,145 miles, of which 2,283 miles

belonged to the state, compared to a total of 1,089 miles of Norwegian

railways.

The post-office, which was made a government department by Axel

Oxenstierna, in 1636, annually transmits 130 million letters and

parcels. The telegraph lines have not reached a very high state of

development; still there are 14,600 miles of telegraph. The telephone

has made much more progress, far surpassing that of any other country

in Europe. The total length of the connections exceeds 40,000 miles,

and the number of apparatus is more than 25,000. Stockholm makes the

widest use of the telephone of any city in the world, with her 300,000

inhabitants having a telephone for every thirty. Sweden has developed

into a commercial country of no inconsiderable rank, notwithstanding

her isolated position. Exports and imports each exceed yearly in

value $100,000,000, the imports being 344,290,000 kronor and the

exports 311,434,000 kronor in value, in 1895, a Swedish krona being

about twenty-eight cents. The commercial value of the foreign trade

amounts to thirty-nine dollars in yearly average for each inhabitant

of Sweden, which is about as much as in France. The imports chiefly

consist of coal, coffee, salt, cotton and wool, while the exports are

timber products, about forty per cent of the whole, iron and steel,

the best in the world, machinery, butter, cattle, matches, etc. The

inland navigation and commerce are very lively. The state finances are

in a prosperous condition. The budget of 1898 showed total receipts of

120,086,000 kronor, of which 14,229,000 was surplus from proceeding

budgets.

Thanks to the well equipped and regulated system of instruction, the

general education has been so highly advanced that Sweden, in this

respect, holds the very front rank among the nations. Besides the

national universities of Upsala and Lund and the state medical college

of Stockholm, city universities at Stockholm and Gothenburg have been

recently founded which are quickly developing. All study at the

universities consists of post-graduate work, there being about thirty

colleges in various parts of the country which lead their pupils as far

as the demands requisite for entering the universities. The Swedish

university courses are of unexcelled thoroughness and completeness.

The so-called Peasant High Schools are peculiar to Scandinavia, having

originated in Denmark. There are twenty-five such high schools in

Sweden, which give to young men and women of the peasant class a higher

education than is available in the common schools, of which latter

there are 10,702, with 692,360 pupils and 13,797 teachers.

Scientific research progresses with energy and success, and Sweden

possesses to-day a great number of eminent scholars, even if the epoch

of men of universal genius appears to be a thing of the past there

as elsewhere. Swedish scientists have opened closer relations with

their co-workers in all parts of the world. The energy of King Oscar

has brought about several congresses of science at Stockholm. In the

natural sciences, Sweden still holds an honored place, in physics

offering two great names, Eric Edlund and A. J. Angstrœm, the latter

celebrated for his work on the solar spectrum, which forms the basis

for the spectral analysis. Death has claimed these men and also J. A.

H. Gyldén, an eminent astronomer; J. G. Agardh, C. W. Blomstrand, H.

O. Nathorst, J. E. Rydquist, able botanist, chemist, agriculturist,

and philologist, respectively; Pontus Wikner, the most remarkable of

the disciples of the philosopher Bostrœm, and Victor Rydberg, the

philosophical poet, novelist and polyhistor.

Among the most noteworthy of living Swedish scholars are Adolph Norén,

Axel Koch and Esaias Tegnér, Junior, philologists; Hans Hildebrand and

Oscar Montelius, archæologists; P. Fahlbeck, Nils and Magnus Hœjer,

Martin Weibull, Ernest Carlson, historians; A. M. Mittag-Leffler,

mathematician; Hugo Hildebrandsson, meteorologist; E. A. H. Key, E. O.

T. Westerlund, Anton Wetterstrand, F. J. Biornstrœm, T. F. Hartelius,

Curt Wallis, prominent in various branches of medical science.

King Oscar with fervent interest and unfailing liberality has

encouraged various scientific explorations, and has had the satisfaction

to see the greatest geographical discoveries of the century successfully

made by Swedes, the circumnavigation of Asia and Europe, and the

discovery of the Northeast Passage by Baron N. A. E. Nordenskiold,

and the exploration of Central Asia by Sven Hedin, which has forever

settled the learned disputes of ages. A third expedition, the most

daring of scientific exploits ever attempted, still keeps the world

in suspense as to its final outcome. July 11, 1897, S. A. Andrée,

a scientifically experienced aëronaut, with two companions, Nils

Strindberg and Knut Frænkel, started in a balloon constructed for

the purpose, and with provisions for three years, from an island

of Spitzbergen, with the purpose of reaching the North Pole. The

daring aëronauts have not been heard from since their departure, but

authorities like Baron Nordenskiold have expressed the best of hopes

that they may have reached Franz Joseph’s Land in safety, whence they

might regain settled regions.[6] S. A. Andrée belongs to a class of

men, the Swedish engineers, who have won distinction for their ability,

and on whom the examples set by Christopher Polhem and John Ericsson

have had a stimulating influence. There are among them two inventors

of the very first rank, who belong to the reign of Oscar II., Alfred

Nobel (d. 1896), the inventor of dynamite, and Gustavus de Laval,

the Swedish Edison. The latter is world-famous for his separator and

other inventions, which have revolutionized the dairy industry. Alfred

Nobel, the disciple of John Ericsson, has not only the glory of having

invented one of the most useful helpers of mechanic and industrial

progress, but also that of having set aside his vast fortune, amounting

to something like $12,500,000, for public purposes. The money is so

invested as to constitute a fund the interest of which shall be applied

to five equal annual prizes, to be awarded for the most important

discovery or improvement in chemistry, physics or medicine, for the

work in literature highest in the ideal sense, and to the one who shall

have acted most and best for the fraternity of nations, the suppression

or reduction of standing armies, and the constitution and propagation

of peace congresses. The first prize, physics and chemistry, shall be

awarded by the Academy of Science of Sweden; that for physiology and

medicine by the Carolin Institute of Stockholm; the literary prize

by the Swedish Academy; and that for the propagation of peace by a

commission of five members elected by the Norwegian Storthing. He

especially directed that in distributing these prizes no consideration

of nationality shall prevail, so that he who is most worthy of it shall

receive the reward, whether he be Scandinavian or not. It seems that

the sum of each of the five annual prizes thus instituted will amount

to $75,000. The inventor of dynamite was deeply interested in all

that was done to promote peace by congresses and societies. He always

considered that by improving war material, and thus increasing the

dangers of war, he was contributing his share toward the pacification

of the world. Alfred Nobel has, by the manner in which the Norwegian

Storthing is made an active party in the disposition of his will,

indicated _his_ view upon the Union of Sweden and Norway and his hopes

for a peaceful solution of their conflicts.

Swedish literature, after the period of dilettantism and epigones, has,

during the reign of Oscar II., twice been rejuvenated and continues its

development on broadened paths and with a wider scope. The eighties

were characterized by a strong realistic movement, which went far in

daring truth of description and brought problems of a social, religious

and political nature under discussion in works of a novelistic or

dramatic form. In naturalism, it never went to the extremes of the

other Scandinavian literature. The movement was to a great extent

brought on by Norwegian and Danish influence, and soon subsided for

want of solid and fascinating art to maintain it. The Swedish champion

of this movement, although without the restrictions of any school,

was August Strindberg, a genius of extraordinary endowment. Through

the versatility and power of his talent, he created new forms for the

Swedish drama, novel, short story and essay. In his battle against

reactionary conservatism he went too far; an excitable nature, led

into extremes, but he has had the manly courage to confess and regret

his mistakes. Strindberg, who is an able historian, ethnographer,

naturalist and sinologue, is the most versatile and prolific of

contemporary writers. In the wide scope of his genius and originality

of his methods, Strindberg is one of the most remarkable dramatists

that ever lived. His autobiographical works are of supreme importance,

both to the students of literature and psychology. Among his

masterpieces are “Master Olof,” the great historic drama of his youth,

“Swedish Fates and Adventures,” and “Utopia Realized,” two series of

short stories, and “The Father,” a modern drama of unsurpassed tragic

grandeur.

Several women took an active part in the literary discussion of social

problems, with more or less justice considered as the champions of

women’s rights. Among these Anne Charlotte Leffler, duchessa di

Cajanello, in spite of her premature death, developed into a novelist

of merit who will be placed side by side with Bremer, Knorring and

Carlén.

The golden lyres of Romanticism were silenced and the epigones were

hushed by the sarcasms of Realism. Count Snoilsky and Victor Rydberg

were the only poets of the earlier period who sang with inspiration and

were listened to. After the realistic movement of the eighties came

a romantic reaction with new lyrics and new novelists, who avoided

the ruthlessness of the realists, but had profited by their merits.

This new movement cannot be called a school, for it is marked by its

great versatility of subjects and great elasticity of treatment. If

the definition of realistic art be “a piece of nature seen through a

temperament,” that of the new movement may be “an artistic temperament

attuned to pieces of nature,” a sensitive and supple talent which has

an almost unlimited capacity to tell every story just in the vein its

particular subject demands. Pre-eminent in this movement stand Ola

Hansson, Selma Lagerlœf, Verner von Heidenstam, Gustaf af Geijerstam,

Peter Hallstrœm, Thor Hedberg, Oscar Levertin, all fine novelists,

almost all good poets, and Geijerstam, an able dramatist. One of the

most interesting and supremely gifted poets Sweden has ever had is

Gustaf Frœding, who generally excels, sometimes abuses, his remarkable

versatility in finding a true lyric expression for the very widest

range of subjects. Sigurd Hedenstierna is the most popular humorist,

witty in his sketches, but impossible as a novelist. The greatest

humorists are August Strindberg and Gustaf Frœding. Contemporary Sweden

has very few and no great literary critics, but some good literary

historians in Henric Schueck, Karl Warburg and Oscar Levertin. She has

a number of able journalists, most distinguished among whom is their

Nestor, S. A. Hedlund, of Gothenburg, a fiery but dignified champion

of a liberal government, religious tolerance, social evolution and

cultural progress.

Swedish literature has a long pedigree compared to Swedish art, which

is hardly more than two centuries old. All the more remarkable, then,

is its rapid growth and high degree of excellence. The first school

of Swedish painters was founded by the German Ehrenstrahl, giving to

Swedish art the cosmopolitan character it has preserved to this day,

influenced by continental but chiefly French art. Swedish painters

early attracted attention abroad. Gustavus Lundberg, with a picture of

Boucher and his wife, won the greatest success of the Salon of Paris,

in 1743. Peter Adolphus Hall, “painter to the king and the children

of France,” has been called the Van Dyck of the miniature painters.

He resided in Paris up to the time of the revolution and took part

in the storming of the Bastile. Alexander Roslin was, from the year

1760, installed in the Louvre as painter to the king and councillor

of the French Academy. In 1771 he carried home a prize which the

immortal Greuze could not capture, much to the dismay of Diderot, and

died as the most famous and wealthy artist of the period. In a later

period, Italy attracted many Swedish artists, and later still, in the

sixties of the present century, the influence of Germany, especially

of the Dusseldorf school, was strongly felt. John Frederic Hœckert

won the first prize of the Paris Exposition of 1855 with his large

picture “Divine Service in the Lapmark.” When the glories of Hœckert

were almost forgotten at home, Edward Wahlberg, in the seventies, was

ushered into celebrity as one of the greatest landscape painters of

modern times, equally appreciated in Germany, as later in France, and

new French laurels were won by Hugo Salmson, William von Gegerfelt

and August Hagborg. Since then French influences have become solidly

established, with a few important artists of the Munich school, like

C. G. Hellquist and Julius Kronberg. The climax of artistic honors

was reached by Nils Forsberg, whose picture, “The Death of a Hero,”

carried home the first prize of the French Salon in 1888 (not an

exposition medal), a distinction which no Swede and exceedingly few

non-French artists ever won. The repeated successes which Swedish

painters have won at expositions of Europe were more than duplicated by

the enthusiastic approval granted it at the World’s Fair in Chicago in

1893. The truth is that Sweden possesses a number of eminent painters

in every branch of painting, except the marine, which has been but

sparingly represented since the days of Marcus Larsson. The most

famous among them are, besides those already mentioned, Richard Bergh,

Oscar Biorck, Eva Bonnier, Gustavus Cederstrœm, Prince Eugene, Eugene

Jansson, Ernst Josephson, Nils Kreuger, Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors,

Charles Nordstrœm, Allan Œsterlind, Georg and Hanna Pauli, George von

Rosen, Robert Thegerstrom, and A. L. Zorn. It has been said of the

Swedish painters, by way of complaint, that they are not, as their

brethren in Denmark and Norway, in any marked degree national. Swedish

art has, for its characteristic boldness and superiority in modern

technique, loftiness of purpose, great individuality of expression and

depth of feeling. Be these characteristics national or cosmopolitan,

the Swedish painters are certainly a great credit to their country. To

King Oscar it must be in a high degree satisfactory to see the artistic

tendencies of his family culminate in the works of his youngest son,

Prince Eugene, who, being in the front line of the advance corps of

art, paints, from dreamy, inner life, pictures which are the delight of

artists and true connoisseurs.

The sculptors are less numerous, but the art of Sergel, Fogelberg and

Molin have found worthy perpetuators and innovators in Per Hasselberg,

John Bœrjesson, Frithiof Kjellberg, Alfred Nystrœm, Christian Ericsson,

Th. Lundberg and Ingel Fallstedt. To the art of metal engraving on

coins and medals Sweden has offered some works of the very highest

value by J. E. Ericson, P. H. Lundgren, Lea Ahlborn and Adolphus

Lindberg.

Architecture cannot boast of any continuous chain of brilliant

development. Since the days of Nicodemus Tessin there have been few

great architects until in very recent times, when architecture has

received a sudden impetus which has made its progress and results as

remarkable, or almost more so, than that of the other arts. To Helgo

Zettervall a number of elaborate national works of construction and

restoration have been intrusted and, as a rule, carried through in a

meritorious manner, although sometimes giving occasion for serious

criticism. An important influence was exerted by Frederic William

Scholander, more by his teaching than by his works. It is principally

his pupils who in the last few decades have almost revolutionized

the building methods and architectural aspect of the capital, and

endowed Gothenburg and other towns with works of architectural

distinction. Pre-eminent among modern architects are I. G. Clason,

Gustavus Wickman, K. F. von Gegerfelt, Adrian Peterson, Hans Hedlund,

Valfried Karlson, A. F. Anderberg, E. Lallerstedt. The Vasa, or Swedish

Castle Renaissance, which with good effect has been reintroduced for

monumental buildings, seems to lead architecture on to a wholesome

national development, combining impressive outlines and solidity with

elaboration and grace of interior decoration.

The foremost composers of orchestral music have been mentioned

above. Sweden maintains her reputation as being the country of song

through the compositions by Hedenblad, Kœrling, Svedbom, Sjœgren and

Arlberg, while Sœderman has brought the form of the ballad, based on

national folk music, to the highest development. The royal opera of

Stockholm recently moved into new and elegant quarters erected on the

site of the old opera house built by Gustavus III. It possesses, in

Caroline Œstberg, Mathilde Linden, Arvid Œdman, C. F. Lundquist and J.

Elmblad, dramatic singers of high rank, while Sweden, in Louise Pyk,

Mathilde Grabow Taube and Solomon Smith, owns concert singers of great

eminence. The international firmament of song has two Swedish stars of

considerable magnitude in Sigrid Arnoldsson-Fischhoff, a colorature

songstress, and Ellen Nordgren-Gullbrandson, a Wagner singer. The

greatest actor is Emil Hillberg, a noble creator of Ibsen and

Strindberg rôles, while the country recently lost its ablest comedian

in the death of Knut Almlœf.

Sweden of to-day offers an attractive picture of a country in a high

degree cultured and prosperous, but no country or period is entitled

to reap only benefits or enjoy undisturbed happiness. No progress

is obtained without struggle and relapses, and a good must give way

for something better. Beneath a surface generally smiling and serene

formidable religious and social forces are in motion. The Swedish

state church is divided into two camps, which resemble a high and

a low church, out of which the whole may come forward strengthened

and rejunevated. The various sects are not all satisfied with the

degree of liberty they enjoy. A shallow materialistic movement of

anti-religious tendencies, which styled itself Utilitarian, caused

some sensation in the latter eighties and early nineties, more through

the somewhat too severe manner in which it was suppressed than

through any of its own merits. There are agitators for a separation

of state and church who are opposed by some of the stanchest friends

of a constitutional monarchy. A separation of educational and church

affairs seems desirable. The yeomen have regained the predominant

position in political life which was theirs in the time of the ancient

Teutonic communities, using their power in a way which is not always

beneficial to the other classes or the state at large. The great class

of country population, which has been in vain striving to rise to the

privileged class of landowners, if even on the smallest scale, have

emigrated in vast numbers. The emigration, which has given America

at least 1,200,000 inhabitants of Swedish birth or parentage, is one

of the most astounding phenomena of the century. It has, to a large

extent, subsided, but may be revived if the pressure for social

improvement is found of no avail. The workingmen are resolved to

gain a representation and are striving to attain the introduction

of general suffrage. The weapons they use are principally strikes,

but may also turn to wholesale emigration. In 1893 the advocates

of universal suffrage arranged for the election of a convention by

popular vote, the first Folksriksdag, which addressed an appeal to

the legal Riksdag, to consider an amendment for the extension of the

suffrage. The liberals and radicals are interested in this agitation,

and brought out their full vote to the Folksriksdag. The conservative

party ignores the whole movement, probably not wisely. The towns are

seeking an extended representation and bitterly oppose the curtailment

of the rights already enjoyed, fearing the reactionary tendencies

of the conservatives, who have their strength in the large agrarian

population. Anarchism is something unknown in Sweden. The socialistic

agitation, which is spreading among the classes without a political

representation, is carried on without any great bitterness and entirely

without lawless means.

Any practical or theoretical agitation for a republic there is none

in Sweden, the population as a whole not finding salvation from the

defects of government or society in any outward change of rule. Civil

service is enforced to the letter, and the social pressure from above

downward is of a nature caused by financial or educational supremacy

only and would remain the same under republican rule. The Swedes

are proud of their history and the long and unbroken chain of their

political and social development. Their neighbors accuse them of

having traces of the chauvinism of bygone days, but not altogether

with justice. The national anthem of Sweden can be quoted in their

justification. It speaks, in one instance, of the country as enthroned

on memories of a glorious past when its name filled the world; but

that name is the North, to whose grandeur and loveliness of nature the

whole song is a panegyric. The name of Sweden is not even mentioned, a

fact which does not point to a narrow or antiquated form of patriotism.

There is in the nature of the Swedes a tendency to delight in the

display of dignified luxury, which was known to Tacitus. The Swedes

love to see the crown of one of the oldest states of Europe carried

with dignity as an emblem of their ancient independence. The Swedish

king has in reality less power than the President of the United States,

but the Swedes have an inherited faculty of confidence and loyalty of

which their king receives his full share. The Swedes become excellent

citizens of a republic for that very reason: reverence for, and loyalty

to, the institutions and historial development of the country in

which they dwell. Among the Scandinavian nationalities, the Swede has

been characterized as the nobleman or aristocrat, on account of his

love of luxury and the joys of life, his dignity, diplomatic talent

and lyrico-rhetoric temperament. It is true that his dignity seldom

forsakes the Swede; when it does, something of the soldier of the

Thirty Years’ War comes to the surface. To her diplomatic talent, more

than to her glorious victories, Sweden owes her superiority in size,

prosperity and political importance, as compared to her Scandinavian

neighbors.

The fundamental laws of the kingdom of Sweden are: 1. The constitution

of June 6, 1809; 2. The amended regulations for the formation of

the Riksdag of June 22, 1866; 3. The law of royal succession of

September 26, 1810; and on the liberty of the press of July 16, 1812.

According to these statutes, the king must be a member of the Lutheran

church, and have sworn fealty to the laws of the land. His person

is inviolable. He has the right to declare war and make peace after

consulting the state council. He nominates to all higher appointments,

both military and civil; concludes foreign treaties, and has a right to

preside in the supreme court of justice. The princes of the blood royal

are excluded from all civil employments. The king possesses legislative

power in matters of political administration, but in all other respects

that power is exercised by the Riksdag, in concert with the sovereign,

and every new law must have the assent of the crown. The right of

imposing taxes is vested in the Riksdag. The executive power is in the

hands of the king, who acts under the advice of a cabinet or state

council, the head of which is the minister of state. It consists of ten

members, seven of whom are ministerial heads of departments and three

without departments. All the members of the cabinet are responsible for

the acts of the government.

Eric Gustavus Bostrœm is minister of state, holding office since 1891,

after the protectionists had got into power and the compromise cabinets

which followed were a thing of the past. The other ministers without

departments, Baron A. L. E. Akerhielm and S. H. Wikblad, have remained

in office since the days of compromise cabinets. The other members who

have been in office from five to eight years are as follows: Count

L. V. A. Douglas, minister of foreign affairs; P. S. L. Annerstedt,

minister of justice; Baron A. E. Rappe, minister of war; J. C. E.

Christerson, minister of marine; J. E. von Krusenstierna, minister of

interior; Count H. Hansson Wachtmeister, minister of finance; G. F.

Gilljam, minister of education and ecclesiastical affairs.

King Oscar II., in the jubilee year of 1897, which marked the

completion of a quarter of a century of his reign, received innumerable

proofs of the love of the two nations under his rule and of the

high esteem in which he is held by the governments and citizens of

foreign countries. The occasion was celebrated by a large and highly

successful Scandinavian exposition at Stockholm in the summer, Russia,

with Finland, also taking part, and by a series of festivities about

September 21st, the date of his succession to the throne. King Oscar

has always given sympathetic attention to the United States, especially

to their citizens of Swedish birth. Several deputations from America

called upon the king in the jubilee year. Among these was a male chorus

of fifty-four members, belonging to the American Union of Swedish

singers. The singers were invited to the royal castle and received

and feasted by the aged monarch with cordial simplicity, in all royal

splendor, without any of its pomp or ceremony. To the hearty songs of

his unpretentious guests, King Oscar responded with one of the eloquent

speeches for which he is so justly famous, assuring them that, although

citizens of another land, they were still followed by the loving

interest of their mother country and her monarch. When the singers

intoned one of the songs by Prince Gustavus, the king joined them with

his sonorous tenor voice, smilingly calling their attention to the

fact that he had not forgotten his students’ songs. The anniversary of

the seventieth birthday of Oscar II. was celebrated January 21, 1899,

a slight gloom being cast over it on account of the temporary illness

of the king. Oscar II. fully recovered after a few months of rest and

recreation and bears every indication of attaining the same advanced

age, with the same unimpaired activity, as his grandfather, which

would mean another decade added to the era of undisturbed peace. Crown

Prince Gustavus Adolphus, who is yet little known in Norway, enjoys

great popularity in Sweden, where his harmonious, sagacious nature and

resolute energy are highly respected.

The reign of Oscar II. in Sweden has been marked by reactionary

movements in Church and State, but the king has been in such close

contact with his people that they have recognized in him a sovereign

who stands above the parties. The king has used the conservative

elements of his country to strengthen her defences and to maintain the

Union with Norway, which have been the great goals of his policy of

peace. To sum up King Oscar’s standpoint in the Norwegian question,

he is willing to grant Norway home rule in its fullest extent, but

refuses to grant her separate control of foreign affairs, which he

considers incompatible with the idea of the Union. In this standpoint

King Oscar is backed by the convictions of the overwhelming majority

of Swedes, who see in the dissolution of the Union a danger to Sweden,

Norway, or both countries, of sharing the fate of unhappy Finland,

which the civilized world is now deeply deploring. The danger which

menaces the sons of Suomi has touched all Scandinavians to the quick,

and it would seem that the new century shall witness a restoration of

the Scandinavian policy. If the movement to bring this about meets with

success, it is to be hoped that, from the start, it shall have rather

the actual wants than the ideal rights of the independent Scandinavian

states in view. From the point of view of citizens of the United States

we cannot but sympathize with a movement which may establish a union

of independent states into a realm of imperial government, less an

emperor. Let there rather be two or three kings in the North, with one

solid union government and a common and equal defence in case of war,

than two or three foreign ministers with as many different policies and

a divided and unequal defence.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The ancient name of this province, Viken, probably is the key to

the disputed etymology of the word _Viking_.

[2] These were not departments in the sense of bureaus, but _collegia_.

[3] Through the efforts of the Swedish scholar, Eric Benzelius, Junior,

a third edition was published at Windsor in 1750. J. K. Kohn’s edition

dates from 1805, founded on the works of the Swedish scholars Sotberg

and Ihre. Of later editions, the one by Professor A. Uppstrœm, of

Upsala, of 1854 to 1857, is considered to be the standard one. A fine

American edition has, in recent years, been published by Dr. G. H.

Balg, of Mayville, Wis. The history of Codex Argenteus, after once for

all being placed in the University Library of Upsala, has not been

altogether uneventful. In 1834 ten of the 187 leaves were stolen and

remained missing for twenty-three years. One of the trusted janitorial

attendants of the library had taken them in the hope of obtaining a

great sum of money for them, but later dared not dispose of them. On

his death-bed he surrendered the stolen leaves.

[4] Lewenhaupt is a German translation of the old Swedish family name

of Leijonhufvud, and carried by a branch whose members held the dignity

of counts. Almost similar is the derivation of Von Rosen from Tre

Rosor, etc. During the Period of Political Grandeur, and later, it was

a habit of certain branches of the old Swedish nobility to translate or

Germanize their names in this way. The burghers and clergymen followed

the custom when being ennobled, Archaic spelling was preserved, or

adopted, in most cases.

[5] The ecclesiastic department is also the department of education.

[6] A. C. Nathorst, an able scientist and explorer, started in the

summer of 1899 with an expedition to Greenland in search of Andrée and

his companions.

INDEX

Abelin, G. R., 408-410.

Abo, 89, 122, 171, 172, 186, 232, 313, 370;

peace treaty (in 1743), 316, 317.

University of Abo (see Universities).

Absolutism, Absolute Monarchy, 255-258, 260, 268, 293, 298, 300-301,

302, 308, 309, 310, 314, 344, 349, 350, 357.

Academic style, 339.

Academy, of Antiquities, 235;

of Art, 346;

of Science, 336-337, 340, 346;

Swedish, 346, 355;

French, 428;

Military, 355.

Adalvard, 68;

the Younger, 68.

Adam of Bremen, 63.

Adlerbeth, G. G., 345, 350.

Adlercreutz, C. J., 358, 360-361, 362, 367;

A. G., 409.

Adlersparre, George, 362.

Admiral, 189;

State, 250.

Adolphus Frederic of Sweden, 303, 316, 317-320, 339.

Adolphus John, Duke, 249.

Adrianople, 297-298.

Africa, 232.

Aftonbladet, 377, 403.

Agardh, J. G., 423.

Agne, 36.

Agnefit, 36.

Agriculture. See Sweden.

Ahlborn, Lea, 430.

Ahlstrœmer, John, 317, 321, 334-337.

Akerhielm, A. L. N., 435.

Akkershus, district of, 248, 307;

fortress of, 307.

Aland archipelago, 171, 388;

peace deliberations at, 306.

Albrecht the Elder, duke of Mecklenburg, 95;

the Younger, king of Sweden, 95, 96-97, 100, 102, 103.

Alemannians, 29.

Alexander I. of Russia, 357-358, 370.

Alexandra, princess of Russia, 355-356.

Alexandria, 27.

Alf, 36.

Alfred the Great, 43.

Alingsos, 217, 334-337.

Alliance, 187, 189, 202, 206, 225, 259, 273, 283, 296, 315, 319, 344,

352, 357, 370, 388, 404;

Triple, 252.

Alliterative prose, 66;

verse, 61, 66.

Almlœf, N. V., 390;

Knut, 432.

Almquist, C. J. L., 388-389.

Alnsnœ, meeting at, 86.

Alof, 38.

Alps, 21.

Alrek, 36.

Altmark, armistice of, 203.

Altona, 295.

Alt-Ranstædt, 279-281;

peace treaty signed at, 281, 290.

Alvastra, 74, 77.

Ambassadors, 254, 269, 272, 305, 358, 368.

Amber, 17, 24.

America, 232, 324, 332, 351, 432, 436;

South America, 378.

American Union of Swedish Singers, 436.

Amsterdam, 323, 326.

Anastasius, 28.

Anatomy, 262, 325;

hall of, 262-263.

Anckarstrœm, J. J., 352.

Anckarsverd, C. H., 362, 377, 379.

Anderberg, A. F., 431.

Andreæ, Laurentius, 141, 150.

Andrée, S. A., 424.

Ane, or Aune, King, 37.

Angermanland, 5.

Angermannus, Abraham, 183, 184.

Anglii, 47.

Anglo-Saxon, 58, 62.