The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-12 00:00:00

SWEDEN.

We give from the Stockholm journals the following speech
of the King of Sweden on closing the Diet
" Gentlemen, when you arrived at this Diet I greeted you
with an entire confidence in your patriotic intentions and
your attachment to me and my family. It is with the same
sentiments, the cordiality of which has been increased by gra-
tude, that I to-day bid you farewell, restoring you to your
private occupations, which have for so long a time given way
to the duties of the public good. Several resolutions of supe-
rior importance have been adopted during the time that we
have laboured together for the glory and happiness of our be-
loved country. If your conscientious deliberations have not
always succeeded in conciliating opposing opinions, we ought
not to lose sight of the fact, that rarely has an assembly of
the States, restricted to the same duration of time, embraced
quetiens so grave in themselves, and possessing so strong an
influence on all the relations of social right. The complicated
affairs that you have had to examine scarcely allowed a com-
plete solution to be given to all; but what the present has re-
fused us, will, with the aid of the Almighty, be soon effected in
the future. Whilst each of you is going to fulfil in your pri-
vate circle the duties which Providence has confided to you,
I shall devote all my solicitude to the ameliorations which our
social condition may demand, in the firm conviction, that
when I shall convoke you again you will continue on your
ride to proceed in the path leading to the public good, and
which, in order to be the means of producing a calm and en-
lightened improvement, ought also to be marked by union and
mutual confidence. The question of a modification of the re-
presentative system has given birth to serious discussions.
The importance and gravity of the matter explain satisfac-
torily the difficulty of conciliating opinions divided, not as to
the necessity, but as to the nature of the change. le order to
resolve, in the interest of the country, this grand problem,
it becomes necessary to make reciprocal concessions. The
States-General, I am persuaded, will be able to discover, in
the patriotism with which they are animated, the means of
satisfying the wishes of the nation in this respect. In the
course of the session I presented you with a Bill for a new
penal code, and another relative to pris.ms. Although
you have not had time to complete a profound
examination of these matters in detail, you have,
however, adopted principles of a penal system, uni-
ting to the severity which public safety demands the
consideration which the elevated precepts of religion
and humanity call for in favour of the dignity of man.
You have by this decision laid the basis of the ulterior labour
which you will have to discuss at your next coming together,
and on which I shall then present to you a new proposition.
In placing before you the budget of receipts and expenses, I
thought it my duty, Gentlemen, to call your attention to the
necessity of employing the means that could be disposed of in
grants for public instruction, science, and the fine arts, for
regularising our system of defence, and executing public
works to further agriculture and manufactures. Your deci-
sions prove in a satisfactory manner how you have appreciated
the constant object of my solicitude—the glory and pros-
perity of my country. 1 have been informed of your delibe-
rations to guarantee the solidity of the national bank, and
the maintenance of the value of the monetary tokens of the
kingdom. I shall follow with all the attention that the gravity
of the subject merits the results of your measures in this re-
spect. The successive augmentation of the indirect revenues
of the State, testifying an extension in the commercial move-
ment and a progressive improvement in the interior, has
enabled the present Diet to effect a reduction in the
personal taxes. By employing these unforseen resources
in favour of primary instruction, you have again proved your
zeal for all that can contribute to the progress of enlightenment
and morality. At the opening of this session, I informed you,
gentlemen, of the resolution which I had come to, in concert
with a neighbouring monarch and ally, not to pay any longer
the annual tribute which for upwards of a century the king-
doms at present united had given for the protection of their
commerce and their navigation, to one of the states on the
northern coast of Africa. Negotiations entered in for this
object, and which have found a powerful support in the friendly
mediation of England and France, have just been crowned with
success. An arrangement with the Emperor of Morocco con-
cluded on the sth of last April, by plenipotentiaries recipro-
cally appointed for the purpose, has established, from the date
of the convention being signed, the abolition of that annuity.
In virtue of paragraph IC9 of the Constitution, I declare your
present session closed. In imploring the Divine goodness to
pour over our country his heavenly blessing, I renew to you,
Gentlemen, the assurance of my royal benevolence:"