Litchfield enquirer., 1867-03-07
saa4 ! sB LII s@ 4 QUIET REVOLUTION.

% RA
 @@ AQUIET REVOLUTION. 4
 While so many counties of sthe< globe have been undergoing chang either brought about or accompanied by Yioleneey the kingdom of Sweden has lately,s passed through peaceable revolution of the most sweeping character. From time immemo- rial her Parliament, called the Rigsrad, has consisted of four houses, representing the ! four most influential classes of her people.
 These houses were styled the Chamber of Nobles, the Chamber of the Clergy, the Chamber of Burghers and the Chamber of Peasants. Each of them met separately. and the consent of three was necessary to the enactment of any law. The awkward ness, the expense and the slow progress of legislation under such system may readi- ly be imagined The Burghers and Peas ants were in almost constant opposition to the Nobles and Clergy, who represented small but privileged classes. Many citizens could not rightly be reckoned in either of the four divisions of the population, and were consequently unrepresented. The suffrage of the peasants was based upon the amount of land they owned, each indi- yidual possessing vote for every acre of his farm. while the franchise of the Burgh- SAo " teS Nc@oOA uk1OA IdeAbbAOu, 0O1A0 N0Iy wealthy citizens casting as many as forty votes. Multitudes were excluded from the privileges of the ballot, so that in Stock holm, with population of over one. hun dred and twelve thousand, the constituen- cy numbered but three thousand. The Chamber of the Clergy, representing only 8 few thousand priests, had really as much power as the Chamber of Peasants 4whiehs was chosen by two hundred thousand yo- ters. Tn fact the anomalies of the old sys- tenn were almost innumerable. It combin- ed the inequalities and injustice of the English rotten borough system with @ mul- titude of absurd features derived from the old feudal institutions of the country.
 The difficulties in the way of peaceful overthrow of this unwieldy and incompe- tent method of legislation seemed insuper- able In order to establish new order of things it wasnecessary to abolish the Cham Der of Nobles and the Chamber of the Cler- gy. Were they likely to vote that their priv ileges in the State should be given up, to commit political suicide in fact? Yet unless they did SO there was no way of changing the constitution by merely constitutional means. For many years they held out. The two unprivileged houses at each session of the Parliament passed 8 law reforming the legislative system, which tho two privileged houses as regularly rejected. Popular feel ing rose at last to such height that the King himself espoused the cause of the reformers, and appointed ministry favor- able to reform. Carefully drawn bills re- ducing the four houses to two were intro duced by government, but to no avail. Adopted by two houses, they were rejected by the other two. At last the radical lead 1 CTS adopted more earnest method of ac- tion. Meetings were held, attended by large crowds. i'll every part of the king dom; monster peJ1JfOns wgr5 sent to tfIe Parliament; the press was enlisted in the movement and by multitudes of promi- nent citizens the King was urged to take tho matter into his own hands, decree the
 demise of the ancient legislature and sum- mon convention to devise plan for a new one. The Mobiles and Clergy were at
 last convinced that the country was on the
 brink of revolution which might not only deprive them of their governing privileges, but entirely sweep away their orders. At length after many fierce debates they yield l ed, but many of the nobles refused to vote 1 it to pass by neglectng to record their votes against it.
 The new Parliament meets annually, in- stead of once in three years. It consists of two houses, an upper and lower, both
 elected by the people. The former is com posed of one representative for every thir- ty thousand people, the latter of one for every forty thousand inhabitants. The
 members of the former are elected for sev-
 en years, and must be thirty-fve years of age; those of the latter are chosen for
 three years and must be twenty-five years old Nobles and clergymen are deprived of l their special representative bodies and are
 represented only as portions of the great
 mass of the people. The suffrage has also
 been considerably extended. To fairly ap- preciate this change it must be remember l ed that the Chamber of Nobles was hered-
 itary, that it had existed for many ages, that, like the English House of Lords, it had it's long established traditions and cus- | toms, that it's name was linked with all the
 marked epochs of Swedish history, and 1 that it's members occupied 8 social position of which no commoner could boast. It
 must be remembered that the Chamber of
 the Clergy was supported by the closest
 connection of church and State, that the
 ministry of the Swedish establishment is composed of unusually able and unusually
 respected persons, and that to interfere
 with the privileges of the Lutheran priest
 hood was regarded by the conservative DOT
 ton of the people as little less than sacri-
 lege In the face of obstacles like these, and in spite of the bitter opposition of two classes powerful in the possession of long
 recognized rights, the people of Sweden
 have triumphed, and have built up an ad-
 mirable system of popular representation.
 It is no more than just to say that theil
 triumph has been hastened by the ibera
 sentiments and hearty cooperation ol
 their enlightened sovereign, Charles the Fifteenth. Courant
 A FASHIONABLE CA1n.-Enter Miss Lu cinda, out of breath from walking from he1 papa's carriage in the street to the door o
 her friend. "Oh, Maria, how do you dol