Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1886-02-19

| Riksd.a ament, the Swedes call tbei
ana 'u:een, which imposes the national tsxa,
comnd Aes on national concerns. r. i,
Sana,o 'eu OF TWO Houses, resembling ON,
Wash:, ana House of Representative. n
IT, 'n,nk.on, both elected By the peonle
hers ai pp.l mouse Is composed of 1877 mem
THIS body must be above tb;rty-e-a a" =,
age and have possessed either ra.l &C., :. =.
Tue taxed value of q, 900 American 5o1,... =
or an annual increase of $1,000. They b.,s
uo pay Tor their services. The lower bonss
composed of 204 members. who ru.r be
ns.oVes OF the country and not less than tvsn,
y. yy.nse years OF age. Their election ia fo,
.he e .eIm OF three years. and they are paid Al
VIC a'e OF sooO for each session of fou,
-io.'as' oesldes travelling expenses. All
.es OF sweden aged twenty-one wears.
ee os. reai estate to the taxed value OF
sz'o' or farming, for period of not less thu =
I'VE years,1anded property to the taxed vaIuo
u Slooo, or paying an income tax on an an.
huai income ct 1925, are electors. and the
IN members OF the lower House must have tho
IKE property qualifications. Thus. though
o~eden does not have universal suffrage ber
voters are required to have but a small n,on-
erty or annual income. The presiding off
GERS OF both Houses are appointed nv the
Ming Whlle Sweden has this National Par.
lament and her king rules under a Constitu-
tioh' hardly can it be said that he verifies the
iaVofte maxim of Theirs, the great French
statesman, IN the days of Louis Phillipe-
aIne hlng reigns but governs not" The
0"eulsh CaDinet Ministers are members of
Iariia'nent' 10 which they are in large de-
gree Responsible, though not to the full ex-
tent that the English Ministers are to the
House of Commons.
But what of the Swedes outside of the indi.
viduals and families of the Court ? This is a
more important question to us than the status
and concerns of the few. As whole we
found them an honest, industrious. orderly
ana Intelligent people. Divided into three
classes. by lines which have come down
through centuries, the nobility, the burghers
or mercantile and business class, and the
peasantry of the country ranking with the la
boring population of the large towns and
cues, each class has its distinctive pecu-
narltles' yet possess many characteristics
IN common AS persons of integrity, fair
dealing and financial faith, they are not sur
passed by the people of New England.
Ooedlent to the laws, proud of their
historic fame. in respect of manners
we could learn much from them The de-
pertinent of the young, of both sexes towards
their superiors in age and experience, is in
advance of the manners of the young among
us,certainly should put to the blush of shame
the young America of many of our boys and
girls, if they could but see themselve. as
others see them in the mirror of good be-
havior. A more orderly people we never
saw. In residence of nearly six years in
Stockholm, and in visits 10 other cities of the
Kingdom, we never saw a riot or a row. Very
rarely did we witness the police obliged to
use force. Official power and integrity are
high. The government is carried on with
wisdom and economy. Justice is promptly
administered in the courts. The active
army and navy are small. The ter
rible military burden which brushes
the German, the Russian, the Austrian,
the Italian, and the Frenchman does not press
on the Swede. The system of popular edu-
cation is excellent and faithfully cared for,
and the higher institutions of learning and
science take good rank The arts and man.
ufacturers are well advanced. The telegraph
is chiefly owned by the government, and the
main trunk lines of railroads are under gov
eminent control. 1t is this robust, industri-
Gus, and law abiding nation which is sending
to our country an annual emigration of &c, 900
to 10000. yet maintaining a steady increase
At home. They are of the best of the Euro
pean population that IS focking to these
shores and peopling the vast West. 1t is this
nation, which two hundred and fifty years ago
then numbering less than million and a
half of souls, who, bound together and in
spred with on intense patriotic enthusiasm,
like the citizens Of Attica in the days OF
Themistokles and Pericles-this people under
the leadership of the immortal Gustsvus
Adolphus and his great minister, Oxensterna,
beat back Russia from the shores of the Bal
tic, BUNDLED warlike Poland, then proud and
strong, and grappled successfully in long
and terrible war, with the German empire
under Ferdinand III. and his great generals
lilly and Wallenstein, lifting Sweden to the
front rank of European nations-the position
which she maintained for period of eighty
years, and which was lost to her by the adj
venturous and unbalanced ambition and I'M
statesmaniike conduct of Charles the MI. Ii
is this nation now united with Norway in
dual government under the same sovereign,
numbering in the two kingdoms six aud hall
millions of souls, which stands Independent,
and free with her natural defenses of fjords,
lakes and mountains, strong like Switzerland
amid her Alps, the chief buttress of Scandi.
navia, which, living among her people we
learned to respect, and which ethuology,
topography, and lofty hope Indicate will
become, some day, one nation, from the
German border of Denmark to the midnight
sun and the Arctic Sea.