" and the others concerned in the affair; which orders the counsellor of state, M. Goldberg, had made out some days before. The queen dowager told the king that, if he would not sign the orders, she and her son "would: and, after some conversation, the king signed them.-In consequence of this, colonel Koller, and captains Malleule, Frank, and Eiben "went to arrest count Struensee; and, coming to his hotel, though the "colonel had not the king's orders with him, he told him his errand. "Struensee asked him, if he knew who he was? Koller answered, that he was once the minister of the cabinet, but now his prisoner. Struensee "wished to see the king's order: but Koller said, that he would answer with "his life that his majesty had ordered him to be arrested. "The queen was informed of her disgrace by a billet; immediately after "the receipt of which, count Rantzau, accompanied by three lieutenants, "entered her apartment. She was almost distracted at her situation; and "threatened count Rantsau that he should lose his head; and would have gone instantly to the king; but one of the lieutenants was posted at the "door to prevent her. Count Rantzau then told the officers, that, if her majesty was suffered to go to the king, it would cost them their lives. "The queen, finding that her threats signified nothing, said that her con"duct had always been conformable to her duty, but that of the officers always against it. Rantzau, then, put her into a carriage; and she "was conducted under an escort of thirty dragoons to the castle of Knonenburg.' 66 Such is the account given us of this extraordinary revolution. The facility with which it was effected evinces the extreme weakness of the former administration.—The stability of an absolute monarchy depends on the disposition as well as the talents of the monarch. If a weak prince will suffer himself to be guided by an able minister, his government may be steady and his reign prosperous. But the government of a weak and obstinate prince, conducted by an incapable and unpopular minister, cannot be secure or permanent.-A new administration was formed, in consequence of it, under the direction of the dowager queen and prince Frederic, then about nineteen years of age; whilst the king was treated merely as a pageant of state. The prince was placed at the head of the council which was now constituted: b Annual Register. State Papers. 181. 1772 1772 tuted: and count Rantzau and others who were active in the revolution were rewarded with appointments under the new administration. Counts Struensee and Brandt, mean-time, were thrown into separate dungeons, where they were chained to the floor, till they were brought to their trial. After an examination which continued two months, they were sentenced to death, with every circumstance that could increase the pain and ignominy of their punishment; and they suffered the sentence with a firmness worthy of a better fate.‡ Little is known respecting the proceedings against her majesty. The result of them was a determination that she should be sent to the palace of Zell; in which her royal brother appears to have acquiesced.-Commodore Mac Bride, arriving in the Sound with three English frigates, received her on board, with count de Halstein, lady Mostyn, and other attendants, and escorted her to Stade; where she was attended by several of the Hanoverian nobility, who were sent to conduct her to the place destined for her residence. In that gloomy palace she died in 1775, of a putrid fever, pitied by all who considered that the crimes for which she suffered, even supposing the charges to be proved, were more owing to the unfortunate incidents of her life than to depravity of mind.*c April 28. SWEDEN. C Annual Register. 75. 78. * The following account of her majesty's future destiny is given by Mr. Wraxall." The "fate of the imprisoned queen was long doubtful, and she probably owed to near alliance with "the king of Great Britain, that measures of extreme severity were not adopted against her by "the new ministry of Denmark. It was proposed to immure her for life, in some of the prisons "of state; and the castle of Aabourg in the peninsula of Jutland, a solitary and sequestered pro"vince of the Danish dominions, was once destined for the purpose. But, the powerful and spi"rited interposition of the British crown procured her release, after passing more than four months "in the fortress of Cronsbourg. She embarked from Elsineur, in the end of May 1772, and "landed at Stade in the Hanoverian dominions, where she was received with distinguished "honours. "It was nevertheless matter of embarrassment and difficulty, to fix the precise place for her "future residence; as neither the state of her finances, nor the peculiar circumstances attending "her situation, seemed to dictate Hanover. The castle of Zell, more retired from public notice, "seemed better adapted in many respects. But, it had not been inhabited, except at short inter"vals, for near seventy years, and required considerable repairs in order to render it commodious. "The queen therefore was carried during the summer, to a little hunting seat, in a remote part of "the electorate, not far from the banks of the Elbe, named Gourde, belonging to her brother, his "Britannic majesty. She remained there in profound retirement, with only a few attendants, till "the SWEDEN. THE Swedes, it has been observed, though flattered with the idea of liberty, and living under a government which professed to give it them, never actually enjoyed the advantages of a free constitution. The tyranny of Charles the Eleventh and Twelfth gave occasion to a revolution in 1719, from which the senate derived a degree of power which was not effectually balanced by that which was vested in the other members of the state. However specious the form of government then established, as a system favourable to national freedom, it was far from being so in practice. In the capitulations which it enjoined to be sworn to and signed at the commencement of every reign boundaries were prescribed to the authority of the senate, as well as that of the sovereign: but a proper provision was not made to prevent the transgression of them, by a power which might operate as a constitutional check upon this body. What was taken from the crown was, in effect, thrown into the hands of the senate. For notwithstanding the four orders which represented the several denominations of nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants in the diet, possessed a power which was intended "the autumn, when she repaired to the castle of Zell, which had been intermediately rendered fit for 66 1772 1772 intended to restrain that of the aristocracy, yet that assembly was seldom convened; and they were generally prevented from exercising it to any good purpose by the influence under which they acted, their necessitous circumstances, and the universal corruption that prevailed through all ranks of men. The influence of this defect in the constitution was felt in the conduct of the government itself and in all its departments. The state was debilitated and its honour and dignity sacrificed by the maleconduct of corrupt ministers. The effect of salutary laws was destroyed by the venality and licentiousness of the judges appointed to execute them. Notorious abuses were practised by those who were invested with the government of provinces and their subordinate officers. Agriculture and trade languished, notwithstanding the faint efforts of the sovereign to promote them, for want of general incitements to industry and enterprise. Hence it arose that indigence rendered the burthen of taxes more oppressive, and spread dependence and venality through the whole mass of the people. To complete their social and political calamities, the nation was divided into two factions, which bore a rancorous hatred to each other; both of which professed a regard for the national welfare, yet both were ready to sacrifice every consideration of virtue, honour, and patriotism to the advancement of their own cause."-When the whole kingdom presented such a scene of misery, we cannot be surprised that the body of the people, who did not distinguish between evils originating in the constitution itself and those which arose from the character and conduct of the ruling powers, were prepared for any change which promised to relieve them from their present oppressors. Such was the internal state of Sweden when Gustavus Adolphus ascended the throne, and prepared for the execution of his scheme for a resumption of that power which had been formerly vested in the crown.-He was much favoured by the present circumstances and disposition of the European powers. France was desirous to give an ascendency to that party in the state which had ever maintained its interests against the partisans of Russia, and the French court had pledged itself to the king, when at Paris, to promote his design. Denmark was prevented from interfering by the unsettled state of things in that kingdom and a desire to conciliate the support of Gustavus C a Sheridan. 52. 76. 9. Idem. 2d chap. 1. Idem. 40. Gustavus to the newly established administration. The king of Prussia was known to be friendly to his views. And the empress Catharine, whose political interests might otherwise have led her to oppose them, as a mean of preserving her influence in the Swedish government, was fully employed in the Turkish war and in the execution of her scheme of aggrandizement in Poland. Gustavus's character, moreover, was well calculated for the execution of such a design. He was endowed with a superior understanding, great depth of thought, and firmness of mind; and the effect of eloquence was increased in him by a gracious and popular address. But he was regardless of the aphorism which says, that, wherever truth, fidelity, and honour are wanting, they ought to be found on the throne. Never did a prince practise such dissimulation, nor so sport with those virtues which are the basis of all confidence between a sovereign and his people, as Gustavus did on this occasion. At the instant when he was concerting the subversion of the constitution, he gave the nation assurances of his resolution to maintain the established government, in letters from Paris; he repeated them on his arrival at Stockholm; he, this year, signed the accustomed capitulations; † and, afterwards, at the celebration of his coronation, he not only declared his inviolable attachment to the laws and constitution of his country, but expressed an abhorrence of absolute government; and said that he should regard them as the enemies of himself and the kingdom, who should endeavour to procure him unlimited power, or attempt the introduction of what they termed sovereignty. So much did he labour to convince his subjects of his affection for the free constitution established at the last revolution, that his extreme solicitude might have awakened a suspicion of his insincerity in his hearers, had they reflected that men are not so studious to impress others with a persuasion that they mean well when they are really conscious of good intentions.-Whilst he thus endeavoured to conciliate the esteem of his subjects, he indirectly called their attention to the malepractices of those senators who had made themselves the tools of foreign powers, to the national prejudice and disgrace—ardently praying, "That harmony might unite their hearts; that foreign views and private gain 65 66 may 1772 + February 28. May 29. Sheridan. 175. Ann. Regist. 51. De la Croix's Review. 1. 441. |