Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1871

No. 387.

Mr. Andrews to Mr. Fish

No. 132.]

Legation of the United States, Stockholm, November 16, 1871. (Received December 8.)

Sir: Referring to the No. 88 of September 25, of the Acting Secretary, authorizing the making of a translation of the constitutions of Sweden and Norway, I now have the honor to transmit herewith copies of such translations. That of Sweden embraces the act on the form of government, on representation, or the election and powers of the Diet, on the order of succession to the crown, and on the liberty of the press.

With the constitution of Norway is attached the act of union of the two kingdoms.

The translations have been made by competent persons. I have myself read and compared them with the original, in Swedish and Norwegian, and believe I can vouch for their correctness.

I also transmit a printed copy of each constitution in the original language. Both constitutions contain more ample guarantees of liberty than would perhaps be expected. The King, as a general thing, cannot remove from office without cause. The provisions for impeachment of high officials, the scrutiny of accounts by the legislature, as well as many other features, are striking.

I am, &c.,

C. C. ANDREWS.

[Inclosure 1.—Translation.]

THE CONSTITUTION OF SWEDEN.

I. The form of government, (Sections 1 to 114.)

II. Representation or election, and powers of the Diet, (Sections 1 to 82.)

III. Order of succession to the crown, (Sections 1 to 9.)

IV. On the liberty of the press, (Sections 1 to 5.)

THE CONSTITUTION OF SWEDEN.

THE LAW ON THE FORM OF GOVERNMENT.

Adopted by the estates of the kingdom and sanctioned by the King, June 6, 1809, at Stockholm; with the changes made therein by the King and the estates of the kingdom up to the Diet of 1865–’66, inclusive;

We, Charles, by the grace of God King of Sweden, of the Goths and Vandals, &c., &.c., &c., heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, of Stormarie and of Ditmarsen, Count of Oldenburg, and of Delmanhorst, &c., &c., make known: That having charged, with an unlimited and unreserved confidence, the estates of the kingdom to establish a new law on the form of government, which ought forever to secure the happiness and independence of the common country, we fulfill a duty dear to our heart and desired by us, in promulgating hereby this fundamental law, which, after mature deliberation, has been resolved upon and adopted unanimously by the estates of the kingdom now assembled, and has been delivered to us to-day in the hall of the throne, at the same time that, by a free and unanimous consent, these estates are come to offer us the crown and government of Sweden.

In yielding ourselves to their desire with the liveliest emotion, and a profound interest for the destinies of a nation which has given to us this never-to-be-forgotten proof of confidence and devotion, we have conceived a hope the surer in the success of our constant efforts to prepare the future happiness of the country, as, by the new law on the form of government, the reciprocal rights and duties, both for us and for our subjects, have been so clearly determined, that all, in maintaining the character sacred and the liberty of action of the royal power, assure to the Swedish people an equal liberty. Consequently, we do hereby accept, sanction, and confirm this law on the form of government, approved by the estates of the kingdom, such as follows, word for word:

We, the undersigned, the estates of the kingdom of Sweden, counts, bishops, barons, orders of the nobility, of the clergy, of the burghers and peasants, now assembled in general Diet, in our name and in that of our absent fellow-citizens, make known that we, deputies of the Swedish nation, being returned in consequence of the change of government, newly established and unanimously approved by us, in the right of providing through ourselves the future amelioration of the condition of the country, by the adoption of a new constitution, are convened and have resolved, in abrogating the different fundamental laws more or less in force up to this day, viz: the law on the form of government of August 21, 1772; the act of union and of security of the 21st of February and of the 3d of April, 1789; the law on representation, of January 24, 1617, as well as all the other acts, laws, regulations, statutes, and decrees of the same nature, which have been comprised under the name of fundamental laws; of establishing for the kingdom of Sweden, and the subordinate countries, the following law on the form of government, which, to commence from this day, shall be in force as the principal fundamental law of the kingdom; reserving to us equally the right to establish the other fundamental laws enumerated in section 85 of the present law on the form of government, before the closing of this Diet, and in the manner prescribed in the said section.

Section 1. The kingdom of Sweden shall be governed by a King; and shall be a hereditary kingdom, according to the order of succession established by the law on the succession to the throne.

Section 2. The King must always profess the pure evangelical doctrine, such as is established and explained by the unalterable Confession of Augsburg, and the decree of the synod of Upsala, of the year 1593.

Article 3. The King’s Majesty shall be sacred and respected; his actions shall be subjected to no censure.

Section 4. The King has the right alone to govern the kingdom, in the manner prescribed by the present law on the form of government; he shall have, nevertheless, in cases indicated herein, recourse to the assistance, and shall take the advice, of a council of state. To act in this council, the King shall choose and appoint men, enlightened, experienced, upright, and generally esteemed, Swedes by birth, and professing the pure evangelical doctrine.

Section 5. The council of state shall be composed of ten members, who shall assist at the discussion of all affairs therein treated; a father and son, or two brothers, cannot be, at the same time, members of the council of state.

Section 6. Seven members of the council of state shall be chiefs of departments, viz:

The minister of state and of justice, for the department of justice; the minister of state and of foreign affairs, for the department of foreign affairs; a chief and councilor of state, reporter for the department of war, who shall be, at the same time, councilor of the King, for the affairs of military command concerning the army; one for the department of marine, who shall be, at the same time, councilor of the King for the affairs of military command relating to the fleet; one for the civil (interior) department; one for the department of finance; one for the department of the church and of public instruction. The distribution of affairs between the departments shall be fixed by the King in a special regulation. Of the three councilors of state, without portfolios, two at least must have filled civil offices.

Section 7. All affairs relative to the government, with the exception of those mentioned in sections 11 and 15, must be reported before the King in the council of state, and there be decided.

Section 8. In affairs which must be considered in the council of state, the King can take his decision only in the presence of at least three councilors of state, beside an official reporter. All the members of the council of state, when not legally prevented, must be present in affairs of importance and of real weight, which, next to the orders of the day which shall be sent to them in advance, are treated in the council of state, and report themselves to the general administration of the kingdom. Such are questions and projects relative to the establishment of new general ordinances; on the abrogation or the modification of those already in force; on the introduction of a new organization in the various branches of the administration, and others of the same nature.

Section 9. A protocol shall be formed of all affairs carried before the King in council of state. The members of the council, for the time being, must absolutely express and declare their opinion, to be inserted in the protocol, and they are responsible for their counsels, as it is further stated in sections 106, 107; nevertheless, it is reserved to the King alone to decide. If ever, contrary to all expectation, it should happen that the decision of the King should be evidently contrary to the fundamental law of the kingdom, or to the code in force, the members of the council of state are required to make vigorous remonstrances against the decision. The one who shall not have consigned to the protocol an opposite opinion is as responsible for the decision as if he had counseled the King to take it.

Section 10. Before affairs are carried to the King, in the council of state, the reporter must prepare them, demanding of competent authorities the necessary assistance.

Section 11. The King shall prepare and direct, as he shall judge most convenient, ministerial affairs, by which is understood those which concern the relations of the kingdom with foreign powers. It belongs to the minister of state and of foreign affairs to make a report of them to the King, in the presence of another member of the council of state. If the minister of state is absent, the report shall be presented by that one of the members of the council whom the King shall call in this case. When the King shall have heard the counsels of these functionaries, for which they are responsible, and which shall be inserted in the protocol, he shall render his decision in their presence; the protocol to be formed before, by the one to whom it shall have been specially committed. Of these, what the King shall judge useful, shall be communicated to the council of state, so that the council may also have some knowledge of this branch of the administration.

Section 12. The King has the right to conclude treaties and alliances with foreign powers, after having, conformably to the preceding section, heard upon these affairs the minister of state and of foreign affairs, and another member of the council of state, whom the King shall name on this occasion.

Section 13. If the King wishes to declare war or make peace, he shall assemble, in extra council of state, all the members of the council, make known to them the reasons and circumstances which ought to be taken into consideration on this occasion, and demand their advice, which they shall each give separately, to be consigned to the protocol, under the responsibility determined in section 107. That done, the King shall have the power to form and execute the decision which he shall judge most useful to the kingdom.

Section 14. The King has the command-in-chief of the forces of the kingdom by land and sea.

Section 15. The affairs of military command, by which are understood those that the King immediately directs in the quality of commander-in-chief of the land and naval forces, when the King himself governs the kingdom, shall be decided by him in the presence of the one of the chiefs of the military departments in the department to which the affair belongs. At the time of the preparation of these affairs, it is the duty of this one to express his opinion on the enterprises of the King, and, if it does not agree with the decision of the King, to commit his objections and his counsels to a protocol, of which the King shall certify the exactitude by placing thereto his high signature. If the said official finds that these enterprises are of a dangerous tendency, or that they are based on uncertain or insufficient means of execution, he shall recommend further to the King to reassemble for this purpose a council of war, composed of two or more superior officers at the time being; the King, nevertheless, unrestrained by this recommendation, and when it is accepted by the opinion of the council of war committed to the protocol, will make that regard which seems good to him.

Section 16. The King must maintain and favor justice and truth, prevent and defend against violence and injustice, neither wrong nor permit wrong to any one in his life, honor, personal liberty or interests, who is not legally convicted and condemned. The King shall not interpose between the individual and the court of justice.

Section 17. The royal prerogative of high jurisdiction shall be confided to men versed in jurisprudence, named by the King, the number of whom shall not be less than twelve nor more than eighteen; these must have given proofs of knowledge, experience, and probity in the exercise of these offices. They shall bear the titles of councilors of justice, and shall constitute the supreme tribunal of the King. Their number must not exceed twelve, unless the King and Diet decide in the law prescribed in section 87, paragraph 1, that the supreme tribunal ought to be divided into sections; in this case the number of councilors of justice, in the limits fixed above, as well as the distribution of affairs between the sections, shall be regulated in the same manner.

Section 18. It belongs, also, to this supreme tribunal to pronounce, in the name of the King, on the demand made by a party, who has let pass the time of appeal from a judgment, or on the exercise in justice, of a right that the law confers upon him, in order to be relieved from the forfeiture of delay.

Section. 19. If tribunals and officials address to the King a demand in explanation of the true meaning of the law, in cases which are in the province of the judges, it shall belong equally to the supreme tribunal to give the explanation thus demanded.

Section 20. Affairs which, after having been judged by military tribunals, are submitted to the examination of the King, shall be, in time of peace, carried before the supreme tribunal, and decided by it. Two military officers of superior rank, chosen by the King and appointed for this purpose, and who shall be unexceptionable and responsible like the other judges, and shall enjoy no special favor, must take part in the deliberations on these affairs in the supreme, tribunal as well as at the judgment; but the number of judges cannot exceed eight. In time of war, such cases shall be proceeded With according to the articles of war.

Section 21. The King has two voices in affairs, to the relation and decision of which he deems it proper to assist in the supreme tribunal. Every question on the interpretation of the law shall be reported to the King, and his voices shall be counted, even while he shall have taken no part in the deliberations of the supreme tribunal.

Section 22. In the supreme tribunal, affairs of the least importance must be examined and decided by five members, and even by four, if the four agree on the decision. In affairs of greater importance, the number of seven members, at least, is necessary in order that a judgment can be rendered. More than eight members at a time can never take part in the examination of a suit.

Section 23. All the decisions of the supreme tribunal shall be rendered in the name of the King, and provided with his high signature, or with his seal.

Section 24. Judicial affairs shall be prepared in the King’s “inferior justice revision” for report to, and decision of, the supreme tribunal.

Section 25. The King has the right, in criminal cases, to pardon, to commute the sentence of death, and to restore honor as well as goods confiscated. Nevertheless, the supreme tribunal shall be heard on such matters, and the King shall take its decision in council of state. It shall be optional afterward with the guilty party to accept the pardon granted by the King, or submit to the punishment to which he shall have been condemned.

Section 26. When judicial affairs are reported in the council of state, there shall be present, besides the minister of state, two members of the supreme tribunal, who shall be obliged to commit their opinion to the protocol, as prescribed in section 9.

Section 27. The King shall chose for his attorney general a man versed in jurisprudence, capable and impartial, and who shall have been employed in judicial duties. In his capacity of attorney general of the King, it belongs to him, principally, to exercise, either himself, or by the intermediate fiscal attorneys subordinate to him, or the public ministry, in cases which concern the public safety and the rights of the state, as well as of exercising, in the name of the King, watchfulness over the administration of justice, and in this capacity, of prosecuting judges and officials for offenses committed by them.

Section 28. The King has the right to name and constitute in the council of state men born Swedes to all the offices and employments, inferior and superior, in the kingdom, when they are of the list of those for whom commissions have been signed by the King; nevertheless, those to whom it belongs, according to the custom observed up to this time, of proposing candidates, ought before to have transmitted to the King a list of presentation. The King can, notwithstanding, after having heard competent authorities on their proposition, call and name foreigners of distinguished merit, and professing the pure evangelical doctrine, to the employments of professors of universities—the employment of minister of theology excepted—to the chair of professor, and to other employments of all the other institutions for sciences, trades, or fine arts, as well as the profession of medicine. The King can, at the same time, employ foreigners of rare talents in military offices, those of commandants of fortresses excepted. In all nominations, the King shall have regard only to the merit and talents of candidates and not to their birth. There shall be named to the civil offices in the kingdom, as to those of judges, only persons professing the pure evangelical faith; nevertheless, shall be excepted the offices of professor and others in the institutions for the trades and fine arts, and those of medicine, to which even persons who do not profess the pure evangelical faith can be named. The chief of each department must report and expedite everything which concerns nominations, vacancies, and dismissions for the offices in the administrations which belong to his department.

2. By naturalization, the King has the right of granting the privileges of naturalization to foreigners, in the order and with the conditions which are prescribed by a special law established in the manner stipulated in section 87, paragraph 1. The foreigners thus naturalized shall enjoy the same rights and privileges as if he was born a Swede, although he cannot be named member of the council of state.

Section 29. The archbishop and bishops shall be elected in the manner practiced up to this time, and the King shall name for these places one of the three candidates proposed.

Section 30. The King shall name the royal curates, according to the custom observed up to the present time. As to the said consistorial curates, the parishes shall be sustained in their right of election.

Section 31. In the cities, the inhabitants called to take part at the election of members to the Diet shall have the right to propose for the places of burgomaster three competent men, of whom the King shall choose one. The proceedings shall be the same for the places of councilors and secretary of the magistrate, in the city of Stockholm.

Section 32. Envoys near foreign powers, as well as the personnel of the legations, shall be appointed by the King in the presence of the minister of state and of foreign affairs, and another member of the council of state, whom the King shall designate.

Section 33. When employments, for which candidates have been proposed, must be filled by the king, the members of the council of state shall express their opinion on the talents and merit of the aspirants. They have, at the same time, the right to make humble representations against the nominations of the King to other services and offices.

Section 34. The ministers of state are clothed with the highest dignity of the kingdom; the councilors of state rank next. The ministers of state or the councilors of state cannot, at the same time, perform other duties, nor draw emoluments from them. The councilors of justice cannot, at the same time, be invested with other duties nor exercise them.

Section 35. The members of the council of state, the presidents and chiefs of colleges, or other administrations established in their place, the attorney general of the King, the chiefs of the administration of customs an d of posts, the secretaries-in-chief to the departments of state, the grand governor, and the master of the police of the capital, the governors of the provinces, field marshals, generals and admirals of every rank, general aids-de-camp, first aids-de-camp, aids-de-camp of the staffs of armies, commandants of fortresses, colonels of regiments, second chiefs of regiments of horse and foot guards and corps for the escort of the King, as well as the chiefs of all other corps and military battalions, having each a separate organization, the chiefs of artillery, fortifications, engineering, and hydrography, ministers, envoys, and commercial agents near foreign powers, as well as the officials of the minister of foreign affairs and the personnel of the legations, have posts of confidence, of which the King can deprive them when he judges it useful for the service of the state. The King shall, nevertheless, communicate these resolutions to the council of state, whose members are allowed to make humble representations on this subject, if they believe they have sufficient reasons for so doing.

Section 36. Those who occupy judicial offices, as well superior as inferior, also all other officials and employés not mentioned in the preceding section, cannot, except by means of scrutiny and judgment, be removed by the King or promised other offices, unless on their own demand.

Section 37. The King has the right to confer nobility on persons who, by their fidelity, courage, virtue, learning, and zealous services, shall have particularly merited favor from the King and kingdom. The King can also, in reward for great and eminent services, raise the nobles to the rank of baron and barons to that of count. The nobility and the titles of baron and count, granted henceforth, can descend only to that one who shall have been a noble, or shall have received the title, and after his death, in direct descent to the eldest of his male descendants of the eldest branch, and at the extinction of this branch, to the male descendant of the following eldest branch, the nearest to the head of the family, and so on. If by inheritance, nobility passes to some one who is himself already a noble, or who has become so by another more immediate inheritance, his nobility shall cease with him, unless it is not of superior rank, in which case the nobility of the head of the family shall pass to the nearest branch; if that no longer exists, the line shall be extinct. If any one has been deprived of his nobility, it shall pass to the one who, according to the principles herein established, is the next successor.

The regulating of the order of nobility which the King and the nobility decide upon together, prescribe the manner of the assembling of the nobility, to decide upon its common affairs.

Section 38. All acts and orders emanating from the King, excepting those relative to affairs of millitary command, must, to be valid, be provided with the signature of the King, and countersigned by a competent reporter, who shall be responsible for their conformity to the protocol. The chiefs of departments send to whom they belong all instructions and observations relative to the execution of resolutions taken. If the reporter finds any resolution of the King contrary to the law on the form of government, he shall make representations on this subject in the council of state. If the King, notwithstanding, insists that this resolution shall be taken, the reporter shall have the right and duty of refusing the countersign, and he must, in consequence, give up his office, which he cannot take again before the Diet have examined and approved of his conduct. Meanwhile he shall be sustained in the enjoyment of his salary, and other revenues attached to the office.

Section 39. If the king wishes to undertake a journey outside of Sweden and Norway, he must communicate his design to the council of state in pleno, and take its advice on this subject, as stated in section 9, If, afterward, the King decides upon this journey, and puts it into execution, he cannot occupy himself with the government of the kingdom, neither exercise the royal power so long as he remains outside the kingdoms. During the absence of the King, the affairs of state shall be governed, in his name, by the prince, heir-presumptive to the throne, if he has attained the age prescribed in section 41. He shall govern in the quality of regent, with all the power and all the royal authority, according to the present law on the form of government; nevertheless, he cannot grant letters of nobility, neither titles of count or baron, nor confer decorations; at the same time, all vacant posts of trust can be filled only provisionally by those whom the regent shall appoint. If there is no prince having the right of succession to the throne, or if the heir-presumptive have not attained the age of majority established in section 41, or if, by sickness or absence from Sweden and Norway, he is prevented from taking the reins of government, the council of state shall govern with the same power as the regent.

In section 91 shall be stipulated what shall be done in case the King remains out of the kingdom more than twelve months.

Section 40. If the King becomes so ill as not to be able to direct the affairs of the government, proceedings shall be as prescribed in the preceding section.

Section 41. The King shall be of full age at eighteen years. He shall be at the same time heir-presumptive to the throne. If the King decease before the heir to the throne has attained that age, the council of state shall govern in the name of the King, according to section 39, until the Diet shall be assembled, and tutors appointed by it shall have taken the reins of government; the council of state must conform itself absolutely to the present law on the form of government.

Section 42. If the misfortune occurs, that all the dynasty to which the right of succession to the kingdom is reserved is extinct, in the male line, the council of state shall govern, equally with the powers established in section 39, until the Diet shall be able to assemble and elect a new dynasty, and the King elected may take the reins of government.

In all cases where, according to the present section, and the three which precede, the government is exercised by the council of state, all its members must be present and vote in the council.

Section 43. If the King goes to war, or makes a journey at a distance from the kingdom, or into Norway, he shall appoint three members of the council of state, under the presidency of that one of the princes of his family, or of one of the members of the council of state, whom he shall choose, to administer the government in affairs which he shall assign to them. Concerning the affairs which the King, in this case, shall decide himself, they shall be proceeded with as prescribed in section 8.

What has been stipulated as regards the King shall be equally applicable to the regent when he administers the government of the kingdom.

Section 44. No prince of the royal family, prince royal, prince hereditary, or other, can marry without the knowledge and authorization of the King. Marriage made without this authorization incurs privation of all right of succession to the throne, as well for the one who has contracted it as for his children and descendants.

Section 45. Neither the prince royal, princes hereditary, nor other princes of the royal house, shall have endowments or civil office. The title of duke or prince of a duchy or principality can, however, be conferred upon them without authority over the provinces whose name they bear.

Section 46. The country shall remain divided into governments, directed by the existing provincial administrations. There shall be, hereafter, no governor general in the kingdom.

Section 47. The hof-rätter, or highest inferior tribunal, and all the other tribunals of the kingdom, shall judge, according to the law and regulations having the force of law; the administrative colleges of the kingdom, provincial administrations, and all corps of administration, as well as superior and inferior officials, must fulfill their duties and manage affairs of their province, and aid each other in their execution, as well as in everything which the service of the King exacts from them, all becoming responsible to the King, in the order prescribed by the law, for what shall be neglected by them or treated in an illegal manner.

Section 48. The court of the King is under his particular direction, and on this account he shall have the right to take such measures as shall seem to him good. For all the offices of his court, the King shall appoint and remove whoever shall please him.

Section 49. The Diet represents the Swedish people. The rights and duties which, according to the laws in force, belong to the general estates of the kingdom, shall revert henceforth to the Diet. It is divided into two chambers, whose members are elected in the order prescribed by the law on representation. The chambers have, in all questions, the same competency and the same authority.

For ordinary sessions, the Diet must assemble, in virtue of the present fundamental law, on the fifteenth of January of each year, or the day following if this date falls on a holiday; nevertheless, the King can, in the interval of the ordinary sessions, convoke an extra session.

In extra session can be treated only affairs for which the Diet has been convoked, or those, beside, which have been submitted by the King, as also all which relates necessarily to the said affairs.

Section 50. The Diet shall assemble in the capital of the kingdom, except in cases where the approach of an enemy, plague, or other preventives of the same weight, shall render it impossible or dangerous for its liberty and its safety. In these cases the King, after having consulted with the delegated directors of the bank and the office of the public debt, must designate and announce officially another place of meeting for the Diet.

Section 51. In cases where the Diet shall be convoked by the King, the regent, or the council of state, the time of meeting shall be fixed after the twentieth and before the thirtieth day, to commence from the one on which the meeting shall have been published in the churches of the capital.

Section 52. The presidents and vice-presidents of the chamber shall be appointed by the King.

Section 53. The ordinary Diet shall form, for the preparation of affairs, the following committees: a committee of the constitution, to make and receive propositions relative to modifications to be introduced in the fundamental laws, and to give its advice on them to the Diet, as well as to examine the protocols of the council of state; a committee of finance, to examine and set forth, in a report to the Diet, the condition, administration, and necessities of the treasury, and of the office of the public debt; a committee of taxes, to treat the questions relative to them; a committee of the bank, to control the administration and condition of the bank, and to give instructions relative, to its administration; and a committee of legislation, to commit to writing the projects of the amelioration of the civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical laws, which are sent to it by the chambers. In extra sessions there shall be formed only the number of committees necessary for the preparation of affairs which are submitted to them.

Section 54. If the King demands of the Diet special delegates to confer with him on affairs which he judges a duty to be kept secret, these delegates shall be elected by the chambers; nevertheless, they shall not have the power to take decisions, but only give to the King their advice on the affairs which he shall have communicated to them. If the King exacts it, they must swear secrecy.

Section 55. The Diet, the chambers, neither any committee of the Diet, can discuss or decide any affair in the presence of the King.

Section 56. The law on representation indicates in what manner the propositions of the King shall be treated and decided, as well as the motions made by the deputies in the chambers.

Section 57. The right immemorial of the Swedish people to tax themselves is managed by the Diet alone.

The communal laws, which are established by the King and the Diet in common, prescribe in what manner the communes can tax themselves for their particular needs.

Section 58. At each ordinary Diet, the King shall cause to be presented a view of the financial condition of the state in all its parts, receipts and expenses, credits and debts. If, in consequence of treaties concluded with foreign powers, certain sums become payable to the kingdom, there shall be an account of it rendered in the same manner.

Section 59. The King shall submit to the Diet at the same time as the view of the condition and financial needs of the state, a project relative to the manner of providing for taxes, which the necessities of the state demand outside of ordinary receipts.

Section 60. Under the denomination of taxes are comprised the custom-house duties, excise and postal duties, stamp duties on domestic brandy, and all personal taxes which each Diet would impose. Any duty payable to the state, of whatever nature and denomination it may be—the custom-house duties on the importation and exportation of grain excepted—can be increased without the consent of the Diet. The King can no longer farm out the receipts of the state, neither establish monopolies, either for his profit or the state’s, neither for individuals nor corporations.

Section 61. All imposts voted by the Diet under the titles mentioned in the preceding section shall be received till the end of the year, in the course of which the Diet shall have again fixed the taxes.

Section 62. When the financial needs of the state shall have been verified by the Diet, it shall depend upon it to vote a contribution which shall be proportioned to it, as well as to fix the different sums, which on this contribution shall be assigned to the various services, and to enter these sums on the budget under general determined titles.

Section 63. Besides, there shall be created, for unforeseen cases, two separate and sufficient funds, which shall be furnished by the office of the public debt, (riksgäld-konteret.) The first shall be transferable, if the King, after having heard the advice of all the council of state, judges it is indispensably necessary to make an appeal for it, for the defense of the kingdom, or any other object of major importance; the second can be employed by the King, in case of war, after having heard the members of the council of state in pleno, and convoked the Diet. The assignment for this sum, sealed by the Diet, cannot be opened, neither the sum paid by the delegated directors of the office of the public debt, before the meeting of the Diet shall have been duly published in the churches of the capital.

Section 64. The ordinary resources and receipts of the kingdom, as well as the sums which, conformably to what has been written above, are appropriated by the Diet, on account of the state, under the denominations of extraordinary contributions or imposts, shall be at the disposition of the King, in order to provide for the needs which have been recognized by the Diet, and conformably to the expenses incurred by the state.

Section 65. The said revenues cannot be employed otherwise than has been prescribed; the members of the council of state being responsible for any misappropriation of it, without committing to the protocol their observations, and alleging what the Diet shall have ordered in such a matter.

Section 66. The office of the public debt shall remain under the direction, control, and administration of the Diet; and while it guarantees the payment of the debt, administered by the office, the Diet, after having duly examined the condition and financial necessities of the office, shall furnish by a special contribution the necessary means for the payment of the debt, principal and interest, so that the credit of the country may be duly maintained and guarded.

Section 67. The King’s deputy in the office of the public debt shall assist at meetings of the delegated directors only when these shall have expressed the desire to confer with him.

Section. 68. Sums belonging to, or appropriated to the service of the public debt, can be removed on no other pretext or condition whatever, neither employed for other purposes, than those determined by the Diet. All orders tending to that shall be null.

Section 69. When propositions of the committee of finance are submitted to the Diet, concerning either the regulation of the expenses of the state, or of the amount of taxes proportioned to them, whether expenses or receipts of the office of the public debt, or bases for fixing the direction and administration of this office, the proceedings shall be according to the prescriptions of the law on representation relative to the manner of proceeding as regards the propositions of the said committee. If the chambers take different resolutions, which cannot be harmonized, the chambers shall vote separately on the resolutions already taken by each of them; and the opinion which has the greatest number in counting the votes of the two chambers, shall have the force of the resolution of the Diet.

Section 70. When, in questions concerning the direction and administration, the receipts and expenses of the bank of the kingdom, the chambers take different resolutions, they shall vote separately, as is said in the preceding section.

Section 71. The proceedings shall be the same, if the chambers do not agree concerning the bases of a tax, the manner of applying them, or the distribution of the tax for payment.

Section 72. The bank of the kingdom shall remain under the guarantee and control of the Diet in such a manner that it can be administered by the delegated directors named by the chambers, without the intervention of any one, and according to the regulations, statutes, and instructions given, or to be given, by the Diet. The Diet alone has the right to put in circulation, through the bank, notes which must be recognized as the money of the kingdom. These notes shall be paid, according to their tenor, by the bank, at sight and in coin.

Section 73. No new impost, recruiting of soldiers, or demand for money or effects, can henceforth be ordered, made, neither exacted, except with the wishes and consent of the Diet, and in the order prescribed above.

Section 74. If a war breaks out, the King can exact no other contributions of a nature for making war, than subsistence, which a country can be required to contribute for the support of troops during their march, when the various localities where this march takes place are not in a state to furnish the necessary supplies. Those who are affected by this contribution shall, however, be reimbursed forthwith in money by the state, at a price above half the price of the subsistence. This contribution can be exacted neither for troops cantoned in a locality, neither those which execute a movement in time of war, the troops in this case being before provisioned from the storehouses or depots established for this purpose.

Section 75. The annual market price shall be decided by deputies elected in the order specially prescribed by the Diet. What these deputies shall have decided in this regard shall serve as a rule, unless a modification shall have been demanded and accorded in the desired form.

Section 76. The King cannot, without the consent of the Diet, make loans neither in nor out of the country, neither charge the state with new debts.

Section 77. The domains and farms of the state, as well as their dependencies and appurtenances, forests, parks, warrens, and meadows of the state, meadows used for the support of the King’s equipage, salmon fisheries, and other fisheries of the state, as well as all its other property, can neither be sold nor mortgaged, nor by donation or otherwise transferred by the King, without the consent of the Diet. These properties shall be administered according to the bases determined by the Diet, notwithstanding persons and communities who now, conformably to the ordinances in force up to this day, are in the possession of such property or have the profits of it, shall enjoy, on this account, the rights which legally belong to them. In the same manner cleared or arable lands in the forests of the state can, in the usual manner, and according to the actual ordinances, or those to come, be sold, on condition that the purchaser continues to pay rents to the state.

Section 78. No part of the kingdom can he transferred from it by sale, mortgage donation, or similar means.

Section 79. No modification of the standard of coin or of weights, whether to increase or reduce them, can be made in the money of the kingdom, without the consent of the Diet. The right of the King to coin money is not thereby impaired.

Section 80. The obligation to maintain troops of cavalry and infantry, as well as marines, by “rotering” and “indelning” shall continue in country and city, according to established contracts and “indelning system” of which the principal bases shall remain intact, until the King and Diet, together, judge it necessary to make modifications therein. No new “rotering” can be made, neither the one existing be increased, unless the King and Diet agree to it.

Section 81. The present law on the form of government, and the other fundamental laws of the kingdom, can be modified or abrogated only by a resolution of the King and two ordinary Diets. The resolutions of the Diet in regard to propositions of the King concerning the fundamental laws, shall be made known to him in the manner prescribed by the law on representation. If by a resolution of the Diet a motion made by it relative to the fundamental laws has been approved, this resolution shall be submitted to the King, who must, before the closing of the Diet, take the advice of all the members of the council of state on this subject, and make known to the Diet, in the hall of the throne, his assent, or the reasons why the resolutions shall not be sanctioned.

Section 82. That which, conformably to the order established, shall have been decided upon by the Diet, with regard to introducing modifications into the fundamental laws, and shall have been approved by the King, or that which shall have been proposed by the King and accepted by the Diet, shall have the force of fundamental law.

Section 83. No other interpretation of the fundamental laws can be valid, for the future, than the one which shall have been adopted in the manner prescribed to modify these same laws.

Section 84. In each particular case the fundamental laws shall be applied according to their literal sense.

Section 85. As fundamental laws, shall be considered the present law on the form of government, as well as the laws on representation, on the order of succession to the throne, and on the liberty of the press, which are decided upon by the King and Diet, in common, conformably to the principles established in the present law on the form of government.

Section 86. By the liberty of the press is understood the right of all Swedes to publish writings without previous obstacles, on the part of public authority, of being prosecuted for their contents, only before competent tribunals, and of being punished for the said writings, only inasmuch as the tenor of them is evidently contrary to formal, established law; to guarantee the public tranquillity, without placing obstacles in the way of the propagation of knowledge. All the acts and protocols, no matter what affair concerning, excepting the protocols of the council of state, and those brought before the King in ministerial affairs, and those of military command, can unconditionally be published through the press. The protocols and acts of the bank, and of the office of the public debt, concerning affairs which must be kept secret, cannot be published.

Section 87. The Diet, in concert with the King, has the power to establish laws, civil and criminal, as well as to modify and abrogate such laws already established. The King cannot, without the consent of the Diet, neither the Diet without that of the King, make new laws, neither abrogate old ones. Motions on this subject can be made in the chambers, and the Diet shall decide them, after having taken the advice of the committee on legislation.

If the Diet pronounces itself in favor of a new law, or of the modification or abrogation of an old law, the project relative to it shall be submitted to the King, who shall take the advice of the council of state and the supreme tribunal, and, after having formed his resolution, shall make known to the Diet his consent to the demand made by it, or the reasons for his refusal to agree to it. If the King is prevented from forming or making known his resolution before the closing of the Diet, he shall be free to approve the project, such as is conceived, word for word, and to proclaim it, before the opening of the following Diet. If this has not taken place, the project is rejected; and in this case the King shall make known to the Diet in the next session the reasons which prevented the approbation of the project. If the King judges proper to present to the Diet a project of law, he shall demand on this subject the advice of the council of state and of the supreme tribunal, and shall communicate his proposition, as well as this advice, to the Diet, which shall proceed afterward in the order prescribed by the law on representation.

2. The Diet, in concert with the King, shall have equally the power to establish, modify, or abrogate ecclesiastical laws; nevertheless, in these cases, the assent of the general synod is also necessary. The advice of the council of state and of the supreme tribunal shall be taken on projects relative to these laws, as is said in paragraph 1, and shall be sent to the Diet at the same time with the proposition of the King, if the initiative comes from him. If a project of law of this nature has not been promulgated as a law before the opening of the Diet which follows the one which has presented or approved of the project, it shall be accounted rejected; and in this case the King shall make known to the Diet the reasons why the project could not be accepted.

Section 88. As regards the interpretations of civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical laws, the proceedings shall be the same as for a new law of this nature. The interpretations of the true meaning of the law which the King, through the supreme tribunal, and in the interval of the Diets, shall have given in reply to the demands which have been made, can be disapproved by the Diet following; and even those relative to the ecclesiastical laws can be disapproved by the first general synod which shall be held after the said interpretation shall have been given. The construction thus disapproved shall be no longer valid, and can neither be observed nor cited by the tribunals.

Section 89. Motions in the chambers can be made having for an object the modifying, interpreting, or abolishing of laws and ordinances touching the general economy of the kingdom, as well as proposing new laws on this subject, or making motions relative to the principles on which public institutions of every sort can be organized. Nevertheless, in these matters, the resolutions which the Diet can adopt shall be limited to making representations to the King and expressing wishes to him; to which, the council of state being heard, he shall have regard, as he finds it useful to the kingdom. If the King wishes to charge the Diet with deciding in concert with him a question relating to the general administration of the kingdom, the proceedings shall be according to the stipulations of section 87, paragraph 1, relative to the projects of law.

Section 90. Questions relative to the nominations and removal of public officials; to decisions, resolutions, and decrees of executive and judicial powers; to the interests of individuals or corporations; to the execution of a law or regulation; or to the organization of an institution, can be submitted to the deliberations and examinations of the Diet, of its chambers or committees, only in cases and in the manner prescribed by the fundamental laws, interpreted according to their literal sense.

Section 91. In case mentioned in section 39, where the King, after having undertaken a journey, shall remain more then twelve months outside of the kingdom, the regent, or the council of state, if it governs, shall convoke the Diet by official notification, and shall cause the convocation to be published in the churches of the capital within fifteen days after the above-mentioned time, and in the other parts of the kingdom as soon as can be done. If the King, after having been informed of it, does not return to the kingdom, the Diet shall take such resolutions on the subject of the government of the kingdom as it shall deem best.

Section 92. The proceedings shall be the same if the King is ill to such an extent that, for more than twelve months, he may not occupy himself with the affairs of the government.

Section 93. In case of the King’s decease, and if the successor to the throne is still a minor, the council of state shall convoke the Diet. This convocation shall be published within fifteen days after the King’s decease, in the churches of the capital, and in the other parts of the kingdom. The Diet, without being bound by any testament of the late King touching the government, shall have the right to designate one, three, or five guardians to administer the government in his name, and conformably to the present fundamental law, until the majority of the King.

Section 94. If the misfortune arrives that the dynasty, to which the right of succession to the throne is reserved, becomes extinct in the male line, the council of state shall convoke the Diet within the time after the death of the King fixed in the preceding section. The Diet shall then elect a new dynasty, preserving the present law on the form of government.

Section 95. If, contrary to expectation, the regent or the council of state, in cases mentioned in sections 91, 93, and 94, shall neglect to convoke the Diet immediately, it shall be the absolute duty of the tribunal of the highest inferior court of the kingdom to give notice of it through official publications, in order that the Diet may assemble to sustain and defend its rights and those of the kingdom. This Diet shall assemble the thirtieth day, at the latest, after the one on which the regent or the council of state ought to have published the convocation in the churches of the capital.

Section 96. Each ordinary Diet shall designate a man known as being versed in jurisprudence and for his perfect honor, who, in the capacity of attorney general of the Diet, and according to instructions given by it, shall be charged with inspecting the application of the laws, by the judges and officials, and to prosecute, according to legal forms before competent tribunals, those who, in the exercise of their duties, shall have by favor, partiality, or other motive, committed illegalities, or neglected properly to perform their duties. Nevertheless, he shall be subjected in all respects to the same responsibility and shall be held to the same duties that the code in force prescribes with regard to public accusers.

Section 97. This attorney general of the Diet, who, as long as he fulfills his duties, is in all respects the equal of the King’s attorney general, shall be elected in the manner prescribed by the law on representation; there shall be at the same time a person elected, possessing the qualities required of the said official, to succeed this one, in case he shall decease before the following ordinary Diet shall have proceeded to a new election, and to replace him if he becomes seriously ill, or shall be otherwise legally incapacitated.

Section 98. In cases where, while the Diet is assembled, the attorney general of the Diet shall resign his office, or die, the Diet shall immediately put in his place the person who shall have been designated for his successor. If during the session the successor designated for the attorney general of the Diet resigns his office, or if he enters on the duties of attorney general for the Diet, or if he dies, the proceedings shall be as above for the election of another person fulfilling the desired conditions. If one of the aforesaid cases presents itself in the interval of the sessions, the right of the Diet as regards this shall be exercised by the deputies of the bank and the office of the public debt.

Section 99. The attorney general of the Diet can, when he shall judge it necessary, be present at the deliberations and decisions of the supreme tribunal, of the inferior justice revision of the tribunals of the second instance, of administrative colleges or administrations established in their place, and of all inferior tribunals; nevertheless, without having the right to express his opinion, he shall have equally the right to take knowledge of the protocols and other acts of all tribunals, administrative colleges, and other public administrations. In general, all officials of the King are required to lend assistance in the execution of the orders of the attorney general of the Diet, and the fiscal attorneys must assist him, on his demand, in the prosecution.

Section 100. The attorney general of the Diet must present to each ordinary Diet a report on the manner in which he has fulfilled his office; to expose therein the situation of the judicial administration of the kingdom; to point out the faults existing in the laws and ordinances, and propose ameliorations therein.

Section 101. If, contrary to expectations, it should happen that all the members of the supreme tribunal, or that one or several of these members have, through interest, bad faith, or negligence, judged against right and reason to the extent that, contrary to the just interpretation of the law, as well as the evidence of facts, an individual shall have been deprived of, or been exposed to the loss of, life, personal liberty, honor, and fortune, the attorney general of the Diet shall be required and the attorney general of the King shall have the right to prosecute the wrong-doer before the tribunal indicated below, and to inflict upon him the sentence imposed by the laws of the kingdom.

Section 102. This tribunal, called court of the kingdom, shall be composed, in such a case, of the president of the tribunal of the second instance, (Svea Hofrätt,) at Stockholm, who shall occupy the chair; presidents of all the administrative colleges, the oldest four members of the council of state; the commander-in-chief of the troops constituting the garrison of the capital; the principal commandant present of the squadron of the fleet stationed in the port of the capital; the oldest two members of the tribunal of the second instance at Stockholm, and the oldest member of each of the administrative colleges of the kingdom. If the attorney general of the King or of the Diet believes it a duty to prosecute before the court of the kingdom, all the members, or one in particular of the supreme tribunal, he shall demand of the president of the tribunal of the second instance, at Stockholm, in his capacity as president of the court of the kingdom, to issue a legal citation to the one or ones who ought to be prosecuted. The president of the tribunal of the second instance shall afterward take measures for the convocation of the court of the kingdom, and must cause the citation to be served and the matter to be prosecuted further according to legal forms. If, contrary to expectation, he shall neglect to take these measures, or if one of the other officials designated above shall refuse to take part in the court of the kingdom, he shall incur the punishment established by law against the one who neglects voluntarily the official duties incumbent upon him.

If one or several of the members of the court of the kingdom are lawfully prevented or excusable by the law, the court shall be competent, nevertheless, on condition of being composed of twelve persons.

If the president of the tribunal of the second instance, at Stockholm, is lawfully prevented or excusable, the oldest president on duty will take his place. The trial finished and judgment rendered according to law, the court must publicly declare it. No one can have the power of annulling the arrest made by the court. The right to grant pardon, nevertheless, is reserved to the King, but this pardon can, nevertheless, not extend to the restoring of the condemned to the service of the state.

Section 103. The ordinary Diet shall appoint every three years, in the manner prescribed by the law on representation, a commission authorized to judge if the members of the supreme tribunal merit to retain their important offices, or if certain ones among them, unless it can be proved they have committed faults or crimes—cases which are provided for in the preceding section—must, nevertheless, be considered as undeserving the right to exercise royal justice. If this commission, after having voted in the order prescribed by the law on representation, decides that one or several of the members of the supreme tribunal shall be declared deprived of the confidence of the Diet, knowledge of it shall be given to the King, who must remove the member or members in question from office. Nevertheless, the King shall grant an annual pension, which shall be the half of the salary.

Section 104. The Diet cannot enter into any detailed examination of the decisions of the supreme tribunal, neither any general deliberation take place on this subject in the commission.

Section 105. At each ordinary Diet, the committee on the constitution shall have the right to require the protocols of the council of state, with the exception of those which concern ministerial affairs and those of military command, which can be exacted only as far as they relate to affairs generally known and indicated by the committee.

Section 106. If the committee finds that it appears from these protocols that a member of the council of state, or a reporter to this deputy, or the official who has counseled the King in an affair of military command, has evidently acted contrary to the fundamental law, or contrary to the code in force, or that he has consented to an infraction of these laws, or neglected to make representations against such an infraction, or that he has caused and favored it, in concealing designedly some knowledge; or that the reporter has neglected, in cases anticipated in section 38 of the present law on the form of government, to refuse his countersign to the resolution of the King, the committee on the constitution must cause the guilty one to be prosecuted by the attorney general of the Diet before the court of the kingdom, or retain in these cases the oldest four members of the supreme tribunal, in place of the members of the council of state. The remainder shall be proceeded with according to sections 101 and 102, relative to the actions brought against the supreme tribunal. If the members of the council of state, or the councilors of the King for affairs of military command, are found guilty in the manner indicated above, the court of the kingdom shall judge them according to the code in force and the special regulation which the King and the Diet shall establish to fix the responsibility in such a case.

Section 107. If the committee of the constitution finds that all the members of the council of state, or that one or several of these members, in giving their advice on measures for the public good, have not regarded the true interests of the kingdom, or that a reporter has not fulfilled the duties of his post of trust with impartiality, zeal, ability, and activity, the committee shall have the right to communicate it to the Diet, which, if it judges that the interest of the kingdom demands it, can, in writing, announce its wish to the King that he will deprive this person or persons, against whom observations have been made, of the places which they occupy in the council of state. Questions of this nature can be moved in the chambers of the Diet, and be submitted to them by other committees than the one of the constitution; but they cannot be decided by the Diet before the said committee has been heard. In deliberations of the Diet on this subject, the resolutions of the King in affairs concerning the rights and interests of individuals or corporations cannot even be mentioned, still less submitted to the examination of the Diet. The benefit of the final discharge must be considered as obtained to everything that the Diet, after examination, has approved or left without observation; and no new examination, of any responsibility whatever, can be made by a following Diet, concerning affairs thus examined. Nevertheless, notwithstanding the examination made by committees or deputies of the Diet for the administration of the receipts of the state, it is the duty of the authorized officials to exercise the special revision which belongs to them by virtue of their office.

Section 108. The ordinary Diet shall designate, every three years, as is prescribed by the law on representation, six persons distinguished for their knowledge and learning, to watch over the liberty of the press, jointly with the attorney general of the Diet, who shall be their president. This committee, of whom two, besides the attorney general of the Diet, must be jurisconsults, shall have the following authority: In case an author or printer himself sends to them a writing before the printing, demanding their advice on the question to know whether, according to the law on the liberty of the press, he would be liable to be prosecuted for its contents, the attorney general of the Diet, and at least three of the committee, one a jurisconsult, shall be authorized to give, in writing, the advice demanded. If they declare that the work can be printed, the author and printer shall be free from all responsibility, which shall fall upon the committee.

Section 109. The ordinary Diet can, unless on its own demand, be dissolved only at the expiration of four months after its meeting, unless the King, as stated in the law on representation, orders new elections, either for both chambers, or one of them. In this case the Diet, in preserving its character of ordinary Diet, shall assemble in the three months which follow the dissolution, at the time fixed by the King, and it can be dissolved by the King only at the expiration of four months after the commencement of its new session. The extra Diet can be dissolved by the King when he judges convenient; it must always be before the time fixed for the ordinary sessions. If, contrary to expectation, it happens that the Diet, at the time of its closing, has not regulated the expenses, or has not fixed the amount of the contributions for imposts, the old state of the expenses and the old contribution shall continue until the following Diet. If the total amount of this contribution is fixed, but the chambers are not agreed as to its assessment, the taxes founded on the different articles of the last ordinance, concerning these matters, shall be increased or diminished in the proposition existing between the total amount of the tax, which has just been fixed by the Diet, and the old contribution, the assessment of which was made by the last Diet. In this case, the Diet shall charge its deputies of the bank and the office of the public debt to prepare, according to established bases and publish a new ordinance upon this subject.

Section 110. No member of the Diet can he prosecuted, neither deprived of his liberty, on account of what he shall have said or done in the said capacity, unless the chamber, of which he is a member, authorizes this prosecution by a formal resolution, to which, at least, five-sixths of the members present shall have agreed. No member of the Diet can longer he expelled from the place where the Diet is assembled. If an individual or body, military or other, or a meeting of the citizens of any denomination whatever, undertake, of itself, or by order of others, to perform acts of violence on the Diet, chambers, or committee, or on any particular member of the Diet, or to interfere with the freedom of the deliberations and resolutions of the Diet, this shall be called treason, and the Diet can prosecute these infractions, according to the prescriptions of the law.

If a member of the Diet, during the session, either in a journey coming to or returning from the Diet, the object of this journey being known, is molested by words or acts, there shall be applied the resolutions of the code in force, as to violence or offenses committed against officials of the King, in the exercise, or on the occasion of the exercise, of their duties. It shall be the same, if the deputies, the delegated comptrollers’ or the attorney general of the Diet, the secretaries or clerks of the chambers and committees of the Diet, are attacked with violence, or insulted in the exercise, or on the occasion of the exercise of the said duties.

Section 111. If a member of the Diet is charged with an offense of a serious nature, he can be arrested only on the order given by the judge, after examination of the affair, except in case where he shall have been taken in flagrant act; nevertheless, if he does not appear on the authority given by the tribunal, the resolutions of the code in force relative to it shall be applied. The members of the Diet can be deprived of their liberty only in the cases explained by the present section, and the one which precedes. The deputies and delegated comptrollers of the Diet can receive orders relative to their duties from the Diet alone, and these in conformity with the instructions given by it. They can no more be made responsible for their acts, except according to a resolution of the Diet.

Section 112. No official or clerk can exercise, by reason of his office, an illicit influence on the election of the members of the Diet; any one guilty thereof shall be removed from his place.

Section 113. Those who are designated to enforce, on the part of the Diet, ordinances relative to the assessment of taxes, can be submitted to no responsibility for the imposition of taxes.

Section 114. The privileges, advantages, rights, and liberties of the old estates of the kingdom shall remain in force, except so far as they attach themselves necessarily to the ancient right of representation by the orders, such right of representation having ceased. They cannot be modified, neither abolished, unless there shall be unanimity, in this respect, between the King and Diet; and that, in questions relative to the privileges, advantages, rights, and liberties of the nobility and the clergy, the nobility, on its part, and the general synod for that of the clergy, give their consent to it.

In faith of which we have desired to confirm, sanction, and accept everything which precedes, placing thereto our signatures and our seals.

Done at Stockholm the 16th of June, A. D. 1809.

For the nobility:

M. ANKERSVÄRD, Marshal of the Nobility.

For the clergy:

AXEL LINDBLOM, President.

For the burghers:

H. N. SCHWAN, President.

For the peasants:

LARS OLSSON, President.

All which is stipulated above we will not only accept ourselves as a fundamental law, but, also, we command and order all those who owe faith, respect, and obedience to us and to our successors, as also to the kingdom, to recognize the present law on the form of government, to observe, conform, and submit to it.

In faith of which we have signed and confirmed the presents with our own hand, and have placed thereto our royal seal.

Done in our capital of Stockholm June 16, A. D. 1809.

CHARLES.

Law on representation.

Adopted by His Majesty and the estates of the kingdom, Stockholm, June 22, 1866.

We, Charles, by the grace of God King of Sweden, of Norway, of the Goths and Vandals, make known that the estates of the kingdom having, in the order prescribed by the fundamental laws, accepted our project of a new law on representation; this law shall have, conformably to section 82 of the law on the form of government, the force of fundamental law, such as follows, word for word:

We, the undersigned, the estates of the kingdom of Sweden, counts, barons, bishops, orders of the nobility, of the clergy, of burghers, and of the peasants, now assembled in general Diet, in our name and in that of our absent fellow-citizens, make known that his Majesty having, by a proposition dated January 5, 1863, and conformably to section 81 of the law on the form of government, submitted to our examination a project of a new law on representation, we have, after having treated this important affair in the manner prescribed by fundamental laws, accepted the said project thus conceived.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

Section 1. The Swedish people is represented by a Diet, divided into two chambers, the first and the second, which have, on all questions, the same authority. The members of the Diet shall not be bound, in the exercise of their duties, by any other propositions than those of the fundamental laws of the kingdom.

Section 2. The ordinary sessions of the Diet shall assemble, in virtue of the law on the form of government, and without special convocation, the 15th of January of each year, or the day following, if this date falls on a holiday.

The Diet shall be convoked in extra session when the King shall judge it necessary, and also in all cases indicated in sections 91, 92, 93, and 94 of the law on the form of government.

In extra session can be treated only affairs for which the Diet has been convoked, or which, besides, have been submitted to the Diet by the King, as well as all which relates necessarily to the said affairs.

Section 3. For the two chambers, the members of the Diet are chosen by election, and for a fixed time. Nevertheless, the King has the right, before the expiration of this term, to cause in all the kingdom new elections, either for both the chambers or. one of them.

Section 4. No members of the Diet can be prevented from exercising his functions. Nevertheless exception is made in time of war for soldiers when they are called into active service by the King.

Section 5. The ordinary Diet can, except on its own demand, be dissolved only at the expiration of four months after its meeting, unless the King orders during the session new elections, either for both the chambers or one of them. In this case, the Diet shall assemble, preserving its character of ordinary Diet, in the three months which follow its dissolution, at the time fixed by the King, and it can be dissolved by the King only at the expiration of four months after the commencement of its new session. The extra Diet can be dissolved by the King when he judges convenient; it must always be before the time fixed for the ordinary sessions.

ORGANIZATION OF THE CHAMBERS.

(a.) First chamber.

Section 6. The members of the first chamber shall be elected for nine years by provincial assemblies and municipal councilors, or the cities which take no part in provincial assemblies. Each provincial assembly and city of the class mentioned above elect, according to the population of its territory, a member of the Diet for each complete number of thirty thousand inhabitants. If the population does not amount to thirty thousand inhabitants, nevertheless the election of a member of the Diet shall take place.

Section 7. The provincial assemblies and competent municipal councilors shall proceed to the election of members of the first chamber as often as there shall be a vacancy, or when the King shall order new elections. For this object, and where it shall be necessary, the provincial assemblies shall assemble in extra session.

Section 8. Any member of the first chamber whose term has not expired at the beginning of a session, can continue till the end of the session, although during this time the nine years reckoned from the election shall have expired.

Section 9. For members of the first chamber can be elected only persons who have attained the age of thirty-five, and who possess and have possessed, during three years before the election, real estate valued by assessment of taxes at 80,000 riksdalers at the least; or those who, during the same time, have paid the tax to the State, for their capital or their work, on an annual income of 4,000 riksdalers at the least. If, after the election, the member of the Diet finds himself in a position where he shall be no longer eligible, he must resign his office.

Section 10. The election terminated, the credentials of the member of the first chamber are issued. These credentials, if he has been named by a provincial assembly, are signed by the president, and countersigned by the secretary of the assembly; if he has been elected by a city, they are signed by the president of the municipal councilors, and by two of these councilors. The said credentials must be written in form as follows:

By virtue of the election, which by the provincial assembly of N. N., or by the municipal councilors of N. N., has been made ——— day of ———, N. N. is hereby empowered to be, during nine years to commence from the day mentioned above, member of the first chamber of the Diet. The place and date.

Section 11. If any one has occasion to complain of the election by a provincial assembly, or by municipal councilors, he can bring in an appeal to the King. For this purpose, he can require of the secretary of the provincial assembly or of the president of the councilors an extract of the protocol of the election, which must be delivered to the complainant immediately, or, at the latest, two days after his demand, and he shall, on pain of losing the privilege of complaining, address to the provincial government, at the latest a month after the election, the appeal which he makes to the King. The provincial government, by a statement published in the journals, shall fix a short time in which explanations on the said appeal can be delivered to it. This time having expired, the provincial government shall deliver without delay to the King the evidence and declarations relative to the appeal, as well as the explanations. which shall have been presented, in order that the question can immediately be carried before the supreme tribunal and there decided.

Section 12. The member of the first chamber can receive no compensation for his services. If he wishes to resign, he must do so at the time of the elections, or later in the interval of the sessions, to the provincial government.

(b.) Second chamber.

Section 13. 1. The members of the second chamber are elected for three years, to begin from January 1 of the year following the one in which the election has taken place.

2. In the country, to which in electoral matters are united equally the cities which have no tribunal to themselves, as well as the burgs, there shall be elected a member of the Diet by each jurisdiction. As regards jurisdictions whose population exceeds 40,000 inhabitants, the King shall divide them as much as can be done by districts, which shall each elect a member of the Diet.

3. In each city whose population is 10,000 inhabitants or more, a member of the Diet is elected for the full number of 10,000 inhabitants. For the other cities which have their own tribunal, there shall be created, the first time by the King, and afterward every ten years by the chamber, separate electoral districts, as far as can be done by provinces, which shall each elect a member of the Diet. Each of these districts must contain a population of 6,000 inhabitants at the least, and 12,000 at the most.

Section 14. Every man has the right to vote in the commune where he resides who has the right of voting on general affairs of the commune, having an income from real estate in the country or city valued at 1,000 riksdalers ($266) at the least; the lessee for life, or, at least, five years, of agricultural lands, valued by the assessment of taxes at 6,000 riksdalers at the least; and, finally, any one who pays the tax to the state on an annual income of at least 800 riksdalers.

Section 15. The elections of the members of the second chamber take place before the end of the month of September which precedes the first of the three years for which they are held.

If the King orders that new elections be proceeded with, or, if otherwise, a member of the second chamber terminates his duties before the expiration of the time for which he has been elected, new elections are proceeded with immediately for the time which remains.

Section 16. For the country, the elections shall be held in the presence of the judge, by electors who shall have been designated in the presence of the president of the communal assembly; or, for the communes formed by one of the cities mentioned in section 13, paragraph 2, in the presence of the special administration established for the said cities. There is designated, for each commune, one elector or more, according to the population, or one elector for the full number of 1,000 inhabitants.

In the election districts composed of two or more cities, there shall be elected, before the magistrate, one elector or more, according to the population, or one elector for the full number of 500 inhabitants. These electors, for the elections to the Diet, shall assemble before the magistrate in that city of the election districts which has the most inhabitants.

The communes, which have to elect in common a member of the Diet, can, nevertheless, proceed by direct election if a plurality of voters have thus decided it. When, in consequence of a resolution taken before the president of the communal assembly, before the magistrate, or, in the cities which have no tribunal to themselves, before the administration which is specially appointed, persons having the right to vote in a commune are determined upon by direct election, there shall be given a communication of this project to the provincial government, which shall require the votes of other communes belonging to the election districts, and shall publish a statement of the result obtained, that is to say, if the majority of the votes given is for the adoption or rejection of the project. In case of rejection, the question can be again taken up only after five years have passed. If, on the contrary, a change has been resolved upon, it enters into force for the elections which take place one month after the publication of the resolution, and remains applicable for five years at least, after which a resolution as to its continuance can be taken in the same manner as the resolution relating to the introduction of this change. In the direct elections, the votes are given separately for each commune, before the president of the communal assembly, the magistrate, or the administration specially proposed for the cities, in order to make the examination of the votes and the giving of credentials to the one who shall have obtained the majority. The protocols of the elections shall be sent, for the communes of the country, to the judge, and for the cities which have their own tribunal, to the magistrate of the city which has the largest population.

In cities which have to choose alone one or more members of the Diet, the election takes place directly before the magistrate. The cities which have to choose several members of the Diet can be divided into election districts, in the manner established for the election of municipal councilors.

Section 17. For the choice of electors, as well as the members of the Diet, each voter has one voice. The one who has obtained the majority is legally elected. In case of equal division of votes, the proceedings shall be by lot.

Recourse shall be had for these elections to electoral lists, in force for the communes, which must contain the enumeration of persons who have the right of voting, according to section 14.

Section 18. The provincial government is charged, when there must be an election for a member of the second chamber, to appoint a competent president of election, who shall cause to be announced in the churches the day and place of election, taking care to prescribe specially that the proceedings for the designation of electors takes place eight days at least before the election.

If, in any parish, there is no place of divine service the Sunday on which the notice in question must be published, a competent clerk, on the demand of the clergy, shall cause the said notice to be circulated without delay.

Regarding the meeting for choosing electors, the proceedings shall be according to resolutions established for the meeting of the communal assembly, and for the council of the city, so far as they are applicable.

At the time of the choice of electors, the president of the communal assembly, or the magistrate who presides at the election, shall deliver a duly authenticated extract of the protocol of the election, as evidence of qualification, to the one or ones who shall have been charged with the powers of electors.

Section 19. Only individuals who have attained twenty-five years can be elected members of the second chamber, and who, according to section 14, possess, and have possessed at least one year before the election, the right of voting in the commune or in one of the communes for which they are elected.

Section 20. The credentials of that one who has been elected member of the second chamber are delivered to him immediately. They are signed by the judge for the election districts of the country; by the magistrate for the cities who choose alone a member of the Diet; and for the election districts composed of several cities, by the magistrate who has made the definite statement of the votes.

These credentials must be written in the following form:

At the elections which have taken place on the ___ day of ______, in the jurisdiction of N. N., (election district of N. N., of the jurisdiction of N. N.,) or in the city (or cities) of N. N., N. N. has been elected member of the second chamber of the Diet for a term of three years, to commence from the 1st of January of the year following, (or, if the election has taken place in consequence of an ordinance of the King relative to new elections, or in consequence of a member terminating his duties before the expiration of the time for which he had been elected,) for the time to extend until the 1st of January of the year ??. This shall serve as a proper credential. The place and date.

Section 21. The one who has been elected member of the second chamber of the Diet cannot, unless for valid reasons, refuse to accept this office.

The following cases are considered valid:

1. If the elected can urge obtacles considered by the code in force, as a case of legal prevention.

2. If he is more than sixty years of age.

3. If he has already, as member of the Diet, served in three ordinary Diets.

The resignation given at the time of the elections is examined by the one who presides at the election. If it is given later, in the interval of the sessions, it is examined by the provincial government.

Section 22. 1. If any one has protested against the election of a member of the second chamber, he must send an appeal to the provincial government of the place of the election, in case the election has taken place; for several cities, in various provinces, the appeal must be carried to the government of the province where the final canvass has been made. In this case the complainant can require of the judge, or of the magistrate who has made the final canvass, an extract of the protocol—an extract which must be returned to the complainant immediately, or, at the latest, two days after his demand. He shall, on pain of forfeiting his right to complain, address, at the latest, within eight days after the election, his appeal to the provincial government—which is said in section 11 enables competent persons to present their observations—and make known his decision, at the latest, before the end of the day which follows the one on which the time accorded expires.

2. Any one who has protested against the decision of the provincial government, can, at the latest, within eight days after the notification which has been made to him of it, address to the provincial government his appeal to the King, after which the proceedings shall be as said above, section 11.

3. If any one wishes to make an allegation against the decision by which his resignation, as member of the Diet, has not been admitted, the proceedings on this account, if the resignation takes place at the time of the elections conformably to paragraph 1 of the present section, and if taking place later, it is addressed to the provincial government, conformably to paragraph 2.

Section 23. Each member of the second chamber shall receive from the state funds, for traveling expenses and salary, 1,200 riksdalers for each ordinary session. But if the King dissolves the Diet before it has lasted four months, or if otherwise the member of the Diet leaves his office in the course of the session, before the four months have expired, also in case of extra session, the member shall receive, besides traveling expenses, a salary of 10 riksdalers per day, without the total sum exceeding 1,200 riksdalers.

The member of the chamber who shall not be present at the Diet at the required time, shall submit to a forfeiture of 10 riksdalers for each day of absence.

(c.) General provisions.

Section 24. The right of voting can be exercised only by him who, at the time of the elections, presents himself in person.

Section 25. If, at the elections of the Diet, which must be made by closed ballots, there shall be found a ticket bearing the name of a person who is not eligible, or designating a greater or less number of candidates thau can be elected, or if the ticket presents some uncertainty as to the name of the person or persons elected, the said ticket shall not be counted.

Section 26. The functions of a member of the Diet can be exercised only by Swedish citizens belonging to the Protestant Church. As members of the Diet cannot be admitted—

(a.) Any one under guardianship.

(b.) Any one who has assigned his effects to his creditors, and who cannot prove in the manner duly prescribed that he is free from the disability.

(c.) Any one who is prosecuted, or who has been condemned for an infamous crime, or who for such crime has not been finally acquitted.

(d.) Any one who is not in the enjoyment of his civil rights, or who has been declared unworthy of pleading for others before a tribunal.

(e.) Any one who shall have been convicted of having, in the elections, sought to gain votes by means of money or presents; the one who shall have sold his vote finally, the one who, by violence and threats, shall have interfered with the liberty o the elections.

Section 27. If a person has been simultaneously elected member of both chambers or of one chamber for two or more districts, he may choose in which of the two chambers he will serve, or which election district he intends to represent. Nevertheless he must immediately make known his decision to the provincial government of the place for which he does not accept the office of member to the Diet.

Section 28. Each of the chambers must make known to the King the vacancies which occur in it, and which must be filled in the same session, or before the next session after which the King shall order the provincial government to proceed with new elections.

If, in the interval of the sessions, there occurs a vancancy in one or the other of the two chambers, the provincial government is charged to proceed with a new election.

Section 29. In the course of the session, no member of the Diet can resign his office without furnishing reasons recognized as valid by the chamber to which he belongs. Nevertheless, the present resolution effects no change to what is said above, relating to the right he has to resign his office at the time of the elections.

Section 30. Each chamber has the right to impose fines upon any member of the Diet who, without proper reasons, does not present himself at the desired time, or who otherwise, without authority from the chamber, and without legitimate reasons, abstains from taking part in its deliberations. These fines are received to the profit of the public treasury.

OPENING AND CLOSING OF THE DIET.

Section 31. The Diet shall assemble in the capital of the kingdom, excepting in cases where the approach of an enemy, pest, or other obstacles of the same gravity shall render it impossible or dangerous for its liberty and security. In this case, it belongs to the King to designate and declare officially another place of meeting, conformably to the resolutions of section 50 on the law on the form of government.

Section 32. 1. Any one who shall have been elected member of the Diet must, the first time he presents himself there after his election, submit his credentials to the revision of the minister of state and of justice, or the one whom the King shall have designated in his place. The examination of his credentials must take place the same day on which the Diet shall assemble, or as soon as possible, in case the member shall present himself later. This verification, which shall take place in the presence of three of the deputies of the office of the public debt, has for an object to ascertain if the credentials are in the prescribed form, and shall, at the Diet for which a new election for both chambers, or for all the members of one of them, has taken place, be completed within three days, but at other Diets the day when the credentials are presented.

2. To each chamber, nevertheless, it belongs to verify the competency of its members, not only of those whose credentials have not been acknowledged valid, but also of those against whom otherwise observations can be presented in consequence of the present fundamental law. This one, whose right to serve in the Diet is put in question, retains, nevertheless, his office as member of the Diet, until he shall have been declared incompetent to act.

Section 33. As soon as the verification prescribed in paragraph 1 of the preceding section has taken place, and the minister of state and of justice, or the one who has been designated in his place, has informed the chambers of what concerns their respective members, each of the two chambers shall send immediately to the King a deputation, to request him to name a president and a vice-president, whom the King shall choose for the two chambers from their respective members.

1. The president and the vice-president shall take the oath before the King, as follows:

“I, N. N., appointed for this Diet president (vice-president) of the first (of the second) chamber, swear before God and His holy gospel, that I wish to sustain and defend, and that I will sustain and defend, with all my powers, the authority of the King and the rights of the Diet, conformably to the law on the form of government of the kingdom. I will conform myself equally and without reservation to the other fundamental laws of the kingdom. I will be faithful to this oath, as truly as God shall save my body and my soul.”

When, in any of the cases provided for in sections 91, 93, and 94 of the law on the form of government, the Diet assembles to consider on the convocation of those cases directly designated in section 95 of the same fundamental law, each chamber has the right to choose for itself a president and a vice-president, who take before the chamber the above-written oath.

Before the appointment of the president, as said above, the presidency belongs to that one of the members present who has served in the greatest number of Diets; if two or more members have served in the same number of Diets, the presidency belongs to the eldest.

Section 34. The King shall make known publicly the day of the opening of the Diet, which cannot be fixed later than the fifteenth day (not holy day) after the meeting of the Diet. On this day, the members of the Diet, after having attended divine service, shall assemble in the hall of the throne, or, if it is judged best, the speech shall be delivered by one of the ministers of state. On this occasion the King shall communicate to the ordinary Diet an exposition of the condition of the kingdom since the last ordinary Diet. He shall submit equally to the Diet, in two copies, one for each chamber, a proposition relative to the condition and financial needs of the state, containing also a project relative to the means by which imposts can be demanded, such as the necessities of the state requires outside its ordinary resources. But if the Diet is assembled in extra session, the reasons of the convocation are made known to it, and it shall receive communication of the projects and propositions on which the chambers must deliberate. Nevertheless, the King remains free to present further projects.

When the King opens the Diet, as is said above, the presidents must on the same occasion, and in the name of the chambers, present to him their respectful homage.

Section 35. Each chamber can choose and appoint its secretaries. The other officials, whom each chamber shall judge necessary during the Diet, shall be appointed, together with the secretary, by the president and some members designated for this purpose by the chambers.

Section 36. If the King wishes to dissolve the Diet, and order new elections in all the kingdom, either for both chambers or for one of them, he shall convoke the Diet in the hall of the throne, where the resolution relative to it shall be communicated to it.

At the close of the Diet the members shall present themselves, on the convocation of the King, after having attended divine service, in the hall of the throne, and, through their presidents, present to him their good wishes. The reading of the proceedings of the Diet follow, after which the King in person, or one of the ministers of state, shall pronounce the Diet closed.

PREPARATION OF BUSINESS.

Section 37. 1. In each ordinary Diet, and within eight days after the opening, shall be formed a committee on the constitution, a committee on finance, a committee on taxes, a committee on the bank, and a committee on legislation. The standing committees of the Diet shall consist of—for the committee on the constitution, 20 members; the committee on finance, 24 members; the committee on taxes, 20 members; the committee on the bank, 16 members; and the committee on legislation, 16 members. Each of the chambers shall choose for itself one-half of these members, either by direct election, or, if the chamber thus decides, by means of electors. When it shall be judged necessary, there can be formed, in virtue of a resolution of the chambers, special committees to consider certain questions which belong to standing committees, and, on their demand, the number of committees can be augmented.

2. Each chamber can choose for itself substitutes to replace the members of a committee in case of vacancy.

3. If in one of the chambers there arises a question which is not in the province of the committees above mentioned, but, nevertheless, of a nature to be considered by a committee, there shall be formed a committee for the occasion, charged to consider the said question. This committee shall consist of as many members as the chamber shall judge necessary, and of its own members.

4. In the extra sessions, only the number of committees shall be formed necessary for the preparation of business, which, according to section 2, shall be submitted to them.

Section 38. It belongs to the committee on the constitution to examine the fundamental laws of the kingdom, and to propose to the Diet the modifications which it judges absolutely necessary, useful, or possible to add to it, as also to pronounce upon questions relative to the fundamental laws, which are submitted to it by the chambers.

2. The committee is charged to require protocols of the council of state, with the exception of those which concern ministerial affairs and those of military command, and which can be demanded only as far as they relate to the affairs known and indicated by the committee. The law on the form of government has established as regards the right and duty incumbent on the committee, after the examination of these protocols, to make known to the Diet the observations to which it has given place as to take such measures required in consequence of the said observations; and in case where a deputy, or even a committee, other than that on the constitution, alleges that the council of state, or some one of its members or reporters, have not properly exercised their functions, the same law on the form of government enacts equally regarding the right and duty of the committee on the constitution to make known its opinion before the question shall be decided by the Diet. It belongs also to the committee to decide the differences which arise between the two chambers upon the question as to what committee a matter must be sent, and also to decide between the chambers and its president, when he refuses to make a proposition.

Section 39. The committee on finance, which shall receive communication of the proposition made by the King to the Diet, relating to the condition and financial needs of the state, and which, has the right to demand the communication of all the accounts and acts of the treasury, is charged with verifying, examining, and making known in a report the condition and administration of the treasury, and of the office of the public debt; also of proposing not only the sums required by the necessities, after all the reductions and necessary retrenchments have been made, but also the sum which, conformably to section 63 of the law on the form of government, must be reserved for special cases. He is charged also with proposing the amount provided for taxes.

The committee is charged equally with examining and verifying whether the payments made or dispositions of the funds of the state do not exceed the amount of the head-titles established in the budget determined upon by the Diet; also whether the payments are founded on the properly raised allowance, or on the ordinances of the King, duly countersigned, or if they are accompanied with receipts from those who have received the funds. If, contrary to the resolution of the Diet, it is found that the sums carried to the title-page have been applied to other objects than those which belong to this title-page, or that one of the credits opened by the Diet has been exceeded, the committee must point out to the chambers the official who shall have countersigned such an ordinance, after which the proceedings shall be conformably to sections 106, 107, of the law on the form of government. Nevertheless, the committee cannot, contrary to the provisions of section 90 of the law on the form of government, include in its censure the ordinances made by the King; the accountable officials, charged with public disbursements, can no longer be cited personally before the committee or before the Diet, but the latter may, if it is necessary, make known to the King the motives which exist for demanding that the said official be legally proceeded with.

Section 40. The committee on taxes is charged with preparing all the questions which are referred to it by the chambers, and which relate to the changes in the dispositions on the establishment of taxes, as well as to present (under the form of project) the amount of the various taxes. It is charged equally, when the financial needs have been established and appointed, to propose the means of increasing the taxes, if it is necessary, or of diminishing them if it is possible, and to submit to the Diet a project of law on the taxes made in consequence. The committee can, besides, in questions relative to taxes, propose what seems to it equitable and useful.

Section 41. It devolves on the committee on the bank to control the administration and condition of the bank, or to propose to the chambers, as also in cases where the Diet has delegated power to it, to give instructions relative to the administration of this establishment.

Section 42. 1. The committee on legislation shall give its advice on all projects sent to it by the chambers, in order to establish, modify, explain, or abrogate the general legislation, civil, criminal, or ecclesiastical. Under the title of civil and criminal laws must be included also the military laws and ordinances for those of such a nature as are applicable to civilians.

2. The committee shall examine also the accounts made by the attorney general of the Diet, as well as his journal and correspondence, and shall make a report relative thereto to the Diet.

Section 43. No member of the council of state, neither of the supreme tribunal, can form a part of the committees or take part in the election of the said committees. No one of those of whom the Diet can exact any responsibility whatever can form part of a committee which has to scrutinize its own administration.

Section 44. The committee shall choose for themselves their chairman and their vice-chairman. Until they have been named, the chairman shall be that one of the members who has served in the greatest number of Diets; and if two or more have served in an equal number of Diets, by the eldest. The permanent committees shall choose separately their secretary, and, with his concurrence, the other officials judged necessary. In the temporary committees the members shall choose among themselves, and for each matter specially, a reporter authorized to commit to waiting the opinion of the committee on the matter.

Section 45. All the committees must assemble in four days from the one on which they were formed. They must give, as soon as possible, their opinions.

If a member of a committee has neglected three successive times from taking part in the deliberations, without lawful reasons, the chairman must give advice of it to the chamber which the affair concerns, in order that another member shall be designated, in the order prescribed, to act in the committee.

Section 46. If a committee has need to procure, verbally or by writing, information on the part of a functionary of the King or of a general administration, the committee can address itself, through its president, to that member of the council of state whom the King designates for each Diet, and request an order from the King, in order that the persons or administrations in question may furnish the desired information. Nevertheless, the office of state, (Stats-Kontoret,) and the administrations of the bank, and the office of the public debt, in questions of compatibility, must give immediately the information desired.

Section 47. If a permanent committee judges it necessary, in order to consider any matter, to unite itself to another permanent committee, this union shall take place by means of delegates, in such a manner as the committees shall agree upon. This joint committee shall have the right, on questions considered by it, to report its opinion without the other members of the two committees taking part in it.

Section 48. When, in a committee, a secret vote is to be taken, a secret ballot must be drawn and laid aside, which ballot shall be opened only in case when, at the counting of the votes, they shall be found equally divided. If a majority has already been obtained, the said ballot must be destroyed immediately, without having been opened.

The member who does not approve of the resolution of the committee is free to make known to the chambers his particular opinion at the same time with the opinion of the committee, and in this case this opinion must be sent in writing to the committee. Nevertheless, the delivery of the report of the committee cannot be hindered by this fact.

Section 49. The reports of the committee are signed by the chairman.

Section 50. If the King demands of the Diet special delegates for conferring with him on matters which he judges a duty to be kept secret, twelve members are chosen, six by each chamber. Nevertheless, these delegates have not the power to form decisions, but only to give to the King their opinion on matters which he has communicated to them. The King designates the secretary and other clerks of these delegates.

OF THE MANNER OF TREATING MATTERS IN THE CHAMBERS.

Section 51. The presidents, or, in case they are prevented, the vice-presidents, are authorized in each chamber to make the convocation of the assemblies, to make the report of affairs, to sum up and make known their expressed opinions, to make propositions relative to the resolutions to be taken, and to maintain order in the assemblies, all according to the resolutions of the present fundamental law. Nevertheless, one who exercises the presidency can take part neither at the deliberations nor in the votes, and can make no other propositions than those which concern the observing of the fundamental laws, special resolutions of the Diet or of the chambers, or further regulations established on the manner of treating the affairs of the Diet.

The president has not the right to close a session of the chamber without its consent.

Section 52. In the sessions of the chambers, each member has the right to express himself freely to the protocol, both to pass his judgment on all questions submitted for deliberation, and on the legality of everything which takes place in the chamber. Each one speaks, following the order in which he is inscribed and finds himself called, and no one is authorized to speak outside of the protocol. No one must allow himself to make use of personalities; if this takes place, the chamber must examine if the member who has thus forgotten himself must receive from the president suitable representations and warnings, or if the affair must be sent to competent tribunals, or even if it should be held to no account.

Section 53. In the presence of the King, the Diet or the chambers must neither deliberate nor take resolutions on any matter whatever.

The members of the council of state can appear in each chamber, with the right to take part in the deliberations, but not in the voting, unless they are members of the council of state. Nevertheless, the members of the council of state, when, according to the law on the form of government, they are charged with the administration of the kingdom, even as the guardians of the minor King, can neither assist in the deliberations of the chambers, nor take part in the voting.

In affairs which personally concern a member of the chamber, he is permitted to assist at the deliberations, but not in voting.

Section 54. The communications and propositions of the King, with the exception of those mentioned in section 34, shall be presented to the two chambers through a member of the council of state; they must always be accompanied with the opinion of the said council, and, when it relates to establishing, modifying, explaining, or abrogating general laws, civil, criminal, and ecclesiastical, also with that of the supreme tribunal.

Section 55. Motions, which are of the jurisdiction of permanent committees, can be made by a member of the Diet in the chamber to which it belongs, in ten days after the opening of the Diet. Later, and with the exception of projects on the fundamental laws, a member cannot make such motions, at least if they do not relate directly to a resolution taken in one of the two chambers, or to a matter treated there, or to some event which shall be brought forward during the Diet.

In matters which are not in the jurisdiction of the permanent committees, motions can be presented as long as the Diet assembles.

Motions must always be expressed in writing, in order to be added to the protocol. Matters of a different matter cannot be united in the same motion.

Section 56. The propositions of the King, as also motions in matters which are of the jurisdiction of permanent committees, cannot be submitted to the decision of the chamber before the committee shall have given its opinion. If the motions concern other matters, and are not exclusively special to the chamber, they cannot be adopted without a previous reference to the committee. But the special questions belonging exclusively to one of the two chambers can be decided immediately.

Section 57. If a member or a committee, other than the one on the constitution, possesses the chamber with this fact, that the council of state, or one of its members or reporters, has not properly filled his office, the following formula alone must be employed:

“Allegations have been made against the council of state, either such or such a member, or such or such a reporter of the council of state, and demand is made for the sending back of the matter to the committee on the constitution, before which explanations shall be given.”

This disposition must positively take place immediately. The resolutions of section 107 of the law on the form of government shall be applicable to the deliberations of the chamber on such a question, if it concerns a resolution of the King in affairs concerning the rights and interests of individuals or corporations.

Section 58. When a proposition or a motion shall come to the chamber for the first time, it must, unless the committee returns it immediately and with the unanimity of the committee, be adjourned to the next assembly, or the said dismission will take place if the question is not abandoned, or, if concerning the chamber exclusively, it has not been otherwise decided. Each member can express his opinion on the matter, which is also addressed to the committee, yet without this act delaying the dismission.

If the question arises to which committee a matter must be referred, the question can only for that meeting where it arose be laid on the table. At the next meeting it must necessarily be disposed of.

Section 59. The opinion of the permanent committee who shall succeed it shall be reported to the two chambers simultaneously, as soon as possible, for the solution of the matter. After the first notification of this report, the resolution to consider the affair shall be adjourned. At the second notification it can, on the collective demand of several members, be adjourned anew, whether there shall then have been deliberations on it or not. But when the matter shall come for the third time, it must be decided.

Regarding opinions emanating from temporary committees, they shall be the subject of a report to the chamber which shall have created these committees; the matter shall be proceeded with as said above. An immediate decision can be taken relating to propositions and preparatory inquiries of the committee, unless a member of the chamber demands an adjournment.

Section 60. When a matter shall be decided definitely, a reading of the parts relative to it must be made, if a member of the chamber demands it. The definite solution of a matter, which has been the subject of deliberation, cannot be undertaken before the chamber, on the reference of its president, has declared the deliberation closed. After this declaration the motion must be put. If a question can be the subject of adoption or rejection, the first proposition made by the president must be for the adoption. If decided in the negative, and if, in the course of deliberation, observations or amendments have been made on the matter, the following proposition must conform itself thereto. If a project contains several parts, which cannot conveniently be decided together, a special proposition must be made relating to each part identically, in the same order as prescribed above. The propositions shall be always decided by yes or no and the president shall declare what the vote is, a declaration to which all must conform themselves, unless the ballot shall decide, which cannot be refused; freedom shall be given, moreover, to each one to Commit his personal opinion to the protocol. No one must essay to renew the resolution in question by a new deliberation. When the voting shall take place, the proposition of voting, as well as the contra-proposition, must be immediately clearly composed, adjusted, and settled, and the ballot shall take place immediately after, but no proposition can be made, neither any ballot authorized on the question whether the ballot must take place.

The ballot shall always take place by means of printed tickets, without exterior signs—simple, closed, and rolled. In order to avoid the equal division of votes by yes and no, in affairs where an absolute majority is required, the president, at each ballot and before the counting of the votes, shall put aside one of the tickets, which shall be sealed. If, when at the counting of the other tickets or ballots, there shall be found an equal division, the sealed ticket shall be opened and shall decide the majority. If the majority is already obtained, the said vote shall be destroyed, without having been opened.

Section 61. The president cannot refuse a proposition, unless he judges that the question may be contrary to the tenor of the fundamental laws, and he must always give the reason for his refusal. If the chamber, nevertheless, insists that the proposition shall be made, the president must declare that the deliberation is adjourned, and the matter shall be committed to the committee on the constitution, which, without delay, and in relating his advice, must declare if the question is in opposition or conformity to the fundamental laws. If the committee has declared that the proposition is not contrary to the fundamental laws, it can no longer be refused.

Section 62. The resolutions of a chamber, in questions which do not concern this chamber exclusively, shall be communicated to the other chamber, under the form of extracts of the protocol. If the matter has been treated by a permanent committee or a special committee, which succeeds it, communication of the resolution taken shall be made to the said committee in the same matter. If a member, who does not approve of the resolution of the chamber, wishes to make known his opinion to the other chamber, he has the right to do so. He must in this case join his opinion to the protocol, after which information of it is given to the other chamber, by means of an extract of the said protocol; but by this act the progress of the resolution can in no case be retarded.

Section 63. When a question arises on which the committee has expressed itself, the chamber can adopt a resolution, either immediately conformably to the advice of the committee, or without regard to what it has proposed, or, if the matter seems to demand a more ample inquiry, to order its recommittal to the committee.

If the chambers form, on the subject of a question, on which the permanent committee or the special committee which takes its place have expressed themselves, resolutions essentially or partly different, the committee shall try to conciliate as much as possible the two opinions, and shall present a project thereon to the chambers. If the question has been treated by a temporary committee, and if the chamber which has instituted the committee does not reject the motion made on the question, the resolution shall be, by means of an extract of the protocol, communicated to the other chamber; the latter shall act on the said question, either immediately or after the sending back to a committee instituted in the chamber itself, to make a further examination of it. If this chamber then does not adopt the resolution taken by the chamber which first has treated the affair, the said resolution, rejected or modified, is sent again to this last chamber; the latter, in case the resolution has been modified only, submits, the matter to a new deliberation, and if the resolution of the first-mentioned chamber is not accepted without changes, the matter returns to the other chamber, to be there submitted to a new examination.

The decisions on which the chambers agree are resolutions of the Diet. If, the matter having been treated as is said above, the two chambers do not take a unanimous resolution, this matter cannot, except in cases mentioned in section 65, be again taken up in the same Diet.

Section 64. Every project having for its end the establishing, modifying, explaining, or abolishing fundamental laws, a question which can be raised only in an ordinary session, can be rejected during the same Diet, but it shall be accepted and approved only as a project until adjourned to the first ordinary session, which takes place after new general elections for the second chamber, in order to be submitted to a new trial. If this project is then accepted by the two chambers, it becomes a resolution of the Diet. The chambers have not the right to make any change in an adjourned project. The resolution to be taken on an adjourned project can be sent to no other Diet than the aforesaid, unless there is unanimity on the subject between the King and the two chambers.

Section 65. When, in questions relative to the expenses of the state, or to taxes, or concerning the revenues and expenses, as also the direction and administration of the bank of the kingdom, or of the office of the public debt, the chambers take different resolutions, which shall not be conciliated by the project of a competent committee, the two chambers shall vote separately on the different resolutions taken by each of them, and the one which has the greatest number of votes shall become the resolution of the Diet. To avoid in this ballot the equal division of votes, one vote shall be put aside in the second chamber and sealed. In case the other votes are equally divided, this ballot shall be opened and shall decide the question. If a majority is already obtained, the ballot must be destroyed without having been opened.

Section 66. In case of the election of the King or heir to the throne, a commission shall be formed composed of 64 persons, each chamber designating 32, within itself and by secret ballot. This commission shall be charged, in case of dissent between the two chambers, to determine the choice. The day after the commission shall have been constituted, the chambers shall proceed to the election of the King or heir to the throne. If the choice of the chambers unites on one and the same person, he shall be considered elected. In a contrary case the commision shall decide. Nevertheless, the commission cannot vote for others than those who, in each chamber, shall have obtained the most votes, each chamber presenting no more than one candidate. The members of the commission who by these duties are not deprived of their rights as members of the Diet, shall assemble the day after the one on which the elections shall have taken place in the chambers, and shall not separate until the choice is made. The one of the two persons balloted for, on whom the majority of the votes in the commission shall fall, shall be legally elected. In the case provided for in section 94 of the law on the form of government, the commission shall be elected in ten days after the one fixed for the meeting of the Diet in the act of convocation.

Section 67. If it is necessary to designate a guardian for the King, (minor,) the chambers shall appoint, at the latest, on the day after the opening of the Diet, a commission composed of the same number of persons, and formed in the same manner as said in the preceding section. The said commission shall ballot in order to elect guardians, the number of whom is fixed by the Diet, which number shall be one, three, or five. Each member of the Commission shall bear on a secret ballot the names of the persons he considers worthy to fulfill these functions, and a sufficient number so that it may contain one more than the number fixed by the Diet. Of the names borne on this ballot, the one who shall have obtained the most votes shall be placed the first in a new ballot, and this shall be the majority of the commission, which shall decide. The proceedings shall be the same for the following one as having obtained the most votes; thus with the next, until the number of guardians prescribed shall be filled. The commission cannot adjourn until the election shall be completed, and this election shall be considered as a resolution of the Diet. If it happens that the chambers, within the three days after the opening of the Diet, shall not agree upon the number of guardians, there shall be appointed, as said above, for the commission, and with the same number of persons, a special committee, who shall decide this question by ballot in the term of ten days, the decision having the authority and effect of a resolution of the Diet. The commission must afterward have an election also in the term of ten days, so that in all cases the election of the guardians shall be accomplished in seven days after the opening of the Diet.

Section 68. In consequence of section 96 of the law on the form of government, each ordinary Diet shall designate a man known to be versed in jurisprudence and for his perfect honor, who shall be authorized to watch over the administration of the laws by the judges and officials, and to prosecute before the court of the kingdom, or before other competent tribunals, according to legal forms, of which section 102 of the same fundamental laws regulates the organization and grants, those who, in the exercise of their duties, are suspected of having, through favor, partiality, or other motive, committed some illegalities or neglected to fulfill properly their duties.

This attorney general of the Diet, whose rights and duties are more fully defined as well in the law on the form of government as in special instructions, shall be elected by forty-eight electors designated for this purpose, and of whom twenty-four shall be chosen by each chamber by itself. These electors, who must assemble for election the same day they shall have been chosen, cannot adjourn until the election be accomplished, and each one shall propose forthwith, in a secret ballot, the person upon whom the vote must fall. If a person obtains more than half the votes, he is regularly elected. If the votes are divided between several persons in such a manner that the requisite majority is acquired by no one, there shall be a new secret ballot for the choice of the one who shall have obtained the most votes, or, if he is not accepted, for the choice of the one who shall have had the greatest number of votes after him, and so following. If, after all these ballots, no one shall have obtained the majority here prescribed, a new ballot shall be made, over all those which have been the subjects of the previous ballots, and he who shall obtain the most votes shall be considered as regularly elected.

The electors must at the same time that they designate the attorney general of the Diet elect in the same manner a person possessing the qualities required of the said official, in order to succeed him in case of his decease before the following ordinary Diet shall have proceeded to a new election, and to replace him if he becomes seriously ill, or is otherwise incapacitated. In case, while the Diet is assembled, the attorney general of the Diet resigns or dies, the Diet shall immediately put in his place the person who shall have been designated for his successor. If, during the session, the successor designated by the attorney general of the Diet resigns, or if he enters upon duties as attorney general of the Diet, or if he dies, the proceedings shall be as above for the election of another person fulfilling the desired conditions.

If one of the above cases presents itself in the interval of the sessions, the right of the Diet in this respect shall be exercised by the deputies of the bank and the office of the public debt.

Section 69. The ordinary Diet shall appoint every three years a commission of forty-eight persons, twenty-four of whom shall be chosen by each chamber, by itself and by secret ballot. This commission, according to sections 103 and 104 of the law on the form of government, has the right of judging if all the members of the supreme tribunal merit to retain their important offices, or if certain ones among them, without it can be proved they have committed faults or crimes, which are provided for in section 102 of the law on the form of government, ought nevertheless to be deprived of the right of exercising royal justice.

This commission shall assemble the same day on which it shall have been appointed. All the members of the commission shall vote first, one after the other, on this question, in order to know if they shall have a ballot for the exclusion of one of the members of the supreme tribunal. If this question is decided negatively, unanimously, or by an absolute majority, all the members of the supreme tribunal must be retained. If it is decided affirmatively, each of the members of the commission shall prepare a secret ticket, bearing the names of those members of the supreme tribunal, in a greater or less number, whom he considers deserve to be excluded. Among these members the three who shall unite the greatest number of votes between them, shall be submitted, one after the other, to a new ballot. In order that one or several members may be declared dismissed from the confidence of the Diet, two-thirds of the votes are required; afterward the proceedings shall be in conformity to the resolutions of section 103 of the law on the form of government.

Section 70. The ordinary Diet shall designate every three years six persons, distinguished for their knowledge, to watch over the liberty of the press, conjointly with the attorney general of the Diet, who shall be their president. These delegates, two of whom besides the attorney general of the Diet must be jurisconsults, must be appointed by the ballot of twenty-four electors, chosen by each of the chambers by itself, twelve for each of them. If in the interval of the sessions the functions of a member cease, the others shall choose a competent person to take his place.

Section 71. Each ordinary Diet shall choose by forty-eight electors, of whom twenty-four shall be chosen by each chamber by itself, deputies charged to administer, in conformity with special regulations, the funds and property of the bank of the kingdom and of the office of the public debt. These deputies shall be for each administration, and if, in questions submitted to the ballot, the votes shall be equally divided on two different opinions, the vote of the president shall be the preponderating one. The election shall be made by secret ballot, and in such a manner that for each administration the president shall be chosen first, then the other six members. For each administration the deputies can choose among themselves a vice-president, charged to take the place of the president in case he is incapacitated.

Section 72. In each Diet there shall be appointed delegated comptrollers each year, of whom six shall be designated by each of the two chambers. These delegated comptrollers are charged to verify, in conformity to the law on the form of government, and to special instructions, the condition, management, and administration of the treasury, the bank of the kingdom, and the office of the public debt. Each revision shall embrace the account of one year. It shall commence every year, the 15th of August, or, if this is a holiday, the day following, and must be terminated in two months. The delegated comptrollers shall choose among themselves their president, who shall have the ruling vote in case of an equal division of votes by ballot. The observations which the delegated comptrollers believe themselves justified in making in their report to the Diet, shall be, after the explanations relative to it have been furnished, sent by the following ordinary Diet to a competent committee for their examination and further action.

Section 73. At the same time and in the same manner as the deputies and comptrollers are appointed, according to the two preceding sections, substitutes shall be designated to take their places in case they shall be incapacitated, viz: three substitutes for the deputies of the bank, three also for the office of the public debt, and six for the annual delegated comptrollers.

Section 74. The members of the commission and the electors of the Diet shall choose a president of their own number.

Section 75. In every election care shall be taken to observe that the tickets of names, to be valid, shall be simple, closed, and rolled, without exterior signs, and that they present no uncertainty as to the name of persons, neither any error as to their number. When circumstances demand it, the decision shall be by lot between the persons who, in the elections, shall have obtained an equal number of votes.

Section 76. On the adoption of a resolution it cannot be changed, but such an addition can be made to it as shall not constitute a change. After the adoption of a protocol, with the consent of the chamber and the speaker, expressions employed by the latter, and the discussion to which it shall have given place, can be suppressed. But such expressions on which the resolution is evidently based cannot be suppressed.

Section 77. The member of the Diet who has not been present during the adoption of a resolution by the chamber to which he belongs, has the right to have stated in the protocol this fact, that he has not taken part in this resolution; but he has no right to find fault with the resolution adopted by the members present.

Section 78. The Diet, or each chamber separately, in matters which concern it exclusively, has the right to establish regulating orders which, beside the fundamental laws, they judge necessary for the treatment of matters or the maintenance of order, either in the chambers or in the committees. In these orders nothing contrary to the fundamental laws, or to others in force, can be introduced.

COMMUNICATION OF THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE DIET.

Section 79. The representations to the King, resolved upon by the Diet, as also the response by this body to the projects emanating from the King, must be made to him in writing. As regards the propositions of the King, in questions for establishing modifying, explaining, or abrogating the fundamental laws, the response of the Diet, if the resolution contains an approbation of the King’s projects, shall be given in the hall of the throne on the day the King shall have fixed.

Section 80. For matters which shall have been treated by a permanent committee, or the special committee which takes its place, the documents which have emanated from the Diet shall be committed to writing, and expedited by the chancellor of the committee which shall have treated the matter.

The compiling and sending of other documents, common to the two chambers, as well as the resolutions of the Diet, shall be confided to a special chancellor of the Diet, under the superintendence of two members of the first chamber and two members of the second chamber, designated for this purpose, who shall be equally authorized to choose and appoint, conjointly with the presidents and vice-presidents, the clerks whom the Diet shall judge necessary for this purpose.

No resolution of the Diet can be sent away if it has not been previously verified and adopted before the chambers. The resolutions of the Diet shall be signed by the members. The other transmissions emanating from the Diet shall be signed only by the presidents.

Section 81. The ordinances and general regulations adopted in common by the King and the Diet, shall be published only in the King’s name, and signed with his signature.

Section 82. The protocols of the chambers and the other acts of the Diet shall be as quickly as possible printed at the expense of the state, the acts wholly, and the protocols in such a measure as each of the chambers, in whatever concerns it, shall judge best.

In faith of which we have confirmed and sanctioned what precedes, placing thereto our signatures and our seals.

Done at Stockholm the 22d day of June, A. D. 1866.

For the nobility:

G. LAGERBJELKE, Marshal of the Nobility. [l. s.]

For the clergy:

H. REUTERDAHL, President. [l. s.]

For the burghers:

J. G. SCHWAN, President. [l. s.]

For the peasants:

NILS LARSSON, President. [l. s.]

Everything which is stipulated above we will not only accept ourselves as fundamental law, but also we command and order all those who owe faith, respect, and obedience to us, and to our successors, as well as to the kingdom, to recognize the present law on representation, to observe, to conform, and submit themselves to it. In faith of which we have signed and confirmed these presents with our own hand, and have placed thereto our royal seal.

Done in our capital of Stockholm, June 22, A. D. 1866.

CHARLES. [l. s.]

Order of succession.

Established by the King and the estates of the kingdom, in virtue of which the male descendants of the very high and very powerful prince, his royal highness the Prince of Sweden, Prince John Baptiste Jules de Ponte-Corvo, shall have the right to the throne of Sweden, as well as to take the reins of government of the kingdom of Sweden. Örebro, September 26, A. D. 1810.

We, Charles, by the grace of God, King of Sweden, of the Goths and Vandals, &c., &c., &c., heir of Norway, duke of Schleswig-Holstein, of Stormarie, and of Ditsmarsen, counts of Oldenburg and of Dalmenhorst, &c., &c., &c., make known: that the estates of the kingdom, having unanimously adopted and resolved upon the order of succession, in virtue of which the male descendant of the very high and very powerful prince, his royal highness the Prince of Sweden, Prince Jean Baptiste Jules, shall have the right to the throne of Sweden, as well as to take the reins of the government of the kingdom of Sweden, and this fundamental law having been presented to our approbation, we have, in virtue of the right which belongs to us, according to section 85 of the law in the form of government, been pleased to adopt, approve, and confirm this order of succession, consented to by the estates of the kingdom of Sweden, such as follows, word for word:

Order of succession, by which the male descendant of the very high and very powerful prince, his royal highness the Prince of Sweden, Prince Jean Baptiste Jules de Ponto-Corvo, shall have the right to the throne of Sweden, as well as to take the reins of the government of the kingdom of Sweden.

Done and resolved upon by the King and the estates of the kingdom in extra Diet held at Örebro, September 26, 1810.

We, the undersigned, the estates of the kingdom of Sweden, counts, barons, bishops, orders of the nobility, of the clergy, of the burghers, and the peasants, here assembled at Örebro in general and extraordinary Diet, make known: that the very high and very powerful prince, his royal highness the Prince of Sweden, Prince Charles Augustus, having deceased without male descendants, and we, the undersigned, having, by the act of election dated August 21, 1810, elected the very high and very powerful prince, Jean Baptiste Jules de Ponto-Corvo, prince royal of the kingdom of Sweden, to succeed with the conditions determined by the said act of election, as well as by the act of acceptation signed, on our demand, by the said prince to his royal Majesty, our very gracious King and actual master, Charles XIII, after his death, (which God, the all-powerful, deign in His grace to retard a long time,) in the government of the kingdom of Sweden and its dependencies, to be crowned and to receive fealty as King of Sweden, and to govern the kingdom, we have, for the male and legitimate descendants of his royal highness, Jean Baptiste Jules, Prince de Ponto-Corvo, been pleased to commit to writing, and decree the present order of succession to the throne and government of Sweden, in the manner and with the conditions herein expressly determined.

Section 1. The marriage already concluded of his royal highness, the Prince Royal Jean Baptiste Jules de Ponto Corvo, having been blessed with a male heir, and being yet the first-born son of his royal highness, shall succeed to him in the government, and, after him, his male descendants in direct line, in the order in which they are the nearest to the head of the family. If the male line of the first-born son is extinct, the government shall then fall to the second son of his royal highness, with the right of succession for his male descendants, following the order determined for the first-born; that is to say, according as they are in direct line the nearest to the head of the family. If the male line of the second son is also extinct, the right of succession falls to the third, and thus one after the other, of the other sons of his royal highness, in the same order and in direct descent, following the right of primogeniture as is prescribed herein, through the descent of the first-born.

Section 2. If the King of Sweden dies without leaving a male heir, but the surviving queen is enceinte, the council of state shall govern the affairs of state with the royal power and authority, in the manner and according to the conditions indicated in sections 41 and 93 of the law on the form of government, until the estates of the kingdom in the time indicated by the law on the form of government shall be able to assemble for the purpose of establishing the regency of the kingdom. If the queen gives birth to a male child, the estates of the kingdom shall appoint guardians to the minor king, in the manner prescribed in section 94 of the law on the form of government. If the child of the queen is of the female sex, the one of the family who, by order of primogeniture, is the nearest heir of the deceased king, as is said in section 1, shall take the reigns of government in the capacity of king.

Section 3. The daughters of the royal family and their descendants, though they be males, have no right to the crown, neither to the government of Sweden.

Section 4. The second section of the law on the form of government orders expressly that the King must always profess the pure evangelical faith, such as is established and explained by the unaltered Confession of Augsburg, and the decree of the synod of Upsala of the year 1593. The princes of the royal house must also be educated in the same doctrine and in the kingdom. Any one of the royal family who shall not profess the said doctrines shall be deprived of all right of succession.

Section 5. No prince of the royal house can marry without the knowledge and authorization of the King. The marriage made without this authorization carry privation to all right of succession to the throne, as much for the prince himself as for his children and descendants. It shall be the same, if with or without the knowledge and authorization of the King he marries the daughter of a private Swede or foreigner. Nevertheless, he shall not be prevented, with the authority of the King, to marry a person of the royal house of Sweden, if she is not related to him to the degree where marriage is prohibited according to the Swedish law.

Section 6. The princesses of the royal house cannot contract a marriage without the knowledge and authorization of the King. They shall not be permitted to marry a Swede outside of the royal house.

Section 7. The princes and princesses of the royal house of Sweden cannot undertake a journey to a foreign country without the knowledge and authorization of the King.

Section 8. No prince of the royal house of Sweden can, without the consent of the King and the estates of the kingdom, become prince of a foreign state, although he may be called there by election, heirship, or marriage; otherwise, he and his descendants lose all right to succeed to the throne of Sweden.

Section 9. If the misfortune arrive that all the dynasty to which the right of succession to the kingdom is reserved is extinguished in the male, or lose the right of succession, for having neglected to observe what the present order of succession expressly prescribes, the throne shall be vacant, and the estates of the kingdom shall then elect a new dynasty.

In faith of which, we, the estates of the kingdom of Sweden, have approved and decreed all which precedes, in placing thereto our signatures and our seals. Done at Örebro, September 26, A. D. 1810.

For the nobility:

CLAES FLEMING, [l. s] Marshal for the Nobility.

For the clergy:

JAC. AXCL. LINDBLOM, [l. s] President.

For the burghers:

J. WEGELIN, President.

For the peasants:

LARS OLSSON, [l. s] President.

All which is stipulated above we will not only accept ourselves as irrevocable, fundamental law, but also we command and order all who owe faith, respect, and obedience to us and to our successors, as well as to the kingdom, to recognize the present order of succession, to observe, conform, and submit to it.

In faith of which we have signed and confirmed these presents with our own hand, and have placed thereto our royal seal. Done at Örebro, September 26, A. D. 1810.

CHARLES. [l. s]

Law on the liberty of the press.

Adopted by the estates of the kingdom and sanctioned by the King, July 16, A. D. 1812 at Örebro, with the changes made therein by the King and the estates of the kingdom up to the Diet of 1865, 1866, at Stockholm, inclusive.

We, Charles, by the grace of God King of Sweden, of the Goths and Vandals, &c., &c., &c., heir of Norway, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, of Stormarn, and Dithmarsk, Count of Oldenburg and of Dithmenhorst, &c., &c., make known: The estates of the kingdom, at present assembled, having unanimously resolved to modify in certain respects the laws on the liberty of the press of March 9, 1810, actually in force, and the law thus modified having been submitted to our approbation, we have been pleased, in virtue of the right which section 85 of the present law on the form of government accords us, to accept, sanction, and confirm by these presents the said law on the liberty of the press, approved by the estates of the kingdom, such as follows, word for word:

We, the undersigned, the estates of the kingdom of Sweden, counts, barons, bishops, orders of the nobility, of the clergy, of burghers, and peasants, now here assembled at Örebro, in general extraordinary Diet, make known: The law in the form of government, accepted by us June 6, 1809, and decreed by the King and the estates of the kingdom, having granted the liberty of the press to the Swedish nation by the following resolution of its section 86, “that by liberty of the press is understood the right of all Swedes to publish writings without previous obstacles on the part of the public, and not proscribed by the law on the liberty of the press, with the powers afterward to be prosecuted for their contents before competent tribunals, and not to be punished for the said writings, only as far as the tenor of them is contrary to a law established, for guaranteeing the public tranquillity without placing obstacles for the propagation of information.” We have resolved hereby, and with regard to the end thus proposed, to declare that every one shall be free to express and manifest his thoughts on any subject, and in any style whatever, of whatever nature the matter, whether it concerns this kingdom or foreign countries, present or past time, persons living or deceased, on condition, nevertheless, that he observes the resolutions against the abuse of the liberty of the press, which, in conformity to the code in force, shall be expressly established hereafter, as to the interior tranquillity and the exterior safety of the state, as well as to the inviolability of the respect due to the Supreme Being, to the government, to citizens and to morals. Consequently, everything imposing upon all of us who can know of the faults of the press, the obligations of being the supporters and protectors of the innocent, we have, in order to insure the liberty of the press, in a manner compatible with the just exigencies of society and of every citizen, decreed what follows, viz:

Section 1. 1. The laws, regulations, and proscriptions on the liberty of the press, or the book-trade, before in force, are abrogated by the present law, and consequently also the various defense made up to this time for publishing certain books, writings, and documents. These can be prosecuted only in the manner prescribed by the present law on the liberty of the press. Under the denomination of writings employed in the present law is comprised everything which, by the press, is placed before the eyes of the public. By periodical writings is understood those which appear in regular numbers, or at fixed times.

2. Publications shall be subjected to no examination, previous to their printing, neither to any defense for writing. Notice of a work before the publication shall not be demanded of the printer, editor, or author, and it shall no more be permitted to exercise over printers, authors, or editors a watchfulness of a nature to cramp the printing or the distribution. The institutions of public instruction shall, nevertheless, preserve the ancient right of examining and approving the theses, which must be sustained in their institutions

3. It shall not be necessary, henceforth, to demand privileges for the publication of a work of any form or nature whatever, and the right of publication by every author or editor by the press is recognized, nevertheless, without prejudice to the exclusive rights already obtained by others. Such an exclusive right can, for the future, be accorded for no longer time than twenty years. Every privilege, already granted for an indefinite time, shall terminate with the life of the one who shall have obtained it. The privileges for the publication of works accorded to the profit of public institutions shall continue to exist only during twenty years, to commence from this day. Nevertheless the King can renew them, each time for twenty years at the longest.

4. Any one who shall publish a journal or periodical must make to the minister of state and of justice a declaration, containing the title and place of printing; the minister shall be required to deliver to him a certificate, testifying that no obstacle exists to the publication of the work, provided, nevertheless, that the applicant has not been condemned for an infamous crime or declared unworthy to plead for others.

5. A privilege shall not be necessary, in order to establish a printing-office, but it shall be free to every one, except prevented by some special ordinance, by ancient privileges, or book-printing regulations, except he is subjected to some corporation rules, to establish in cities, or, at the farthest, at the distance of three English miles therefrom, printing-offices of the nature and size which is judged proper.

When a printing-office is thus established outside the city, the printers, workmen of the said printing-office, and the authors and editors of works which are printed there, shall be under the jurisdiction of the city in all affairs which relate to the printing of books.

Any one who establishes a printing-office shall be required, at the latest within thirty days which precede the publication of a work, to make known in writing to the magistrate of the city the place of his industry, or the jurisdiction to which he belongs as printer, as well as to the provincial government to whose administration the city belongs, that he has established a printing-office, and its locality. The omission of this declaration shall be punished with a fine of 100 riksdalers, and the violation of it shall be published in the public journals. If, in a printing-office whose establishment shall not have been declared in the manner stated, anything prohibited is published, the printer and the author shall be subjected to the same penalties and responsibilities as regards the contents and the violation of the article, and the printing-office shall be confiscated for the public treasury. It shall be the same if the printing-office changes proprietors. In these two cases the provincial government shall be required, as soon as it shall have been duly informed of it, to give immediately, by the first mail, information of it to the minister of state and of justice.

6. The author shall not be required to sign the printed work. Whether he wishes it to remain anonymous or not, he must send to the printer a sealed letter bearing his name and residence, and provided with a certificate, stating the exactitude of this declaration, and signed by two Swedish citizens enjoying a good reputation and residing in Sweden; in case the work shall be prosecuted in the time fixed by law, and the name and residence of the author shall have been falsely indicated, or they shall have been omitted in the letter, or even in case the author, without lawful reasons, shall have omitted to make his appearance, they shall be subjected to the responsibility which attaches to the author. If the printer reveals the name and residence of the author, without being legally enjoined by the judge, he shall suffer a fine of 200 riksdalers, and his offense shall be published in the public journals.

7. The one who publishes the work of a foreigner, or a translation of the said work, or indeed the work of a citizen, who shall not have made known his name, shall have the same rights, duties, and responsibilities as the author, in all cases where it is not otherwise decreed in the present law. The editors of journals or of periodicals, as regards responsibility, shall be always accounted the author of them; they must watch that the conditions further decreed in the present law, as to publication, be scrupulously observed.

8. The printer shall be required, at the time of the opening of the process, to present to the tribunal the letter bearing the name of the author; otherwise, he shall incur the responsibility of the author, unless the latter shall voluntarily make himself known to the judge. If the process relates to the journals or periodicals, the name of the editor shall be, in consequence of the declaration prescribed herein, given by the minister of state and of justice. The judge must open the letter which contains the name as soon as received by him, and disclose, before the tribunal, the veritable part thus denounced. If, at the end of the process, the judge finds that the complainant has commenced the prosecution without any necessity, in such a manner that the opening of the letter has resulted from it, the complainant shall be liable to a fine of 100 riksdalers. The printer who shall have placed the name of the author, or of the editor, on a writing without his authorization, shall be sentenced to an imprisonment of from two months to one year.

9. The property of every writing rests in the person of the author, or of his heirs or assigns. Nevertheless, if the heirs or assigns of the author have not used their right of publication in the twenty years which follow his death; or even, if after, this right is not exercised during the twenty years, for which it has been renewed, any one may publish by the press the works left by the author. Any one who, without the written authorization of the author or of his assigns, shall print or reproduce his work, shall submit to the confiscation of the edition, or shall pay to the profit of the proprietor an amount equal to the entire value.

It shall be the same with the one who shall print or reproduce the translation of a foreign work made by others, or who shall pass his translation for that of another; nevertheless, the right of property of the translator of a work shall prevent no one from publishing another translation of it.

The editor of a journal or periodical does not infringe upon the property of the author by the fact that he has published therein anonymous writings addressed to him. Any one who shall place a false title to a writing, or indicate a false name of an author or editor, shall be sentenced to hard labor of from six months to two years. It shall not be forbidden to place on the title-page a name which does not designate a person really existing, when a letter indicating the true name of the author shall have been given. Articles taken from a journal shall not be accounted counterfeit when reproduced in another journal; provided, nevertheless, that the journal whence the article is taken is indicated at the same time.

10. The name of the printer, the place and the year of printing, must be indicated on each writing; the omission of this indication on the part of the printer shall be punished by a fine the first time, 300 riksdalers, and, in case of repetition, 600 riksdalers. At the second repetition the printing-office shall be confiscated. Whoever shall have indicated on any printed matter a false name of the printer, or a false place of printing, shall be sentenced to hard labor of from two months to one year. What has been decreed here concerning the indications of the name and the place shall not be applicable to notifications, communications, formulas, contracts, and other works of the same nature.

11. Besides the copy mentioned below, paragraph 2, section 4, the printer shall be required to deposit and furnish gratis to the royal library and to each of the universities of the kingdom, a complete and correct copy, with the plates with which the edition can be ornamented, which shall be effected in such a manner that everything which shall have appeared in the course of the preceding year may be delivered before the end of June of each year. Whoever shall violate this shall be punished with a fine of 25 riksdalers for each time, and shall be always, under the same penalty, required to supply the said copies in the time newly prescribed.

12. No obstacles shall be imposed on the exercise of the book-trade, neither the publishing for the sale of writings published either in the kingdom or in a foreign country. Every author or editor shall be free in this respect, to sell or cause to be sold a writing belonging to him; nevertheless, those who, with the right of making announcement of it in the journal, desire to exercise the book-trade, or to sell books, either in a shop or otherwise, shall be required to make a declaration of it to the minister of state and of justice, in the manner prescribed for the establishment of printing-offices, and with the same responsibility. There shall be no other hinderances in the selling of a work than those mentioned in section 4 of the present law. Whoever shall have sold a printed work bearing neither the name of the printer nor the place, neither the year of the printing, shall be each time sentenced to a fine of 50 riksdalers, and shall incur, in case the writing shall be prosecuted, the responsibility to which the author is liable if the printer nor the author cannot be found.

Section 2. 1. In conformity to the principles established above, for the, establishment of general and legal liberty of the press, every author shall be permitted, on conditions stipulated hereafter, section 3, to publish, by the press, his opinions on anything which can serve for the progress of human knowledge.

2. For every matter the style shall depend on the choice of the author, nevertheless, on the responsibility determined hereafter, in case where the writing shall be of an ignominious or infamous nature.

3. In conformity to what is stated in section 1, paragraphs 3, 4, and 9, every author or editor shall be permitted to publish writings of any form, extent, or nature whatever, under the condition only of not violating the right of the property of others.

4. In conformity to what is stated in paragraph 1, of the present section, and for the more certain direction of the editor, every one, nevertheless, with the exceptions and conditions determined upon hereafter, shall be permitted to publish by the press, all documents, protocols, and decisions, relative as much to legal processes as to other public affairs, of whatever name or contents they may be, and if they refer to past or future affairs, to be carried to the court or kingdom, to the supreme tribunal, and to the inferior revision of justice, (Nedre-Justitie Revision,) to the preparatory committee of public matters, to the tribunals, superior and inferior, to colleges, committees, preparatory commissions, directions, commissions, administrations, provincial governments, ecclesiastical consistories, authorities charged with making seizures, or to other public administrations, and that, without distinction, according as these affairs are of a civil, criminal, economical, military, or ecclesiastical nature; besides all the instructions and constitutions, all the regulations, statutes, ordinances, privileges, rescripts, and public decrees abrogated, actually in force, or in view and without distinction from whom they emanate; as also all memorials, official letters, and relations of tribunals, superior and inferior, colleges, administrations, public corporations above mentioned, and officials and employés of the state; in short, the memorials, petitions, propositions, reports, complaints of all associations, both of the administration and of individuals, as well as the decisions and responses relative to it, inasmuch as they are under the jurisdiction of functionaries and public administrations, and for this purpose, not only all the acts must, in the said tribunals and public administrations, be delivered immediately and without delay, and at the expense of whoever shall have demanded knowledge of them, whether he may be interested in the subject or not, at the responsibility of the functionary who refuses to give it, or shall cause an undue delay therein; but still, and under this same responsibility, every one shall be permitted to copy, himself, or to have copied, all records of any nature whatever, in all the archives, and where serious obstacles occur as to authenticated copies, to obtain them on the payment of proper fees.

The following exceptions shall be observed in the authorization above:

The protocols made in the presence of the King, concerning ministerial affairs or those of military command; the protocols and the acts of the council of state, or of the estates of the kingdom; those of the secret committee, or of the committee on constitution relative to the council of state; those of the administration of the bank, and of the office of the public debt; those of committees of the bank and of finance; or those of delegated comptrollers of the administrations of the bank and of the office of the public debt, concerning their secret affairs, can only be required or delivered with the consent of the official who has charge of the same. If similar acts are published by the press without the authority of the official who has charge of them, the editor, if he has been charged to keep them, or if it shall have been his duty to keep them secret, shall be punished according to the code in force, and to special rules. Every other individual who is guilty of this offense shall be condemned to a fine of 100 riksdalers, or more, according to the nature of the infraction. It shall be the same for the one who shall have illicitly published by the press the above-mentioned records, in case they have been committed to his keeping, unless he shall have been bound by higher fixed accountability not to reveal them.

It shall be forbidden to publish, or deliver, without the authority of the government, ministerial records, memorials, or private reports of diplomatic agents on ministerial affairs of a period of at least fifty years back, private letters—unless they necessarily belong to some judicial proceeding—the writings and records deposited in public archives, without the authority of those who have charge of the same. The offender shall pay a fine of 50 riksdalers.

Every party, in whatever process it may be, is authorized to publish at will, and before the pronunciation of the judgment or sentence, requests, complaints and accusations; but it is equally bound to publish, by the press, the defense of the adverse party, as well as the sentence of the tribunal and the various opinions of its members, as well as everything which can serve for the complete enlightenment of the affair itself, the manner in which it has been conducted, and the preliminary remarks to the sentence shall also be carried to the knowledge of the public. Nevertheless, no one shall be bound to produce other records than those indispensably necessary to such an object; and the decision in this regard shall belong to the judge who shall have been charged with the matter under legal accountability, whether on such an occasion the proceedings do, or do not, conform to the meaning and evident resolutions of the present law. Every offender shall pay a fine of 50 riksdalers.

Every party who shall have a matter, involving his personal rights, pending either before the supreme tribunal, or any other tribunal or public authority, shall have printed information relative to it, or what is called species facti; he must, nevertheless, conform to truth and decency. The offender shall pay a fine of 33 riksdalers 16 skillings.

The protocols and records belonging to a criminal case, on which subject the parties are agreed, cannot be printed during the life of these parties without their authorization, or, if the parties are deceased, until after the expiration of fifty years, commencing from their decease. Every offender shall pay a fine of 33 riksdalers 16 skillings.

No one can, in other cases than those specified by the code and ordinances in force, communicate or deliver to be printed, extracts from church registers, or of other records concerning the care of souls and ecclesiastical discipline, relative to the private life and morals of individuals, inasmuch as these records can produce damage or wrong in their consideration. Every offender shall pay a fine of 33 riksdalers 18 skillings.

Everything which shall be obscene, or shall wound modesty, or shall contain blasphemies against God, or injurious expressions against the government of the kingdom, or, indeed, anything which shall have been introduced in judicial records of an injurious character, abusing to or slandering persons, whom the affair does not directly concern, cannot be published by the press, under penalty of a tax of 33 riksdalers 16 skillings, unless, in this last case, the judge who has last pronounced on the matter does not find it necessary to impose the principal sum.

Moreover, as it becomes too extensive to specify scrupulously all the objects, causes, and matters which can present themselves, every one shall be free to publish by the press everything which is not expressly forbidden by the present law; consequently all which, on matters authorized by the present law, shall be the subject of observations, of citations, and remarks by the press, or shall be otherwise made public under the form of examination of reflections, cannot, under the pretext of implying a fault or criticism, be regarded as criminal, inasmuch as the violation shall not cause criminal construction, which involves a punishment to the present law.

Section 3. Under the presupposed conditions that on the examination of a writing or of the responsibility it involves, those upon whom such an examination depends must, in doubtful cases, acquit, rather than condemn; and always fix their attention rather on the illegality of the subject and the meaning than on that of the expression; rather on the tendency of the publication than on the violation, and that they shall not otherwise have the right to draw vague conclusions of expressions employed in writing; these shall be considered as abuse of the liberty of the press.

1. Blasphemies preferred against God, or derision of the word of God, or the sacraments: The offense shall be punished according to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

2. Denial of the existence of God, and of the life beyond, or denial of the pure evangelical doctrine: The offender shall be punished with a fine of 33 riksdalers 16 skillings, or imprisonment from two months to one year, and the publication shall be confiscated.

3. Derision of divine service: The offense shall be punished in conformity to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

4. All sorts of vicious declarations concerning the King, his person or his actions, his wife, the Queen, or heir-presumptive to the throne: The offense shall be punished according to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

5. Opprobrious expressions against any other member of the reigning dynasty, invested with royal or princely dignity in the kingdom: The offense shall be punished in conformity to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

7. Exciting to sedition or revolt: The offense shall be punished according to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

8. Opprobrious expressions against functionaries and employés in the kingdom, in the exercise of, or on the occasion of the exercise of, their duties: The offense shall be punished according to the code in force.

9. Opprobrious or offensive opinions and expressions, which tend to cause dissensions with foreign powers, if they have been uttered against nations or contemporary States with which the kingdom is at peace, against the chiefs of these States, their government or constitution, superior officers and diplomatic agents, their interior or exterior condition, their enterprises or negotiations: The offense shall be punished in conformity with sections 28 of section 8 of penal law, and the publication shall be confiscated. If the writing is not opprobrious or offensive, but it shall have caused a misunderstanding with a foreign power, it shall be confiscated without legal process.

10. Every publication by the press, which belongs to negotiations entered upon by the state with foreign powers, or decisions and designs of the King which refer to them, as well as the records of his ministers, councilors, and diplomatic agents, unless the publication shall have taken place with the authorization of the government or with official permission: The offenses shall be punished in conformity to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

11. Attacks directed against a private citizen and of a nature to criminate his honor, or defame his name and his reputation: The offense shall be punished in conformity to the code in force, and the writing shall be confiscated.

12. False reports and distorted representations tending to deceive and mislead the public: These offenses shall be punished with a fine from 33 riksdalers 16 shillings to 100 riksdalers, and the publication shall be confiscated.

13. The corruption of morals, either by the propagation of doctrines tending to the vice, and especially to the one which wounds modesty, either by representations,of the vice so shameful and so little concealed that the result of it may have been to favor a dissolute life: The violation shall be punished in conformity to the code in force, and the publication shall be confiscated.

Regarding confiscated publications, they cannot, as a general rule, be again published by the press, unless the tribunal which decides last the matter shall not have considered it criminal.

Section 4. With regard to the watchfulness to be exercised ou the lawful publications of writings, the following resolutions shall be observed, viz:

1. The minister of state and of justice must himself, or by delegates appointed by him, as well in the capital as in the country, watch over the publication of writings in the manner and in the measure fixed below.

2. In order to favor this object it is prescribed, as an indispensable measure, that at the same time, not later, a writing shall have been exposed to sale, or in whatever manner it may have been distributed, a copy of it must be sent to Stockholm to the minister of state and of justice, and also to his deputy. The printer, for not fulfilling this formality, shall be punished each time with a fine of 50 riksdalers, and if he prints a journal or periodical without being furnished with a certificate by the minister of state and of justice, testifying that the demand for publication has been duly made, the fine shall be 100 riksdalers, and the distribution of the publication shall be suspended until the editor shall have observed what is decreed in this regard.

3. In all cases where, in conformity with the terms of section 2, paragraph 4, and of section 3, the prosecution shall be exercised by the public ministry, the minister of state and of justice, or his deputy, shall have the right, when he shall judge it necessary, to cause the writing to be seized, which must take place within eight days. The minister of state and of justice must, one month after the day on which a seizure shall have been made, in a provincial town, make known to his deputy if he approves of the seizure or if, it must be vacated. If, in the capital, eight days pass without the seizure having been made, or if, in the country, the approbation of the minister of state and of justice has not been procured in the eight days above mentioned the seizure cannot take place, unless a competent tribunal and the committee named to watch over the liberty of the press orders it; but, on all occasions where the minister of state and of justice finds that an infraction of the present law has been made, and all times that the matter, as purely administrative, is not of his jurisdiction, or, even when it relates to personal injuries, and when it can be prosecuted only by the injured party himself, the minister of state and of justice must, whether the writing must be seized or if it shall be only prosecuted before a competent tribunal, transmit the writing without delay, and directly, to the attorney general of the King, to be proceeded with according to law.

4. The following cases shall be considered as administrative cases: If, at the time of the establishing of a printing-office, the resolutions of section 1, paragraph 5, are not observed; if the printer omits to indicate his name on the writing, the place and year of the printing, as thus it is decreed in section 1, paragraph 10; if he does not send, within the prescribed time, a publication issued from his presses to the minister of state and of justice, or to his deputy, in violation of section 1, paragraph 12, printed works, where the name of the printer, the place and the year of printing have been omitted. In these eases the minister of state and of justice can, in conformity to the resolutions of the present law, immediately impose upon the accused the fine; nevertheless the latter shall be free, if he judges it to the purpose to make application against this decision to the King, through the inferior justice revision, to be made at Stockholm in fifteen days, and in the country in a month after the decision of the minister of state and of justice shall have been duly signified. Besides, shall be considered as administrative affairs only those of an economical nature, which, according to a regulation made on printing-offices and the book-trade, can be of the jurisdiction of the minister of state and of justice, and which shall cause no alteration in the resolutions of the present law.

5. As soon as the minister of state and of justice shall have made known any infraction of the present law to the attorney general of the King, the latter shall be required, immediately, to prosecute the offense before a competent tribunal by an attorney for this deputy. Moreover, he must himself, by respective delegates, watch attentively what belongs to the liberty of the press within limits fixed by law. The attorney general of the Diet shall be equally bound, as regards the infractions of the present law, to lend his service in conformity to principles established in the instructions concerning matters which enter into his province. With regard to personal injuries the injured party can prosecute them either himself or by an attorney.

6. If six months have passed since a publication, in conformity to paragraph 2 above, has been transmitted to the minister of state and of justice, or even to his deputy, which time must be proved immediately by the delivery of a receipt, this writing can no longer give rise to public action. But the party can, in the limits fixed by the code in force, use his right to prosecute if he has been offended in his person by the printing of the writing. If a work has been seized, judicial prosecution must take place within eight days, in the capital and in the country—in eight days after it shall have been known that the minister of state and of justice shall have approved of the seizure; if not, the seizure is dropped, and the sale of the publication shall encounter no more obstacles.

7. The editors of journals and periodicals who, as stated in section 1, paragraph 7, are alone responsible, are reminded to make a legal use of the liberty of the press, and for the faults which an editor may commit by means of such a sheet, the fine shall be made double every time the pecuniary sentence must be pronounced.

8. The seizure or the confiscation shall not comprise a larger part of the writing than the sheet, the sheets, numbers or volumes, which are the objects of prosecution.

9. Whoever shall have been convicted of having sold or distributed a publication duly seized or confiscated, shall be, when he shall have had or should have had knowledge of the seizure, subjected to the same responsibility as the author, and punished according to the same rules. The displacement of objects seized shall be, if they are not sold or distributed, punished according to the law in force.

10. For the selling and distribution of Swedish works imported from a foreign country, the minister of state and of justice shall have the same rights and duties as regards works printed in the kingdom, and every vender of such publications shall be subjected to the obligations and responsibility established for printers in paragraph 2 of the present section.

11. If the minister of state and of justice finds that a publication in a foreign language contains anything contrary to paragraphs 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 13 of section 3, he must, after temporary seizure laid thereon, humbly apply for an order from the King, whether the sale of the publication should be allowed, or continue under further seizure. For this purpose, every individual having been authorized, in consequence of an application addressed to the minister of state and of justice, to engage in the book-trade, must send to the said minister, or his deputy, a list of the foreign works introduced by him into the kingdom. If, then, a seizure shall take place, the minister of state and of justice must inquire of the King if security for the seizure must be given for exposing the publications for sale, or if the publications must continue to remain under sequestration, in order to be afterward re-exported, in which case the King shall decide if the bookseller must be indemnified out of the funds of the State, and to what extent.

Section 5. The examination of the legality of printed works, which shall be prosecuted, shall always henceforth be submitted to a jury or commission, composed of nine persons, who shall assemble at the tribunal where the infractions of the present law shall be prosecuted, and where, through the trial of the parties, the allegations of the accuser and the defense of the accused must take place.

2. Each of the parties must afterward choose four persons residing in the city or environs, enjoying a good reputation for their civic virtues; the tribunal shall choose five of them, the total number thirteen; and after these persons shall have been judged unexceptionable by the tribunal, one named by the opposite party, and one by the tribunal, must be excluded by each of the parties without any explanation of the reasons.

3. The number of the members of the jury having thus been reduced to nine, they shall be convoked by the tribunal on a day fixed as soon as may be, and they shall take the following oath before the judge:

“Almighty God! Thou readest my heart! Nothing is concealed from thy sight, which embraces the universe, Mayest Thou forever withdraw Thy goodness and Thy mercy if I dissimulate my conviction in this matter, I, N. N., swear, thereföre, before God and His Holy Gospel, to give my opinion in this matter according to my best understanding and conscience, and to preserve a religious silence on the secret deliberations of the jury.”

4. The judge must send to the jury a succinct and exact statement of the nature of the matter and state the question to it in these terms: “Is the publication criminal under the law cited by the prosecution?” And after the president and the members of the tribunal shall have retired, the jury cannot separate until they have voted on the question by yes or no. To condemn the accused, at least two-thirds of the votes shall be necessary; if not obtained, the case shall be discharged.

5. Immediately after the verdict of the jury has been taken, the tribunal must, without delay, pronounce the sentence in the presence of the parties, declaring the punishment which should be imposed if convicted, or, if acquitted, the reparation to which he is entitled.

6. The violations of the present law shall be under the jurisdiction of the inferior court of the city where the printing-office is situated, from which the criminated work was issued, or where, in conformity to section 1, the establishment of it has been announced. In Stockholm these matters shall be under the jurisdiction of the inferior court; in other cities, where there exists the first and second inferior court, the latter shall take jurisdiction of matters of the press; the jurisdiction of the universities shall nevertheless remain intact, in conformity to their regulations. The time for appearance in the summons shall be always the same, whether the printing-office be established within the city limits or without, as thus the above-mentioned section provides, and the proceedings in this respect shall be in the manner prescribed by the code in force, as to the day of the appearance in the cities. If the question arises whether a printer or author shall be prosecuted for a printed work, or only be subjected to an examination, the party must confront, personally, the said tribunal, but he shall profit, nevertheless, by the privileges of the law, according to the code in force, and the particular ordinances, for everything which has not been otherwise established in express terms by the present provision.

7. After the opinion of the jury shall have thus been taken, the judge shall examine and judge the matter; then he shall refer the judgment to the examination of the second inferior court, as is thus prescribed in chapter 25, section 5; but the papers shall always, in every process relating to the liberty of the press, be sent by the first inferior court to the second, to be there examined.

8. If the minister of state and of justice, or his deputy, finds that in conformity to principles further established for the seizure of a printed work, he can order or demand that it be seized, he shall have the right to cause this seizure to be made, at Stockholm, by means of the grand governor; and in other cities or localities by the magistrate of the jurisdiction to which the printing-office belongs, according to section 1, who cannot refuse to lend his assistance as soon as possible. A protocol of the seizure must be made, stating equally the motives which have occasioned it, and the number of copies of the criminated work found at the printer’s house; there shall be three copies of the protocol, one of which shall be sent to the minister of state and of justice, or to his deputy, another to the magistrate, and a third to the printer. The magistrate, under the accountability to which he is liable for a fault committed in the exercise of his functions, must send, by the next mail, a copy of the protocol to the attorney general of the King. At Stockholm, the protocol shall be sent to the said attorney general immediately, or, at the latest, before the close of the day following. The attorney general of the King must immediately, in Stockholm, within eight days, and in the country, at the latest, in three weeks, which follow the seizure, have the matter sent to a competent tribunal, and an accuser appointed, after which the tribunal must, at the latest, in eight days, declare if the seizure must be maintained. If this is not done, and if the seizure is not removed within a month, the printer has the right, in the same order in which the aid of the magistrate for imposing the seizure has been communicated, to demand that it may be removed, which cannot be refused, on penalty of loss of office. The minister of state and of justice cannot otherwise exact the seizure, neither occupy himself further with the matter, but it shall return immediately to the attorney general of the King, who shall watch under his further responsibility that such matters may be treated conformably to the code in force and to the present law. If a work is referred to the attorney general of the King, the latter must, within fifteen days at the latest, cause the matter to be carried to a competent tribunal by an accuser whom he shall have appointed for this purpose; but he cannot order the seizure mentioned above without the authorization of the minister of state and of justice, or of his deputy. If the matter has been carried before a competent tribunal, and if the prosecution shall have demanded the seizure, the tribunal must decide on this demand within eight days, under the obligation moreover of taking the advice of the minister of state and of justice, or of his deputy, if that can be done without delay. If the demand of seizure is denied, the proceedings shall take their course notwithstanding, but if the demand is granted, and if the minister of state and of justice, or his deputy, shall have approved of the same, it shall be put into execution; the decree of the first inferior court must, nevertheless, in these two cases, be immediately sent to the second inferior court; the latter must afterward take the advice of a committee appointed to watch over the liberty of the press. If this committee votes for the seizure, the second inferior court can, if it judges proper, give its assent to it by a verdict, and the seizure shall then be maintained until the end of the process. If the said committee voted against the seizure, but if the second inferior court finds, notwithstanding, that it must be made, the verdict of the tribunal shall not then go into execution, but shall be submitted to examination of the supreme tribunal. The attorney general of the Diet can, after having been informed of the deliberations on such a matter, assist at the debates, after which he must immediately cause the protocols to be printed, also the verdict of the supreme tribunal, at the expense of the state in case a private publisher is not willing to charge himself with it.

9. In the tribunals of the first inferior court the judge shall examine and judge matters, and shall afterward submit the decree to the examination of the second inferior court, as is thus prescribed in chapter 25, section 5, of the code of procedure, but the paper shall always, in every action involving the liberty of the press, be sent by the first inferior court to the second, to be there examined.

10. If, after the complainant’s demand, a work is of such a criminal nature that a felony punishment must follow, and if the author belongs to such a class of citizens that, according to the law and ordinance, he can be judged for this offense only by the second inferior court, (Hoffräll,) the first court, where the ticket bearing the name of the author has been opened, must send the matter to the second inferior court, after which the proceedings shall be in the manner prescribed by the present law.

11. If, in printed works one or several individuals are attacked, and if the attack has not taken place in the exercise, or on the occasion of the exercise of their functions, the injured party alone shall have power to prosecute, and the public ministry can never include such an offense in its accusation, neither prosecute it. The injured party can, nevertheless, if he desires, demand of the attorney general of the King the assistance of the public ministry in the process, the granting of which is optional with him; nevertheless, the absence or non-appearance of the public ministry cannot retard the proceedings before the tribunal. The prosecutions commenced by private persons shall be regulated entirely by the mode of procedure prescribed in the present law, and by the code in force; in such matters between private persons the judge of the first inferior court can, nevertheless, without having taken the advice of the minister of state and of justice, or his deputy, proceed with the examination and decision of questions relative to the seizure of the work, after which the parties can, in the desired order, appeal from the decision of the superior tribunal; in this case the seizure cannot be put into execution.

12. In questions of seizure the provincial governments and the magistrates must necessarily, and upon legal penalty, lend their assistance; the seizure of a work published in the kingdom, and found with a bookseller or other vender, can, nevertheless, not be demanded unless it can be proved that the seizure of the work has been made in the place where the printing was done, or that the work has not, in conformity to the provisions of section 4, paragraph 2, been sent to the minister of state and of jus tice, or to his deputy.

13. If publications printed in Sweden, or works published in a foreign country and introduced into the kingdom, is regarded by one or several foreign ministers or by their governments as of a nature to cause discontent to other powers, the King can decree on this subject, according to the nature of the matter and circumstances, if he deems it necessary, to cause the said works to be seized and confiscated by his minister of state and of justice, or by his attorney general, not only those with the printers, but also with the venders or other distributors in respect to this. The proceedings shall be in the manner prescribed above for making seizures; in case one of the officials, to whom the King shall have given the order for executing this measure, does not make use of the public ministry for the prosecution of the publications before the respective tribunal, he must immediately and necessarily take the advice of the committee appointed to watch over the liberty of the press relative to the works in question. If the committee, who has not entered into the examination of the considerations and political circumstances, finds that the work is not subject to a prosecution according to the letter of the law, it shall depend upon the resolution of the King if the editor or bookseller ought to be more or less indemnified out of the public treasury for the expense of printing and for the paper of the copies seized.

14. If it happens, unexpectedly, that the committee appointed to watch over the liberty of the press is prosecuted in virtue of section 108 of the law on the form of government, the knowledge and decision of the matter shall belong to the second inferior court at Stockholm, of which the fiscal advocate must be the accuser. When the sentence shall have been pronounced, it must immediately, with all the protocols and parts of the process, be carried to the knowledge of the public by the press and at the expense of the state. If the matter is carried before the supreme tribunal, the proceedings must be the same. He who shall have been appointed by the estates of the kingdom to succeed the attorney general of the Diet shall be, in such a case, authorized to enter upon his duties to cause to be printed the parts of the proceedings, and to assist at the deliberations of the supreme tribunal on this matter.

15. All matters relative to the violations of the present law shall be judged with the greatest dispatch with accountability for judges and officials, and in all cases where there can be any question as to punishment of several offenses of a different nature, these matters shall be treated separately; so that, in all cases where the guilty party shall not have incurred the penalty of death or of penal labor for life, he shall suffer separately the punishment to which he shall have been condemned in virtue of the present law. The fines prescribed by the present law shall be charged in conformity to the code in force.

16. The fines imposed by virtue of the present law shall return to the state, except in cases where, according to what has been decreed above, they must return to the injured party.

In faith of which we have confirmed and approved what precedes, placing thereto our signatures and our seals.

Done at Örebro, July 16, A. D. 1812.

For the nobility:

C. LAGERBRING, Marshal for the Diet.

For the clergy:

J. A. LINDBLOM, President.

For the burghers:

H. N. SCHWAN, President.

For the peasants:

LARS OLSSON, President.

Everything which is stipulated above we will not only accept ourselves as fundamental law, but also we command and order all those who owe faith, respect, and obedience to us and to our successors, as well as to the kingdom, to recognize the present law on the liberty of the press, to observe, conform, and submit to it. In faith of which we have signed and confirmed these presents with our own hand, and have placed thereto our royal seal.

Done at Örebro, July 16, A. D. 1812.

CHARLES, [l. s]

[Inclosure, No. 2.—Translation.]

The constitution of the kingdom of Norway (sections 1–112;) also

The act of union between Norway and Sweden, (sections 1–12.)

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE KINGDOM OF NORWAY,

Given at the National Assembly at Eidsvold, on the 17th of May, 1814, on the occasion of the union of the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, determined by an extraordinary meeting of the Storthing in Christiania, and accepted the 4th of November, 1814.

We, Charles, by the grace of God King of Sweden and Norway, of the Goths and Vandals, &c., &c., &c., Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn, and the Dithmarsk, Count of Oldenburg and Dithmenhorst, &c., &c., hereby make known:

Whereas an extraordinary meeting of the Storthing of Norway, which, on the 20th October last, decided on the union of this kingdom with that of Sweden, by negotiations with our appointed commissioners, has agreed upon a constitution which, though in some respects modified, still maintains the chief provisions of the constitution of Eidsvold; and whereas we find that the rights and duties of our new subjects are so clearly defined in the constitution which was accepted by the Storthing on the 4th instant, and now submitted to us for our sanction, that the unity and strength of the royal power, as well as the legal liberty of the Norwegian people, have been secured, we are pleased, as are our commissioners, (having discussed and ratified the same, according to our full powers,) hereby to accept, confirm, and establish the said constitution and the law of succession attached thereto, together with all their articles, points, and clauses literally, as follows:

Not only are we ourselves pleased to accept them as perpetual, fundamental laws, but we command and ordain that all who are bound to us, our successors, and the kingdom by oaths of allegiance, do acknowledge, observe, and obey this constitution and law of succession.

For further security we have signed these presents with our own hand, and have caused our royal seal to be affixed thereto, which was done in Christiania, on the tenth day of the month of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen.

In accordance with the authority granted to me by my most gracious lord and King.

CARL JOHAN. [l. s.]

Fischer.

We, the representatives of the kingdom of Norway, at an extraordinary meeting of the Storthing assembled on the 7th of October, 1814, according to letters-patent of the 16th August, make known:

Having resolved on the day previous, after mature consideration, (as shown by our publication of the 21st ultimo,) that the kingdom of Norway in future shall be an independent country, united with the kingdom of Sweden under one king, without change in its constitution, always excepting such modifications as may be found necessary on occasion of the union, and for the prosperity of the country, we, in view of the said union, have given them our most careful deliberation and treated of them with the royal commissioners appointed to that end, in compliance with the convention of Moss, concluded on the 14th of August ultimo.

We have now resolved, as we hereby declare and decree, that instead of the constitution given by the national assembly at Eidsvold, on the 17th day of May ultimo, the following provisions, which are partly derived from the said constitution and partly made on account of the union, shall be in force, and be inviolably maintained and considered by all whom they may concern, as the constitution of the kingdom of Norway.

A.—The form of government and religion.

Section 1. The kingdom of Norway shall be a free, independent, indivisible, and inalienable country, united with Sweden under one king. Its form of government shall be monarchical, limited and hereditary.

Section 2. The evangelical Lutheran religion shall remain the established religion of the state. The inhabitants who confess it shall be bound to educate their children in it. Jesuits and monastic orders shall not be allowed.

B.—The executive power, the king and the royal family.

Section 3. The executive power shall be vested in the King.

Section 4. The King shall always confess, maintain, and protect the evangelical Lutheran religion.

Section 5. The King’s person is sacred; he cannot be blamed nor accused. All responsibility rests with his council.

Section 6. The order of succession to the throne shall be lineal and agnatic, such as is provided by the order of succession of the 26th day of September, 1810, passed by the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden and sanctioned by the King, and which is annexed to this constitution in translation. Among those entitled to succession are also counted those who may be born after their fathers’ death and who will immediately assume their place in the hereditary line.

When a prince entitled to succeed to the united crowns of Norway and Sweden is born, his name and the time of his birth shall be announced to the next Storthing and be registered on its records.

Section 7. If no prince entitled to succession exists, the King can propose his successor to the Storthing of Norway at the same time as to the Diet of Sweden. So soon as the King has made his proposal, the representatives of both people shall form a committee from their own members, which is entitled to make the election, if the proposal of the King be not approved by the majority of the representatives of both the peoples separately.

The number of the members of this committee, which shall be the same from each country, and the order which is to be observed at the election, shall be fixed by a law, which the King will move simultaneously at the next assembled Storthing, and at the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden. One of the aggregate committee, drawn by lots, shall withdraw.

Section 8. The year of the King’s majority shall be fixed by a law enacted by agreement between the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of Sweden; or, if they cannot agree, by a committee elected by the representatives of both countries, according to the provisions made in section 7. So soon as the King has reached the age fixed by law, he shall publicly declare himself to be of age.

Section 9. So soon as the King, being of age, enters on the government, he shall take the following oath before the Storthing: “I promise and swear to govern the kingdom of Norway in accordance with its constitution and laws. May God and His holy word help me thereunto.” If the Storthing be not assembled at that time, the oath shall be recorded at the council of state and be solemnly repeated by the King at the next Storthing, verbally or in writing, by some one whom he may depute.

Section 10. The King’s coronation and anointment shall take place, after his coming of age, in the cathedral of Trondhjem at such time and with such ceremonies as he may himself appoint.

Section 11. The King shall, every year, reside some time in Norway, if no unavoidable impediments occur.

Section 12. The King shall himself choose a council of Norwegian citizens, whose age must not be less than thirty years. This council shall consist of at least one minister of state, and seven other members.

The King can also appoint a viceroy or a governor.

The King shall apportion the business among the members of the council of state in the way he deems most serviceable.

The King, or in his absence the viceroy, (or the governor, together with the councilors of state,) can, on extraordinary occasions, call other Norwegian citizens to assist at the council of state, but no member of the Storthing.

Father and son, or two brothers, must not be members of the council of state at the same time.

Section 13. During the King’s absence he shall charge the viceroy, the governor, and at least five members of the council of state, with the internal administration of the country, for the cases prescribed by himself. They shall govern in the King’s name, and on his behalf. They shall inviolably observe both the provisions of this constitution and such special orders in accordance with it which the King may convey to them as instructions. They shall transmit to the King an humble report on the matters which they may thus decide on. The affairs are decided by vote. In event of the votes being equal, the viceroy or the governor, or during their absence the first member of the council of state, shall have two votes.

Section 14. Only the crown prince or his eldest son can be appointed viceroy, but not before they have attained the age prescribed for the King. Either a Swede or a Norwegian can be appointed governor. The viceroy shall reside within the country, and must not be absent longer than three months in the year. When the King is present the functions of the viceroy shall cease. When no viceroy exists, but a governor, his functions shall also cease, he being in such Case only the first councilor of state.

Section 15. During the King’s residence in Sweden the Norwegian minister of state and two members of the council of state shall always be with him. The latter shall be changed every year. They shall have the same duties and the same constitutional responsibility as the government in Norway, (mentioned in section 13,) and in their presence only shall Norwegian affairs be decided by the King. All proposals to the King from Norwegian subjects shall be first submitted to the Norwegian government, whose opinion is requisite before they are decided on. In general, Norwegian affairs cannot be decided until the opinion of the government residing in Norway has been ascertained, unless important hinderances occur to prevent it.

The Norwegian minister, of state shall lay the affairs before the King and be responsible that the documents be in conformity with the resolutions.

Section 16. The King shall order all public, church, and divine service, and all meetings or assemblies on religious matters. He shall take care that the public teachers of religion observe the prescribed rules.

Section 17. The King can give and repeal ordinances concerning commerce, duty, trade, and police. They, however, must not be at variance with the constitution and the laws given by the Storthing (as prescribed in the following sections, 78 and 79.) They shall be in force till the next assembled Storthing.

Section 18. The King shall generally take care that the taxes and duties imposed by the Storthing be collected. The Norwegian treasury shall remain in Norway, and its revenues shall be exclusively employed for the use of Norway.

Section 19. The King shall take care that the properties and revenues of the state be employed and adminstered in the way resolved by the Storthing, as most conducive to the public welfare.

Section 20. The King shall, in council, have power to grant pardon to criminals on whom judgment has been passed. The criminal may choose either the King’s pardon or the punishment awarded him. In cases of impeachment by the Odelsthing before the high court of the kingdom, (rigsret,) no further pardon can he granted beyond dispensing with capital punishment.

Section 21. The King shall nominate and appoint, by and with the advice of his Norwegian council of state, all civil, clerical, and military officers. They shall swear allegiance and fidelity to the constitution and the King.

The royal princes must not fill any civil offices. The crown prince, or his eldest son, however, can be appointed viceroy.

Section 22. The governor of the kingdom, the minister of state, the other members of the council of state, the council officers, embassadors, and consuls, the principal civil and clerical authorities, the commanders of regiments and other military corps, commanders of fortresses and vessels of war, may, without any previous judgment, be dismissed by the King after he has taken the opinion of the council of state.

The next assembled Storthing shall decide whether pensions be granted to the officers thus dismissed; meanwhile they shall continue to receive two-thirds of their previous salary.

Other officers can only be suspended by the King, and shall, in that case, be immediately proceeded against by the courts, but except such judgment be pronounced they cannot be dismissed, nor removed from office against their will.

Section 23. The King can confer orders at pleasure, in recognition of distinguished merit, but his reasons for conferring such must be proclaimed. He can grant no other rank or title than that which belongs to the office. The orders shall not exempt any one from the common duties and burdens of a citizen, nor especially shall they admit any one to government offices. Officers who have been honorably dismissed shall retain the titles and rank attached to the offices which they have occupied.

No personal or mixed hereditary privileges shall be granted to any one in future.

Section 24. The King shall nominate and appoint the royal household and its officers.

Section 25. The King shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the kingdom. They must not be increased nor reduced without the consent of the Storthing. They must not serve under foreign powers, nor must soldiers of any foreign power be called into the country without the consent of the Storthing, except as auxiliary troops against hostile attacks.

In times of peace none but Norwegian troops shall be garrisoned in Norway, neither shall there be any Norwegian troops in Sweden. The King, however, may have in Sweden a Norwegian guard of volunteers, and may, for a short time, not exceeding six weeks in the year, gather the nearest troops of the armies of both countries within the boundaries of one of the countries, but in times of peace no more than three thousand soldiers of all arms of the troops of one country shall in any case be assembled in the other. The troops and the fleet of row-boats of Norway shall not be employed in any aggressive war without the consent of the Storthing.

The Norwegian fleet shall have its dock-yards, and in times of peace its stations and harbors, in Norway.

Vessels of war belonging to one country shall not be manned by sailors of the other, except as volunteers.

The militia and other Norwegian troops, which cannot be classed among the line, must never be employed beyond the frontiers of Norway.

Section 26. The King shall have power to gather troops, commence war and conclude peace, to enter into and dissolve alliances, and to send and receive embassadors.

When the King proposes to declare war, he shall communicate with the government in Norway, who will pronounce its views on the subject, and also furnish a complete report of the financial state of the country, its means of defense and other matters.

When this has been done, the King shall form an extraordinary council of state, consisting of the Norwegian minister of state and the Norwegian councilors of state, together with those of Sweden, and he shall then lay before them the grounds and circumstances of the case.

The report of the government of Norway on the state of that country, together with a similar one of Sweden, shall then be produced. The King shall require their opinion on these subjects, which shall be put down separately on the records by each of them, under the responsibility provided by the constitution. The King shall then have power to hold and execute the decision, which he may think most profitable to the country.

Section 27. Every councilor of state shall be present at the council, unless lawfully prevented, and no resolution shall be passed, unless more than half the members are present.

In Norwegian cases which (in accordance with section 15) are decided in Sweden, no resolution shall be made unless either the Norwegian minister of state and one of the Norwegian councilors of state, or both the Norwegian councilors of state, are present.

Section 28. Reports of appointments to offices and other important subjects (except diplomatic matters and those which properly belong to military commands) shall be conveyed to the council of state by that member to whose department they belong, and the cases shall be dispatched by him in accordance with the resolution taken in the council of state.

Section 29. When a councilor of state is lawfully prevented from being present to report on the subjects which belong to his department, another councilor of state, deputed by the King, if he be present, (or by him who presides at the council of state, if he be absent, and by the other councilors,) shall report on them.

If so many are lawfully prevented from assisting that no more than half the fixed number of members are present, other officials shall equally be deputed to take a seat in the council of state, of which a report shall immediately be made to the King, who shall decide whether they shall continue to fulfil their functions.

Section 30. Registers shall be made of all cases which are discussed in council. Every one who has a seat in the council shall give an honest opinion which the King is bound to hear, but the latter can make his own decision. If a member of the council find that the King’s resolution is at variance with the constitution or the laws of the country, or is evidently to the detriment of the country, it shall be his duty to oppose it vigorously and to have his opinion recorded in the registers. Whosoever has not thus protested, shall be considered to have agreed with the King and to be responsible for it, as mentioned hereafter, and he can be impeached by the Odelsthing before the high court of the kingdom (The rigsret.)

Section 31. All orders given by the King himself, (except on matters of military command,) shall be countersigned by the Norwegian minister of state.

Section 32. The resolutions which are passed by the government in Norway in the King’s absence shall be published in the name of the King and be signed by the viceroy, or the governor, and the council of state, and be countersigned by him who reports on the subject, who shall be responsible that it be dispatched in accordance with the register on which the resolution was entered.

Section 33. All reports on Norwegian matters, and the publication of them, shall be given in the Norwegian language.

Section 34. The heir apparent to the throne shall have the title of crown prince, if he be the son of the reigning King. The others who are entitled to inherit the crown shall be called princes, and the royal daughters princesses.

Section 35. As soon as the crown prince has reached his eighteenth year, he shall be entitled to a seat in the council of state, but without vote or responsibility.

Section 36. No prince of the blood shall marry without the King’s consent. If this be done, he shall forfeit his right to the crown of Norway.

Section 37. The royal princes or princesses shall not be judged by other than the King, or one whom he may appoint as their judge.

Section 38. The Norwegian minister of state and the two Norwegian councilors of state who attend the King shall have seats and deliberative votes in the Swedish council when subjects concerning both countries are there discussed.

The opinion of the government in Norway ought also to be asked in such matters, unless they need to be decided on so quickly that there is no time for it.

Section 39. When the King dies, and the successor to the throne is not yet of age, the Norwegian and Swedish councils of state shall be immediately convened, in order to call together the Storthing in Norway, and the Diet in Sweden.

Section 40. Until the representatives of both countries be assembled, and until they have arranged the government during the minority of the King, a council of state, composed of an equal number of Norwegian and Swedish members, shall take charge of the administration of both countries, duly observing their respective constitutions.

The Norwegian and Swedish ministers of state who sit in the mixed council of state above mentioned, shall draw lots for the presidency.

Section 41. The rules mentioned in the preceding paragraphs 39 and 40 shall also be observed, when it shall be the duty of the Swedish council of state, in their capacity of council of state, to govern according to the provisions of the Swedish constitution.

When, however, the King, owing to absence from his countries, or illness, shall be unable to discharge the government duties, the heir apparent, if he have reached the prescribed majority, shall take care of the government as the temporary representative of the royal power, and with the same rights as the government ad interim.

Section 42. The King shall propose to the next Storthing in Norway and to the Diet in Sweden a law, resting on the principle of complete equality between both countries, concerning the future provisions necessary for the cases mentioned in paragraphs 39, 40, and 41.

Section 43. The choice of the guardians who shall govern on behalf of the King during his minority, shall be made according to the same rules and in the same manner as has already been provided in section 7, regarding the election of a successor to the throne.

Section 44. Those who in the cases mentioned in paragraphs 40 and 41 shall be invested with government, shall take the following oath before the Norwegian Storthing: “I do promise and swear to govern in accordance with the constitution and the laws: so help me God and His holy word.”

The Swedes shall take the oath before the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden. If the Storthing or the Diet be not assembled at that time, the written oath shall be deposited with the council of state and repeated at the next Storthing or Diet.

Section 45. At the expiration of their government they shall render an account of it to the King and the Storthing.

Section 46. If those who are responsible do neglect to convoke the Storthing immediately, acording to paragraphs 39 and 41, it shall become the positive duty of the Storthing to direct the same after the lapse of four weeks.

Section 47. The direction of the King’s education during his minority shall be fixed in the way mentioned in section 7 and section 43, provided no written instructions have been left by his father.

It shall be an unalterable rule, that the King shall be sufficiently instructed in the Norwegian language during his minority.

Section 48. If the royal male line has become extinct and no successor to the throne has been elected, a new royal lineage shall be chosen in the way mentioned in section 7. Meanwhile the executive power shall be invested as mentioned in section 43.

C.—Civil rights and the legislative power.

Section 49. The people shall exercise legislative power through the Storthing, which shall consist of two divisions, a Lagthing and Odelsthing.

Section 50. The right of voting is confined to Norwegian citizens, who have attained their twenty-fifth year, who have resided in the country for five years, who live there and (a) are or have been government officials; (b) who are land owners, or who have rented land for more than five years in the country, or who have had certain privileges in Finmark for five years; (c) who are citizens of towns, or who own house or ground in any city or town of the value of at least 300 rigsbank dollars, silver value.

Section 51. Returns of all the inhabitants entitled to vote shall be made in every city by the magistrate, and in every parish by the sheriff and the pastor, and an immediate entry shall be made of the changes which may occur in course of time.

Before being entered in the list of voters every one shall swear allegiance to the constitution publicly in the court.

Section 52. The right of voting shall be suspended, (a) in the case of criminal prosecution; (b) on account of insolvency or failure, until the creditors have received full payment, unless the failure has been caused by fire, or by other accidents, proved to have been unintentional.

Section 53. The right of voting shall be null and void, (a) in case of condemnation to imprisonment, or ignominious punishment; (b) if foreign service is entered without the consent of the government; (c) if the citizenship of another country is acquired; (d) or if detected in buying or selling votes, or in voting at more than one election.

Section 54. The elections shall be held every third year. They shall be completed before the end of the month of December.

Section 55. The elections shall take place in the country in the principal church of the parish; and in the cities in the church, the town hall, or some other convenient place.

They shall be conducted in the country by the parish priest and his assistants, in the cities by the magistrates and the municipal councilors. The votes shall be given in the order in which the voters are registered. Dissensions concerning the right of voting shall be decided by the officers presiding at the election, whose decisions can be appealed to the Storthing.

Section 56. Before the elections begin, the constitution shall be audibly read, in the cities by the first magistrate, and in the country by the clergyman.

Section 57. In the cities one elector shall be chosen for each fifty inhabitants entitled to vote. These electors shall assemble within eight days after, at a place prescribed by the authorities, and elect either from among themselves, or from the other voters in their election district, thirty-seven representatives to meet and take their seats at the Storthing. From among these shall be chosen, (until otherwise directed,) from Aalesund and Molde together, one representative; from Arundel and Grimstad together, one; from Bergen, four; from Brewig, one; from Christiania and Hönefos together, four; from Christianssand, two; from Christianssund, one; from Drammen, two; from Flekkefjord, one; from Frederikshald, one; from Frederiksstad, one; from Holmestrand, one; from Nongsberg, one; from Krager’s, one; from Laurvig and Sandefjord together, one; from Lillehammer and Hamar together, one; from Moss and Drobak together, one; from Porsgrund, one; from Sarpsborg, one; from Skien, one; from Stavanger, two; from Yromsö, Hammerfest, and Vadsö together, one; from Trondhjem and Leranger together, four; from Tönsberg, one; and from Osterris öer, one.

When a city which has not been mentioned here shall have fifty or more inhabitants entitled to vote, it shall unite with the nearest city and form one district for electing representatives. The same rule shall apply to cities which may be founded after this time. A city which may form an election district, together with another city, shall appoint its own elector, even if the number of its inhabitants entitled to vote should be less than fifty. A city which constitutes an election district by itself shall in no case appoint less than three electors.

Section 58. In every parish in the country the inhabitants entitled to vote shall choose electors in proportion to their numbers. Thus, 100 shall choose one; 100 to 200, two; 200 to 300, three, and so forth, in the same proportion. These electors shall, within a month, assemble at a place prescribed by the governor, (amtmand,) and then choose, either from among themselves or other persons in the province (amt) who are entitled to vote, seventy-four representatives to meet and take seats at the Storthing, viz:

From the amt of North Bergenhuus shall be chosen five; from that of South Bergenhuus, five; from that of Christian, five; from that of Hedemarken, live; from that of Romsdal, five; from that of Stavanger, five; from that of Yromsö, two; from that of Finmark, two, and from each of the ten other amts in the country four representatives.

Section 59. The provisions contained in sections 57 and 58 shall remain in force until the meeting of the next legislature. If it shall then be found that the representatives from the cities constitute more or less than a third of the representatives of the entire kingdom, the legislature shall, for the future, alter these provisions in such a manner that the representatives of the cities shall be to those of the country in the proportion of one to two, and the whole number of representatives must be not less than 75 nor more than 100.

Section 60. Persons entitled to vote, being in the country, but unable to attend on account of illness, military service, or other lawful impediments, may send their written votes to those who preside at the elections, before their conclusion.

Section 61. No person can be elected a representative who has not attained the age of thirty years, and who has not been ten years a resident in the country.

Section 62. Members of the council of state and the functionaries employed at its offices, pensioners, and officials of the court cannot be chosen.

Section 63. Every one who is elected is bound to accept the election, unless he be prevented by impediments, which shall be proved by the electors, whose decision can be submitted to the judgment of the Storthing.

The person who has appeared as representative at three ordinary Storthings after the same election, shall not be bound to accept the nomination at the next election for the Storthing.

If a representative be prevented by legitimate impediments from attending the Storthing, his place shall be filled by him who stands next through the highest number of votes, or (if a special deputy election was made in the district) by the chosen deputy.

Section 64. So soon as the representatives are chosen they shall be provided with full powers, signed, in the country by the chief authorities, and in the cities by the magistrates, together with all the electors, as a proof that they are elected in the manner prescribed by the constitution. The lawfulness of these full powers shall be judged by the Storthing.

Section 65. Each representative shall be entitled to compensation from the treasury for traveling expenses to and from the Storthing, and for subsistence during the time he shall stay there.

Section 66. The representatives shall, on their journey to and from the Storthing, and during their stay there, be exempt from personal arrest, unless they be detected in the commission of public crimes; neither shall they be answerable out of the sessions of the Storthing for the opinions they have set forth there. Every one is bound to submit to the established rides of proceeding.

Section 67. The representatives chosen in the way above mentioned shall form the Storthing of the kingdom of Norway.

Section 68. The Storthing shall generally assemble on the first week-day of the month of February in every year, at the capital of the country, unless the King shall appoint another city in the country on account of invasion by enemies or contagious illness. Such an order must be promptly published.

Section 69. The King shall have power on extraordinary occasions to convene the Storthing out of the ordinary time. The King shall then issue a publication, which must be read in the churches of all the chief towns of the stifts (bishoprics) at least a fortnight before the members of the Storthing assemble at the appointed place.

Section 70. Such an extraordinary Storthing can be adjourned by the King to such time as he may think proper.

Section 71. The members of the Storthing shall sit as such for three consecutive years, both at the extraordinary and the ordinary Storthings which may be assembled within that period.

Section 72. If an extraordinary Storthing be still assembled when an ordinary one shall commence, the former shall be adjourned before the latter assembles.

Section 73. The Storthing shall choose from among its members a fourth part, which shall form the Lagthing; the remaining three-fourths shall form the Odelsthing. The choice shall be made at the first ordinary Storthing in consequence of a new election, after which the Lagthing shall remain unchanged daring all the Storthings which are assembled in consequence of the same election, unless vacancies which may occur among the members by special choice.

Each Thing shall sit separately and choose its own president and secretary.

No Thing must sit unless two-thirds of its members are present.

Section 74. So soon as the Storthing has declared itself assembled, the King or his deputy shall open its sessions with a speech, informing them of the state of the country and the subjects which he particularly wishes to bring before the attention of the Storthing.

No debates shall take place in the presence of the King.

Section 75. The Storthing shall have power—

(a.) To make and repeal laws, to levy taxes, excises, duties, and other public imposts, which, however, shall not be in force longer than the 1st of July of the year in which the next ordinary Storthing shall assemble, unless they are expressly renewed by it.

(b.) To borrow money on the credit of the country.

(c.) To inspect the finances of the country.

(d.) To grant the amount necessary for the expenses of the state.

(e.) To settle how much shall be paid annually to the King and the viceroy for their households, and to fix the royal family’s allowance, which, however, shall not consist of real property.

(f.) To demand the records of the government in Norway, and all public reports and documents, (matters of military command excepted,) authenticated copies or extracts of the records, made in the King’s presence by the minister of state and the two councilors of state residing in Sweden, or the public documents which have been produced there.

(g.) To receive communication of the alliances and treaties which the King has concluded with foreign powers on behalf of the state, with the exception of the secret articles, which, however, must not be in variance with the public ones.

(h.) To require the attendance of every one before it in matters of state, the King and the royal family excepted. This restriction, however, shall not apply to the royal princes if they are filling other posts than that of viceroy.

(i.) To revise the lists of temporary salaries and pensions, and make therein such alterations as may be necessary.

(k.) To choose five revisers, who shall, every year, examine the accounts of the state and publish printed extracts of them. The accounts shall, thereföre, he transmitted to these revisers every year before the 1st of July.

(l.) To naturalize foreigners.

Section 76. Every hill shall first he proposed in the Odelsthing, either by its own members or by the government, through a councilor of state. If the bill be passed it shall then be sent to the Lagthing, which shall either approve or reject it, and in the latter case return it with its objections. These shall be reconsidered by the Odelsthing, which shall either reject the bill or return it to the Lagthing, with or without alterations. When a hill from the Odelsthing has been laid twice before the Lagthing, and has been rejected a second time, the whole Storthing shall assemble and the face of the bill shall then be decided by two-thirds of the votes. Three days at least shall elapse between each of these sittings.

Section 77. When a hill proposed by the Odelsthing has been approved by the Lagthing, or the assembled Storthing, it shall be sent by deputies from both divisions of the Storthing to the King, if he be present, or otherwise to the viceroy, or the Norwegian government, requesting the King’s approval.

Section 78. If the King approve of the bill he shall sign it, and it becomes a law. If he disapprove he shall send it back to the Odelsthing, declaring that he finds it advisable at present to. withhold his approval, in which case the bill must not again he presented to the King by the Storthing then assembled.

Section 79. If a bill be passed, without alterations, by three ordinary Storthings assembled after three consecutive elections, and separated by at least two intermediate Storthings, without any fresh resolution having been made by any Storthing in the interval between the first and the second approval, and if it then he presented to the King with the request that His Majesty should not withhold his approval of a bill which the Storthing (after the most mature deliberation) has considered advisable it shall become a law, even if it has not obtained the King’s approval, before the adjournment of the Storthing.

Section 80. The Storthing shall continue to set so long as it considers it necessary; but not longer than two months without the King’s permission. When it has concluded its deliberations, or having assembled for the prescribed term the Storthing be adjourned by the King, he shall then communicate his resolution regarding the bills not yet decided on, by either approving or rejecting them. Every bill not expressly approved by him shall be considered rejected.

Section 81. Every law shall be published in the Norwegian language, and in the King’s name, (those mentioned in section 79 excepted,) under the seal of the kingdom of Norway, and in the following terms:

“We, N. N., make known: Whereas the resolution of the Storthing bearing the date of N. N. has been presented to us with these contents, (here follow the resolutions,) we have approved and confirmed, as we hereby approve and confirm it as a law, under our hand and the seal of the kingdom.”

Section 82. The King’s approval shall not be required for those resolutions of the Storthing by which it—

(a.) Declares itself assembled as a Storthing according to the prescriptions of the constitution.

(b.) Determines the rules of its proceedings.

(c.) Approves or rejects the power of the present members.

(d.) Confirms or rejects decisions concerning controversies at the elections.

(e.) Naturalizes foreigners.

(f.) And finally, to resolutions by which the Odelsthing impeaches councilors of state or others.

Section 83. The Storthing may require the opinion of the supreme court on legal matters.

Section 84. The sittings of the Storthing shall be public, and its proceedings shall be printed and published, except in such cases where the majority shall decide to the contrary.

Section 85. Whosoever obeys a command which tends to disturb the liberty and safety of the Storthing, shall commit treason against his native country.

D.—The judicial power.

Section 86. The members of the Lagthing together with the supreme court shall form the high court of the kingdom, (rigsret,) which shall pronounce final sentence upon all cases of prosecution brought by the Odelsthing upon members of the council of state, or by the supreme court, for crimes of official commission.

The president of the Lagthing shall take the chair of the rigsret.

Section 87. The accused may, without assigning any reason, challenge one-third of the members of the rigsret; provided, however, that the court shall consist of at least fifteen members.

Section 88. The verdict of the supreme court shall be final. It must not consist of less than one president and six assessors.

Section 89. The supreme court, together with two superior officers appointed by the King, shall, in times of peace, be the second and final appeal in all courts-martial which may affect either life, honor, or imprisonment for more than three months.

Section 90. Sentences passed by the supreme court shall in no case be appealed or revised.

Section 91. No person shall be appointed member of the supreme court who has not attained the age of thirty years.

E.—General provision.

Section 92. Government offices shall be conferred on those Norwegian citizens only who confess the Evangelical Lutheran religion, who have sworn allegiance to the constitution and the King, and who speak the language of the country, and—

(a.) Who were bom in the country, of parents who were then subjects of the state. (b.) Or were born in foreign countries of Norwegian parents, who were not at that time subjects of any other country.

(c.) Or who were settled in the country on the 17th May, 1814, and did not refuse to take the oath for maintaining the independence of Norway.

(d.) Or who shall continue to reside in the country for ten years.

(e.) Or who become naturalized by the Storthing.

Foreigners, however, may be made professors at the university and the public Latin schools, physicians, and consuls in foreign countries. No one can be appointed chief magistrate before he has attained the age of thirty years; and magistrates, judges, and sheriffs must have reached the age of twenty-five years.

Section 93. Norway shall only be liable to pay its own national debt.

Section 94. A new general, civil, and criminal code of laws shall be made at the first, or, if not practicable, at the second ordinary Storthing.

The laws of the country now in force shall meanwhile be valid; provided they be not repugnant to this constitution or the temporary resolutions which may be published.

The permanent taxes now in force shall equally be valid until the next Storthing.

Section 95. No dispensations, or any other exemptions from, law, shall be granted when the new general code of laws has been published.

Section 96. Every one shall be judged according to the law, and they shall be punished by law after sentence has been passed.

Examination by torture shall not take place.

Section 97. No ex post facto law shall be passed.

Section 98. Taxes to the treasury shall not be paid at the same time as fees to the court officers.

Section 99. No person can be arrested except in such case and manner as is prescribed by the laws. Those who order an unauthorized arrest, or are guilty of illegal delay, shall be responsible to the arrested.

The government shall have no power to use military force against the citizens, except in accordance with the provisions of the laws, unless any assembly should disturb the public security, and refuse to disperse immediately on the riot act having been audibly read to them three times.

Section 100. There shall be liberty of the press. No person shall be punished for any writing, whatever its contents may be, which he may have caused to be printed or published, unless he have willfully and evidently broken the laws, or advised others to do so, or disregarded religion, decency, or the constitutional powers, resisted their orders, or been guilty of calumniation or defamation.

Freedom of speech shall be granted to all, with respect to the government and other matters.

Section 101. New and permanent restrictions connected with free trade shall not be granted to any one in future.

Section 102. Domiciliary searches shall not be allowed, except in criminal cases.

Section 103. Places of refuge shall not be granted in future to bankrupts.

Section 104. Real and personal property shall in no case be confiscated.

Section 105. If it be necessary for the welfare of the state that any one shall give up his real and personal property to the public, he shall have full compensation from the treasury.

Section 106. Purchase money, and revenues of properties bequeathed to the clergy, shall be exclusively employed for the benefit of the clergy and the promotion of public education. The funds of charitable institutions shall solely be employed for their benefit.

Section 107. The allodial privileges shall not be abolished. The first or the second Storthing shall fix the conditions of such privileges as shall remain in force and be of the greatest benefit to the country and the inhabitants of the rural districts.

Section 108. Neither counts’ or barons’ estates, nor any other entailed family estate, shall be founded in future.

Section 109. All citizens shall generally be bound to defend their native country for a certain time, without regard to birth or fortune. The first assembled ordinary Storthing shall decide on the right application of this rule, and affix the restrictions to which it shall be subjected, due information having been previously received by a committee. It shall also decide whether it be serviceable to the country that the duty of bearing arms shall cease when a citizen has attained the age of 25 years. Meanwhile the prescriptions now in force shall remain valid.

Section 110. Norway shall keep its own bank, its current-money, and coinage system. These institutions shall be fixed by a law.

Section 111. Norway shall have the right to use its own flag for merchant vessels. The naval flag shall be a union flag.

Section 112. If experience should prove the necessity of an alteration in any part of the constitution of the kingdom of Norway, the proposal shall be made at the first ordinary Storthing after a new election and be printed and published. But the question of carrying the proposed amendment shall be decided by one of the ordinary Storthings after a new election. Such an amendment, however, must never contradict the principles of this constitution, but only modify some of its points in such way that the character of the constitution be not changed. The amendments shall be carried by two-thirds of the members of the Storthing.

Christiania, at the extraordinary meeting of the Storthing, on the fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen.

[

78 signatures

.]

Act of union.

Established between the Storthing of the kingdom of Norway, and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden, determining the constitutional relations between the two kingdoms.

We, Charles, by the grace of God, King of Sweden and Norway, the Goths and the Vandals, &c., &c., Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, the Stormarn and the Dithmarsk, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, &c., &c., make known:

Whereas, the Storthing of the kingdom of Norway, and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden, in accordance with our gracious proposals, have agreed on and resolved, in order to determine the constitutional relations between Norway and Sweden, to make a special act of union, as here exactly and literally follows:

We, the undersigned, representatives of the kingdom of Norway, assembled in Christiania at an extraordinary meeting of the Storthing, and we, the Diet of the Kingdom of Sweden, counts, barons, bishops, knights and nobles, clergy, citizens, and common people, now assembled here in Stockholm, at an extraordinary meeting of the Diet, make known:

Whereas, by the help of God, a union has been successfully established between the people of Scandinavia, and as it shall be maintained by mutual recognition of the legal rights of the people for the protection of the two thrones, and also, as it was established by voluntary conviction and not by arms, and whereas we, the undersigned states of the kingdom of Sweden, (on occasion of His Royal Majesty’s gracious proposal of 12th April last concerning the new constitutional relations established between Norway and Sweden,) have recognized and unanimously confirmed all points in the constitution of the kingdom of Norway of the 4th November, 1814, regarding these constitutional relations, which, while we reserve our constitutional rights in those points, will involve alteration or modification in the constitution of the kingdom of Sweden, have, on the 10th November, been accepted and sworn to by our most gracious Lord and King we, the lawful representatives of the inhabitants of Norway and Sweden, can find no worthier or more solemn way of ratifying and permanently establishing the union formed between Norway and Sweden under one King, (but with different governments and laws,) than by consenting thereto, and constituting the said condition into a special act of union, such as is hereby literally subjoined and follows:

Section 1. The kingdom of Norway shall be a free, independent, indivisible, and inalienable country, united with Sweden under one King. Its form of government shall be monarchical, limited, and hereditary.

Section 2. The order of succession to the throne shall be descending and agnatic, such as is provided by the order of succession of the 26th day of September, 1810, passed by the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden and sanctioned by the King.

Among those entitled to succession are also counted those who may be born after their father’s death, and who will immediately assume their place in the hereditary line.

When a prince entitled to succeed to the united crowns of Norway and Sweden is born, his name and the time of his birth shall be announced to the next Storthing and be registered on its records.

Section 3. If no prince entitled to succession exist, and an election of a successor must be held in both countries, the Storthing in Norway and the Diet in Sweden shall be convoked on the self-same day.

The King, or (if such election occur during the vacancy of the throne) the legal government ad interim of both countries, shall, on the same day and in both places, make proposal concerning the succession. This must take place within eighteen days subsequent to that on which the Storthing in Norway and the Diet in Sweden were lawfully opened.

The members of the Norwegian Storthing and the Swedish Diet shall have power to propose a successor. If any intend to do so, his proposal must be made within the prescribed time.

The Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden shall thereupon fix separately the day of election; but the election of the successor shall of necessity take place no later than on the twelfth day after that prescribed for the proposal.

On the day previous to that fixed for the election by the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden, the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden shall choose (from among their own members) a committee, who (in event of the choice falling on different persons) shall be charged to meet on behalf of the representatives of both countries, to decide by vote the choice of one person.

The Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden, on the day fixed for the election, in accordance with the rules prescribed in the constitutions of both countries, shall each select one from the proposed candidates.

When the choice of both countries falls upon the same person, he shall be lawfully elected successor to the throne. If, on the contrary, each country should have elected a different person; the question shall be decided by the votes of the combined committees of both countries.

This committee shall consist of thirty-six persons for each country and eight deputies, elected in the way specially prescribed by the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden. The deputies shall enter upon service in stated order, but only in event of any of the regular members being absent at the election.

Carlstad shall be the place where the committees of both countries shall meet. Before each committee leaves the place where the Storthing in Norway and the Diet in Sweden are assembled, they shall elect a chairman from among themselves.

The King, or, in case of his death, the legal government ad interim of both countries shall, within the shortest possible time, (after having been informed of the choice of both countries, and duly considering the distances between the places where the Storthing in Norway and the Diet in Sweden are held from the place of meeting,) fix the day on which the committees of both countries shall meet at Carlstad. This shall not be later than twenty-one days after that day prescribed above and named as the latest election period for the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden.

The chairmen of the committees of both countries shall, immediately on their arrival, order them to assemble in the forenoon of the day next to that appointed for the arrival of the committees at the place of meeting.

When they are assembled, the chairman of each committee shall first read his own and his colleagues’ full powers, whereupon both chairmen shall draw lots for the presidency at the election.

The combined committee for both countries, thus united under one president, (who also has a vote,) shall then, immediately, without any debate commence the voting.

The committee shall not separate, neither shall any member leave the room where they are assembled until the election be completed.

As each vote is given the chairman of the committee of either country shall read and exchange the document which contains the choice made by his committee. The proposal of voting shall then be recorded, and the names of both candidates be registered according to the following scheme:

“The deputies of the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden shall vote together, in order to elect a successor to the united thrones of Norway and Sweden. The Storthing of Norway has proposed N. N., and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden has proposed N. N.

“If the majority of votes are in favor of N. N. he shall be lawfully elected to succeed the King (be King) on the united thrones of Norway and Sweden.

“Before summoning the votes, all the provisions relating to the manner of voting shall be distinctly and audibly read.

“The summons shall be given as follows: When the chairman of the combined committees is a Norwegian, the Swedish deputies shall be summoned first to vote; after that the Norwegians, and vice versa when the chairman is a Swede. The voting shall be made by slips of paper, exactly corresponding in size and appearance, on which the name of each candidate shall be printed in characters of equal size. The chairman who does not preside at the election shall sign the slips of paper before they be delivered to the deputies. These slips of paper, in order to be valid, shall be single, without any marks, and shall be shut up and folded together. A majority of one shall decide an election.

“Before counting the slips the chairman shall draw out one, seal it, and lay it aside.

“If on opening the slips, after the above summons, there should be found any which are not valid, according to the rules before mentioned, they shall be destroyed immediately.

“If the result prove to be an equality of votes, the sealed slip shall be opened and it shall decide the election, provided it possesses the necessary qualifications.

“If it be not admissible, the whole proceeding shall be considered null and void, and a new voting shall take place immediately.

“If there be a majority without adopting this measure, the slip which was put aside shall be destroyed without being opened.

“The votes shall be recorded by the deputies themselves, in the Norwegian language if the chairman be a Norwegian, and in the Swedish language if he be a Swede. This record shall, immediately after the close of the poll, be loudly read and acknowledged; whereupon, two similar copies shall be made, be signed by the whole election committee before they separate, and sealed in their presence.

“They shall forthwith be dispatched, on the same day, by the chairmen of the committees of each country, one to the Storthing of Norway, directed to its president, and the other to the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden, directed to the president of the nobility and to the other presidents.

“These records shall be signed in this manner: The copy which is sent to Norway shall be signed first by the Norwegian and then by the Swedish deputies; and the copy which is forwarded to the Diet of Sweden shall be first signed by the Swedish and then by the Norwegian deputies.

“On the arrival of this election act at both places, it shall directly, or at latest on the following day, be reported to the Storthing in Norway, and to the Diet in Sweden. And the Storthing of Norway and the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden shall immediately take care that this resolution of the representatives of both countries be communicated to his royal highness; or, if he be dead, to the lawful government ad interim.”

Section 4. The King shall have power to gather troops, commence war, and conclude peace, to enter into and dissolve alliances, and to send and receive embassadors.

When the King proposes to declare war, he shall communicate with the government in Norway, who will pronounce its views on the subject, and also furnish a complete report of the financial state of the country, its means of defense, and other matters. When this has been done, the King shall form an extraordinary council of state, consisting of the Norwegian minister of state and the Norwegian councilors of state, together with those of Sweden, and he shall then lay before them the grounds and circumstances of the case.

The report of the government of Norway on the state of that country, together with a similar one of Sweden, shall then be produced. The King shall require their opinion on these subjects, which shall be put down separately on the records by each of them, under the responsibility provided by the constitution. The King shall then have power to hold and execute the decision which he may think most profitable to the country.

Section 5. The Norwegian minister of state and the two Norwegian councillors of state who attend the King, shall have seats and deliberative votes in the Swedish council, when subjects concerning both countries are there discussed.

The opinion of the government in Norway ought also to be asked in such matters, unless they need to be decided on so quickly that there is no time for it. So often as matters concerning both countries are discussed in the King’s presence, at the Norwegian council of state, wheresoever assembled, three members of the Swedish council of state shall have their seats and vote there.

Section 6. When the King dies and the successor to the throne is not yet of age, the Norwegian and Swedish councils of state shall be immediately convened, in order to call together the Storthing in Norway, and the Diet in Sweden.

Section 7. Until the representatives of both countries be assembled, and until they have arranged the government during the minority of the King, a council of state, composed of an equal number of Norwegian and Swedish members, shall take charge of the administration of both countries, duly observing their respective constitutions, and under the name of the government ad interim of Norway and Sweden. This united council of state shall consist of ten members from each country, viz: From Norway, the Norwegian minister of state and the two councilors of state who reside in Stockholm, together with seven real or specially appointed councilors, (who, in the event of a vacancy to the throne, or during the King’s minority, shall be elected by the government in Norway, from among their own members,) in whose place at least three councilors shall be appointed, ad interim; and from Sweden, the two ministers and eight councilors of state.

Both the Norwegian and Swedish cases shall be prepared and examined according to the prescribed law of both countries.

The Norwegian cases which transpire during the government ad interim shall be reported, registered, and dispatched in the Norwegian language by the Norwegian minister of state, and the Swedish cases shall be reported, registered, and dispatched in the Swedish language by the official to whose department they belong.

Cases which concern both countries, and which from their nature do not belong to any special department, shall be reported by the minister of state for foreign affairs, and be dispatched to each country in their own language, to Norway by its minister of state, and to Sweden by the official above mentioned.

Diplomatic matters shall also be reported by the minister of state for foreign affairs, and registered on special records.

The cases shall be decided by a majority, and if the votes be equal the decision rests with the chairman.

All the resolutions that are passed shall be signed by all the members.

The combined council of state (the government ad interim) shall meet at Stockholm.

At the first, meeting of both councils of state the Norwegian and the Swedish state ministers shall draw lots who shall first be chairman. This order being established, the chairman shall be changed every eight days, so that each minister of state shall be chairman in succession for one week only.

In all cases when, in accordance with the constitutions of Norway and Sweden, the countries shall be governed by the council of state, the councils of state of both countries shall meet in equal number, and in the way above mentioned.

Section 8. The choice of the guardians, who shall govern on behalf of the King during his minority, shall be made according to the same rules and in the same manner as has already been provided in section 3 regarding the election of a successor to the throne.

Section 9. The Norwegians who, in the cases above mentioned, shall be invested with government, shall take the following oath before the Norwegian Storthing: “I do promise and swear to govern in accordance with the constitution and the laws, so help me God and his holy word.”

The Swedes shall take the oath before the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden.

If the Storthing or the Diet be not assembled at that time, the written oath shall be deposited with the council of state, and repeated at the next Storthing or Diet.

Section 10. The direction of the King’s education, during his minority, shall be fixed in the way mentioned in section 8.

It shall be an unalterable rule that the King shall be sufficiently instructed in the Norwegian language during his minority.

Section 11. If the royal male line has become extinct, and no successor to the throne has been elected, a new royal lineage shall be chosen in the way mentioned in section 3.

Section 12. As the provisions contained in this act of union are partly copied from the constitution of the kingdom of Norway and partly additions to it, founded on the authority given by the constitution to the now assembled Storthing, they shall, as concerns Norway, be established and continue as valid as the constitution of this kingdom, and they shall not be altered except in the way prescribed in section 112.

For further security, having decreed and resolved all the foregoing, we, the Storthing of the kingdom of Norway, and we, the Diet of the kingdom of Sweden, have established and confirmed this act of union with our signatures and our seals, which was made in Christiania, on Monday, the thirty-first day of July, and in Stockholm on the sixth day of the month of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen.

[557 signatures.]

We are pleased hereby to accept, confirm, and establish the said act of union, with all its articles, points, and clauses.

We also graciously command and ordain, that all who are bound to us, our successors, and the kingdom by oaths of allegiance, do acknowledge, observe, and obey this act of union. For further security we have signed and confirmed these presents with our own hand, and have caused our royal seal to be affixed thereto, which was done at our residence, the city of Stockholm, on the sixth day of the month of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen.

CHARLES.