Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

chair for the seat of the president, who puts each question to the vote.

I was thinking, too, of the time when little Queen Christina, at the age of six years, was presented to the assembled states in this hall. Many of the people did not want a little girl to reign over them; but when they saw the child, a good peasant exclaimed, "It is Gustaf Adolf's eye, brow, and nose; let her be our Queen.' The story, related by Geijer, is intensely national; a nose that was like any favourite Swedish nose, might well lay claim to a crown. But I sat next to a young lawyer-a baron too, who spoke a little English, and who made me comprehend what was going on below better than I should have done without his aid. It was not an Ecclesiastical Titles Bill that was in progress—no bishop but a Lutheran one could presume to enter Sweden as a bishop. The question was, whether the Protestant-Lutheran subjects of the country should be liable to a fine of five rix-daler, or about six shillings English, for entering the Roman Catholic chapel where their queen worshipped. There is an old law to that effect in existence, but, as it is never enforced, its existence was considered by the mover for its abolition as

by no means essential to the well-being of church and state. The question was argued pro and con.; some noble lords contending that since the law was not enforced it was necessary to abrogate it, and other noble lords insisting that because it was not enforced it ought to remain in statu quo.

The nays had it. The law remained; and the result of the discussion on me was, what I believe to be the result of discussion on most persons, it sent me to the place that appeared to be prohibited. I went to look in at the Roman Catholic Chapel. No Swede is allowed to be anything but a professed follower of Martin Luther. If you are not a subject, you may be what you like; but you cease to a subject of Sweden, or an occupant of Swedish ground, or breather of Swedish air, if you cease to be a Lutheran. The worshippers, therefore, at the Roman Catholic Chapel were few, being foreigners; but the whole open space at the lower end of the chapel was filled with true Lutheran Swedes, not worshippers, but listeners, many of them clergymen, wearing, as usual, their white bands and clerical coats. The priest, the Queen's Chaplain, is an eloquent preacher, and the Swedes make the sermon the chief consideration in their religious services.

The same priest afterwards stood on trial, for a lengthened period, together with a lady who kept a school, on a charge of trying to make proselytes of some young persons. It was expressly stated in the public journals, that he was not obliged to remain in prison during the trial, as had been the case in other instances.

So this was all I gained by going to the Swedish House of Lords; and this is all I have at present to tell you of the Swedish Parliament. It is well for me that I was told to come here to acquaint myself with the social, and not the political, life of Sweden.

263

CHAPTER XIX.

THE fourth day of September, a bright and shiny day, has come, and is to witness the dismissal of the Parliament by King Oscar.

Four years ago, his Majesty drove past me once in a carriage and four, on a lovely summer evening; the present King of Denmark, then Crown Prince, was with him, and he raised his military hat and made me a bow, which has dwelt on my memory ever since, so that I am more desirous to see himself than his Parliament.

I have left my dreary hotel, and am lodged, for the moment, with a plain, sensible, goodnatured Englishwoman, the wife of a Professor

of that language, who, in her husband's absence, has accommodated me with a chair in a book-encumbered room, abounding with literary curiosities, rather clumsy works of art, and some portraits of the absent Professor.

Accompanied by this good woman, I set out to the palace, in order to see the royal procession going to church; for it is a good feature in the Swedish Government, that religion is honoured in all its ceremonials. The royal heralds, in their quaint attire and hugely plumed caps, were going round the town proclaiming, in each square only, the termination of the session.

The Palace is THE building of Stockholm; there is no other, nothing but large houses and very large churches. The palace is a splendid edifice, and, what is more, it is peculiarly adapted to the character of the place. Externally it seems to me to want elevation, and I have heard a Scotch lady deprive it of all architectural merit; but still it remains, in my opinion, a grand, and appropriate, and royal pile.

Ascending the beautiful, sloping, and broad walk, called "the Lion's Staircase," from the fine bronze figures of those creatures which surmount the parapet,—we look over one of the most beau

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »