1) Government and direction of the local interests of the province or of the town by their respective deputations or councils.

2) Publication of the estimates, accounts, and official acts of such local bodies.

3) Intervention of the King, and in certain cases, of the Cortes, in order to prevent the provincial deputations and municipal councils from exceeding their powers to the prejudice of general and established interests.

4) Determination of their powers in the matter of taxation in order that the provincial and municipal corporations may never be in conflict with the financial system of the State.

TITLE XI. TAXATION

ART. 85. The government shall annually present to the Cortes, for its examination and approval, the general estimates of the expenses of the state for the following year, and the plan of taxation and means of meeting such expenses, as well as the accounts of the collection of taxes and of the expenditure of the public funds.

If the budget cannot be voted before the first day of the next fiscal year, that of the previous year shall remain in force, provided always that the latter had been discussed and voted by the Cortes and sanctioned by the King.

ART. 86. The government must have authority by law in order to dispose of property of the state and to borrow money on the credit of the nation.

ART. 87. The public debt shall be under the special protection of the nation.

TITLE XII. THE MILITARY FORCES

ART. 88. The Cortes shall annually fix, upon the proposal of the King, the permanent military force on land and sea.

TITLE XIII. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONIES

ART. 89. The colonies shall be governed by special laws, but the government is authorized to apply to them, with the modifications which it may think proper, the laws promulgated or which may be promulgated for the peninsula, giving an account thereof to the Cortes.

Cuba and Puerto Rico shall be represented in the Cortes of the kingdom in the manner to be determined by a special law, which may be different for each one of the two provinces.

By the treaty of Paris of 1898 Spain renounced sovereignty over Cuba, and ceded to the United States Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippine Islands. The Caroline, Marianne (Ladrones), and Palaos Islands were sold to Germany by Spain on February 12, 1899.

SWEDEN

Sweden in the Middle Ages was an aristocratic monarchy with an elective ruler. For over a hundred years after the union of Kalmar in 1397 the three Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were united under one ruler. Sweden was ruled from and in the interests of Denmark. Sweden gained her independence, the powers of the nobles and clergy were reduced, and by a law of 1544 the crown became hereditary. Under Gustavas Vasa and his immediate successors the kingdom was reorganized and for a time became one of the great powers of Europe. The provincial assemblies gave way in the sixteenth century to the national legislature or Riksdag, composed of representatives of the nobles, clergy, cities, and peasantry.

Under Gustavus Adolphus laws were enacted for the systematic organization of the government. The law of 1617 on the organization of the Riksdag, that of 1626 defining the powers of the nobility, and the constitution of 1634 issued by Chancellor Oxenstjerna after Gustavus' death at Lützen fixed with precision the powers of the great departments of the government. The powers of the Riksdag were extended by the additional act of 1660. In 1680 and 1682 the king, with the consent of the Riksdag, assumed almost complete power and the absolute monarchy lasted until 1718.

Charles XII, who had governed Sweden arbitrarily and had ruined the country by foreign wars, aroused strong feeling in favor of a return to popular government. After his death, by the laws of 1719, 1720, and 1723, all power was vested in the Riksdag. Only the name of king remained. The executive conduct of government was vested in a Council in which the King was given a casting vote. During the sessions of the Riksdag all powers of government were exercised by its Secret Committee which was dominated by the nobles. The King became a state decoration rather than a ruler.

The system of legislative dominance continued for over fifty years, during which Sweden gained neither internal peace nor

honor abroad. A conspiracy was organized in 1772 with King Gustavus III at its head and the Riksdag was forced on August 21 of that year to adopt a constitution which restored the crown to the position which it had occupied before 1719. By the Act of Union and Security of 1789 the King's power was still further augmented, and the special privileges of the nobles were curtailed. These acts so angered the nobility that Gustavus was assassinated in 1792. His successor, the half-crazy Gustavus IV, involved Sweden in war with Russia, with the result that Finland was lost and the independence of Sweden was threatened. Gustavus was deposed and a new king, Charles XIII, was chosen. A new constitution was adopted on June 6, 1809.

The constitution has been amended at almost every session of the Riksdag since 1809. The most important alterations have been (1) that of 1866 substituting a bicameral legislature for the four estates; (2) the reorganization of the Council of State in 1840 and the creation of the office of the president of the Council in 1876. By Art. 85 of the constitution the law organizing the Riksdag, the act of succession, and the law relating to the freedom of the press are fundamental laws and may be amended only in the manner provided for changing the constitution. A new Riksdag law was enacted on June 22, 1866, to provide for the new organization of the two houses of the legislature.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

UPPSTRÖM, W. Sveriges Grundlager och konstitutionela stadgar jemte kommunallagarne samt Norges Grundlov. (6th ed., Stockolm [1903].) An excellent collection of Swedish constitutional laws.

NAUMANN, CHRISTIAN. Sveriges statsförfatningsrätt. (2d ed., Stockholm, 1879-84. 4 vols.) The leading treatise; the editor has not had an opportunity to examine this work.

FAHLBECK, PONTUS. La constitution suédoise et le parlementarisme moderne. (Paris, 1905.) Contains a brief sketch of Swedish constitutional history and government.

HILDEBRAND, EMIL Svenska statsförfattningens historiska utveckling från äldsta tid våra dagar. (Stockholm [1896].)

ASCHEHOUG, T. H. Das Staatsrecht der vereinigten königreiche Schweden und Norwegen. (Freiburg, 1886. Handbuch des oeffentlichen Rechts.)

CONSTITUTION OF SWEDEN

(June 6, 1809)

We the estates of the Swedish Kingdom, counts, barons, bishops, nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants, assembled in general session on our own behalf and in behalf of our brethren at home, publicly declare that, whereas we the deputies of the Swedish people have gained the opportunity of improving the condition of our country through the establishment of a revised constitution in consequence of the recent change of government to which we have given our unanimous consent, we do hereby repeal the fundamental laws which have been more or less in force up to this time, viz.: the constitution of August 21, 1772, the act of union and security of February 21 and April 3, 1789, the Riksdag ordinance of January 24, 1617, and all other such old or new laws, acts, ordinances, enactments, or resolutions as have heretofore gone under the name of fundamental laws; and we do hereby make known the adoption of the following constitution for the Swedish Kingdom and its dependencies, which from henceforth shall be the foremost fundamental law of the land, reserving to this diet the right to adopt, in the manner herein prescribed, the other fundamental laws mentioned in Art. 85 of this constitution:

ARTICLE I. Sweden shall be governed by a king and shall be a hereditary monarchy with the order of succession established by the law of succession.1

ART. 2. The King shall always belong to the pure evangelical faith as adopted and explained in the unaltered Augsburg Confession and in the resolution of the Upsala Synod

of 1593.

1 1 By Art. 85 of the constitution the law of succession is included as one of the fundamental laws. The succession is regulated by law of September 26, 1810, which confirmed the election of Marshal Bernadotte, prince of Ponte Corvo, as crown prince of Sweden. The crown is transmitted in the male line in the order of primogeniture, to the exclusion of females and of their descendants.