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Charles XIV John 329
without giving a reason for the prohibition. But the
paper only changed its name after each prohibition,
and thus continued its publication until the with-
drawal office became a laughing-stock and was finally
abolished.
The Triumph of Liberalism. The opposition had
thus triumphed in its struggle for the freedom of the
press. Likewise in its struggle against absolutism.
This victory was won at the Riksdag in 1840. The
opposition collected all its powers. It had received the
powerful support ,of Eric Gustav Geijer, Sweden’s
greatest historian. The king was compelled to dismiss
the most reactionary members of the council and ap-
point in ^heir stead men of more liberal views. He was
forced to give assent to a number of reform measures.
The most desired social and political reform, however,
the abolition of class ’distinction and the division of the
Riksdag into four Estates, could not then be accom-
plished.
The King’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary. After the
Riksdag of 1840 the storms of opposition quieted down,
and the octogenarian prince on the throne could cele-
brate his twenty-fifth anniversary as king amid the
general and sincere expressions of his people’s grati-
tude. Their thoughts went back to their country’s days
of weakness and humiliation when the French Marshal
Bernadotte as crown prince had come to assume the
affairs of government. It was a different Sweden now
which under his wise direction had risen to an honored
place among European states. This anniversary day,
when the aged king was assured of the gratitude and
love of all his people, he regarded as the happiest day
of his life.
A History of Sweden. 22.
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