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Introduction INTRODUCTION RINCIPAL results of the Swedish diet of 1726/7 were to bring Sweden into alliance with Great Britain France and Holland undeP r the treaty of Hanover and to establish in power the leader of the constitutional party, Count Arvid Horn. He previously, assaulted from one side by the royalist reactionaries and from the other, furiously, by the adherents of the duke of Holstein-Gottorp had had to temporise and to prevaricate, playing off the one party against the other. Now the clear voice of the nation had called on him to lead, and soon the death of Catherine I of Russia crippled his Holstein adversaries. He stood for upholding the Constitution of 1719, for maintaining the new alliance with the western powers, and for friendly relations, so far as might be, with all others. Stephen Poyntz, named in reward for his successful work at Stockholm to represent Great Britain at the projected congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, departed at the end of September 1727. In his place as envoy extraordinary came Isaac Leheup, only to be recalled at once on the ground of offence given to a certain royal personage on his voyage out.1 He left but two days after Poyntz. From that time, until the coming of Edward Finch as envoy extraordinary in December 1728, conduct of affairs was left to the old minister resident, Robert Jackson, for whom Finch brought letters of recall, to Leheup's secretary, John Snow, or to the Hanoverian envoy, Baron von Diescau. Finch's first concern was with the Mecklenburg and other German troubles, which had brought Prussia and Hanover to the brink of war. In July 1729 he succeeded in obtaining the accession of King Frederick I, as duke of Pomerania, to the " Treaty of Union " formed by George II with other German princes to resist Prussian 1 In a humble letter of submission Leheup disclaimed knowledge of his offence, hoping that, whatever it was, it might be imputed to " a phrenzy caused by my want of rest and excess of heat and of wine," and pardoned. vii Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.76, on 27 Sep 2021 at 07:33:30, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042171000007421 viii INTRODUCTION aggression. Moreover, in response to reiterated appeal from Eng- land, Horn agreed to have ready the troops engaged by the treaty of 1727 and to reinforce, against Prussian menace, the garrison of Stralsund. These German troubles, however, ended for the time when in March 1731 George II came to terms with the emperor Charles VI, for behind Frederick William of Prussia, all along, had stood his offended suzerain. This year 1731 saw Count Horn at the zenith of his power. The diet which met at the end of January elected him marshal almost with unanimity. Yet already in March Finch marked a spirit rising against him, a spirit which moved him, in May, to tender resignation of his offices. This was not allowed ; general consent pronounced him indispensable ; but his decline was setting in. He was ageing and in ill-health, and death had not long since deprived him of his right-hand man, Joakim von Diiben, of whom Finch could not say enough in praise. At court he had to combat the work of the royal mistress, Hedvig Taube—the'' cornerstone of the Cabal," Finch calls her in one place—and he had other grounds of quarrel both with the king, strengthened now by his succession to Hesse-Cassel, and with queen Ulrica Eleonora. Also now, with the breach opening between Great Britain and France, his adversaries were to have the active support of the French ambassador, Count de Casteja. Nor were relations with Great Britain altogether smooth. There was contention about the subsidies engaged by the treaty of 1727, the Swedes claiming continuance of them for its term, the British government denying the right and withholding payment. The Swedes were laying new imposts on British trade in favour of their own ; resented in particular was a tax on British seamen. Finch's protests were ineffectual, and his proposals for a commercial treaty fruitless. He could not expect satisfaction, he declared, while Niklas von Hopken, unalterable in his ill disposition towards England and privately interested besides, remained at the head of the College of Commerce. Moreover the Swedes, active and successful of late years in extending their foreign trade, were making attempt on that to the East Indies and China, so jealously guarded. In 1730 one Colin Campbell, suspected of acting for the shareholders of the suppressed Ostend Company, was found to be engaged in promoting the establishment of an East India Company in Sweden. A charter for this was obtained in June 1731. Objection could not be made to the enterprise itself, but notice was sent from England Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.76, on 27 Sep 2021 at 07:33:30, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042171000007421 INTRODUCTION ix that any British subjects engaged in it would be prosecuted accord- ing to the law. In March 1732 Campbell himself sailed in command of the first ship, and after a year and a half was back from China with a cargo of teas chinaware and textiles valued at £126,000. A second ship, the Ulrica Eleonora, formerly the Heathcote of the English East India Company's service, which sailed in February 1733 with one Charles Barrington as supercargo, was not so fortunate. Arrived on the Coromandel coast of India Barrington landed with other Englishmen at Porto Novo, southwards of Pondicherri, and set up a factory there. Informed of this the governors of Fort St. David (English) and Pondicherri (French) joined forces, seized the British subjects (Barrington himself escaping to Danish Tranquebar), and destroyed the settlement. When the Ulrica Eleonora returned from her further voyage to Bengal she was chased away by French and English ships and returned to Sweden empty. For the present the matter was not allowed to raise great stir. Not all in Sweden approved the enterprise ; Horn himself looked coldly on it; manufacturers opposed it openly as detrimental to their interests. Finch reported a hostile memorial presented by them, alleging the Company to be promoted by the Ostend share- holders. The friends of France could not yet make it a party issue, since France was implicated. Exchange of protest and justificatory reply proceeded in dilatory fashion until on the triumph of the French party, the " Hats," in 1738, it suited them to acerbate the quarrel. Opposition of French to British aims in the north had been in evidence even during the years of alliance of the two powers. The treaties of Vienna of 1731 marked the end of that alliance, and by the time that the War of the Polish Succession broke out they were in open rivalry. The Swedes, naturally, were fervent in the cause of the French candidate, Stanislaus Leszczynski. " Everybody here is for Stanislaus," Finch had written on the news of the death of Augustus II. Casteja, in concert with Count Plelo, his colleague at Copenhagen, worked strenuously for him. Horn, however, stood out firmly against the popular cry, and observation of neutrality was strongly pressed on him from England. Yet it was thought well there to have a call on Swedish and Danish troops, in case of possible developments. At Copenhagen, where the ministry was Anglo- phile, success was had; a subsidy treaty was signed on 19/30 September 1734. Not so at Stockholm, proposals to engage 6,000 Swedes at £35,000 a year did not satisfy. On the other side Casteja Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.76, on 27 Sep 2021 at 07:33:30, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S2042171000007421 x INTRODUCTION was offering to hire 10,000 for the support of Stanislaus, and a motion to agree with this was carried in the senate. But he was found not to have full powers to conclude, and his government held back. In the circumstances it was deemed necessary to summon a diet. When it met, in February 1734, Horn's credit was found to be seriously impaired. His nominee for the marshalship was indeed elected, but only by a majority of 13 votes out of 649. On the secret committee the opposition had a decisive majority. It was not only sympathy with Stanislaus that moved the Swedes ; opportunity was seen to satisfy, with the help of France, the ever- present longing for revenge on Russia. Swedish volunteers trooped to help in the defence of Dantzig against the forces of the empress Anne. Negotiation for alliance against Russia had been opened also at the Porte, and reports of annihilation of Russian forces by the Turks were coming in. In this state of public feeling, although in July 1734 full powers were sent to Finch to conclude a treaty for troops, and despite declaration to him by Horn "that he neither should nor would ever be for the French proposition, and that he was heartily for the English ones," it was not till the diet had separated in December that he could renew his proposals formally. Without success. When he adduced the example of Denmark as proper to be followed Horn observed, smilingly, that the Danish government had not to reckon with a diet.
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