In July1817 Prince Oscar, son of the prince royal, the present King of Sweden and Norway, attained his majority, which was celebrated by a publio solemnity. This young prince, who had followed his father to Sweden in 1810, had been educated as a Swede in every respect At the end of that year Charles XIIL fell ill, and on the 5th of the following February, 1818, he expired, happy in the choice of his adopted son. Carl XIV., Johan, was immediately proclaimed both in Sweden and in Norway, and was in duo time acknowledged by all the princes of Europe. Even the deposed Gustavus wrote him a letter of congratulation from Switzerland. The new king was crowned at Stockholm in May by tho Archbishop of Upset, and after wards at Drontheim in September by the Bishop of Aggerhae, with unusual splendour.
The twenty-six years of the reign of Charles XIV. were for Sweden and Norway a period of peace and internal improvement Every branch of the administration, the finances, the navy, the army, the roads and canals, public instruction, all were improved. The groat canal of flotilla, which joins the Baltic to the Northern Sea, was opened in 1832. Agriculture in all its branches made great progress. Sweden, which was formerly obliged to import large supplies of corn, now produces enough for itself, and even exports corn. The public debt was reduced
almost to nothing. Sweden had at the end of this reign more than 2500 merchant ships, exclusive of coasting vessels, which is double what she had in 1810. It may be easily supposed that the military service, in all its branches, received the especial attention of Charles John. In his speech on the opening of the Swedish Diet in January 1840, ho recapitulated with honest satisfaction all that had been done for the country under his reign.
Charles John had completed his eightieth year when he was seized by an illness in January 1844, which brought him to the grave on the 8th of March following. His son, Oscar I., succeeded him. Upon the whole, the life of Charles John Bernadotte is one of the most instructive biographies of our own times ; it affords subject for serious reflection, and is a usefni comment on the history of Napoleon.
(Touchard-Lafosae, llisloire de Charles XIV. Jean, Rai de et de Nort?ge; F. Schmidt, La Stade sous Charles XIV. Jean ; Daumont, Voyage en &Ode ; Laing, Tour in Sweden ; Count Biorustjema, On the Moral Stale and Political Union of Sweden and Norway, etc.)