SWEDEN. A limited monarchy, the con stitution resting primarily on the law of June 6, 1809. The king is irresponsible ; the executive power is vested in him alone; all his resolutions, however, must be tak en in the presence of his cabinet. The cabinet councillors are appointed by him and are responsible to the parliament (Riks dag). They are eleven in number, one be ing prime minister, two consultative minis ters, and the others heads of departments.
They must be of Swedish birth and ads herents of the Lutheran confession. The king has the right of initiative in the Rikadag and of absolute veto and has in certain administrative and administration matters a special legislative right.
The Riksdag consists of two chambers. The members of the #rst are elected by the representative bodies of the Lan and by the municipal councils of some of the rural towns. They are 150 in number and are dis tributed among the constituencies according to population on a ten years revision. The
members of the second chamber number 230, of which 150 are elected from the rural con stituencies and 80 from the towns.
The supreme court has a membership of 18 judges and passes sentence in the name of the king, who is nominally the highest judicial authority. There are 119 rural ju dicial districts, which may be divided into judicial divisions, in each of which, is a court consisting of a judge and 12 unpaid asses sors elected by the people. Seven form a quorum. If unanimously of a different opin ion from the judge, they can outvote him. There are three higher courts between these and the supreme court.
The dissolution of the union between Sweden and Norway was approved by the Riksdag of Sweden on October 19, 1905.