the kingdom, is contained in W. Uppstroem, Sveriges
Grundlager och konstitutionela stadgar jemte
kommunallagarne samt Norges Grundlov (6th ed.,
Stockholm, 1903). An English version is printed in
Dodd, Modern Constitutions, II., 219-251, and a
French one in Dareste, Constitutions Modernes (3d
ed.), II., 46-114. The best brief treatise upon
Swedish constitutional history is P. Fahlbeck, La
constitution suedoise et le parlementarisme moderne
(Paris, 1905). The best description of the Swedish
government as it was a quarter of a century ago is
T. H. Aschehoug, Das Staatsrecht der vereinigten
koenigreiche Schweden und Norwegen (Freiburg, 1886),
in Marquardsen's Handbuch. The principal treatise
in Swedish is C. Naumann, Sveriges
statsfoerfatningsraett (2d ed., Stockholm,
1879-1884).]

*651. The Crown and the Ministry.*--At the head of the state (p. 590)
stands the king. The monarchy is hereditary, and the crown is
transmitted in the male line in the order of primogeniture. It is
required that the king shall belong invariably to the Lutheran Church
and that at his accession he shall take an oath to maintain
scrupulously the laws of the land. With the king is associated a
Statsrad, or Council of State, appointed by the crown "from among
capable, experienced, honest persons of good reputation, who are
Swedes by birth, and who belong to the pure, evangelical faith."[825]
By constitutional requirement the Council is composed of eleven
members, one of whom is designated by the king as minister of state
and president of the council, or premier. Of the eleven eight are
heads of the departments, respectively, of Foreign Affairs, Justice,
Land Defense, Naval Defense, Home Affairs, Finance, Agriculture, and
Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs. The president and two other
members are ministers without portfolio.

[Footnote 825: Art. 4. Dodd, Modern Constitutions,
II., 220.]

*652. The Exercise of Executive Powers.*--The powers of the Swedish
executive are large. A few are exercised by the crown alone; some by
the crown in conjunction with a small specified number of ministers;
the majority b