Page:Swedenborg, Harbinger of the New Age of the Christian Church.djvu/223

 more of him at the College of Mines, but for some time yet we have an occasional paper presented to the Diet. A paper of much importance had been presented by him in 1734, in opposition to a party plan of declaring war against Russia, which is supposed to have had great weight in maintaining peace at that time. A fragment of a memorial addressed by him to the Diet in 1755 urges the necessity of limiting the distillation of whiskey, "that is, if the consumption of the whiskey cannot be done away with altogether, which would be more desirable for the country's welfare and morality than all the income which could be realized from so pernicious a drink." In addition, the memorial urges a recall of the power granted to the Bank to grant loans on all property in the country, which he regarded as one of the causes of the bankruptcy into which it was drifting. By these means Swedenborg hoped a check might be put on the drain from the country, as shown by the excess of imports over exports, and the balance of trade be restored in its favor.

In 1760 also, on occasion of a financial panic in Sweden, as a member of a committee on Finance, he presented to the Diet a memorial showing the