Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. II.djvu/404

Rh In the oldest times of Sweden, when the judge of each province appeared at the General Assembly and there, as the wisest and best of the land, conveyed the speech of the common people to the King of Sweden, the most ancient representation of our country, was in idea similar to that now existing in North America.

Such a representation of country and of people seems to me in a high degree conformable to nature and nationality. And what a field is hereby opened to talent and to the orator!

President Taylor died during my stay at Washington, and I was present at the installation of his legal successor, President Fillmore, into his office—the highest in the United States. Nothing could be simpler or more destitute of pomp and show, or more unlike our royal coronations. But—I have nothing to say against these. They present beautiful and picturesque spectacle; and without spectacle people cannot very well live, not even in this country, as is seen by the eagerness with which they everywhere rush to see anything new. What beautiful spectacle did we not behold in Sweden on the coronations of King Carl Johan and King Oscar! I remember in particular at the latter, those young princes, the three sons of Oscar, in their princely attire, when they came forward to take the oath of allegiance to their royal father—no one could have seen more beautiful forms, hardly a more lovely sight!

After having bathed in the foaming sea on the eastern coast, I betook myself into the West. I had seen the North and the South of the Union, now I would see the Great West. I longed for it greatly. I had heard much in the Eastern States, and in the North and in the South also, of that Great West, of its wonderful growth and progress. In what did these consist? I had a great desire to know.

On my journey westward I made acquaintance with the