opening in Stockholm a central training school from which all Sweden should be supplied with teachers of the new art. With this plan in mind he went up to the capital early in 1813, applying first for the position of fencing-master in the Royal Military Academy at Karlberg, just outside the city to the northwest, and then, on January 29th, handing in to the recently appointed Committee on Education a written proposal of the new institution. He refers to what he has already accomplished in Lund, Malmö, and Gothenburg, explains his purpose in seeking to make Stockholm a center of influence for the physical training of the young, and asks government approval and support for the project. To the secretary of the Committee, Jakob Adlerbeth, he brought a letter of introduction (dated January 15, 1813) from Esaias Tegnér, at that time a teacher in the University at Lund, who had roused the Swedes in 1808 by his “War Song for the Militia of Scania,” three years later won for himself national fame and the great prize of the Swedish Academy by his patriotic poem “Svea,” and was soon to receive worldwide recognition as the author of “Frithiofs Saga” (1825). Ling was already favorably known for his own literary labors, and appears to have been fortunate in his Stockholm quest from the start. He was given the Karlberg position, at a salary of 250 rix-dollars and lodging; the Committee received his proposal February 1st, and the same day reported the matter to the King with its strong recommendation; and a royal letter of May 5th formally approved the plan. Ling was to receive a salary of 500 rix-dollars as director of the school, an annual allowance of 100 more to cover the rent of a room for his exercises, and a single grant of 400 rix-dollars for the purchase of equipment. The salary was doubled in 1830, and before his death was raised again to 2000 rix-dollars. The school was opened in 1814, and at the Committee’s suggestion the King gave it some time later the name it still bears—The Royal Central Institute of Gymnastics (_Kongl. Gymnastiska Central-Institutet_).[117]