"Ere you begin to distribute your laurels, hand one to me; Not for myself, but for one through whom I to all would pay honor. The Adam of skalds is here, the king of Northern poets. Heir to the throne in poesy's realm, for the throne is Goethe's. Oscar, if he but knew it, would surely sanction my action; Now not in his name, far less in my own, but in that of song immortal, That illustrious name, resounding in Hakon and Helge, Would I proffer this wreath; it grew where Saxo lived. Past is the age of division,--in realms of the free-born spirit It should never have been,--and familiar tones now ringing Across the Sound enchant us all, and yours more than others. Therefore, Svea offers this wreath, I speak in the name of Svea; Take from a brother's hand this gift, and wear it this day to remember." And amid the din of kettle-drums, trumpets, and cannon, he placed the wreath on Oehlenschläger's head. May the ceremony belong to the moment alone, and the kettle-drums, trumpets, cannon, the entire janizary music vanish on the instant! It was, nevertheless, a grand and a beautiful moment, and the remembrance of it has tended to fraternize the northern peoples as little else could have done. XII. The year 1830, that brought the July Revolution to France, led to a change in the political temper of Sweden, and soon in the entire political situation; it was a year that gave to liberalism a new impulse, significantly modifying its aims and altering the language of its press. Before 1830, the ideal of the Swedish liberals had been freedom; now it became democracy. As a matter of course, the advance of liberalism drove the conservative groups to the opposite extreme. Upsala was the headquarters of the reactionary party; here Geijer held sway, and the loyal students followed him so faithfully that, in a serenade to Charles John they thus designated their party: _"obéir, mourir, et se taire"_ (to obey, to die, and keep silence). In retaliation the Stockholm liberal press called Upsala a foul nest of Tories, and the university professors, dried-up moles. A new style of journalism developed itself, which, owing to the prevailing absolutism, could only obtain a hearing through a personal, unrestrained tone. The style of this press was frivolous and sharp; it wounded with pin pricks and _persiflage._ Neither the court nor the person of Charles John was spared. If this tone pleased in certain circles of the metropolis, it excited lively displeasure elsewhere, especially in the provincial towns, and no one was more thoroughly annoyed by it than Tegnér, whose shattered mind was too thoroughly out of tune to permit him to see the good that might possibly arise one day from all these sins against good taste and against respect for the name of the old king. He offered a passionate protest against it, and the liberal papers attacked him like a swarm of wasps.