The Conservative Ministry in Sweden has resigned, in consequence of
its defeat in the recent General Election_ The Conservatives lost twenty-eight seats and now number only fifty-eight in a House of two hundred and thirty members. There are sixty-two Liberals, and there are eighty-six Social Democrats led hy H. Branting, with twelve advanced Socialists and twelve members of a new Farmers' Party who may act with the Conservativea. As no party commands a majority, the King has asked the party loaders to form a Coalition Government ; but M. Branting, our greatest friend in Sweden, seems unwilling to act with the Conservatives. The elections have shown that the so-called " Activist " section of the Swedish Conservative Party, which is strongly pro-German and would be prepared to enter the war on the side of Germany, has very little popular support. Any new Ministry that may be formed will maintain a stricter neutrality than Sweden has observed in the past, and will, we trust, find some means of controlling the Swedish diplomatists and officials who have rendered so much illicit assist- ance to our enemy in North and South America and elsewhere.
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