Erik Benzelius the younger Swedish parliament, the Riksdag of the Estates, from 1723 to his death. And he was generally described as being interested in anything that might benefit his country. In the Riksdag of 1738, he handed a letter of protest from the delegation from the Clergy Estate to Frederick I of Sweden, protesting of the monarch's adultery with Hedvig Taube: he was involved when the matter was raised again during the Riksdag of 1741. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1740, and was its president in 1743. Erik Benzelius the younger Erik Benzelius the younger
History of the Riksdag reflected the lines of division in Swedish society: the nobility, the clergy, the burghers and the peasantry. Under the Instrument of Government of 1809 the Riksdag shared the powers of government with the King. On the basis of the 1863 electoral reform bill the Estates voted in 1866 to dissolve the Riksdag of the Estates and establish a new Riksdag. The new Riksdag was a political assembly with two chambers where the members were chosen in national elections. The revolution was that citizens could participate and vote in the elections without regard to which Estate they had hitherto belonged; instead