e inclinations
of the Norwegians, who knew that they were given to Sweden to
compensate that country for the loss of Finland, annexed to Russia.

The ambitious Bernadotte arranged to govern Norway as king of
that country, which was theoretically to retain its independence
and be united to Sweden only through the personal rule of the one
monarch.

At this time, the Norwegian Constitution provided that no more
personal privileges should be granted and since then the progress
of Norway towards a real democracy has been rapid. It was the
conflict over the right demanded by the Norwegians to establish a
separate consular service that led to the dissolution of the
union between Norway and Sweden in 1905, Norway voting for
separation 368,211 to 184.

There are now no nobles in Norway. Shortly after the union it was
decided that those who had titles of nobility could hold them for
life, but that their descendants could not inherit.

Legislation for the protection of child workers, women, for
insurance, etc., is of an advanced character. For instance, no
child under fourteen is permitted to work and no woman for six
weeks after her confinement--women receiving full sick benefit
pay during this period. Many of the railways are state owned.

Norway is a land of little farms, the shipping and fishing
industries occupy many men, but with the exception of the water
power driven nitrate plants, on the coast, and the wood-pulp
factories, there is little manufacturing.

The mass of the people are with the Allies. Last winter, when it
was proposed that a German concert troupe should play and sing in
Christiania, the people threatened to burn the theatre if the
performance was permitted.

But, as in Sweden, the German propagandists are at work in
Norway. Here again, unless we present our case, the people may be
turned from the Allies.

King Gustavus V, who occupies to-day the throne of Sweden, has a
German wife. All the sympathies of the court, which copies the
little courts of Germany, of the aristocracy and of the army are
strongly with Germany.

In Sweden, although the king has not much more power than the
kings of Denmark and Norway, there is an aristocracy which
inclines to imitate the manners of the German aristocracy and to
seize, if possible, the privileges enjoyed by that body. The
officers in the army in Sweden are devoted to German ideals and,
since the war, great bodies of them have been invited to Germany,
wher