nd Chillon, except that it is
bolder in its immediate shores and is also broader and deeper than
Lake Leman. The city, which is built upon a gradual slope facing the
south, is seen to good advantage from the harbor. No more appropriate
spot could have been selected for the national capital by Christian
IV., who founded it, and after whom it is named, than the head of
this beautiful elongated bay. An ancient town named Oslo occupied the
site in the middle of the eleventh century. It is the seat of the
Storthing, or Parliament; and the King, whose permanent residence is
at Stockholm, is expected to reside here, attended by the court, at
least three months of the year. With its immediate suburbs, the
population of the city is a hundred and twenty-five thousand. It
should be remembered that Norway is a free and independent State,
though it is under the crown of Sweden, and that the people are
thoroughly democratic, having abolished all titles of nobility by
enactment of the Storthing (Great Court) so early as 1821, at which
time a law was also passed forbidding the King to create a new
nobility. Nevertheless, the thought occurs to us here that these
Northmen, who overran and conquered the British Isles, founded the
very nobility there which is the present boast and pride of England.
We find some problems solved in Norway which have created political
strife elsewhere. Though its Church is identical with the State,
unlimited toleration exists. There is also a perfect system of
political representation, and while justice is open to one and all,
litigation is sedulously discouraged. The meetings of the Storthing
are quite independent of the King, not even requiring a writ of
assemblage from him. Thus it will be seen that though nominally under
despotic rule, Norway is really self-governed.

The legal code of Norway is well worthy of study, both on account of
its antiquity and its admirable provisions. The old sea-kings, or
free-booters as we have been accustomed to consider them, had a more
advanced and civilized code than any of the people whose shores they
devastated. Before the year 885 the power of the law was established
over all persons of all ranks, while in the other countries of Europe
the independent jurisdiction of the feudal lords defied the law until
centuries later. Before the eleventh century the Scandinavian law
provided for equal justice to all, established a system of weights
and measures, also one for the ma