last analysis, they comprised
an independent nation and that their union with Sweden rested solely
upon their own sovereign decision in 1814 to accept Charles XIII. as
king; from which the inference was that Norway should be dealt with as
in every respect co-ordinate with Sweden. The conflicts which sprang
from these differences of conception were frequent and serious. There
was no disguising the fact that the administration of the joint
affairs of the kingdoms was conducted from a point of view that was
essentially Swedish, and the history of the union throughout the (p. 576)
period of its existence is largely a story of the struggle on the part
of the Norwegians, through the medium of the Storthing, to attain in
practice the fully co-ordinate position which they believed to be
rightfully theirs. Again and again amendments to the constitution in
the interest of the royal power were submitted by successive
sovereigns, only to be rejected by the Storthing.

In 1860 the Swedish estates insisted upon a revision of the Act of
Union which should include the establishment of a common parliament
for the two countries, in which, in approximate accordance with
population, there would be twice as many Swedish members as Norwegian.
The Storthing, naturally enough, rejected the proposition. In 1869 the
Storthing fortified its position by adopting a resolution in
accordance with which its sessions, theretofore triennial, were made
annual, and in 1871 the first annual Storthing rejected an elaborate
modification of the Act of Union, to which the Conservative ministry
of Stang had been induced to lend its support, whereby the supremacy
of Sweden would have been recognized explicitly and the bonds of the
union would have been tightened correspondingly. Two years later the
new sovereign, Oscar II. (1872-1907), gave reluctant assent to a
measure by which the office of viceroy in Norway was abolished.
Thereafter the head of the government at Christiania was the president
of the ministry, or premier; and, following a prolonged contest, in
the early eighties there was forced upon the crown the principle of
ministerial responsibility (in Norway).

*636. The Question of the Consular Service.*--The rock upon which the
union foundered eventually, however, was Norway's participation in the
management of diplomatic and consular affairs. The subject was one
which had been left in 1814 without adequate provision, and throughout
the century it g