ave rise to repeated difficulties. In 1885, and again
in 1891, there was an attempt to solve the problem, but upon each
occasion the only result was a deadlock, the Storthing insisting upon,
and the Swedish authorities denying, Norway's right, as an independent
kingdom, to participate equally with Sweden in the conduct of the
foreign relations of the two states. In 1892 the Storthing resolved
upon the establishment of an independent Norwegian consular service;
but to this the king would not assent. Norwegian trading and maritime
interests had come to be such that, in the opinion of the commercial
and other influential classes of the kingdom, separateness of consular
administration was indispensable, and upon the success of this reform
was made to hinge eventually the perpetuity of the union itself.
Throughout several years the deadlock continued. At the Norwegian
elections of 1894 and 1897 the Liberals were overwhelmingly successful,
and it was made increasingly apparent that the Norwegian people (p. 577)
were veering strongly toward unrestricted national independence. July
28, 1902, a lengthy report was submitted by a Swedish-Norwegian
Consular Commission, constituted upon Swedish initiative earlier in
the year, in which the practicability of two entirely separate
consular systems was asserted, and, March 24, 1903, an official
_communique_ announced the conclusion of an agreement between
representatives of the two countries under which there were to be
worked out two essentially identical codes of law for the government
of the two systems. Upon the nature of these codes, however, there
arose serious disagreement, and when, in 1904, the Bostroem ministry of
Sweden submitted as an absolute condition that any Norwegian consul
might be removed from office by the Swedish foreign minister, the
entire project was brought to naught.

*637. The Norwegian Declaration of Independence: the Separation.*--March
1, 1905, the Norwegian ministry presided over by Hagerup resigned and
was replaced by a ministry made up by Christian Michelsen, which
included representatives of both the Liberal and Conservative parties.
May 23 the Storthing, by unanimous vote, passed a new bill for the
establishment of Norwegian consulships. The king, four days later,
vetoed the measure; whereupon the Michelsen government resigned. The
king refused to accept the resignation; the ministers refused to
reconsider it. June 7 Michelsen and his colleagues pla