be voted upon in this manner.

[Footnote 817: Art. 75. Ibid., II., 136.]

*644. The Veto Power.*--A bill passed by the Storthing is laid forthwith
before the king. If he approves it, the measure becomes law. If he
does not approve it, he returns it to the Odelsthing with a statement
of his reasons for disapproval. A measure which has been vetoed may
not again be submitted to the king by the same Storthing. The royal
veto, however, is not absolute. "If," says the constitution, "a
measure has been passed without change by three regular Storthings
convened after three separate successive elections, and separated from
each other by at least two intervening regular sessions, without any
conflicting action having in the meantime been taken in any session
between its first and last passage, and is then presented to the king
with the request that his majesty will not refuse his approval to a
measure which the Storthing, after the most mature deliberation,
considers beneficial, such measure shall become law even though the
king fails to approve it...."[818] In the days of the Swedish union
the precise conditions under which the royal veto might be exercised
were the subject of interminable controversy. In respect to ordinary
legislation the stipulations of the constitution were plain enough,
but in respect to measures which in essence comprised constitutional
amendments the silence of that instrument afforded room for wide
differences of opinion. An especially notable conflict was that which
took place in the early eighties respecting a proposal to admit the
Norwegian ministers to the Storthing with the privilege of
participation in the deliberations of that body. The measure was
passed by overwhelming majorities by three Storthings after three
successive general elections, and in accordance with the constitution,
under the Norwegian interpretation, it ought thereupon to have been
recognized as law. The king, however, not only refused to approve the
bill, but asserted firmly that his right to exercise an absolute veto
in constitutional questions was "above all doubt"; and when the
Storthing pronounced the measure law without the royal sanction, both
crown and Swedish ministry avowed that by them it would not be
recognized as valid. In the end (in 1884) the Storthing won, but the
issue was revived upon numerous occasions. Under the independent
monarchy of 1905 there has been no difficulty of the sort; nor, in