his purpose to abide by the
decision of the court, distasteful to him as it was, and the Selmer
cabinet was requested to resign. An attempt to prolong yet further the
tenure of the Conservatives failed completely, and, June 23, 1884, the
king sent for Sverdrup and authorized the formation of the first
Liberal ministry in Norwegian history. The principal achievement of
the new government was the final enactment of the long-contested (p. 586)
measure according parliamentary seats to ministers. To this project
the king at last gave his consent.

*646. The Ministerial Succession to 1905.*--The Sverdrup ministry
endured almost exactly four years. In 1887 the party supporting it
split upon a question of ecclesiastical policy, and at the elections
of 1888 the Conservatives obtained fifty-one seats, while of the
sixty-three Liberals returned not more than twenty-six were really in
sympathy with Sverdrup. July 12, 1889, Sverdrup and his colleagues
resigned. Then followed a rapid succession of ministries, practically
every one of which met its fate, sooner or later, upon some question
pertaining to the Swedish union: (1) that of Emil Stang[819]
(Conservative), July 12, 1889, to March 5, 1891; (2) that of Johannes
Steen (Liberal), which lasted until April, 1893; (3) a second Stang
ministry, to February, 1895; and (4) the coalition ministry of
Professor Hagerup, to February, 1898. At the elections of 1897 the
Liberals won a signal victory, carrying seventy-nine of the one
hundred fourteen seats, and in February of the next year there was
established a second Steen ministry, under whose direction, as has
appeared, there was carried the law introducing manhood suffrage.
Steen retired in April, 1902, and another Liberal government, that of
Blehr, held office until October, 1903. At the elections of 1903 the
Conservatives and Moderates obtained sixty-three seats, the Liberals
fifty, and the Socialists four. A second Hagerup ministry filled the
period between October 23, 1903, and March 1, 1905, and upon its
retirement there was constituted, under circumstances which involved
temporarily the all but complete annihilation of party lines, a
coalition ministry under Christian Michelsen, at whose hands was
brought about immediately the separation from Sweden and the
constitutional readjustments of 1905.

[Footnote 819: Son of the earlier premier,
Frederick Stang.]

*647. Party History Since the S