f kinship scarcely helps matters where the temperaments and
the conditions are so widely dissimilar. Brothers who fall out are apt
to fight each other the more fiercely on account of the relationship.
Bjoernson certainly does not cherish any hatred of Sweden, nor do I
believe that there is any general animosity to the Swedish people to be
found anywhere in Norway. It is most unfortunate that the mistaken
policy of the Bernadottes has placed the two nations in an attitude of
apparent hostility. In spite of the loud denunciation of Norway by the
so-called Grand Swedish party, and the equally vociferous response of
the Norwegian journals (of the Left) there is a strong sympathy between
the democracy of Norway and that of Sweden, and a mutual respect which
no misrepresentation can destroy.

It was Bjoernson who, in 1873, began the agitation for the actual and
not merely nominal, equality of the two kingdoms;[6] he appealed to the
national sense of honor, and by his kindling eloquence aroused the
tremendous popular indignation that swept the old ministry of Stang from
power, and caused the impeachment and condemnation of the Selmer
ministry. It would seem when the king, in 1882, charged the liberal
leader, Mr. Johan Sverdrup, to form a ministry, that parliamentarism had
actually triumphed. But unhappily a new Stang ministry (the chief of
which is the son of the old premier) has, recently (1893) re-established
the odious minority rule, which sits like a nightmare upon the nation's
breast, checking its respiration, and hindering its natural development.

[6] I had the pleasure of accompanying Bjoernson on his first
political tour in the summer of 1873, and I shall never forget the
tremendous impression of the man and his mighty eloquence at the
great folk-meeting at Boee in Guldbrandsdalen.

During this period of national self-assertion Bjoernson has unfolded a
colossal activity. Though holding no office, and steadily refusing an
election to the Storthing, he has been the life and soul of the liberal
party. The task which he had undertaken grew upon his hands, and assumed
wider and wider dimensions. As his predecessor Wergeland had done, and
in a far deeper sense, he consecrated his life to the spiritual and
intellectual liberation of his people. It is told of the former that he
was in the habit of walking about the country with his pockets full of
seeds of grass and trees, of which he scattered a handful here