, and therefore could not be chosen. Austria and Italy are too
hemmed in by other countries, and too much bound by treaties, to be free
to give any decision that might offend Europe.

Sweden and Norway are cut off from the rest of Europe by the Baltic Sea,
and for this reason have not needed to burden themselves with as many ties
as the other powers of the Continent.

King Oscar is moreover a quiet, sensible man, who would be likely to help
the Committee to arrive at wise and just conclusions.

There is another advantage in choosing King Oscar. The royal family of
Sweden is only eighty years old, and has not those centuries of traditions
behind it, which make other royal houses so difficult to deal with.

Oscar II., the present King, is the grandson of the famous French Marshal,
Bernadotte, for whom Napoleon secured the throne of Sweden and Norway.

He is a man who loves learning, and encourages clever people, and is very
simple in his ways.

His eldest son, Prince Oscar, wished to marry one of the ladies of his
mother's household, Lady Ebba Munck, but she was not a person of
sufficient rank to marry the heir to a throne.

A prince, you know, cannot marry any one he chooses. There are very strict
laws about this, and the marriage of a prince is not considered a marriage
at all, unless his wife is of royal blood.

King Oscar told his son that the marriage was impossible, but when Prince
Oscar said he would rather give up his right to the throne than the lady
he loved, King Oscar permitted him to do so, and made a special decree,
allowing the marriage of his son with Lady Ebba.

King Oscar could have prevented this if he had chosen, and it must have
caused him much pain to have his eldest son give up his right to the
throne, and to know that, if he and all his other sons died, neither
Prince Oscar nor any of his sons could ever come to the throne because of
this marriage. But he loved his son better than his pride, and so Prince
Oscar married Lady Ebba, and Prince Carl will be King of Sweden and Norway
when his father dies.

Oscar of Sweden did a most kind and amiable thing for some of our
countrymen last year.

A party of Americans were travelling in Norway, and two of them, Mr. and
Mrs. Youmans, of New York, were drowned in one of the lakes. They were
driving, and the horses becoming frightened, backed over the bank into the
water.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Youmans were much respected and loved, their goodness
an