rompted My Decree
concerning the settlement of the Consular question, but in this I have
been met, not only by the Norwegian Cabinet's refusal of
Countersignature, but also the resignation of its members. When I
declared, "As it is clear to Me, that no other government can now be
formed therefore I cannot consent to the resignation of the Cabinet", the
Cabinet answered by the threat that the Norwegian who assented to My
Decree would in the same moment lose all national rights. I was therefore
placed in such a situation that I must either break the oaths I took
under the Act of Union, or expose Myself to being without Ministers. I
had no choice. After having in conflict with the fundamental law, tried
to undo the King's lawfully made resolution, the Council, by resigning
their office at the Storthing, have left the King without advisers. The
Storthing has approved of this breaking of the law, and by a
Revolutionary proceeding declared that the lawful King of Norway has
ceased to reign, and hat the Union between the Kingdoms is dissolved.

It now becomes the bounden duty of Sweden and Myself as King of the
Union to decide whether Norway's attack on the existing Union shall lead
to the legal dissolution of the same.

May the opinions of our contemporaries and also those of posterity judge
between Me and the People of Norway!

28.

The Norwegian Storthings documentary address to the King. Dated
Christiania June 19th 1905.

To the King's Most Excellent Majesty!

Norway's Storthing appeals, in all humility, to Your Majesty and through
the Your Majesty to the Diet and the People of Sweden to be allowed to
express the following:

That which has now happened in Norway is the necessary results of the
late events in Union politics, and cannot be undone. And as it is certain
that the nation does not wish to return to the old conditions of the
Union, the Storthing considers it impossible to resume negotiations on
the different constitutional and state-law questions, which in Your
Majesty's address to the President of the Storthing are referred to, in
connection with the settled decisions, and on which the Storthing and
Government have previously fully expressed themselves. The Storthing
fully understands the difficult position of Your Majesty, and has not for
a moment doubted that Your Majesty's decree is made with the full
conviction that Your Majesty has considered it to be the right and duty
of Your Majesty.