t without the approval
of the parliament. He has the right to declare war and conclude peace,
but can not expend money for military purposes, not even for the
national defense, without the consent of the legislature. The
Norwegian constitution is silent concerning his authority to conclude
treaties with foreign powers, and the question has never been raised.
He conducts negotiations through his ministers and submits the result
of their labors for the approval of parliament. He has the power
to suspend the collection of customs duties temporarily until the
parliament can meet to consider the matter, but it has very rarely
been exercised.

The parliament is called the storthing, and is composed of one
hundred and fourteen representatives, thirty-eight from the towns
and seventy-six from the rural districts. It divides itself into two
sections, known as the odelsthing and the lagthing. The members are
elected for three years by an indirect and complicated system which is
nearly the reverse of our own. The voters of each parish, which forms
an election district, assemble at a given place and time and select
delegates to a convention which chooses their representatives in the
storthing, and, when the storthing meets, its one hundred and fourteen
members select one-fourth of their own members, generally the most
experienced and distinguished men, to constitute a senate, or upper
chamber, called the lagthing, which exercises a sort of supervisory
power over legislation.

The storthing sits for about six months every year. The members are
paid $3 a day during the session and their traveling expenses. The
presiding officer is chosen every four weeks, and can not succeed
himself without an interval. The committees are appointed by a
"selection committee" elected by ballot, and each committee chooses
his own chairman. There is a rather novel rule requiring bills
referred to committees to be assigned for consideration to the several
members in rotation. Any member may introduce a bill modifying the
constitution, but all other classes or measures must proceed from the
government and the members of the lower house. Members of the upper
house, or lagthing, are not permitted to propose ordinary legislation,
on the theory that they should remain unprejudiced so as to exercise
a judicial revision. Thus, bills must originate in the odelsthing,
which, having passed them, sends them to the lagthing for its
approval.

The financial offi