42] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



Different parties in the mean 

 time, as might be expected, were 

 making their appearance in Nor- 

 way. Some persons, dreading the 

 approaching conflict, were inclined 

 to submission to Sweden, Others 

 entertained the idea of setting up 

 a republican form of government. 

 The majority were attached to the 

 cause of national independence, 

 but looked to Prince Christian as 

 the head imder whom it was to be 

 established and maintained. At 

 the diet, held in the month of 

 April, these different opinions were 

 brought forward ; but a great ma- 

 jority concurred in placing the 

 crown of Norway upon the head 

 of Christian, with descent to his 

 posterity. The legislative power 

 in the new constitution was given 

 to an assembly consisting solely of 

 landed proprietors. The new king 

 was proclaimed on the 19th, when 

 he dissolved the diet with a speech. 

 This decisive step committed the 

 nation to a determined resistance 

 to the coercive transfer of their 

 country, and to all the attempts of 

 the allied powers for persuading or 

 intimidating the Norwegians into 

 submission. One of these was 

 made by the Prince Regent of Eng- 

 land, who dispatched, in the be- 

 ginning of June, Mr. Morier as 

 Envoy to Norway. That gentle- 

 man, finding that the diet had been 

 dismissed before his arrival at 

 Christiana, put a declaration into 

 the hands of the gjvernmeut then 

 established, but without recogniz- 

 ing its legitimacy, mentioning, 

 that the object of his mission was 

 to explain to Prince Christian and 

 the Norwegians the situation of 

 the British Government with re- 

 spect to its engagements with 

 Sweden and the Allied Powers, 



and its determination to act up to 

 them with sincerity and vigour. 



A final effort at pacification was 

 made by the Allied Powers, of 

 which a particular relation was 

 given in a set of State Papers pub- 

 lished by Christian Frederick, in 

 quality of King of Norway, under 

 the date of July 26th. It begins 

 with stating, that on the 30th of 

 June there arrived at Christiana 

 the following envoys : Baron de 

 Steigenstesch, for Austria ; Major 

 General OrlofF, for Russia ; Au- 

 gustus J. Forster, for England; 

 and Major Baron de Martens, for 

 Prussia; who, on July 7, present- 

 ed a note to his Majesty (by them 

 addressed to Prince Christian Fre- 

 derick of Denmark), which fol- 

 lows. In this paper he is formally 

 summoned to return within the 

 line of his duties, on refusal of 

 which he will have to contend with 

 forces which he cannot resist ; he is 

 informed of the orders of the King j 

 of Denmark, whose first subject ^ 

 he is, to this purpose : he is told, 

 that the subscribers do not come 

 as mediators between Norway and 

 Sweden, but rather as heralds of 

 arms, charged with the execution 

 of the treaty of Kiel ; that, how- 

 ever, the character of the Prince of 

 the Norwegian nation has induced 

 them to enter into modifications 

 which are not within the literal 

 meaning of their instructions, but 

 which they have adopted from the 

 wish of furnishing his Highness 

 with the most honourable means 

 of descending from the elevation 

 to which circumstances have un- 

 fortunately raised him. As Prince 

 Christian had positively declared 

 that he could only replace in the 

 hands of the diet the rights he had 

 received from the nation, the con- 



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