752 SWEDEN AND NORWAY. 



SWITZERLAND. 



of March to the loss of their offices. In each 

 case they were retired with honors by the 

 King. Johansen, Schweigard, and Hertzberg 

 were fined instead of dismissed from office. 



The question in dispute between the Radi- 

 cal and the Conservative parties, which em- 

 ployed the court of impeachment and the King 

 as their respective instruments, was the right 

 of veto possessed by the sovereign. The Con- 

 stitution gives him only a suspensive veto over 

 most if not all legislation. The Conservatives 

 claimed, in virtue of certain not very clear 

 provisions of the Constitution, that he has an 

 absolute veto in all constitutional matters, and 

 construed the first enactment that was nullified 

 as involving the constitutional question of the 

 right of the King to direct the administration. 

 The two financial measures that were vetoed 

 brought up the question of the right of the 

 King to veto money grants, which the Radicals 

 denied and the Conservatives upheld. Both 

 parties really aimed at an alteration of the 

 Constitution. The Conservatives, who have 

 no constituency among the rural class that form 

 the great mass of the population, desired to 

 curtail the rights of representative government 

 by enlarging the legislative prerogative of the 

 Crown and creating a State Council, while the 

 Radicals wished to introduce responsible gov- 

 ernment and to compel the King to select his 

 ministers from the party representing the opin- 

 ions and interests of the great majority of the 

 people. The act requiring the attendance of 

 ministers in the Storthing was intended to in- 

 troduce the principle of ministerial responsi- 

 bility, that for admitting two members of the 

 Storthing to the railroad directory to establish 

 the principle of parliamentary control over the 

 administration, and that subsidizing volunteer 

 military associations was avowedly directed to 

 the creation of a "Parliament army," which 

 would defend, if necessary, the rights and 

 aspirations of the people against the royal 

 troops. 



After the decision of the court against the 

 indicted ministers, the Swedish Government 

 threatened to intervene on the ground that, if 

 the absolute veto of the King in constitutional 

 questions was denied, the Norwegian Legisla- 

 ture would have the power to annul the union 

 of the two kingdoms. The King, in dismissing 

 Selmer, issued a manifesto protesting against 

 the result of the trial on this ground, and de- 

 claring his determination to maintain the abso- 

 lute veto and all the powers guaranteed to the 

 King by the Constitution. 



The importance of maintaining the roynl 

 prerogative was impressed upon King Oscar by 

 his Swedish as well as by his Norwegian coun- 

 selors. The Swedish Cabinet, in reply to an 

 inquiry of the King, declared their conviction 

 that in the Norwegian, as well as in the Swed- 

 ish Constitution, no change can be made with- 

 out the approval of the sovereign. The inter- 

 position of the Swedish ministry was loudly 

 resented by the majority of the Storthing. The 



King, deeming that the interests of the union 

 were at stake, decided to keep up the conflict 

 with the Norwegian people. Schweigaard, one 

 of the three ministers that had only been con- 

 demned to pay a heavy fine by the Rigsret, 

 was called upon to form a new Cabinet. The 

 other two were kept in their places; Prof. Ry- 

 din, of the University of Upsala, who had writ- 

 ten in defense of the absolute veto, was made 

 Minister of Justice, and the other portfolios 

 were given to Conservatives who coincided in 

 their opinions with the discharged ministers. 

 The appointment of such a ministry raised a 

 storm throughout the country, which grew 

 more violent when the Government took pro- 

 ceedings against a number of newspapers and 

 writers, among them the poet Bjornsen, for 

 lese-majety, and in other ways inaugurated a 

 regime of violent repression. Influential men 

 of moderate and conservative views besought 

 the King to come to a compromise with the 

 Radicals. Dr. Broch effected an understanding 

 but was unable to form a moderate ministry. 

 The Conservatives refused to conduct the Gov- 

 ernment longer unless the King would main- 

 tain the position he had taken upon their ad- 

 vice with military force. The King would not 

 take the responsibility of plunging the country 

 into civil war. He was compelled, therefore, 

 either to abdicate. or to accept a Radical minis- 

 try. He finally accepted the latter alternative 

 and called upon Sverdrup, the leader of the 

 Radical party, to form a Cabinet. The new 

 ministry was constituted June 26, and consists 

 of the following members : M. Johan Sverdrup, 

 Minister of State, with residence at Christiania, 

 and Minister of Marine; M. Daae, Minister of 

 War ; M. Sorensen, Minister of Justice ; Dep- 

 uty Arctander, Minister of the Interior ; Depu- 

 ty Haugland, Minister of Finance ; Prof. Blix, 

 Minister of Public Worship ; Consul-General 

 Richter, Minister of State in Stockholm ; Dep- 

 uty Jacob Sverdrup and M. Stung, Councilors 

 of State to reside at Stockholm. The new 

 ministry is not composed entirely of the Radi- 

 cal element, but contains five Liberals of the 

 former Left Center, viz., Richter, Daae, Soren- 

 sen, and Stung. 



SWITZERLAND, a federal republic in central 

 Europe. The legislative and executive au- 

 thority of the confederacy is vested in the 

 State Council, composed of 44 members, chosen 

 by the twenty-two cantons, and the National 

 Council or Nationalrath, chosen by direct elec- 

 tion at the rate of one member for every 20,000 

 inhabitants. Every male citizen over twenty 

 years of age is a voter. Clergymen are not 

 eligible. The Chambers united form the Fed- 

 eral Assembly. The executive authority is 

 delegated to the Bundesrath, or Federal Coun- 

 cil, consisting of seven members, chosen for 

 three years by the Federal Assembly. The 

 President and Vice-President of the Federal 

 Council are elected by the Federal Assembly 

 for one year, and are not eligible for the next 

 ccnsecutive term. (For statistics of area and 



