112 EMPLOYMENT OF THE PLEBISCITE [4 10 



In the Lower House Gladstone was not in favor of the 

 plebiscite.' A handful of British opinions of private indi- 

 viduals should not be set against the conclusions of the 

 government.'"' 



Before the passing of the bill MacNeil, Dr. Tanner, 

 Channing, M'Arthur, and Picton favored the plebiscite. 

 They were opposed by Labouchere, who pointed out that 

 the cession of Heligoland was only part of a great treaty 

 whose acceptance or rejection, as Sir James Ferguson, 

 Under-Secretary of State, added, should not be made de- 

 pendent upon the consent of the people of Heligoland. By 

 a vote of 172 against 76 the demand for a plebiscite was 

 defeated.^^ 



The plebiscite which ended the Swedish-Norwegian con- 

 troversy and led to the separation of the dual monarchy 

 through the establishment of the Norwegian kingdom, is 

 still too fresh in the memory of the present generation to 

 require a detailed introduction.''- 



On June 7, 1904, the Norwegian Storthing declared that 

 " the Union with Sweden ... is dissolved." The declara- 

 tion was embodied in an address to be delivered to King 

 Oscar, who refused to receive any deputation from the 

 revolutionary Storthing,'^ 



The Swedish attitude to the fait accompli is laid down in 

 an address delivered to the King by the Swedish Riksdag 

 called in special session. The address states that " by the 



■'o Ibid., vol. 347, col. 756. During the Franco-Prussian War of 

 1870-1871, Gladstone had advocated the consultation of the popula- 

 tion of Alsace-Lorraine in the matter of the latter's cession by 

 France to Germany. See below, pp. 174-175. 



^1 Freudenthal, pp. 40-41. See also Hansard's Debates, vol. 347. 

 An outline of the treaty of cession is found in the Annual Register 

 for 1890, pp. 322-323. 



''- For a detailed account sec K. Nordlund, The Swedish-Norwegian 

 Union Crisis, A History with Documents, Upsala & Stockholm, 

 1905 ; N. Eden, Sweden for Peace, The Programme of Sweden in 

 the Union Crisis, Upsala & Stockholm, 1905 ; L. Jordan, La separa- 

 tion de la Suede et de la Norvege, Paris, 1906; K. Gjerset, History 

 of the Norwegian People, New York, 1915; The Annual Register, 

 1905. pn. 359-367. 



^3 Nordlund, pp. 60, 99-101 ; Annual Register for 1905, pp. 365-366. 



