diplomatic affairs, and other matters concerning the equality of Norway in the union, the king in 1839 appointed a committee of four Norwegians and four Swedes, who were to consider and report upon the questions thus raised.
During the sitting of this first “Union Committee” its powers were extended to consider a comprehensive revision of the Act of Union, with the limitation that the fundamental conditions of the union must in no way be interfered with. But before the committee had finished their report the king died (March 8th 1844), and was Death of King Carl Johan; succeeded by Oscar I. succeeded by his son Oscar I. According to the constitution the Norwegian kings must be crowned in Throndhjem cathedral, but the bishop of Throndhjem was in doubt whether the queen, who was a Roman Catholic, could be crowned, and the king decided to forego the coronation both of himself and his queen. The new king soon showed his desire to meet the wishes of the Norwegian people. Thus he decided that in all documents concerning the internal government of the country Norway should stand first where reference was made to the king as sovereign of the two kingdoms. After having received the report of the committee concerning the flag question, he resolved (June 20th, 1844) that Norway and Sweden should each carry its own national flag as the naval flag, with the mark of union in the upper corner; and it was also decided that the merchant flag of the two kingdoms should bear the same mark of union, and that only ships sailing under these flags could claim the protection of the state.
The financial and material condition of the country had now considerably improved, and King Oscar’s reign was marked by the carrying out of important legislative work and reforms, especially in local government. New roads were planned and built all over the country, the first railway was built, steamship routes along the coast were established, lighthouses were erected and trade and shipping made great progress. The king’s reign was not disturbed by any serious conflicts between the two countries. No change took place in the ministry under the presidency of the Viceroy Lövenskiold upon King Oscar’s accession to the throne, but on the death or retirement of some of its members the vacant places were filled by younger and talented men, among whom was Fredrik Stang, who in 1845 took over the newly established ministry of the interior. During the Schleswig-Holstein rebellion (1848–1850) and the Crimean War King Oscar succeeded in maintaining the neutrality of Norway and Sweden, by which Norwegian shipping especially benefited. The abolition of the English navigation acts in 1850 was of great importance to Norway, and opened up a great future for its merchant fleet.
In 1826 a treaty had been concluded with Russia, by which the frontier between that country and the adjoining strip of Norwegian territory in the Polar region was definitely delimited; but in spite of this treaty Russia in 1851 demanded that the Russian Lapps on the Norwegian frontier should have the right to fish on the Norwegian Relations with Russia. coast, and have a portion of the coast on the Varanger fjord allotted to them to settle upon. The Norwegian government refused to accede to the Russian demands, and serious complications might have ensued if the attention of Russia had not been turned in another direction. While his father had looked to Russia for support, King Oscar was more inclined to secure western powers as his allies, and during the Crimean War he concluded a treaty with England and France, according to which these countries promised their assistance in the event of any fresh attempts at encroachment on Norwegian or Swedish territory by Russia. In consequence of this treaty the relations between Norway and Sweden and Russia became somewhat strained; but after the peace of Paris in 1856, and the accession of Alexander II., whose government was in favour of a peaceful policy, the Russian ambassador at Stockholm succeeded in bringing about more friendly relations.
Owing to the king’s ill-health, his son, the crown prince Carl,
was appointed regent in 1857, and two years later, when King
Oscar died, he succeeded to the thrones of the two countries as
Carl XV. He was a gifted, genial and noble personality, and
desired to inaugurate his reign by giving the
Norwegians a proof of his willingness to acknowledge the
Death of Oscar I.; accession of
Carl XV.
claims of Norway, but he did not live to see his wishes
in this respect carried out. According to the constitution,
the king had the power to appoint a viceroy for
Norway, who might be either a Norwegian or Swede. Since 1829
no Swede had held the post, and since 1859 no appointment of a
viceroy had been made. But the paragraph in the constitution
still existed, and the Norwegians naturally wished to have this
stamp of “provinciality” obliterated. A proposal for the
abolishment of the office of viceroy was laid before the
Storthing in 1859, and passed by it. The king, whose
sympathies on this question were known, had been
appealed to, and had privately promised that he would
sanction the proposed change in the constitution; but as soon
as the resolution of the Storthing became known in Sweden, a
Question of Norwegian viceroy.
violent outcry arose both in the Swedish press and the Swedish
estates. Under the pressure that was brought to bear upon the
king in Sweden, he eventually refused to sanction the resolution
of the Storthing; but he added that he shared the views of his
Norwegian counsellors, and would, when “the convenient
moment” came, himself propose the abolition of the office of
viceroy.
In the following year the Swedish government again pressed the
demands of the Swedish estates for a revision of the Act of Union,
which this time included the establishment of a
union or common parliament for the two countries, on
the basis that, according to the population, there
should be two Swedish members to every Norwegian.
Swedish proposals for revision of Act
of Union.
The proposal was sent to the Norwegian government,
which did not seem at all disposed to entertain it; but
some dissensions arose with regard to the form in which its reply
was to be laid before the king. The more obstinate members
of the ministry resigned, and others, of a more pliable nature,
were appointed under the presidency of Fredrik Stang, who
had already been minister of the interior from 1845 to 1856.
The reconstructed government was, however, in accord with the
retiring one, that no proposal for the revision of the Act of Union
could then be entertained. The king, however, advocated the
desirability of a revision, but insisted that this would have to
be based upon the full equality of both countries. In 1863 the
Storthing assented to the appointment by the king of a Union
committee, the second time that such a committee had been
called upon to consider this vexatious question. It was not
until 1867 that its report was made public, but it could not
come on for discussion in the Storthing till it met again in 1871.
During this period the differences between the two countries
were somewhat thrust into the background by the Danish
complications in 1863–1864, which threatened to draw the two
kingdoms into war. King Carl was himself in favour of a
defensive alliance with Denmark, but the Norwegian Storthing
would only consent to this if an alliance could also be effected
with at least one of the western powers.
In 1869 the Storthing passed a resolution by which its sessions were made annual instead of triennial according to the constitution of 1814. The first important question which the first yearly Storthing which met in 1871 had to consider was once more the proposed revision of the Act of Union. The Norwegians had persistently maintained that in any discussion on this question the basis for the negotiations should be (1) the full equality of the two kingdoms, and (2) no extension of the bonds of the union beyond the line originally defined in the act of 1815. However, the draft of the new act contained terms in which the supremacy of Sweden was presupposed and which introduced important extensions of the bonds of the union; and, strangely enough, the report of the Union committee was adopted by the new Stang ministry, and even supported by some of the most influential newspapers under the plausible garb of “Scandinavianism.” In these circumstances the “lawyers’ party,” under the leadership of Johan Sverdrup, who was to play such a prominent part in Norwegian politics, and the “peasant party,” led by Sören
