Union with Sweden

In 1822 Count Wedel-Jarlsberg retired. In 1821 he had been impeached before the Rigsret, the supreme court of the realm, for having caused the state considerable losses. Jonas Collett (1772-1851) succeeded as minister of finance. The king, apparently abandoning his plans for a coup d'etat, now substituted proposals for removing from the constitution all that was at variance with a monarchical form of government. These changes had been suggested in his circular note to the Powers, and were designed to please his Swedish subjects. In 1824 and subsequently, however, the storting unanimously rejected not only the king's proposals, but also others by private members. In 183o they were discussed for the last time, with the same result. The storting thus became regarded as the defender of the constitution against a would-be absolutist king, while the king began to consider the celebration of May 17 (Independence day) as a demonstration against himself, and when Collett was impeached for having made payments without the sanction of the storting, he regarded it as an attack upon his royal prerogatives. Although Collett was acquitted, he dissolved the storting with every sign of dis pleasure. The Swedish viceroy tried to convince him that his prejudice against the celebration of May 17 was groundless, but in 1827 it was celebrated in a very marked manner, and was followed by a demonstration against The Union, a foolish polit ical play. The king therefore appointed Count Platen, whose first act was a proclamation against celebrating the day of inde pendence. In April 1828 the king, against the advice of his ministers, summoned an extraordinary storting, to recover the supremacy lost to the storting in 1827. He also intended to prevent the celebration of May 17, and assembled 2,00o Nor wegian soldiers near the capital. Though present in person, he did not accomplish any constitutional changes, but the storting decided to omit the celebration, and the people quietly acquiesced. In the following year, however, trouble broke out again. Crowds paraded the streets, singing and shouting, and gathered finally in the market-place. A little rioting, and its suppression with sword and musket, became known as the "battle of the market-place," and did much to increase the ill-feeling against Count Platen. He died in Christiania (Oslo), at the end of the year, and his post remained vacant for several years.

Development of the National Movement.

The July rev olutions of 183o stimulated political consciousness in Norway at a time when the peasants in the storting were challenging the representatives of the official classes, hitherto supreme. This party was ably led by Ole Ueland, a member of every storting from 1833 to 1869. The storting of 1833 was the first of the so called "peasant stortings," their numbers rising from 20 or less to 45, nearly half of the total representation. They found a champion in the youthful poet Henrik Wergeland, who soon be came one of the leaders of the "Young Norway" party. He was a republican in politics, and the most zealous upholder of the national independence of Norway and of her full equality with Sweden. Another rising poet, J. S. Welhaven, led the upper classes against Wergeland and the peasants, who sought to make the cultural separation from Denmark as complete as possible, and in every way to encourage national feeling among the people.

Though zealous for the education of the people and beloved by the poorer classes, Welhaven could form no political party and at his death in 1845 stood almost isolated. His opponents then be came the leaders in the field of literature, and carried on the work of national reconstruction with more restraint.

While the violent agitation of 183o died away, the tension between king and storting reached its height during the session of 1836, when all the royal proposals for changes in the consti tution were laid aside, without even passing through a committee. The king decided to dissolve; but Lovenskiold, one of the minis ters, was impeached for this decision, and eventually fined 10,000 kroner (about £550), though retaining his post. Collett, who had greatly displeased the king, was dismissed; but unity in the gov ernment was brought about by the appointment of Count Wedel Jarlsberg as viceroy. From this time the relations between the king and the Norwegian people began to improve, whereas in Sweden he was, in his later years, not a little disliked.

When the king's anger had subsided, he summoned an extra ordinary session, in which the storting urged that steps should be taken to place Norway upon an equal footing with Sweden, espe cially in the conduct of diplomatic affairs. The same address con tamed a petition for the use of the national or merchant flag in all waters. The constitution gave Norway her own merchant flag, and in 1821 the storting had resolved that this should be scarlet, divided into four by a blue cross with white borders. The king gave permission only for its use in waters near home. Beyond Cape Finisterre the naval flag, which was really the Swedish flag, with a white cross on a red ground in the upper square, must be borne. Royal permission in 1838 for all merchant ships to carry the Norwegian flag in all waters was hailed with great rejoicings; but the question of the national flag for general use had yet to be settled, and in 1839 the king appointed a committee of four Norwegians and four Swedes, to consider the question raised about diplomacy and the equality of Norway in the union.

Its powers were extended to consider a comprehensive revision of the Act of Union, with the limitation that fundamental con ditions must in no way be interfered with. But before the com mittee had finished their report the king died (March 8, 1844), and was succeeded by his son Oscar I. According to the consti tution the Norwegian kings must be crowned in Trondhjem cathe dral, but as the bishop doubted whether the queen, a Roman Catholic, could be crowned, the king decided to forgo coronation.

He soon showed his desire to meet the wishes of the Norwegian people, decreeing that in all documents concerning her internal government Norway was to stand first in the royal title ; that Nor way and Sweden should each carry its own national flag as the naval flag, with the mark of union in the upper corner; and that the merchant flag should bear the same mark of union.