There has evidently been some hitch as to the election
of Prince Charles of Denmark to the throne of Norway. Powerful influences in Sweden and elsewhere have opposed the selection of this Prince, and even in Denmark itself the Court has been unwilling to run the risk of seeing one of its Princes become the "King of a minority." There has therefore been a wish that a plebiscite should be taken ; but the Ministry in Christiania are unwilling to pit Monarchy and Republic directly against each other, and so they propose that Prince Charles should be elected by the Stortbing, and the election confirmed by a subsequent Referendum. The difference between the two plans is not very clear to Englishmen; but it is boped in Norway that the people will hesitate to override their own Parliament, and that the majority in the Referendum will be large enough to overcome auy scruples Prince Charles or his advisers may entertain. It is curious to notice that the Royal houses show an inclination to treat a plebiscite as the only respectable equivalent for succession by right of birth. That is a very modern idea, and one, we should have thought, which may hereafter prove itself unfavourable to Monarchy. Its attraction must he that it declares a vote by Parliament less " sacred " than a vote by the mass of the population.
