The union between Sweden and Norway is in great danger
of being broken. The two States are far more loosely tied together than Britain and Ireland will be under the Home-rule Bill ; but the Norwegians are impatient of their slight fetters, and under cover of a request for separate foreign agents, seek a total separation. The King in vain suggested a com- promise, and it is stated that the Radicals have resolved, if he refuses to establish two Foreign Ministries, to resign and refuse the supplies. It is scarcely possible that the King should yield, as his foreign policy would become unworkable
the Norwegians, for example, desiring close relations with Russia—yet, if he does not, he must occupy Nor- way with Swedish troops, to the confusion of the finances, and the production of another great and definite grievance in Norway. The true motives of the movement are the Norwegian dislike of the Swedes, whom they regard as supercilious, and the advance of theoretic democracy in Norway to a point inconsistent -with any monarchy at all. It is possible, as the peasants are widely scattered and Christiania is Conservative, that the quarrel may smoulder on for years but theoretically there is no way out of it, and the credit of Norway, now so excellent, may seriously suffer.
