The Union between Sweden and Norway, which has lasted ninety
years, without, so far as we can perceive, injury to either country, appears to be approaching its close. The Norwegian Parliament has passed a law creating a separate Consular Service. If the King vetoes the Act, it will be passed twice more and will then be law, even without the King's signature ; while if his Majesty signs the Act, it will be useless without a Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs, for no Great Power will recognise Consuls without a respon- sible Minister to control them. The Foreign Offices of the peninsula must therefore be separated, and the only link of union will then be that one person will be King in both countries. The Norwegians do not shrink from this revolution, because, they say, if Russia attacked them, Sweden would be a powerless protector; and because, we may add, they possibly at heart incline rather to a Republic than to a Monarchy. The quarrel, therefore, may yet involve most serious political consequences, and is well worth study by all who believe that Irish Home-rule would not be followed by efforts for separation.
