to accept
the resignations tendered by the Cabinet Ministers."

According to Norway's Constitution it is incumbent on the King to procure
a constitutional Government for the country. In the same moment as the
Kings policy is an obstacle to the formation of a responsible Council the
Norwegian Royal power has become in-operative.

By your Majesty's resolution therefore, the constitutional relation
between Your Majesty and the responsible Ministers of the Crown has
assumed such an aspect as cannot be maintained. No Government and none of
its members individually can, in a constitutional country, be forced
against their wishes to remain in office with a Ministers responsibility,
when their responsible advice in great questions decisive to the
Fatherland is not followed by the King who, in persuace of the
constitution, is exempt from responsibility whereas under these
circumstances it is the undoubted right of each member individually as a
free man to resign his post, this will also, as a rule, be a duty towards
the Fatherland in order to maintain its constitutional rights.

Your Majesty has declared that no Government can, at present, be formed.
Your Majesty has found this so clear that Norway's King in these fatal
days has remained at the Palace of Stockholm without making an attempt at
bringing the country back to constitutional conditions.

The policy manifested in Your Majesty's attitude towards the question of
sanctioning the Consular service law is, in our opinion, incompatible
with the Norwegian Constitution. But no more than a new Government is
able to take upon itself the responsibility of this policy, no more are
we able in office to render us participant of it by remaining in office.
It is therefore our duty to resign our posts and to immediately give the
Storthing the necessary communication of it.

This shall now be done. Deep and discordant political divergencies have
thus burst the frame of the constitutional Norwegian Monarchy.
Circumstances have been stranger than the desire of the individual. But
the final settlement on the dissolution of the Union, that through Your
Majesty's resolution--no doubt passed with a heavy heart, but also with
full knowledge of its consequences--has now been started, will however,
--this is our hope--turn out before long to have been the introduction
to better and happier days for the two peoples, whose happiness and
welfare have always been dear to Your Majesty's heart.