rm a new
government, and the Constitutional Sovereign having resigned his powers,

the Storthing authorizes the members of the Council who resigned this
day, to assume until further notice, as the Norwegian government, the
authority granted the King in accordance with the Constitution of the
Norwegian Kingdom and its valid law--with the changes that become
necessary through the fact that the Union with Sweden under one King is
dissolved as a consequence of the King having ceased to act as King of
Norway.

24.

The address of the Storthing to King Oscar, dated Christiania, June 7,
1905.

Your Majesty,

Whereas all the members of the Cabinet have to-day, in the Storthing,
resigned their posts, and whereas Your Majesty in the Protocol of May 27
officially declared that Your Majesty did not see your way clear to
create a new Government for the country, the Constitutional Regal power
in Norway has thereby become inoperative.

It has therefore been the duty of the Storthing, as the representative
of the Norwegian people, without delay to empower the members of the
resigning Cabinet to exercise until further notice as the Norwegian
Government the power appertaining to the King in accordance with the
Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway and the existing laws with the
changes which are necessitated by the fact that the union with Sweden,
which provides that there shall be a common King, is dissolved in
consequence of the fact that the King has ceased to act as King of
Norway.

The course of developments, which proved more powerful than the desire
and will of the individual, has led to this result.

The union entered into in 1814 has from its first hour been differently
interpreted by the two nations both as regards its spirit and letter.
Efforts have been made on the Swedish side to extend the Union, and on
the Norwegian side to confine it within the limits laid down in the Act
of Union, and otherwise to assert the independent power of both States in
all matters which are not defined in that Act as coming under the Union.
The difference of principle in the interpretation of the character of the
Union has provoked much misunderstanding between the two peoples, and has
caused much friction. In the interpretation which, during the last
negotiations between the two countries, has been laid down by the Swedish
Government as against Norway, the Norwegian people were bound to perceive
an injury to their constituti