government is a limited monarchy, and the throne is hereditary in the male line. Evangelical Lutheranism is the established religion. In their foreign relations the two kingdoms are regarded as one. The one cannot make war without the other, and there is a common diplomatic corps, which is controlled by the ministry of foreign affairs in Stockholm. In all other respects each kingdom is regarded as Executive. sovereign and independent. The executive is vested in the king, who comes of age when he is eighteen. His person is inviolable, and all responsibility for his official acts rests with the council of state. This body consists of two ministers, and at least seven (at present nine) councillors, chosen by the king from among the citizens, of at least thirty years of age. One minister and two councillors must always be with the king when he is not in Norway. The others form, under the presidency of the remaining minister, or of the viceroy if there be one, the Government in Christiania; its authority is decisive, except in cases reserved for the king, when it only advises. As viceroy in Norway the king can nominate only the crown prince. Formerly the Government in Christiania was presided over by a governor, but this office was never filled after 1855, and in 1873 it was abolished (on the accession of Oscar II.). Each of the seven councillors has charge of one of the seven state departments (finance, justice, home affairs, church, war, navy and post-office, and audit). The king can declare war and conclude peace, make alliances and treaties, and has the supreme command of army and navy; but for offensive war the consent of parliament is necessary. The king appoints to all public offices, and can dismiss at pleasure his council of state and other Government functionaries, the highest officials of church and state, the heads of the army, and the commandants of fortresses. He can also issue provisional ordinances relating to trade, taxation, industry, and legal procedure, provided they are not contrary to the fundamental law of the country and the laws agreed upon by parliament; these ordinances are in force till next meeting of parliament.
Legislature. While the king has thus the executive power, the right of legislation and taxation is exercised by the people through their representatives in the parliament or storthing, which statedly meets in Christiania in the beginning of February every year. The king can, however, when circumstances require it, summon an extraordinary storthing. The elections are for a period of three years. The number of members is, by a law passed in 1878, fixed at 114,—38 from the towns and 76 from the country. The members are not chosen directly, but by electors nominated by the voters. Several little towns are grouped into one electoral district. In the country there is an elector for every hundred voters in the parish (herred). The electors afterwards meet in each county, and choose the number of members fixed by law. Only citizens who have the right to vote are eligible, and they must, moreover, be at least thirty years of age and have been ten years settled in the country. Every Norwegian citizen, not being a criminal or in foreign service, is entitled to vote, if he has passed his twenty-fifth year, has been settled in the country five years, and has certain property qualifications—a public appointment, ownership or tenancy of land, or, in towns, ownership of property worth at least 600 crowns (about £33).
Immediately after the opening of parliament one-fourth of its members are elected to constitute the “upper house” or lagthing; the remaining three-fourths form the lower house or odelsthing. In practice this means a division between the legislative and the controlling powers of parliament. Every bill or proposed enactment must be introduced either by a member or by Government through a councillor in the odelsthing. If it passes it is sent to the upper house, and if carried there also the royal assent gives it the force of law. If rejected by the upper house it goes back, with or without remark, to the lower house, where it is again discussed. If again carried it is sent once more to the upper house, and if it fails to obtain the requisite majority of votes the whole parliament now meets, and two-thirds decide the motion. To give legal sanction to a resolution of parliament thus carried the royal assent is still required.
The royal veto in ordinary questions is not absolute; a resolution passed unchanged by three successive regular parliaments becomes law ipso facto; but it is otherwise where alterations in the fundamental law are involved. Parliament also fixes taxation, its enact ments with regard to which continue in force only until the 1st of July of the year in which the next ordinary parliament meets. Parliament alone has control of the members of the council, of the supreme court of justice, and of its own members; for crimes in their public capacity these can be put on their trial at the instance of the lower house before the supreme court of the kingdom (rigsretten), which is composed of the supreme court of justice and the upper house of parliament. The proceedings of parliament and of its divisions are carried on, when not otherwise determined by special vote, with open doors, and published. The members of the council are not allowed to take part in the proceedings. By the fundamental law Norwegians only, with a few exceptions, are eligible for public appointments.
Administratively Norway is divided into six dioceses (stifter), with a bishop at the head of each, and into eighteen counties (amter) under the civil administration of an amtmand or governor.[1] Administrative divisions and officers. The towns of Christiania and Bergen form counties by themselves. The dioceses are Christiania, Hamar, Christiansand, Bergen, Throndhjem, and Tromsö. Christiania stift embraces the counties of Smaalenene, Akershus, Buskerud, part of Bratsberg, Jarlsberg and Laurvik; Hamar those of Hedemark and Christian; Christiansand those of Bratsberg (part of), Nedenæs, Lister and Mandal, Stavanger; Bergen, besides Söndre and Nordre Bergenhus takes in part of Romsdal; Throndhjem the rest of Romsdal, with Söndre and Nordre Throndhjem; Tromsö the three northern counties Each diocese is divided into deaneries (provstier), each under a dean, who is elected by the clergy of the district concerned; each amt is divided into bailiwicks (fogderier), each presided over by a sheriff or foged, appointed by the king to watch over the maintenance of the law, carry out judgments, and collect taxes and customs. In each town similar functions are assigned to the byfoged or town sheriff, who, however, has a more extended authority. The sheriff in the country has generally in each parish a substitute or lensmand. In the larger towns there are additional officers charged with municipal and police affairs. As regards courts of justice, only the supreme court and the rigsret, already spoken of, are fixed by the constitution. Courts of first instance are held in the towns by the sheriff and in the country by district judges, who travel on circuit twice or thrice a year. From the interior courts cases are in second instance carried on appeal to the superior diocesan courts, of which there are four—one at Christiania (in two divisions), one at Christiansand, one at Bergen, and one at Throndhjem. From these courts cases relating to values of more than 400 crowns (about £22) and criminal cases proceed to the supreme court of the kingdom, which, according to the fundamental law, is composed of a president (justitiarius) and at least six assessors. The municipal court of Christiania consists of a president and seven assessors; from this court there is direct appeal to the supreme court of the kingdom.
National flag. The kingdom of Norway has its own national flag, red, divided by a dark-blue, white-bordered cross into four parts. In the upper square, next to the staff, the union mark is placed. The Norwegian escutcheon is a crowned golden lion on a red field, armed with the battle-axe of the tutelary saint, St Olaf.
Part III.—History.
The early history of Norway is exceedingly obscure. The scanty allusions to Scandinavia and its inhabitants which we find in the classical writers refer to the inhabitants of Denmark and of the south of Sweden. The first mention of names which can be identified with any certainty as those of known Norwegian tribes is found in Jordanes, a writer of the 6th century. The traditions of the earlier times which are preserved in Norse literature can scarcely be said to afford any sure ground for history, for whatever truth may be in them seems to be almost hopelessly concealed beneath an overgrowth of mythological and genealogical legend. It is, however, certain that the first settlers after the nomad tribes of Lapps or Finns, whose traces are still found far south of their present limits, were the ancestors of the present inhabitants,—Germanic tribes closely akin to the Danes, Swedes, and Goths. Early immigrants. The time of their immigration is unknown, but is conjectured with probability to have been at the latest not long after the commencement of the present era. The way by which they came has been the subject of a lengthened controversy. Munch and his school held that the first proper Norwegian settlements took place in the north, and spread thence down the western coast and the centre of the country. Later historians incline to the more probable theory that the country was settled by immigration from the south. To some extent the theory of a northern immigration derived its vitality from a view of early Norwegian history which is now generally rejected. Until recently the collection of old Norse poetry which passed under the name of the Eddas was regarded not merely as the peculiar inheritance of the Norse branch of the Scandinavian family but as the oldest and most primitive relic of Germanic mythology and legend. It fell in
- ↑ This territorial division is the only one which has been known in Norway since that into “fylkis,” which had become antiquated even in the days of Harold Haarfager. These fylkis were more numerous than the present amter.
