arbitrary abuse of authority, which would without fail be visited upon a too compliant minister under the strict doctrine of ministerial responsibility.
The legislative power is vested in the Storthing, which consists of two divisions, named respectively the Lagthing and the Odelsthing; the former of which consists of a fourth part of the Storthing, chosen immediately after the Storthing has been constituted and the opening speech from the throne has been made. The remaining three-fourths constitute the Odelsthing, which retains the function of initiating legislation, while to the Lagthing belongs a limited power of revision and rejection. Every proposed law must be brought before the Odelsthing, either by one of its own members or by the government, which states its views through a privy councillor. If the proposed law be approved by the Odelsthing it is transmitted to the Lagthing, and if disapproved by that body is returned, with a memorandum of their objections or observations, for further consideration. The bill is then again considered by the Odelsthing, and, if their opinion remain unaltered, is retransmitted to the Lagthing. If a bill be twice rejected by the Lagthing, a joint meeting of the two houses is held, at which a majority of two-thirds is sufficient to carry the measure. The composition of the two houses is too much the same to raise any risk of frequent collision; and the Lagthing's work consists more in revising and improving the bills of the Odelsthing than in serious and adverse discussion. After a bill has been passed by the Storthing, it is sent with a deputation from both houses to the king, or in the event of his absence to the viceroy or the Norwegian government, with a request that the king would sanction it. If the king approve of the Bill, he signifies his approval by subscribing the bill in the manner pointed out by the constitution, and the bill thereupon becomes law. If the king disapprove, he directs the bill to be returned, with the declaration that he considers it inexpedient in the mean time to sanction the proposed law. The royal veto, however, is not absolute, but merely suspensive. The Storthing cannot during the same session pass the same bill again, but at the next ordinary Storthing the same resolution may be come to, and the bill anew presented for the royal approval. If the third ordinary Storthing pass the same bill, unaltered, as the two preceding ones had done, the bill is for the third time presented to the king with a special prayer that he will not refuse his sanction to a law which the Storthing, after mature deliberation, considers for the benefit of the State. If the king still refuse his consent, the resolution of the Storthing becomes law in spite of his refusal. This law was the occasion of the first great danger which threatened the constitution after the union with Sweden. Not long after the union the Storthing proposed to amend the constitution by adding a law which forbad the giving of patents of nobility. The then existing noble families of Norway were few and uninfluential, and the resolution of the Storthing met with general approval, but the king refused his consent. The bill was passed twice by both houses, and twice vetoed. The Storthing met for the third time, and was still determined to carry its point, and the government was equally resolute in its opposition. Swedish troops were marched into Norway to overawe the Storthing, and the government proposed to change the suspensive veto of the crown into an absolute veto, but the Storthing persisted in its determination to prevent the creation of noble families, and also, notwithstanding the pressure brought to bear upon them, refused to agree to the proposals of the government. A serious crisis was imminent, but the king ultimately yielded, partly in consequence of remonstrances privately addressed to the government by the ambassadors of England and Russia, who pointed out that any violence offered to the Storthing would be a violation of the stipulations of the treaties by which Norway was guaranteed to the king of Sweden. The king still endeavored to induce the Storthing to grant him an absolute veto, but both in 1821 and 1824 the Storthing refused to entertain his proposal, and the suspensive veto remains one of the most distinctive features of the Norwegian constitution. It seems probable that in the question which has been recently discussed in Norway, and to which allusion has already been made, the Storthing will avail itself of its constitutional power to override the royal veto, which so far has been exercised against the proposal to repeal the law excluding privy councillors from seats in the Storthing.
The Storthing formerly met only every third year, but it now holds an annual session, which has been rendered necessary by the increase of public business consequent on the advancing prosperity of Norway, and the sessions are also now longer than they used to be. The number of representatives has from time to time been altered,
