Page:Tales of two countries.djvu/7

Rh was, shortly, this: The Norwegian Storthing or Parliament, in order to encourage native literature, assigns to authors of the first rank a yearly Digtergage (Poet-Stipend) of 1600 crowns—about £88—partly intended as a compensation for loss incurred on account of Norway's non-adherence to the International Copyright Convention. The country is too poor to pay for foreign literature; therefore its native authors cannot enforce their rights as against foreign translators. It was proposed in 1885 that a stipend should be allotted to Kielland, the actual holders of the distinction at that date being Ibsen, Björnson and Lie. The Pension-Committee of the Storthing reported against the proposal, alleging it to be "inadvisable that the State should endow and stamp with its recognition a literary activity which is held in great measure to conflict with the dominant moral and religious principles of the nation." The question was warmly debated, again and again, in two sessions of the Storthing. It caused the first serious split in the ranks of the Liberal party, which had only a short time before vanquished the Conservatives, after a protracted struggle, and come into power in overwhelming majority. That the evangelical section of the party should long