Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/352

 344] FOEEIGN HISTOKY.

existing conditions, it was necessary to withstand the further Norwegian demands, and he hoped this would be done. General Bjornstjerna did not think that another nation would thus desire an alternative flag as did the Norwegian. It ought, however, to be made optional for shipowners to use which of the two flags they preferred, and it would then be seen which flag would be most used. Baron Keutersvard contradicted the report that he and his party would, on this occasion, make an attack upon the Bostrom Ministry. He only wished that all future Governments would take up a similar attitude.

In the Second Chamber M. Staaf and M. Branting were the principal speakers on behalf of the Opposition. The former reproached the Government that they had not, at the close of the work of the Union Committee, stretched out a hand of conciliation to Norway, even at the risk of having with the other to wave farewell to the Foreign Minister. Count Hamilton, in replying to M. Staaf, qualified the latter's attack as mean, malicious witticisms against a member of the Ministry, and wholly unworthy of the importance of the subject under discussion. M. Bostrom, the Premier, de- clared that all the members of the Government were entirely agreed amongst themselves, and that they had also been in perfect accord with the majority of the Union Committee. M. Bostrom finally stated that the whole welfare of both Sweden and Norway depended on the Union.

Against some of the additional military votes there was a certain amount of opposition in the Lower House, but by a joint voting of the two Chambers (April 6) the vote for new rifles was passed by 223 votes against 143, and a vote for additional fortification defence by 191 against 172, in each case the minority voting for reduced grants. The First Chamber at the close of the session (May 15) received the compliment from M. Beutersvard that the House, under the presidency of Count Sparre, had stood as one man when it was a question of the welfare of the country. In the Second Chamber Count de la Gardie dwelt upon the fact that the present members would not again be called together, unless, as was not at all likely, an extraordinary session should be held prior to the general elections.

The general elections to the Second Chamber, commencing in August, extended over a number of weeks, and although the proceedings lacked some of the heated agitation observable in other countries a very general and intelligent interest was dis- played in the progress of the elections throughout the country. Party lines in Sweden were less sharply defined than in neigh- bouring countries, and throughout the elections the spokesmen in favour of a less extreme policy in the dealings with Norway found greater favour than the ultra-national party. The Storsvenska and the Fosterlandska sections had to submit to one defeat after another, although there was no lack of what