On a journey, which the prince made north to Throndhjem, he found that the people all wished to defend the independence of Norway, and on the 16th and 17th of February he held a conference with notables at Eidsvold in order to discuss the needs of the hour. It was at first the idea of the prince that, since the king had relinquished the throne, he, as the legal heir, might ascend the throne of Norway as absolute monarch; but the members of the meeting at Eidsvold, especially Professor George Sverdrup, convinced him that, as King Frederick, contrary to law, had relinquished Norway, the sovereignty had now reverted to the Norwegian people, who thus recovered their natural right to adopt their own constitution and choose their executive. According to his diary the prince said at the meeting: "I have heard with great pleasure a speech made to me at a private audience by Professor Sverdrup, in which he conjured me not to place the crown on my head in a manner which was contrary to the views of the most enlightened men of the nation. The rights which Frederick VI. has relinquished revert to the people, and it is from their hands that you must receive a crown which will be far more glorious when you owe it to the love of the people." The result was that Christian Frederick took temporary charge of the government as regent, and issued a call for a constitutional convention or diet, consisting of representatives of the people from all parts of the country. In all his efforts, by the aid of the great Powers and by force of arms against Denmark, to secure Norway for the king of Sweden, Charles John had never taken the will or desire of the Norwegians themselves into consideration. While Count Wedel, who considered a union with Sweden desirable or necessary, had emphatically declared that Norway would never consent to a union attempted by force, Crown Prince Charles John said that a people which for centuries had tolerated the supremacy of a foreign power without a murmur would not seriously resist a change of masters. The Swedish king issued a proclamation to the Norwegians, in which he promised to give them a constitution, and he appointed a viceroy for Norway; but his offers were rejected. The Swedish army being occupied in Germany, with the war against Napoleon, there was no force available with which to enforce the Swedish demands, and this gave the Norwegians time to arrange their own affairs; but there was considerable suffering in the country, because the British, upon learning that the Norwegians would not accept the treaty of Kiel, sent their fleet to prevent the importation of grain to Norway.