The Rigsakt of 1815--Charles XIV. John ascends the Throne--Nobility Abolished--The Storthing rejects the King's Propositions--Independence Day--The Storthing Dissolved in 1836--Minister Lövenskiold Impeached--Oscar I. becomes King--Norway gets her own Flag--The German-Danish War--Charles XV.--Norway Prosperous--A Union Committee--Oscar II. ascends the Throne--The Office of Statholder Abolished--Conflict between King and Storthing--Parliamentarism Adopted--The Absolute Veto--The Resolution of June 9, 1880--Selmer Ministry Impeached--The April Ministry--Johan Sverdrup forms a Ministry--Trial by Jury Introduced--Emil Stang--Rector Steen's Ministry--The Consular Question--Stang again--Hagerup's Ministry--Negotiations with Sweden--Steen's Second Ministry--Universal Suffrage--The Norwegian Flag 310 CHAPTER LVIII NORWEGIAN LITERATURE 318 CHAPTER LIX THE CONSTITUTION OF NORWAY 325 HISTORY OF NORWAY CHAPTER I _The Northmen_ Norway (in the old Norse language _Noregr_, or _Nord-vegr_, i.e._, the North Way), according to archæological explorations, appears to have been inhabited long before the historical time. The antiquaries maintain that three populations have inhabited the North: a Mongolian race and a Celtic race, types of which are to be found in the Finns and the Laplanders in the far North, and, finally, a Caucasian race, which immigrated from the South and drove out the Celtic and Laplandic races, and from which the present inhabitants are descended. The Norwegians, or Northmen (Norsemen), belong to a North-Germanic branch of the Indo-European race; their nearest kindred are the Swedes, the Danes, and the Goths. The original home of the race is supposed to have been the mountain region of Balkh, in Western Asia, whence from time to time families and tribes migrated in different directions. It is not known when the ancestors of the Scandinavian peoples left the original home in Asia; but it is probable that their earliest settlements in Norway were made in the second century before the Christian era.