A number of other laws and proposals for laws, concerning which the king and the _Storthing_ differed, caused ill-feeling and excitement during the reign of Charles John. And it is indeed marvellous, considering the comparative inexperience of the representatives in political life, that they dared present so bold a front and insist so strenuously upon their rights. To these intrepid men Norway owes the position she occupies to-day. For, if they had been meek and conciliatory, accepting gratefully what the king was pleased to grant them, their country would inevitably have sunk into a provincial relation to Sweden, as it had formerly to Denmark. The manly ring and fearless self-assertion, which resound through the debates of those early _Storthings_, show that the ancient strength was still surviving, and could, indeed, never have been dead. No inert and degraded nation can draw such representatives from its midst; and the fact that Norway has continued to draw them, up to the present time, shows that she is truly represented by manliness and fearless vigor--that she is worthy of the liberty she gained. The attitude which the Norwegian _Storthings_ assumed toward the king is illustrated by the determination with which they resisted his efforts to extend the royal authority. Though he had been trained in the school of the French Revolution, Charles John was no believer in democracy or "the rights of man." He was an able ruler, a skilful diplomat, and a man of honorable intentions. But he had been too little in Norway to comprehend the spirit of the Norwegian people; and he was forced, in order to maintain his position among his brother monarchs, to sympathize with the reactionary tendencies which asserted themselves throughout Europe after the overthrow of Napoleon. In 1821 he proposed ten amendments to the constitution, which were unanimously rejected by the _Storthing_ of 1824. Among these amendments was one giving the king an absolute instead of, as formerly, a suspensive veto; another, conferring upon him the right to appoint the presiding officer of the _Storthing_, and a third, authorizing him to dissolve the _Storthing_ at pleasure. The former minister of state, Christian Krogh, gained great popularity by recommending the rejection of these propositions, and the king's persistence in bringing them up before several successive _Storthings_ did not secure them a more favorable reception. [Illustration: SKEE-RUNNING; AFTER A CARTOON BY H. N. GAUSTA.]