measure re-established. It will be seen from the above, that Norway has, through the conflicts of seventy years, gradually attained to perfect independence and equality with the brother kingdom. All attempts to amalgamate the two nations have failed, and have, long since, been abandoned. Politically, the person of the king expresses the union. He is king of Norway and he is king of Sweden, but he governs each country in accordance with its own laws and through distinct and separate ministries. Each country has its own parliament; no Swede holds office in Norway, and no Norseman in Sweden. The only offices which are open to citizens of both countries are those of the diplomatic and consular service. The general sentiment in Norway is opposed to a closer union. A stubborn insistence upon every feature of national distinctness has characterized the people, since the separation from Denmark. Thus an effort has been made to get rid of the "union mark" in the Norwegian flag; because it seemed vaguely to hint at a provincial relation. A separate literature has sprung up in the Norse dialects (_Maalsträv_), because the Danish, which is yet spoken, with some modifications, by the cultivated classes, is a reminder of the period of degradation, and is not the language of the people. Popular high schools, aiming to build the intellectual life of the people upon a strictly national basis, have been started by devoted and patriotic men, in nearly all the provincial parishes, and have produced excellent results. The national literature, under the lead of men like Björnstjerne Björnson, and Henrik Ibsen, is moving in the same direction, its language being continually enriched from the dialects, and its themes largely drawn from the ancient sagas and the life of the people. The aggressive and declamatory patriotism of Wergeland, and the æsthetic and more cosmopolitan patriotism of his opponent, Welhaven, seem equally alien to the Norsemen of to-day. The frank national self-assertion of the present poets is that of a people, proud of its past, and secure in its national existence. The Norseman, having obtained what is his due, has cause for jealousy neither of Sweden nor of Denmark.