The Norwegian King's prerogative, when he thinks the welfare of the kingdom demands it, to refuse His sanction to a proposal presented in due form by the Storthing is unconditional. From this rule, there is no exception even though the Storthing were to present the same resolution ever so many times in precisely the same terms. Meanwhile according to the fundamental law (Constitution Sec. 79) the decision of the Storthing becomes the law of Norway without the sanction of the King, but in order to accomplish this, are required unaltered resolutions from three Storthings drawn up after three consecutive elections, which resolution must be laid before the King, "with an appeal, that His Majesty will not refuse to sanction the resolution, which the Storthing after the most careful considerations, believes to be advantageous. In the case now in hand, there was no question of any such resolution from the Storthing, and therefore the regulation in the fundamental law Sec. 78: could be suitably applied: "If the King sanctions the resolution, He signs it with His superscription, on which it becomes the law. If He does not sanction it, He returns it to the Odelsthing (Lower House) with the declaration that for the present He finds it unsuitable to sanction." And the paragraph continues: "The resolution may not again on that occasion be laid before the King by the members of the Storthing then assembled." By this last mentioned prescription the Constitution has evidently meant to protect the Norwegian King's liberty in the exercise of the legislative powers which are his indisputable right. My resolve, not to sanction a law providing for a separate Norwegian Consular Service, can consequently not be considered to imply any transgression whatever of the legislative power, which according to the fundamental law is the King's right, not even, if the matter in question happened to be an affair which concerned Norway alone. But on the grounds of the valid Union agreement between Norway and Sweden, it was not only My right, but also My duty as King of Norway to refuse My sanction, for the dissolution of the existing identical Consular Office could only be effected through Norway's consent to free and friendly negotiations concerning agreements for altering the Union on the basis of full equality between the United Kingdoms, to which not only the _Powers Royal_, but also the Diet of Sweden had unanimously themselves agreed. That such a respect to the demands of the existing Union should imply an attack on Norway's independence and sovereignty, is so much the more unfounded, as the fundamental law explicitly connects Norway's independence with its Union with Sweden. Norway's King must ever hold in sight the 1:st paragraph of its Constitution: "The Kingdom of Norway is a free, self-dependant, integral and independent Kingdom, united with Sweden under one King."