18 The Resignation of the Norwegian Government. Dated Christiania, May 26, 1905
To His Majesty the King
In case Your Majesty should find yourself unable to acquiesce in the Norwegian Government’s recommendation to sanction the Storthing’s resolution for the establishment of a separate Norwegian Consular service, we venture, in all humility, to apply for permission to immediately resign our posts as members of Your Majesty’s Cabinet, since none of us well be able to countersign a resolution considered by us as noxious to the country. A rejection of this unanimous recommendation of the Government concerning a Norwegian law unanimously adopted by the Storthing and issued by the whole Norwegian people to be carried through cannot, in our opinion, be grounded on regards paid to the interests of Norway, but would involve an abnegation of the Sovereignity of the country, and would be a manifestation of a personal Royal power in opposition to the Constitution and to constitutional practice.
Christiania, May 26, 1905.