of Niebo.

Surrender speed, escaped southward prior to the surgatoff render, but being checked by the Togo de

Russian

ships

tachment, she then ran eastward. The Chitose, arriving from Aburaya Bay, after sinking en route the same morning one of the enemy's destroyers, set out at once in pursuit of the Izumrud, which, however, made good her escape to the north."

At seven o'clock in the morning, the Svietdestroyed lana was sighted and pursued by the Niitaka and Otawa, and at eleven o'clock was sunk, and the destroyer Bystri, which was in company with her, shared the same fate. The Admiral Nachimoff and Vladimir Monomach, which had been torpedoed during the night, were seen to sink at ten o'clock on the morning of the 29th. The Sissoi Veliky also went down, but the Japanese saved 570 of her comRescue of pany. The fate of the Ouchak off has already survivors been described. The Dmitri Donskoi, which

The news of defeat

had taken on board some of the survivors of the Oslabya and the Buini, the latter having been sunk, was menaced by the Japanese cruisers, and being seriously distressed on the morning of the 29th her commander sank her in deep water, her company escaping to the shore of Matsushima.

News of the disastrous event was awaited with the keenest anxiety at Vladivostok, and on May 29th at six P. M. the Almaz was seen approaching the port. She brought the first news of the calamity, and was followed by the

of the

destroyers Grozni and Bravi, carrying sur-Survivors vivors. Thus General Linievitch was enabled battle to despatch the first Russian official account of the disaster. The Izumrud, which had taken a prominent part in the action, and whose officers have given the best report of it from the Russian side, reached Vladimir Bay, 150 miles north of Vladivostok, on the night of the 29th or early the next morning, but she ran upon a rock, and her commander, having landed all her company, blew her up, lest she should fall into the hands of the Japanese.

victory

[The fight was won by gun-fire and tactics; the torpedo and the torpedo-boat cut a most subordinate figure. The Russian losses comprised: In ships sunk, 6 battleships, 4 cruisers, I coast-defense ship, 5 special service ships, Causes and 5 destroyers; captured, 2 battleships, 2 of the coast-defense ships, and I destroyer; killed, about 4,000; prisoners, over 7,000. Only I cruiser and destroyer succeeded in reaching Vladivostok. Six ships, including 3 cruisers, fled and were interned at Manila and Shanghai. The Japanese reported the loss of 3 destroyers, 116 killed, and 538 wounded.]

THE SEPARATION OF NORWAY

NOR

AND SWEDEN

(A.D. 1905)

HENRY SETON KARR

ORWAY as a kingdom has existed for over a thousand years, and even in the remotest ages of her history possessed a Antiquity standard of culture that few northern nations could equal, as is witnessed by the old Norse laws and institutions, and by her ancient literature (the Sagas).

of Norway

For nearly 400 years before 1814 Norway and Denmark were united under one crown, Christian I, King of Denmark, being elected King of Norway and crowned at Trondhjem in 1449. But the foundation of the present trouble may be said to have been laid in 1814, at the time of the general upheaval caused Union with by the Napoleonic wars, and the consequent rearranging of the map of Europe. Denmark took the wrong side, as it turned out, and allied herself with Napoleon when his power was broken. Sweden, on the other hand, joined Russia, and so, when the Allies emerged victorious from the historic struggle,

Denmark

assumes

Denmark was punished by being deprived of the crown of Norway, which, by the Treaty of Kiel in January, 1814, was proposed to be Sweden handed over to Sweden as a reward for Mar- control shal Bernadotte's assistance against his former chief. Prior to this, Bernadotte, by a strange romance of history, had been adopted as Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810 by the childless King Charles XIII.

But the Norwegian people had to be reckoned with; and, when tidings came of the Treaty of Kiel, these hardy Norsemen Unrest in promptly declined to be handed over to a new monarch in this cavalier fashion.

Norway

revolt of

A gathering at Eidsvold was held in February, 1814, and Prince Christian Frederick, then a Norwegian Stadtholder, and afterward King of Denmark, was appointed Regent. This was followed by a further meeting of a representative body of Norwegians, also held The at Eidsvold, on the 20th of April, when the 1814 present Constitution was drawn up, and on the 17th of May it was agreed to by all present amid a scene of great enthusiasm. On the same day Christian Frederick was chosen King.

After this, events followed one another with some rapidity. Sweden proceeded to assert her claims by force, and Karl Johan Bernadotte led a Swedish army across the frontier; but the campaign only lasted fourteen days. After some unimportant skirmishing an ar

A brief

war

elected

King

mistice was agreed to, and the Convention of Moss was held on the 14th of August, at which the allies, England, Prussia, Russia, and Austria, were represented. This convention. abrogated the Treaty of Kiel. Karl Johan agreed to maintain the Norwegian Constitution, provided he was chosen King, and the Storthing was again summoned to consider the question. Christian Frederick's courage, however, failed him, and he resigned and left Norway on the day the Storthing met.

There was now no further difficulty, and the Swedish King, Karl XIII, was elected King of Norway by the Storthing on the 4th of November, 1814. The Crown Prince came to Christiania and swore to observe the Norwegian Constitution, and the next year the Karl XIII Rigsakt, or Act of Union, was passed by the Storthing. This Constitution has been sworn to by every succeeding King of Norway and Sweden up to the present day. It thus appears that the Constitution (Grundlov), approved at Eidsvold on the 17th of May, 1814, is the Magna Charta of Norway, the guardian of her political freedom, the basis of her union with Sweden, and the document to whose terms all differences between the two countries require to be referred.

We now turn again to the Constitution itself. Here is its opening sentence: "The Kingdom of Norway shall be a free, independent, indivisible, and inalienable kingdom, united