Though not intending to enter into a
discussion, I am also tempted to put a respectful little interrogation
mark after the statement that the republic is so very much cheaper than
the monarchy. If the experience of the two largest republics in the
world counts for anything, I should say that in point of economy there
was not much to choose.
Strange as it may seem, Bjoernson did not intend "The King" as an
argument in favor of the republic. In his preface to the third edition
he distinctly repudiates the idea. The recent development of the
Norwegian people, has, he says, made the republic a remoter possibility
than it was ten years before (1875). But he qualifies this statement
with the significant condition, "If we are not checked by fraud." And I
fancy that he would have a perfect right to justify his present position
by demonstrating the fraud, trickery, if not treason, by which Norway
has during the last decade been thwarted in her aspirations and checked
in her development. That preface, by the way, dated Paris, October,
1885, is one of the most forceful and luminous of his political
pronunciamientos.
Pages:
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100