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a fine of 4000 rixdollars (16,000 kroner), but retained his post.
Collett, on the other hand, was dismissed, the king laying the
blame of Løvenskiold’s sentence upon his passiveness towards the
Storthing; and unity was brought about in the government by the
appointment of Count Wedel-Jarlsberg as statholder of Norway.
From this time, however, there was a steady, sincere
drawing-together of the king and the people; and whereas Carl Johan
in his later years was disliked by the Swedes, the Norwegians
regarded him with increasing veneration and devotion.
This turning-point is marked by the extraordinary Storthing
of 1836—37, and its address, in which various desires are expressed
relative to the placing of Norway on an equality with Sweden, in
accordance with what had been resolved on the occasion of the
union of the kingdoms in 1814, and unequivocally expressed in
subsequent negotiations with the foreign Powers. These desires
were on the subject of the naval flag, the arms of the kingdom,
the treatment of diplomatic matters, and the representation of the
kingdoms at foreign courts.
For several years Norway had to be content with exceedingly
unsatisfactory signs of the equality of the kingdoms. When the
union was entered upon, it was resolved that Norway should have
her own merchant Hag, and that the naval flag was to be a
union-flag. But the merchant flag was in reality nothing more than the
Danish one, although the Norwegian arms were introduced into
the upper corner next the pole. On the other side of Cape
Finisterre, this flag could not be used, and Norwegian vessels had
to sail under the Swedish flag, as the Norwegian state, on account
of the hardness of the times, could not afford to pay tribute to
the pirates who infested the Mediterranean. The form of the
naval flag was still less satisfactory to the national feeling. It was
simply the Swedish flag, except that the upper square next the
pole was a white St. Andrew’s cross on a red ground. After
1818, Norwegians had been allowed to carry this flag in distant
seas, instead of the Swedish one.
In 1821, the Odelsthing and Lagthing resolved unanimously
that henceforward the Norwegian flag should be scarlet, divided
into four by a dark blue cross with white borders. The king
refused his sanction to this measure, but, by royal letter, gave
permission for the use of the proposed flag on nearer waters, while
beyond Cape Finisterre, the naval flag only was to be carried.
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