Having on behalf of the Storthing received open information from the head of the Government that the several members of the Cabinet council have one and all resigned hereby declare: We were all prepared for the situation in which we now find ourselves. In meetings of the representatives, the question has therefore been discussed as to what measures would be taken by the Storthing to meet the necessities of such a situation. Every representative has had an opportunity for making known his personal opinions at these meetings respecting the situation and its demands. On this day the Storthing must make known its decisive resolutions. I must also permit myself to express the wish, that these resolutions may be unanimously accepted, and without debate.

In respect to the communication given by the head of the Government I propose that the Storthing shall make the following resolutions:

The different members of the Council having resigned office,

His Majesty the King having declared Himself unable to form a new government, and the Constitutional Sovereign having resigned his powers,

the Storthing authorizes the members of the Council who resigned this day, to assume until further notice, as the Norwegian government, the authority granted the King in accordance with the Constitution of the Norwegian Kingdom and its valid law — with the changes that become necessary through the fact that the Union with Sweden under one King is dissolved as a consequence of the King having ceased to act as King of Norway.

24.
The address of the Storthing to King Oscar, dated Christiania, June 7, 1905.

Your Majesty,

Whereas all the members of the Cabinet have to-day, in the Storthing, resigned their posts, and whereas Your Majesty in the Protocol of May 27 officially declared that Your Majesty did not see your way clear to create a new Government for the country, the Constitutional Regal power in Norway has thereby become inoperative.

It has therefore been the duty of the Storthing, as the representative of the Norwegian people, without delay to empower the members of the resigning Cabinet to exercise until further notice as the Norwegian Government the power appertaining to the King in accordance with the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway and the existing laws with the changes which are necessitated by the fact that the union with Sweden, which provides that there shall be a common King, is dissolved in consequence of the fact that the King has ceased to act as King of Norway.

The course of developments, which proved more powerful than the desire and will of the individual, has led to this result.