The other day the Record-Herald introduced to its readers "Dr. Carl Herslow, the prospective minister of state for Sweden-Norway". In a biographical sketch of this statesman the Record-Herald says in part:

"Dr. Carl Herslow, who is generally mentioned as the successor of the present Swedish-Norwegian minister of state, Baron von Otten, is a prominent member of the Riksdag. The new army bill is certain to meet with defeat unless the king consents to universal suffrage, and this is the measure advocated by Dr. Herslow. The present administration is sure to resign, whatever the result will be and, as Dr. Herslow has repeatedly been requested to take a seat in the cabinet, everything points to him as the future minister of state for the two countries."

Nothing could be briefer, but brevity is not always the soul of wit. The paragraph contains the following errors:

(1) There is no such thing as a state or nation called "Sweden-Norway".

(2) There is no such thing as a "minister of state for Sweden-Norway".

(3) It follows that Baron von Otter is not "the present Swedish-Norwegian minister of state".

(4) No bill for the adoption of universal suffrage has been passed by the Riksdag, nor even considered. Universal suffrage is not a practical proposition in Sweden. Hence it is pure and unadulterated nonsense to assert that the "present army bill is certain to meet defeat unless the king consents to universal suffrage".

Sweden and Norway are two separate and independent kingdoms which have contracted a "perpetual union" and have a common king. The government of each country is entirely distinct and separate from that of the other. The only branch of government administered in common for both countries is their foreign relations. In their commercial relations they treat each other as foreign countries. Their military and naval establishments are not only administered separately, but are not even uniform as regards tactics, rifles, etc.

To speak of "the minister of state for Sweden-Norway" or Sweden and Norway is even more absurd than would be the phrase: "The secretary of state for Illinois and Wisconsin". Sweden has her minister of state, of course, and Norway, under the present arrangement, has even two such officials.

The correspondents of the American press should study a little history.