It would, of course, be more agreeable to us if the umpire were not a European ruler.  England would be sure to object to an American umpire, and neither Asia nor Africa could give us a person capable of filling the office, so it looks very much as though the only person to be found, who understands diplomacy well enough to be of use, would be a European sovereign.

If the umpire must be such a person, King Oscar of Sweden is the most desirable of them all.

He is, besides, almost the only European ruler who is free to accept the office.

The royal families of Germany, Russia, Denmark, and Greece are all related to England, and therefore could not be chosen.  Austria and Italy are too hemmed in by other countries, and too much bound by treaties, to be free to give any decision that might offend Europe.

Sweden and Norway are cut off from the rest of Europe by the Baltic Sea, and for this reason have not needed to burden themselves with as many ties as the other powers of the Continent.

King Oscar is moreover a quiet, sensible man, who would be likely to help the Committee to arrive at wise and just conclusions.

There is another advantage in choosing King Oscar.  The royal family of Sweden is only eighty years old, and has not those centuries of traditions behind it, which make other royal houses so difficult to deal with.

Oscar II., the present King, is the grandson of the famous French Marshal, Bernadotte, for whom Napoleon secured the throne of Sweden and Norway.

He is a man who loves learning, and encourages clever people, and is very simple in his ways.

His eldest son, Prince Oscar, wished to marry one of the ladies of his mother’s household, Lady Ebba Munck, but she was not a person of sufficient rank to marry the heir to a throne.

A prince, you know, cannot marry any one he chooses.  There are very strict laws about this, and the marriage of a prince is not considered a marriage at all, unless his wife is of royal blood.

King Oscar told his son that the marriage was impossible, but when Prince Oscar said he would rather give up his right to the throne than the lady he loved, King Oscar permitted him to do so, and made a special decree, allowing the marriage of his son with Lady Ebba.

King Oscar could have prevented this if he had chosen, and it must have caused him much pain to have his eldest son give up his right to the throne, and to know that, if he and all his other sons died, neither Prince Oscar nor any of his sons could ever come to the throne because of this marriage.  But he loved his son better than his pride, and so Prince Oscar married Lady Ebba, and Prince Carl will be King of Sweden and Norway when his father dies.

Oscar of Sweden did a most kind and amiable thing for some of our countrymen last year.

A party of Americans were travelling in Norway, and two of them, Mr. and Mrs. Youmans, of New York, were drowned in one of the lakes.  They were driving, and the horses becoming frightened, backed over the bank into the water.