the celebrations were outwardly loyalist - toasts were usually made to the royal family as well as to the constitution itself - the Swedish authorities were concerned that such events had a separatist subtext and served as a covert outlet for political agitation against the Swedish-Norwegian union; they instead tried to promote 'Union Day' on 4 November as an alternative focus for patriotic feeling. However, celebrations on 17 May continued. In May 1828, King Charles John obliquely criticised such events during a speech before the Storting (Norwegian Parliament), which on 13 May voted not to hold any official celebrations that year. Later this became a full ban on any celebrations whatsoever. Events Prelude Despite the ban, illegal flyers, national anthems and slogans began circulating weeks before 17 May 1829. The day itself was a bright cloudless Sunday in Christiania. Initially the city was quiet, and for much of the day the police faced no problems other than some minor drunkenness. The catalyst for the unrest was the arrival at 6 PM of the symbolically-named steamship Constitutionen. The arriving steamer was met by the crowd that customarily gathered to see vessels arrive at the quayside. However, as feared by the authorities, the gathering also served as an outlet for nationalistic fervour. As the ship docked, several men and boys began to cheer it; 20-year-old student Henrik Wergeland shouted "Long live the Constitution!" This instigated a larger response from the crowd, who spontaneously began singing the anthems from the previously circulated flyers. The crowd then moved to Stortorvet, the square in front of Oslo Cathedral, and remained there into the evening. Military Intervention The Christiania police force consisted of the politimester (chief of police) Ole Gjerdrum, two deputies and nine regular policemen, with twenty volunteer auxiliaries also available. This small complement was normally sufficient for a town of Christiania's size, but was inadequate for the developing situation. Faced with the gathering in Stortorvet, the police summoned the auxiliaries and requested the crowd to disperse, but people were curious and refused to leave. A drunken man, wearing a hat with the inscription "Long live 17 May" was brought in for questioning, but was eventually released because he was unable to explain himself. In response to the deteriorating situation, the Swedish Viceroy Baltzar von Platen and Major-General Baron Wedel-Jarlsberg, the Norwegian commandant of the garrison at Akershus Fortress, sought a legal justification to disperse