268 



DIPLOMATES, DISMISSION OF. 



Foreign Relations. The sum of the external 

 aspirations of the Danish people is comprised 

 iii their hope of the restoration of North 

 Schleswig, embracing the part north of Flens- 

 burg and Tondern, and including those towns. 

 The Treaty of Prague. contains a promise that 

 this district would either be restored to Den- 

 mark or its inhabitants would be allowed to 

 decide by a vote whether they should be Danes 

 or Germans. The present Government, by its 

 fortification scheme and in its general policy, 

 betrays antagonism toward Germany. The 

 majority of the people, however, see no escape 

 from commercial and political dependence on 

 their powerful neighbor, and deem a friendly 

 and conciliatory policy a necessity. A small 

 party of old Danes are still tilled with hatred 

 for their former foes. The young German 

 Emperor endeavored to win good opinions in 

 Denmark by sending objects from the royal 

 collections to an international exhibition that 

 was held at Copenhagen in the summer of 

 1888, and thus encouraging German manu- 

 facturers to take part. In the latter part of 

 July he visited the Danish capital. While he 

 was driving with King Christian, the crowds 

 of Germans on the streets raised cheers in 

 their own language, and many Danes hur- 

 rahed, while others hissed. 



Iceland. The chief of the dependencies of 

 Denmark is Iceland, which has an area of 

 39,756 square miles, and in 1880 had a popu- 

 lation of 72,445. It has its own constitution 

 and administration under a charter dated Jan. 

 5, 1874. The legislative power is vested in the 

 Althing, consisting of 36 members, of whom 30 

 are elected by popular suffrage, and 6 are 

 nominated by the Crown. At the head of the 

 administration is a minister who is nominated 

 by the Crown, and is responsible to the Al- 

 thing. The highest local authority is the Gov- 

 ernor or Stiftamtmand. There are also three 

 amtmands for the western, northern, and east- 

 ern districts of Iceland. 



Colonies. The Danish colonies of the greatest 

 commercial importance are in the West Indies, 

 and consist of the islands of St. Croix, St. 

 Thomas, and St. John. The inhabitants are 

 engaged in the cultivation of the sugar-cane, 

 and export from 12,000,000 to 16,000,000 

 pounds of raw sugar, and about 1,000,000 gal- 

 lons of rum annually. The colonists of St. 

 Croix have determined to relieve themselves of 

 the burden of the military force quartered upon 

 them by the Danish Government, which ab- 

 sorbs $75,000, or half the revenue of the isl- 

 and. The colonial council has adopted a 

 resolution, in spite of the objections of the Gov- 

 ernor, in favor of replacing the Danish mili- 

 tary with a police force that will cost only 

 $32,000 per annum. The imports from Green- 

 land to Denmark in 1885 amounted to 511,069 

 kroner, and the exports from Denmark to 

 Greenland to 619,513 kroner. 



DIPLOMATES, DISMISSION OF. More than one 

 diplomate has been requested by the United 



States to leave her boundaries, or has been re- 

 called by the power from which he was ac- 

 credited. The first foreign diplomate to render 

 himself obnoxious to the United States was 

 citizen Genet (sometimes also spelled Genest), 

 Minister from France. During Washington's 

 second term it became known that a diplomatic 

 envoy had been commissioned by the new 

 French Republic, and was on his way to Ameri- 

 ca. The President had been advised by his 

 Cabinet to receive him at once upon his ar- 

 rival, but neither Washington nor his advisers 

 had any idea that the chief object of the new 

 mission would be to break up the policy of 

 neutrality just formally proclaimed. There 

 was in the United States at this time a popular 

 sentiment in favor of France, and this senti- 

 ment had in the Cabinet of Washington an 

 earnest sympathizer in the person of Thomas 

 Jefferson. 



Though honestly in favor of preserving neu- 

 trality as long as possible, Mr. Jefferson held 

 doubts, and not without reason, of our ability 

 to preserve it against the feebly disguised ill- 

 will of Great Britain ; and in the event of a 

 rupture with that country his judgment was 

 by no means adverse to a close union with 

 France. Mr. Genet, when accredited to the 

 United States, was yet quite a young man, not 

 more than twenty-seven years of age. He had 

 been well trained, and through the influence 

 of his sisters, who were in the household of 

 Queen Marie Antoinette, had entered the diplo- 

 matic service at St. Petersburg, but he had 

 imbibed such heated revolutionary sentiments 

 that, at the breaking out of the French Revo- 

 lution the Russian Government seized the first 

 opportunity to furnish him his passports to re- 

 turn to Paris. This event probably recom- 

 mended him to the extremists in France, and 

 particularly pointed him out as a suitable agent 

 to serve their objects in republican America. 



In the year 1793, to go as Mr. Genet did 

 from Paris to Philadelphia by way of Charles- 

 ton, S. C., was not less out of the way than it 

 would be now to go from here to London 

 by way of Rio Janeiro. There could have 

 been but one object in journeying thus that 

 was to try the temper of the populace before 

 going to the Government. If such was the 

 case, nothing could have been more satisfactory 

 to Mr. Genet. He was received at Charleston 

 with great attention, and his progress through 

 the country to Philadelphia was a continued 

 ovation. 



Mr. Genet was neither crafty, cool, nor in- 

 sincere, and the incense offered him completely 

 turned his head. He began at once to deal 

 out commissions to fit out privateers and to 

 enlist officers and men for the French naval 

 service. 



President Washington received him with all 

 proper courtesy, and Mr. Jefferson for a mo- 

 ment seemed to have cherished visions of in- 

 ternational amity ; but they were both rudely 

 wakened from their repose by the complaints 



