220 



DENMARK. 



Swedes, etc. The emigrants, with a few ex- 

 ceptions, were bound for the United States. 



On opening the Danish Diet, Oct. 4, 1869, the 

 King thus expressed himself with regard to the 

 Schleswig question : " Like the people of North 

 Schleswig, we hope for a reunion with the 

 districts which are Danish and desire to re- 

 main so. The Government of Prussia, it is 

 true, has not found a sufficient occasion in the 

 circumstances to resume the negotiations, but 

 our conviction as to what is demanded by jus- 

 tice, and the rightly-understood interests of 

 both countries, is so firm that we cannot but 

 hope that the Government of Prussia will 

 bring on a settlement, calculated to strengthen 

 the friendly relations between Germany and 

 Denmark." 



On the outbreak of the war between France 

 and Germany, public opinion not only strongly 

 sympathized with the former, but it was com- 

 monly expected that Denmark would openly 

 espouse the cause of France and declare war 

 against Prussia. The defeat of the French 

 prevented this, and Denmark, officially, de- 

 clared in favor of neutrality. 



The new session of the Diet was opened on 

 October 3, 1870. The King, in his speech 

 from the throne, stated that by maintaining a 

 policy of neutrality he had succeeded in saving 

 the country from the evils of war. Although 

 no human foresight could tell what would be 

 the result and .the consequences of the present 

 war, the King said he entertained a firm hope 

 that the question which was still pending be- 

 tween Denmark and Prussia would meet with 

 a solution that would insure the future inde- 

 pendence of the country, and strengthen Den- 

 mark's good relations with her powerful south- 

 ern neighbor. The speech from the throne 

 further declared it to be desirable that the ses- 

 sion of the Rigsdag should be short. 



The political parties in Denmark may be di- 

 vided, as in all other constitutional states, into 

 three main groups a conservative " right," 

 a moderately progressive " centre," and a more 

 radical " left." Within each of these parties 

 there exist further divisions of every political 

 shade and complexion. The " right " is chiefly 

 made up of the great proprietors of the soil, 

 who are largely represented in the Landsthing, 

 but are almost unknown in the Folkething, 

 the Lower Chamber. The Danish nobility has, 

 properly speaking, only in late years partici- 

 pated in the political life of the nation. Being 

 from the first decidedly opposed to liberty, it 

 kept aloof with some very few exceptions-^ 

 from the court during the whole reign of 

 Frederick VII. (1848-1863), and from all 

 political movements. At that time the 

 "right" was composed of the higher ranks of 

 public functionaries the bureaucracy who 

 have now almost disappeared from the Bigs- 

 dag, being supplanted by the landed aristoc- 

 racy. The right, both the former and the 

 present, has on several occasions joined the 

 left against the moderate liberal party, and the 



last Danish ministry, Frijs-Frijsenborg, came to 

 power by such a coalition, though not a single 

 member of it was selected from the party of the 

 left, with which it indeed did not long har- 

 monize. The centre, or the so-called national 

 liberal party, represents the views generally 

 prevalent in Copenhagen and the corporate 

 towns. It was this party which, before 1848, 

 made itself most conspicuous in the struggle for 

 liberal institutions, and on that account was 

 particularly obnoxious to the government of the 

 absolute kings. It came to power for the first 

 time in 1848, and its leaders have ever since, 

 up to 1864, with but short intermissions, been 

 at the head of government. While the domes- 

 tic policy of this party has been shaped with 

 reference to a steady but cautious progress in a 

 liberal spirit, its foreign policy has chiefly been 

 based upon the preservation of Danish nation- 

 al independence, and its particular aim was to 

 unite Schleswig by more intimate bonds to the 

 kingdom proper, while it at the same time 

 loosened its connection with the duchy of 

 Holstein, which was a member of the German 

 Confederation. As this policy brought on the 

 war with Prussia, which resulted in the loss of 

 Schleswig and Holstein, this party lost for a 

 while its influence, but lately its leaders have 

 again got seats in the Cabinet, through the co- 

 alition between their party and the liberal 

 landed proprietors, and it has constantly en- 

 joyed the support of the educated middle class- 

 es. Latterly it has branched off into two 

 groups, a " right " and " left centre," and, while 

 in the Landsthing these groups make essentially 

 one party, they are distinctly separate in the 

 Folkething in which Assembly the "right 

 centre " forms the right wing of the " Thing," 

 a proper "right " being wanting, and the "left 

 centre" constitutes its centre. The "left 

 wing " is particularly supported by the small 

 proprietors of the soil, the " Bondes." The Dan- 

 ish peasants, who up to the close of the last 

 century were little better than serfs, and only 

 in 1848 received equal rights with the other 

 estates, are still not very enlightened. They 

 are, consequently, more than any other class, 

 liable to be led by men who are not always 

 by knowledge or ability entitled to the amount 

 of influence they exercise. The party of the 

 left is again divided into three distinct groups 

 one, which .has its headquarters among the 

 Jutish peasants; another, which heads the 

 peasantry of the Danish isles; and a third, 

 which has taken its name from that of the po- 

 et and theologian, Grundtwig, whose peculiar 

 religious and political tenets have been adopt- 

 ed by it. The common name for members of 

 these three groups is the Bondevenner (the 

 peasants' friends). The Jutish Bondevenner 

 are, on the whole, rather cosmopolitan in their 

 views, and the most radical of the three 

 branches. The followers of Grundtwig are, 

 on the contrary, very ultra-national. The 

 island Bondevenner occupies the middle ground 

 between the two others. In 1869, the three 



