338 



DENMARK. 



the first period of service the men are inscribed 

 on the " first call" of the army of reserve, and 

 at the end of another eight years on the 

 " second call ; " the military liability ceases 

 with the 45th year. 



The navy of Denmark consisted, in Septem- 

 ber, 1862, of 19 sailing vessels with 704 guns, 

 and 28 steamers with 340 guns. Twenty of 

 the steamers were screws, one a ship of the 

 line with 64 30-pounders, two frigates with 42, 

 and one with 44; four were armor-coated 

 schooners each with eight 60-pounders. There 

 were also 50 paddlewheel steam gunboats, 

 with about 100 guns, but some of them are 

 said not to be sea-worthy; and the same 

 remark applies to the eight larger paddlewheel 

 steamers included in the list of 28 steam vessels. 

 There was a vote, in 1862, of 194,000 for con- 

 verting some of the sailing vessels into Ream- 

 ers. The navy was manned, in September, 



1862, by very nearly 2,000 men, officered by a 

 vice-admiral, a rear-admiral, 26 captains, 23 

 commanders, and 83 first-lieutenants. 



The finances of the kingdom are in a good 

 condition. The receipts amount to 26,507,279 

 rix dollars ; the expenditures to 26,221,587. 

 Besides the Danish Government has received 

 2,565,547 rix dollars as indemnity stipulated for 

 the abolition of the Sound Dues. This sum has 

 been applied toward the liquidation of the 

 public debt. There remained in the public 

 Treasury, according to the latest accounts, 

 4.286,312 rix dollars. 



The Royal Family of Denmark was greatly 

 favored during the year 1863. The oldest 

 daughter of the present king, Princess Alexan- 

 dra, was married to the Prince of Wales ; an- 

 other daughter, Princess Maria Sophia Fred- 

 erica Dagmar, was betrothed to the heir pre- 

 sumptive to the throne of Russia ; and the 

 second son of the king was elected King of the 

 Greeks, under the name of George I. (See 

 GREECE.) 



The Kingdom of Denmark attracted, through- 

 out the year 1863, great attention in the po- 

 litical world, in consequence of its complica- 

 tions with the German Confederacy. These 

 complications are of long standing, and arise 

 out of the peculiar position of the duchies of 

 Schleswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg. The two 

 latter are members of the German Confederacy, 

 and as such subject to Federal legislation ; and 

 Schleswig is closely connected with Holstein 

 by international treaties. The Diets of both 

 duchies have long maintained that the Danish 

 Government endeavored to encroach upon 

 their rights, and to bring them into closer rela- 

 tions with Denmark Proper than she was al- 

 lowed to do, according to their laws. The 

 German Confederacy supported the complaints 

 of Holstein, and protested particularly against 

 the new Danish Constitution of March 30th, 



1863, by which Schleswig was incorporated 

 with Denmark. These complications reached 

 the crisis, when King Frederic VII. of Den- 

 mark died on Nov. 15th, 1863. Schleswig and 



Holstein have always had a different law of 

 succession from Denmark Proper. According 

 to the laws of these two duchies, the Prince 

 of Augustenburg was entitled to succeed the 

 late king, as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, 

 while another relation was entitled to succeed 

 in Denmark Proper. But a treaty concluded 

 between the great Powers of Europe, in Lon- 

 don, in 1851, set aside the laws of succession 

 both in Denmark Proper and in the Duchies, 

 and declared the Duke Christian of Schleswig- 

 Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, to be the 

 heir to the entire Danish monarchy. As this 

 treaty had received neither the consent of the 

 Diets of the Duchies, nor of the German Con- 

 federacy, Prince Frederic of Augustenburg in- 

 sisted on his right of succession, and his claim 

 was supported by the Diets of the two Duchies 

 and a majority of the German States. As Den- 

 mark refused to recognize this claim, the compli- 

 cation assumed a belligerent character, and tho 

 year 1863 closed with the prospect of a war 

 upon which all Europe looked with profound 

 anxiety. (See SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.) 



It was expected that, in case of a war, tho 

 Danes would find a powerful line of defence in 

 the celebrated Dannewerke. These positions 

 were of great importance in the war of 1848, 

 and bid fair to become still more important in 

 1864. The following description of the Danne- 

 werke will, therefore, be a help for better un- 

 derstanding the German Danish complication : 



" Originally constructed by the Semiramis 

 of the North, Queen Margaret, and, as some say, 

 even earlier, the Dannewerke extended from 

 Hellingstadt to the Selker Noer of Bustorf, and 

 consisted of a simple rampart sweeping inward 

 with a moat in front in a sharp angle of the 

 Thvraburg, a hill which has long disappeared 

 in the neighborhood of the village of Huss- 

 bye. The object of this fortification was to 

 protect the town of Schleswig, which is situ- 

 ated at the head of the Schlei, against an at- 

 tack from the southward, and at that time the 

 Schlei, a perfectly impassable swamp, formed 

 a part of the fortification. This fortification 

 was extended by including the whole bay, 

 more than six German miles, while the ram- 

 part had only been of a length of two German 

 miles. The weak point of this position was on 

 the west side, where, toward the open cour.- 

 try, it was unfortified, and could, therefore), 

 easily be assaulted in the rear. 



" In this direction the only defence was a 

 broad swift stream with a swampy bed, the 

 Treene, which, however, offered but a trifling 

 obstacle to a determined enemy. In 1848, tie 

 so-called rampart consisted only of a continu- 

 ous hilly elevation of the ground, with a deprei- 

 sion in front denoting where formerly had been 

 the moat, and hence it was that the German 

 troops were able to take it at the first attar c. 

 The principal combat took place on the heights 

 surrounding the town of Schleswig, where the 

 village of Bustorf formed a kind of suburb. < n 

 that day a trifling skirmish took place at the 



