DENMAEK, THE PEESS OF. 



213 



cent. ; and of those taking part in the foreign 

 navigation, 18,419, or 51.3 per cent. 



The merchant navy, on March 31, 1867, con- 

 sisted of 3,736 vessels, among which were 77 

 steamers, together of 86,230 lasts. 



In January both Chambers of the Diet gave 

 their assent to the treaty with the United States 

 relative to the sale of two of the Danish islands 

 in the West Indies. 



On March 3d, the Minister of Public Worship, 

 Bishop Kierkegaard, tendered his resignation, 

 on the ground of ill-health. 



On April 9th, a postal treaty was signed at 

 Copenhagen, with the North-German Confed- 

 eration. 



On May 20th, the Danish Diet was prorogued, 

 the president of the ministry reading the royal 

 message. 



In August, the balance of the 29,000,000 

 thalers, due by Prussia to Denmark, in accord- 

 ance with the provisions of the treaty of peace 

 concluded at Vienna, were paid over to the 

 Danish plenipotentiary at Berlin. The state 

 council's levy, five and a half millions of this 

 amount, had previously been paid. 



On October 5th, the King opened a new ses- 

 sion of the Diet with a speech from the throne, 

 in the course of which he thus referred to the 

 most important events in the foreign and do- 

 mestic relations of the kingdom : 



The confidential negotiations with Prussia respect- 

 ing the free vote in North Schleswig, provided for in 

 the treaty of Prague, have hitherto been without re- 

 sult. Our views of what justice and the well-under- 

 stood interests of both countries require in this matter 

 are unaltered. We must regard it as our first duty to 

 cooperate toward no arrangement which, while not 

 satisfying the wants of the inhabitants, might lead to 

 future difficulties for the Danish kingdom in its rela- 

 tions with a country with which we wish to remain 

 upon a friendly footing. We are convinced that Prus- 

 sia approves these motives, and we hope to succeed 

 in attaining the long-expected settlement on the basis 

 of the above considerations. 



The treaty with the United States of America for 

 the cession of the Danish West Indian Islands, which, 

 has been approved by the Diet, has not yet been 

 finally sanctioned by the United States, in consequence 

 of the state of political affairs in that country, and at 

 the wish of the American Government the term for 

 the ratification of the treaty has been prolonged for 

 another year by the Danish plenipotentiary at Wash- 

 ington. 



The internal condition of the country is satisfac- 

 tory. Now that Prussia's monetary engagements 

 toward us are settled, we propose to reduce the pub- 

 lic debt by 10,000,000 rix-dollars. At the same time 

 the public Treasury will be able to defray the expen- 

 diture for the large public works required for the de- 

 velopment of the country. An important railway line 

 has been opened in Jutland, and other works are ap- 

 proaching completion. Private enterprise is develop- 

 ing the rich resources of the country, and the indirect 

 taxes are continually yielding a larger revenue, thus 

 demonstrating increased prosperity, and we therefore 

 fearlessly lay before you bills for adding to the pub- 

 lic receipts in order to reorganize the army ana the 

 fleet, preferring to bear now the burden of this ex- 

 penditure instead of resorting to new loans. 



DENMARK, THE PRESS OF, m 1868. On 

 the 1st of March, 1868, there were published in 

 the kingdom of Denmark seventy-four politi- 



cal papers, twenty-four literary journals, nine- 

 teen papers devoted to scientific, agricultural, 

 and mechanical subjects, seventeen sheets, con- 

 taining only advertisements, and eleven month- 

 ly magazines and quarterly reviews. Of the 

 political newspapers twenty-two were dailies, 

 seven tri-weeklies, nine semi-weeklies, and 

 thirty-six weeklies. Twelve new political 

 journals were started in the course of the year 

 1868, of which five were dailies, and the rest 

 weeklies. Five of the old papers suspended 

 publication or were entirely discontinued. The 

 aggregate circulation of the daily papers of 

 Denmark, in the first three months of the 

 year 1868, was on an average ninety-two thou- 

 sand copies daily; of the tri-weekly and semi- 

 weekly papers, in the same length of time, on 

 an average nineteen thousand copies ; and the 

 aggregate circulation of the weekly papers 

 was estimated at a little over fifty thousand 

 copies. 



The largest circulation, of any daily paper 

 published in Denmark in 1868, was nine thou- 

 sand copies ; the circulation of four other dai- 

 lies exceeded five thousand copies ; seven other 

 dailies had a circulation of upward of three 

 thousand copies ; and the rest of the Danish 

 dailies printed less than one thousand copies 

 daily. Fourteen of the daily papers of Den- 

 mark receive daily dispatches from all parts 

 of Europe ; the other dailies are furnished from 

 Copenhagen with a brief telegraphic synopsis 

 of the most important news of the day. The 

 sums paid by the Copenhagen and provincial 



Eress to the Danish telegraph-offices, for regu- 

 ir and special dispatches in the year 1867, 

 amounted to about seventy-five thousand rix- 

 dollars a considerable falling off, when com- 

 pared with the amount paid for the same pur- 

 pose in the year 1866, when the Copenhagen 

 papers vied with one another in procuring early 

 and detailed telegraphic intelligence from the 

 seat of war in Germany and Italy. The lack 

 of important and interesting events, the con- 

 tinued stringency of the money-market, and the 

 stagnation of business, which caused an unu- 

 sually large number of failures in Copenhagen 

 in the year 1868, exercised a depressing in- 

 fluence upon the newspaper business in Den- 

 mark, and there was, in consequence, a con- 

 siderable falling off in the receipts of even the 

 most flourishing papers in the kingdom, both 

 from subscriptions and advertisements. There 

 were, however, several occasions on which the 

 Copenhagen papers succeeded in disposing of 

 very large extra editions, as, for instance, dur- 

 ing the week of the memorable visit which 

 the delegation of French journalists paid to 

 the Danish capital, and which, owing to the 

 hopes which the Danish people built on an al- 

 liance with France in regard to a prospective 

 struggle with Prussia and the other states of 

 the North-German Confederation, assumed the 

 importance of a great national demonstration. 

 On the second day after the arrival of the 

 French guests at Copenhagen, the DagNadet 



