DENMARK. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE. 235 



The report of this Berlin speech more than 

 neutralized this impression, and even produced 

 a bad feeling in regard to Sweden. 



The twenty-fifth anniversary of the estab- 

 lishment of the Danish Diet was celebrated on 

 January 30th. The Presidents of the Lands- 

 thing and the Folkething, Liebe and Krabbe, 

 received, in honor of the event, the order of 

 Danebrog. 



The Supreme Court of Denmark decided, in 

 January, that the director of the police has the 

 right to forbid public meetings to be held by 

 the Internationals in the open air. 



The son of the late Dr. Grundtvig published, 

 in January, a letter against the party of the 

 Left, in which he declared that they had no 

 right to invoke in their support the authority 

 of his father, as he had no sympathy with their 

 tendencies. 



The Northern Telegraph Company of Copen- 

 hagen, on May 21st, concluded, at Foochow, 

 a treaty with the Chinese Government, in vir- 

 tue of which the latter is to indemnify the 

 company for the destruction of the telegraph 

 between Foochow and Amoy ; to construct a 

 telegraph between those two cities, and to 

 transfer the management of the telegraph to 

 the company. 



On June 5th, the twenty-sixth anniversary 

 of the fundamental law of the kingdom, the 

 socialists of Copenhagen arranged an immense 

 procession in honor of their leaders, Geleff, 

 Brix, and Pio, who had been amnestied by the 

 King. 



The Colonial Council of tlte islands of St. 

 Thomas and St. John, in the West Indies, was, 

 on January 9th, dissolved by the Governor, on 

 the ground that by voting a want of confidence 

 in the Governor it has transcended its powers. 

 The islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and Trin- 

 idad, were, in February, connected by a sub- 

 marine cable. The Colonial Council of St. Croix 

 resolved to contract a loan of $50,000 for the 

 relief of the planters. The resolution was ap- 

 proved by the King of Denmark. 



The Althing of Iceland met, in accordance 

 with the new constitution, for the first time, 

 on the 1st of July. Each of the two Chambers 

 adopted an address to the King. The Govern- 

 ment laid before the Althing sixteen bills, 

 among them a new electoral law and a budget 

 for two years. The Althing declared itself on 

 the whole satisfied with the new constitution, 

 but expressed the wish that the Minister of Ice- 

 land be not a member of the Danish cabinet, 

 and that Iceland have nothing in common with 

 Denmark but the King. After a session last- 

 ing about eight weeks, the Althing was closed 

 on the 26th of August. The budget for the 

 years 1876 and 1877 estimates the revenue at 

 579,593 krone, and the expenditures at 451,896 

 krone. On the 19th of November the statue 

 of Thorwaldsen, which the city of Copenhagen 

 has presented to the city of Reikjavik, was sol- 

 emnly unveiled. 



A grand eruption of the mountain called 



Trolladynjar, in the north of Iceland, occurred 

 in December, 1874. It was preceded by earth- 

 quakes. The weather during the month was 

 very foggy, and the flames from the burning 

 mountain could not be seen to advantage until 

 the 2d of January, when the sight presented 

 was magnificent. Columns of fire, lava, and 

 stones, were shot straight up into the air to a 

 great height, and fell back into the crater, or 

 in so narrow a circumference outside it, that 

 the formation of new lava only extended twelve 

 miles from northwest to southeast. Some 

 members of the exploring party state that from 

 the sides of the ravine, at a point as near as 

 they could get from the burning lava, they 

 could see down through the volcanic fissures 

 the lurid flames, like vast reeking rivers of fire, 

 playing in wild confusion among the wreck of 

 matter. Fortunately, no damage was done, 

 either by the earthquakes or by the eruption. 

 On the morning of the 30th of March the 

 west coast of Norway, up to the Swedish bor- 

 der at Trysil, was found covered with a pretty 

 thick layer of curious dust, which had fallen 

 during the previous night. The dust lay so thick 

 that less than a pint of snow, scraped together 

 and put into a glass to melt, left a good table- 

 spoonful of the atmospheric precipitate. Sev- 

 eral samples were collected and forwarded to 

 different chemists for analysis. Under the mi- 

 croscope it appeared as irregular, small-grained, 

 and sharp-cornered ashes, for the greater part 

 colorless, but some pieces had a brownish tinge. 

 Under chemical treatment it turned out to be 

 a combination of silicates, the bases of the 

 compound varying. Lime, iron, and alumina, 

 were extracted by treatment with acids. Prof. 

 Waage at once declared that the precipitate 

 must be ashes from some volcanic eruption 

 carried across to Norway, probably from Ice- 

 land. Profs. Fearnley and Kjerulf, of the Min- 

 eralogical Cabinet of the University of Chris- 

 tiania, shared this belief, the more since they 

 found one sample of ashes analyzed to be ex- 

 actly identical in composition with the pumice- 

 stone of Mount Hecla. 



DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENCE AND 

 FOREIGN RELATIONS. The relations of 

 the United States with other nations have been 

 peaceful during the year, and the correspond- 

 ence with them contains few points of impor- 

 tance. 



Coolieism as it exists in Cuba has at length 

 attracted the attention of the Chinese Gov- 

 ernment. Mr. B. P. Avery, the American min- 

 ister, thus writes to Secretary Fish under date 

 of June 12, 1875 : 



The attention of the Chinese Government has 

 lately been called by the discussion of Cuban coolie- 

 ism, growing out of the pending issue with Spain, 

 to the necessity of adopting careiul port-regulations 

 with reference to emigration. 



Being questioned by the Tsungli Yamen as to the 

 character of American laws on the subject, I made 

 some general statements verbally, embodying infor- 

 mation which subsequently^ at the request of the 

 ministers, I wrote out more in detail, accompanying 



