DENMARK. 



211 



the habits of mind belonging to that condition 

 are found in the present transitional state to 

 co-exist with intellectual convictions of the 

 most progressive character. The sturdy Dan- 

 ish peasantry, who are descended from a race 

 of freemen, and who, when again emancipated 

 from the feudal yoke, have made such aston- 

 ishing intellectual and material progress, feel 

 themselves fully competent to guide and con- 

 trol the political destinies of the nation. This 

 they will be empowered to do if the theory of 

 popular sovereignty is adopted into the funda- 

 mental law. The upper classes, on the other 

 hand, nurtured as they have been in the habits 

 of political rule, and regarding the peasantry, 

 whom they have helped to elevate, as still in a 

 state of tutelage, stubbornly maintain the exist- 

 ing constitutional barriers against democratic 

 ascendency. From these political conditions 

 has arisen the present constitutional struggle. 

 The same conservatives who insist upon pre- 

 serving the aristocratic features remaining in 

 the Constitution, are often extremely demo- 

 cratic and radical in their own doctrines. The 

 conflict between the Folkething and the Lands- 

 thing and crown is a conflict between classes 

 for political power. But there is no real issue 

 at present, nor are there likely to arise any ma- 

 terial differences between the classes. Hence, 

 very trivial questions are seized upon as a pre- 

 text for an exciting political conflict; and a 

 constitutional crisis can be brought on by the 

 first small matter of difference between the 

 Government and the majority of the Lower 

 Chamber, until the Kin? chooses his Cabinet 

 from the party controlling the vote of the 

 direct representative Chamber, as is done in 

 most constitutional countries. 



The land system of Denmark has, within a 

 generation, by a series of constitutional re- 

 forms, been quietly revolutionized. The lease- 

 hold farms have been converted into free- 

 hold properties of 60 or 70 acres each, where 

 the land is good, and of larger extent where 

 it is inferior. The commutation of the feudal 

 tenure, by which the soil of Denmark was held 

 fifty years ago, into peasant proprietorship, has 

 been accomplished by a system of time-pur- 

 chase prescribed by law and so arranged as to 

 effect the transition successfully and without 

 hardship. Three quarters of the land had 

 passed, ten years ago, into the hands of 70,000 

 yeomen, nearly every one of whom owned the 

 fee of his farm. The farms average about 100 

 acres. One eighth of the remaining surface is 

 apportioned in lots, averaging 5 acres in size, 

 among 137,000 peasants, two thirds of whom 

 own their holdings. With regard to the por- 

 tion of the land still held on lease, the pro- 

 prietary rights of the landlord are only partial. 

 The few farms which are still held under leases 

 for life pass to the child or heir of the last ten- 

 ant by a custom which has all the force of law. 

 The manorial estates of the landlord class are 

 the only part of their land over which they 

 possess more than a concurrent ownership. 



There were in 1869 1,750 of these estates, 

 averaging about 370 acres, and not covering 

 more than one eighth of the cultivated land of 

 the country. The tenant-rights and customs 

 linking the peasant to his land, which were in- 

 cident to the feudal system, were so interpreted 

 and enlarged that the laud has passed into the 

 proprietorship of the cultivators instead of be- 

 coming the absolute property of the feudal 

 lords as in some other countries. The feudal 

 land laws have been abolished by parliament- 

 ary action, the greater part of this work hav- 

 ing been accomplished since 1849. Socage 

 service has been done away with. Tithes have 

 been commuted, and the game laws reformed. 

 All the legislative efforts have been avowedly 

 and liberally directed to the advantage of the 

 peasantry, and feudal rights have been extin- 

 guished or commuted in the interest of a peas- 

 ant proprietary. The policy of securing to the 

 cultivators the ownership of the soil has been 

 consistently followed by the Legislature, and 

 those whose rights have been set aside in the 

 interest of this great social and economical re- 

 form have acquiesced and taken a hand in the 

 work. The lands belonging to the state and 

 to public institutions and corporations were 

 transferred to peasant proprietors by a series 

 of laws passed between 1851 and 1865. The 

 holders of entailed and trust estates were 

 authorized to sell farms to occupiers, and in 

 1866 a law was passed prohibiting the creation 

 of new entails. The abolition of entails and 

 feudal dues has resulted in. the ownership be- 

 ing transferred to the occupants. But the 

 Danes have not been contented with the tem- 

 porary achievement of this object. Unlike 

 countries in which the feudal system was abol- 

 ished earlier, the land of Denmark has not 

 been made free, or reduced to the state of a 

 merchantable commodity. The state has in- 

 terposed its authority and imposed restrictions 

 on the sale and use of land. The land system 

 of Denmark is, therefore, unique in its charac- 

 ter. An owner is not entitled to unite several 

 farms into a single holding nor divide a single 

 farm into several holdings. Proprietors are 

 prohibited under severe annual penalties from 

 either absorbing or suppressing a farmstead, 

 except under particular circumstances. A farm- 

 er may cultivate one and only one farm besides 

 the one on which he resides. The principle of 

 compulsion to lease, compelling every manorial 

 landlord to let every vacant holding to a new 

 tenant under the Danish life-lease, that is, for 

 the life of the tenant or his widow, is still 

 maintained, and where this does not prevail 

 there is an obligation to lease out for shorter 

 periods if desired. Proprietors are restricted 

 by the forest laws from stripping their lands 

 of timber. Titles and liens are recorded by a 

 very perfect system of public registry; the 

 total cost of the conveyance and registration of 

 a piece of property upon changing hands is 

 from one to three per cent of the purchase- 

 money. 



