DENMARK. 



253 



The Government, The reigning King is Chris- 

 tian IX, born April 8, 1818, fourth son of Duke 

 William of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg- 

 Gliicksburg. He was appointed to the suc- 

 cession by the Treaty of London, concluded 

 May 8, 1852, and the Danish law of succession 

 of 1853, and succeeded to the throne on the 

 death of Frederick VII, Nov. 15, 1863. The 

 heir-apparent is Frederick, born June 3, 1843. 



The ministry, first organized June 11, 1875, 

 is composed of the following members : J. B. 

 S. Estrup, Minister of Finance and President 

 of the Council ; E. V. R. de Skeel, Minister of 

 the Interior; J. V. M. Nellemann, Minister of 

 Justice and Minister for Iceland ; Baron O. D. 

 Rosenorn-Lehn, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 

 appointed Oct. 11, 1875 ; Commander N. F. 

 Ravn, Minister of the Navy, appointed Jan. 4, 

 1879, and since April 1, 1881, Minister of War; 

 J. F. Scavenius, Minister of Worship and Pub- 

 lic Instruction, appointed Aug. 24, 1880. 



Finance. The budget laid before the Rigsdag 

 in November showed as usual a flourishing 

 state of the public finances. The revenue is 

 estimated at 54,633,000 crowns, the expendi- 

 ture at 52,787,000 crowns. There was a re- 

 serve fund of 19,000,000 crowns, and a balance 

 in the Treasury of not less than 47,500,000 

 crowns. The public debt does not exceed 197,- 

 000,000 crowns, held almost exclusively by 

 Danes. The ministers asked for 18,653,000 

 crowns for military and naval affairs, items 

 that are invariably cut down by the Folke- 

 thing. An extraordinary grant of a large sum 

 for the construction of fortresses was de- 

 manded, notwithstanding the rejection of the 

 plan, involving the expenditure of 72,000,000 

 crowns, for the second time in April, and the 

 ministerial losses in the subsequent elections. 



Constitntional Crisis. The Estrup Cabinet, 

 which was appointed in 1875, was in the mi- 

 nority in the lower house from the beginning. 

 It was selected from the Conservative party, 

 which enjoyed the support of the King and 

 possessed a majority of the votes in the Lands- 

 thing, while the Folkething, in accord with 

 nearly the entire rural population, was Liberal 

 by a large majority. The Liberals endeavored 

 to force the King to recognize the principle of 

 responsible government, and appoint a ministry 

 in harmony with the sentiment of the country. 

 The business of the Government was carried 

 on passably until in 1881 they took a decided 

 stand, refusing to vote supplies. The King 

 twice dissolved the Rigsdag, but each time 

 found himself confronted with a stronger Lib- 

 eral majority. He then decreed a provisional 

 budget. In the following session, 42 out of 50 

 Government bills were buried in committee. 

 Measures emanating from the majority in the 

 Folkething were in return rejected by the 

 Landsthing. The results of the general elec- 

 tions of June, 1884, disappointed the. hopes of 

 the ministers that the constituencies would 

 condemn the Liberals for bringing on a legis- 

 lative dead-lock. The Liberals, who held, the 



previous session, 73 out of the 102 seats, now 

 returned with 82 members. Copenhagen, which 

 always before elected none but Conservatives, 

 now gave half its votes to the Liberals and sent 

 five Liberal deputies to the Folkething, includ- 

 ing two Social-Democrats. The session of the 

 new Rigsdag was interrupted by the burning 

 of the castle of Christiansborg in the beginning 

 of September, and was reopened in October 3. 

 The King for the first time in several years 

 opened the Parliament in person and delivered 

 the customary speech from the throne. He 

 showed no intention of changing his ministers, 

 but appealed to the Rigsdag to approve the oft- 

 rejected project of national defense. The plan 

 is to surround Copenhagen with a ring of forti- 

 fications. The Liberals voted against it in for- 

 mer sessions, not merely for purposes of ob- 

 struction, but because they believed that these 

 costly fortifications would add but little to the 

 defensive strength of the country. Another 

 project over which the ministry and the ma- 

 jority took issue was that of endowing a state 

 university. The majority voted money for an 

 agricultural college and technical schools, but 

 questioned the utility of state-supported classi- 

 cal education. Although united on these, the 

 chief points in the ministerial programme, the 

 Liberals are supposed by the King and the min- 

 isters to be incapable of commanding a work- 

 ing majority and carrying on the Government 

 for any length of time, owing to a division, 

 from religious differences, between Christen 

 Berg, leader of the Moderate Liberals, and the 

 section of advanced views, called the Literary 

 Left, or the Europeans, of which the fore- 

 most representatives are Dr. E. Brandes and 

 Horup. 



The Ministry. The ministry, constituted June 

 11, 1875, is composed of the following mem- 

 bers : President of the Council and Minister of 

 Finance, J. B. S. Estrup ; Minister of the In- 

 terior, S. H. S. Finsen ; Minister of Justice and 

 Minister for Iceland, J. M. V. Nellemann ; Min- 

 ister of Foreign Affairs, Baron O. D. Rosenorn- 

 Lehn, appointed October 11, 1875 ; Minister of 

 Marine, Commander N. F. Ravn, appointed 

 January 4, 1879 ; Minister of War, Colonel J. 

 J. Bahnson, appointed September 12, 1884; 

 Minister of Worship and Public Instruction, J. 

 F. von Scavenius, appointed August 24, 1880. 



Area and Population. The area of the king- 

 dom of Denmark is 13,784 square miles ; the 

 population, 1,969,039, of which number 234,- 

 850 live in the city of Copenhagen, 865,678 in 

 the islands of the Baltic, and 868,511 in the 

 Peninsula of Jutland. The total population 

 was divided as to sex into 967,360 males and 

 1,001,679 females. The increase in fifteen 

 years was 10*29 per cent, in the cities, and 

 5-99 per cent, in the rural districts. The pro- 

 portion who live by agriculture is 39'5 per 

 cent. The land is greatly subdivided under the 

 operation of laws that forbid the consolidation 

 of farms into landed estates. The emigration 

 is mainly to the United States, and has become 



