DENMARK. 



291 



agree to the alterations, it is sent back to the 

 Landsthing; if the upper chamber holds fast 

 to its amendments, then a joint committee of 

 fifteen members of each house is appointed to 

 work out an agreement; yet either house, by 

 a majority vote, can reject the compromise 

 agreed upon by the committee. In the latter 

 case there is no constitutional authority for 

 supplying funds to the Government. This gap 

 in the Constitution was provided against in the 

 Swedish Constitution of 1866, by submitting 

 the budget in the last instance to the majority 

 vote of both chambers in joint session. In 

 the session of 1876-77, the United Left, com- 

 posed chiefly of the Moderate and Radical 

 groups, refused to vote the budget in the form 

 proposed by the Government, and the Lands- 

 thing rejected the modifications of the lower 

 house. As no constitutional budget was agreed 

 upon, a provisional budget was decreed by a 

 stretch of the royal prerogative. In the fol- 

 lowing session the Radicals, under the lead of 

 Berg, proposed the impeachment of the minis- 

 try for breach of the Constitution ; but the 

 Moderate Liberals, led by Count Holstein-Le- 

 dreborg, opposed the motion, and carried a 

 vote approving the provisional budget. In the 

 following sessions the alliance with the Moder- 

 ates enabled the Government to carry through 

 measures for the reorganization of the army 

 and navy. The uncompromising attitude of the 

 ministry in the budget question finally drove 

 the Moderates over to the Opposition. When 

 the Folkething refused to vote certain items of 

 the budget, it was twice dissolved, each time 

 returning with a stronger Opposition majority. 

 The Landsthing then withdrew its support 

 from the Government and agreed to a com- 

 promise budget, from which the principal part 

 of the ministerial demands was omitted. At 

 this stage of the conflict the ministerial party 

 in the Landsthing were disposed to accept a 

 Liberal ministry, if the popular party would 

 be content with such a compromise ; but the 

 Radicals insisted on the recognition of the 

 principles of ministerial responsibility, and the 

 full control of the popular chamber over sup- 

 plies and taxation. The Moderate Liberals, 

 who before wished to reach an understanding, 

 but were alienated by the irreconcilable course 

 of the ministry, now supported the demands 

 of the Radicals. In the session of 1882-'83, 

 Berg, the leader of the majority in the Folke- 

 thing, proclaimed the " withering " policy, the 

 determination that legislation should lie fallow 

 until the desired interpretation, or rather al- 

 teration, of the Constitution was accepted. In 

 that session 42 of the 50 Government bills, all 

 the most important ones except the budget, 

 were tabled in the committee-rooms. The 

 Folkething voted an address to the King, ex- 

 pressing regret that the attitude of the min- 

 istry caused the arrest of legislative action. 

 The Landsthing sent a counter-address, declar- 

 ing its confidence in the Cabinet, and the ex- 

 pectation that the King would guard its con- 



stitutional rights. King Christian replied in a 

 tone of approval to the latter address. In his 

 reply to the Folkething, he declared that the 

 complaint against the ministers applied rather 

 to its own action, since it not only neglected 

 to co-operate in forwarding a large number of 

 ministerial measures that had been partially en- 

 acted by the Landsthing, but had put aside even 

 the important national defense bill, without try- 

 ing to reach an agreement with the Lands- 

 thing and with the Government. In the session 

 of 1883-'84, the obstructive policy was more 

 sharply applied. The most important Govern- 

 mental propositions, such as national defense 

 works and reforms of the tariff and taxation, 

 were dismissed in a resolution declaring that 

 a ministry not possessing the confidence of the 

 people could not be trusted with the execution 

 of laws of such importance. The Opposition 

 majority even went to the length of withhold- 

 ing the ratification of a commercial treaty con- 

 cluded with Spain with great trouble, the pro- 

 visions of which were eminently satisfactory 

 to the mercantile and manufacturing interests 

 of Denmark. With the utmost difficulty, at 

 the price of extreme concessions on the part 

 of the Landsthing, a regular budget for the 

 year 1884-'85 was passed at the end of May, 

 1884. No other enactment of importance waa 

 passed in a session of eight months; from five 

 to six months were taken up with the budget 

 debate. The majority in the Folkething pro- 

 longed the debate in order to compel the 

 Landsthing to accept its decisions, or extend the 

 deliberations over the limit of the financial year, 

 and thus deprive the Government of the finan- 

 cial means of carrying on the administration. 

 The Landsthing replied to these tactics with a 

 request to the Government for energetic pro- 

 ceedings that should impel the Folkething to 

 pass the financial law without further procras- 

 tination, and leave the Landsthing time to dis- 

 cuss the items. As all the bills proposed were 

 shelved by the Folkething without discussion, 

 the members of both houses passed their time 

 in idleness, while their diet allowances mounted 

 up during a session unprecedentedly long. The 

 triennial period of the Folkething ended with 

 the session. The general election, which took 

 place on June 25, 1884, wrought a change in 

 the political situation. 



Every election that has occurred during the 

 constitutional struggle has brought more radi- 

 cal and democratic elements to the front. In 

 1881 the veteran President of the Folkething, 

 Judge Krabbe, belonging to the Moderate Lib. 

 erals, retired from the political stage, leaving 

 the Radical leader Berg free to perform his 

 stroke of withering the functions of govern- 

 ment by refusing to legislate. The elections of 

 1884 brought to the surface the ultra-demo- 

 cratic and socialistic tendencies of the town 

 population in a way to cause alarm to Berg 

 and the Peasant party. Copenhagen, which 

 had always returned Old or National Liberals, 

 who voted with the Government, now elected 



