240 



DENMARK. 



The merchant navy on Jan. 1, 1893, consisted 

 of 3,648 vessels, of 4 tons and upward, of 318,837 

 tons aggregate tonnage, of which 361, of 119,- 

 038 tons, were steam vessels. 



Railroads, Posts, and Telegraphs. The 

 total length of railroads in operation in 1892 

 was 1,289 miles, of which 992 miles belonged to 

 the Government. 



The postal traffic in 1891 was 49,543,000 let- 

 ters and postal cards and 56,478,000 pieces of 

 other matter. The telegraphs in 1892 had a 

 length of 3,674 miles, of which 2,816 belonged to 

 the Government. The length of wires was 10,280 

 miles. The number of messages sent over the 

 state lines in 1892 was 1,673,038, of which 623 r 

 910 were domestic and 1,013,061 international. 



Dependencies. The colonies of Denmark are 

 Iceland, Greenland, and the Danish Antilles (see 

 WEST INDIES). 



Iceland has an area of 39,756 square miles and 

 .a population of 70,927 souls, of whom 33.689 are 

 males and 37,238 females. The value of the im- 

 ports from Denmark in 1892 was 2,607,509 kro- 

 ner, and of the exports to Denmark 2,995,864 

 kroner. The exports are fish, wool, sheep, 

 smoked mutton, and ponies. 



The area of the coast districts of Greenland 

 settled by Danes is 46,740 square miles, with 10,- 

 516 inhabitants. The imports from Denmark 

 for 1892 were valued at 486,581 kroner, and ex- 

 ports to Denmark at 377,389 kroner. 



Change of Cabinet. The political struggle 

 that had gone on for many years between the 

 -Government and the people's representatives was 

 brought to a close in regard to the budget, 

 which was the ostensible subject of contention, 

 by a compromise effected before the prorogation 

 of the Diet. On March 30 the Folkething, as 

 well as the Landsthing, gave its assent for the 

 first time since 1885 to the budget submitted 

 by the Government, from which, however, the 

 credits for several schemes carried out by the 

 Government in past years without the consent 

 of the Rigsdag were omitted. The Government 

 entered into a compact to submit during the 

 next session bills dealing with the works on 

 fortifications and other defensive measures which 

 had been carried on by means of provisional 

 budgets after the Folkething had in each suc- 

 cessive session refused to give its sanction, an 

 understanding having been reached that these 

 works should be directed only to safeguarding 

 the neutrality of the country, which all parties 

 desired to see' recognized and respected. At the 

 conclusion of the debate on the budget Premier 

 Estrup, who had carried on the protracted con- 

 flict with the Folkething, announced his resigna- 

 tion. The purely defensive projects for the 

 fortification of Copenhagen were already com- 

 pleted, and the Moderate section of the Opposi- 

 tion, recognizing the inutility of contesting an 

 .accomplished fact, desired to end the deadlock 

 and return to constitutional forms of representa- 

 tive government. The Radicals still stood out 

 for the principle of ministerial responsibility, 

 which was the root of the contest over defenses 

 and extraordinary credits, and had been fought 

 over with Estrup ever since he took office in 

 1875 in the face of a Liberal majority in the 

 lower house. The military conscription intro- 

 duced in 1869, and the law of 1873 for the re- 



organization of the army, roused a sentiment of 

 opposition in the country to the increased bur- 

 den, and excited apprehensions of an ambitious 

 foreign policy. Owing to this cause, the Lib- 

 erals gained a majority in the Folkething, and 

 they have kept it ever since, outnumbering the 

 Ministerialists 3 to 1, and have fought every in- 

 crease in military or naval expenditure. They 

 insisted that no ministry has a right to govern 

 without a majority in the lower house. This 

 doctrine was denounced by the Conservatives as 

 unconstitutional. Estrup resolved to continue 

 in office as long as he was upheld by the major- 

 ity of the Landsthing; and when the Folke- 

 thing, in opposition to the scheme for the forti- 

 fication of Copenhagen, adopted the extreme 

 measure of withholding supplies, the Govern- 

 ment, after obtaining the assent of the Lands- 

 thing to its financial proposals, adjourned the 

 Rigsdag every year, and promulgated the budget 

 law as a provisional measure, in accordance 

 with a provision of the Constitution intended to 

 enable the Government to issue provisional laws 

 upon matters of great urgency when the Rigsdag 

 is not sitting. The Government proceeded to 

 collect the taxes regularly and to apply them to 

 the purposes sanctioned in the budget, includ- 

 ing the fortification of Copenhagen on the sea- 

 ward side, for which, furthermore, voluntary con- 

 tributions were raised among friends of the 

 Government. Premier Estrup was willing to 

 abandon a part of his plan of fortification in 

 order to obtain acceptance of the forts and guns 

 that were already in existence and to restore 

 regularity to legislative proceedings. Moderate 

 Liberals were found willing to accept the com- 

 promise that was agreed upon, after many 

 conferences, sufficiently numerous to give the 

 Government a small majority ; and when the ar- 

 rangement was confirmed by the voting of the 

 budget of 1894-'95, the old minister stepped 

 aside, so that the bitter antagonism that his 

 personality had evoked should not remain to en- 

 danger the permanence of the settlement. The 

 fortification of the country, the strengthening 

 of the navy, and the organization of a national 

 army were not the only achievements of his long 

 premiership. During the same nineteen years the 

 postal service was brought up to the highest 

 degree of efficiency, and the railroad mileage 

 owned by the Government was doubled. The 

 law granting a living pension to every aged 

 laborer who lives an honest life without the loss 

 of the rights of citizenship was one of the 

 measures of a democratic character that he car- 

 ried through, and another was the act giving 

 compensation out of the public funds to any 

 person unjustly arrested or imprisoned. 



The Rigsdag remained in session till May 2, 

 and the Estrup ministry continued in office till 

 Aug. 7, when the Premier insisted on retiring, 

 and the Cabinet resigned in a body. Instead of 

 calling Moderate Liberals into the Cabinet, the 

 King preferred a reconstruction of the Conserv- 

 ative ministry. Only the Ministers of Public 

 Instruction and of War went out with the Prime 

 Minister. The new Cabinet was constituted on 

 Aug. 7 as follows: President of the Council and 

 Minister of Foreign Affairs Baron Reedtz-Thott ; 

 Minister of the Interior, M. Hoerring; Minister 

 of Finance, M. Liittichau ; Minister of Justice 





