DENMARK. 



641 



nnd other fortifications were captured, and the Danish 

 troops driven beyond Flensburg. Denmark now 

 concluded a peace with England and Sweden, Jan. 

 14, 1814, at Kiel. She also entered into an alli- 

 ance against France, and contributed a body of 

 troops to the allied forces. She was obliged to cede 

 Heligoland to Great Britain (receiving hi exchange 

 the West India islands), and Norway to Sweden (for 

 which she was compensated by Swedish Pomerania 

 and Ruegen). A peace was concluded with Russia 

 in February, 1814. Jan. 14, 1815, Denmark ceded 

 Swedish Pomerania and Ruegen to Prussia, and re- 

 ceived for them Lauenburg and a pecuniary compen- 

 sation. June 8, 1815, the king entered into the 

 German confederacy with Holstein and Lauenburg, 

 mid received in it the tenth place, and three votes in 

 the general assembly (the plenum) ; after which, by 

 the appointment of a decemviral commission, prelimi- 

 nary measures were taken to introduce a represen- 

 tative government into Holstein. 



Statistics, &c. Denmark consists of the islands 

 of Zealand, Fuehnen, Langeland, Laaland, Falster, 

 Bornholm, and Moen, the peninsula of Jutland 

 and the duchy of Sleswic. To the Danish king- 

 dom belong also two slates of the German confede- 

 racy, the duchies of'Holstein and Lauenburg; like- 

 wise the Faroe islands, Iceland, the western coast of 

 Greenland, some places in Guinea, and the city and 

 territory of Tranquebar, in the East Indies. Den- 

 mark Proper and Sleswic contain only 17,375 square 

 miles ; Iceland and the Faroe islands, 30,270 ; the 

 German states, 3665; and the colonies, 7173. The 

 whole kingdom, with its dependencies, contains' 

 58,500 square miles, of which Iceland and the coast 

 of Greenland compose 36,128. Denmark Proper is 

 estimated to contain 1,230,000 inhabitants ; Holstein 

 and Lauenburg, 370,000 ; Iceland, in the year 1823, 

 49,269 ; the Faroe islands, 5300 ; nd the rest of the 

 colonies, 101,000; so that the whole kingdom in 1823 

 was calculated to contain 1,750,000, or, according 

 to some accounts, 1,864,534 inhabitants. By a cen- 

 sus taken in 1832, the entire population was made to 

 amount to 2,200,000. The people, partly Danes 

 and partly Germans, speak Danish in Denmark Pro- 

 per, Norse 3|t Iceland and the Faroe islands, and 

 German in the high and low German and Frisian 

 dialects. Bondage- no longer prevails among the 

 peasants, but they continue to be attached to the soil 

 in Denmark Proper. The principal island, Zealand 

 (Dan. Saelland), is separated by the Sound (q. v.) 

 from Sweden, the island Fuehnen (Dan. Fyeri) by the 

 Great Belt, from Zealand, and by the Little Belt 

 from the peninsula of Jutland (Dan. Jylland) : these 

 three straits form the passage from the German ocean 

 to the Baltic sea. 



The country is prefectly level, with the exception 

 of a single ridge of moderate elevation, which runs 

 through the duchies. The coasts are low, and, for 

 the most part, protected against the encroachments of 

 the waves by fiats, and require artificial dikes only 

 on the side of the German ocean. The soil con- 

 sists partly of marshes and partly of heaths, and the 

 country is moderately fruitful. By the improvident 

 extirpation of the woods, which protected the 

 northern and north-western coasts of Jutland against 

 the sea, vast extents of fruitful territory have become 

 barren and sandy deserts. The church at Skagen, 

 in the most northern parish of Jutland, at present 

 lies almost buried in heaps of sand, driven up by the 

 sea. An attempt has lately been made to check this 

 devastation, by planting firs, birches, &c., also cer- 

 tain herbs tliat nourish best in sand ; by which means 

 a great part of those sandy regions have once more 

 put on a verdant dress. Besides the Elbe, the 

 boundary stream of the kingdom, it has only a few 



rivers on the coast. There are many lakes in the 

 ulterior, as the Schall and the Ratzeburger lakes in 

 Lauenburg, Ploener and Selenter lakes in Holstein ; 

 and several bays, the most considerable of which is 

 situated in North Jutland, called the Limfiord. The 

 Cattegat or Skaggerack, between the coasts of Jut- 

 land and Sweden, is considered by some as a bay: it 

 is connected with the Baltic by the Sound and the 

 two Belts. The climate, for the most part, is tem- 

 perate, but very wet. 



The staple productions of Denmark are grain, 

 rape-seed, tobacco, &c.: 4,000,000 pounds of the last 

 are raised annually, and sold mostly in foreign 

 countries. Hemp and flax are not raised in sufficient 

 quantities to satisfy the demand of the people : the 

 same is the case with madder (which, however, 

 thrives very well), and with hops. Horticulture is 

 neglected in Denmark Proper. Sea-weed is used 

 for stuffing cushions, &c., instead of horse-hair. 

 Forests are rare, and the price of wood high; turf, 

 however, is very abundant. The breeding of cattle 

 furnishes the only important article of exportation: 

 for example, every year Denmark Proper exports 

 16,000 horses and 7000 oxen. Olofsen fixes the 

 number of horned cattle, not including those raised 

 hi the duchies, at 1,484,000 head: the sheep amount 

 to 1,338,000 head, including 20,000 merinos. 

 Swine and poultry, too, are raised in large numbers. 

 The larger kinds of game are very rare. The fish- 

 eries supply a part of North Germany with herring, 

 oysters, lobsters, &c. Aitfong the minerals are clay, 

 iron, copper, alum, lime, (in Segeberg), and salt 

 (less than is wanted) from salt springs. The manu- 

 factures are few, and carried on principally in Co- 

 penhagen and Altona : the Danish gloves, which 

 come from Jutland, are esteemed hi Germany. 

 Trade, especially to the West Indies, and navigation, 

 have begun to revive. The Holstein canal joins the 

 Baltic sea and the North sea. The charter of the 

 Asiatic company was extended, in 1812, to thirty 

 years after the peace ; but the shares have fallen. 

 Denmark now contains, without including Iceland 

 and the Faroe islands, a hundred cities, thirty-seven 

 boroughs, 2305 parishes, and 5500 villages. 



Government, &c. The government of Denmark is 

 an absolute monarchy. The crown is hereditary 

 both in the male and female line. The king's oldest 

 son is styled the crown-prince ; the other princes of 

 the blood are called princes of Denmark. Copenha- 

 gen is the royal residence. The title of the sove- 

 reign, since Jan. 1, 1820, has been, Icing of Denmark, 

 of the Vandals and the Goths, duke of Sleswic, Hol- 

 stein, Stormarn, the Ditmarsh, and of Lauenburg and 

 Oldenburg. The orders of knighthood are the order 

 of the elephant and the order of the Danebrog (order 

 of the royal banner). In Denmark Proper there are 

 no estates. The highest council of state is the privy 

 council, to which the administration of domestic af- 

 fairs has belonged since 1814. The Lutheran is the 

 prevailing religion, but unlimited toleration is ex- 

 tended to every religious sect, not excepting the 

 Jews. There are two universities (at Copenhagen 

 and Kiel). There is also an academy of arts, a royal' 

 society of sciences, and many private institutions and 

 societies of learned men, forty gymnasia, and thirteen 

 seminaries of teachers. Lancasterian or monitorial 

 schools were first established in Denmark in 1823 ; 

 but their progress has been rapid beyond example. 

 In 1823, the system was introduced into 244 schools : 

 in 1824, the number was 605; in 1825, 1143; in 

 1826, 1543; in 1827,2003; in 1828, 2302; and in 

 1829, the additions made would carry it to 2616. 

 The Sound dues now afford a revenue of more than 

 450,000 dollars. The public debt, it is conjectured, 

 amounts in silver to ten million rix dollars banco of 

 2s 



