DE NM ARK. 



655 





Ancient 

 form ol go. 

 vernment. 



Statistics, dencls should be 4 per cent. In this country, no indi- 

 ( — "V"—- ' vidual is allowed to insure ships. As the navigation of 

 many ports on the coasts of the Baltic, the Categate, 

 and the North Sea, is at some seasons extremely dan- 

 gerous, all the maritime districts are provided with li- 

 censed pilots. Those of the island of Heligoland are 

 particularly celebrated for their skill and intrepidity. 

 Lighthouses have been erected in various places ; and 

 at Copenhagen a collection of charts has been made 

 for the use of navigators. The foreign commerce of 

 Denmark has been much affected by the late war 

 with Great Britain. In several of its branches it has 

 been considerably impeded, and in some of them alto- 

 gether suspended ; but the preceding statements refer 

 chiefly to its customary extent and channels, to which 

 it will now soon return. 

 Money. The common money of exchange in Denmark is the 



rix dollar, which is imaginary, or if there are any in 

 currency they are but rare. The rix dollar is divided 

 into 96 skillings, or into 6 marks of 16 skillings each. 

 The rix dollar is worth about 4 livres 10 sols of France ; 

 2 florins and 3 stivers currency of Holland; 12 or 13 

 copper dollars of Sweden ; and 1 ruble of Russia. Four 

 rix dollars are about the value of 5 rix dollars of Germa- 

 ny ; and 5^ the value of a pound sterling. The only 

 gold money coined at present in Denmark is the du- 

 cat of two rix dollars. The silver coinage are pieces of 

 24, of 15, of 10, of 8, of 4, and of 2 skillings. 



CHAP. V. 



Government, Laws, fyc. 



The government of Denmark, like that of most of 

 the Gothic nations, was originally an elective monarchy. 

 The right of election was vested in the three estates of 

 the kingdom, the nobles, the clergy and the commons, 

 who were to choose for their prince a man whose person 

 was unexceptionable, who was valiant, just, merciful, af- 

 fable, prudent, a maintainer of the laws, a lover of the 

 people, an encourager of merit, in a word, adorned with 

 all the accomplishments and virtues necessary for the 

 execution of so important a trust. And though due re- 

 gard to the royal line was always observed, and the 

 crown almost uniformly conferred on the eldest son, 

 yet was the new prince generally constrained to pur- 

 chase his succession to the throne by the grant of far- 

 ther immunities to the subject. The supreme legisla- 

 tive authority resided also in the three estates, assem- 

 bled in a diet by means of representatives ; the execu- 

 tive power was vested in the king and senate, compo- 

 sed of the principal nobles. The king was little more 

 than president of the senate, and commander of the 

 army, the royal prerogative being circumscribed by 

 the charter of rights, always ratified by the sovereign 

 at his accession. Such was the constitution of Den- 

 mark until the year 1660, when, by one of the most 

 singular revolutions recorded in history, from being an 

 elective, and one of the most limited monarchies in Eu- 

 rope, it became entirely hereditary, and one of the 

 most absolute upon earth ; exhibiting an unparalleled 

 instance of a people spontaneously renouncing their 

 freedom, and investing their limited governor, ahnost 

 without his concurrence, with unbounded authority. 

 This extraordinary event (the particulars of which will 

 be found under the head of the history of this countiy) 

 was brought about by the clergy and commons, for the 

 purpose of punishing the insolence and oppression of 

 the nobility. After a violent altercation with that or- 

 der in the diet, on the subject of taxes, these two es- 

 tates proceeded in a body to the court, made a full sur- 



Present 

 form of go. 

 ▼eminent. 



render of all their privileges into the hands of the king, Statistic! 

 and proffered him absolute sovereignty. The nobles, '— -v— 

 confounded by this unexpected proceeding, and unable 

 either to resist or escape, were compelled to feign com- 

 pliance with this deed of the other estates. Accord- 

 ingly, on the 16'th of October, the three estates annul- 

 led, in the most solemn manner, the capitulation or 

 charter signed by the king at his accession — absolved 

 him from his engagements — cancelled all the limita- 

 tions imposed on his sovereignty — and closed the Avhole 

 by the public ceremony of doing homage, and of ta- 

 king the new oath of allegiance. The revolution be- 

 ing thus accomplished, a new form of government was 

 promulgated, under the title of the Royal Law of Den- 

 mark. It consists of forty articles, of which the follow- Royal law 

 ing are the most remarkable : " The hereditary kings of Der:- 

 of Denmark and Norway shall be in effect, and ought marl: - 

 to be esteemed by their Siibjects, the only supreme 

 head on earth : they shall be above all human laws, and 

 shall acknowledge, in all ecclesiastical and civil affairs, 

 no higher power than God alone. The king shall en- 

 joy the right of making and interpreting the laws, of 

 abrogating, adding to, and dispensing with them. He 

 may also annul all the laws which either he or his pre- 

 decessors shall have made, excepting this royal law, 

 which must remain irrevocable, and be considered as 

 the fundamental law of the state. He has the power 

 of declaring war, making peace, imposing taxes, and 

 levying contributions of all sorts," &c. &c. Then fol- 

 low the regulations for the order of succession — the re- 

 gency in case of minority — for the majority of the 

 king — for the maintenance, of the royal family ; — and 

 after enumerating all the possible prerogatives of regal 

 uncircumscribed authority ,--as if sufficient had not yet 

 been laid down, it is added, in the 20th article, " All 

 that w r e have hitherto said of power, and eminence, and 

 sovereignty, and if there is any thing further which 

 has not been expressly specified, shall all be comprised 

 in the following words : The king of Denmark and 

 Norway shall be the hereditary monarch, and endued 

 with the highest authority ; insomuch, that all that can 

 be said and written to the advantage of a Christian, he- 

 reditary, and absolute king, shall be extended, under 

 the most favourable interpretation, to the hereditary 

 king or queen of Denmark and Norway," &c. &C 

 Thus securely did Frederic III. fortify himself in the 

 full possession of absolute power, now that it was with- 

 in his grasp, though, when first offered, he seemed to 

 hesitate about accepting the gift. The commons soon 

 found, what they might have foreseen, that they had 

 punished the nobles but had not benefited themselves. 

 Strange infatuation ! that they should find no means of 

 humbling their oppressors, and securing their own im- 

 munities, but the establishment of an absolute govern- 

 ment. Though the king divested the nobility of many 

 of the prerogatives they had before enjoyed, and an- 

 nexed them to those of the crown, yet did he take no 

 methods to relieve the people, who had been the in- 

 struments of investing him with the sovereign poAver, 

 but left them in the same state of slavery in which 

 they were before, and in which they have remained al- 

 most to the present day. Justice, however, compels us 

 to state, that few absolute princes have less abused their 

 unlimited authority than the kings of Denmark ; and 

 that, in this country, the rigours of a despotic monar- 

 chy have generally been softened by the mild and just 

 administration of the sovereigns who have since filled 

 the Danish throne. Uncertain, however, must ever be 

 the condition of a people, whose happiness depends on. 

 the mere will or caprice of a single individual. 



