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law alone. . . . The tribunals are competent to take cognisance of all questions as to the limitation of the powers of public officers. . . . The judges in the exercise of their functions must be influenced solely by the law. They can be suspended only by virtue of a judicial decision, and removed only by their own consent, except in case of a reorganization of the courts. A judge who has completed his sixty-fifth year may be retired on full pay." The Coustitution provides for public examination in criminal cases, and trial by jury; but the laws contemplated for the establishment of these and other modes of procedure laid down in principle have not hitherto been introduced. Education Education in Denmark is compulsory between

and the ages of seven and fourteen, and the ConReligion. stitution provides that children whose parents cannot pay the fees shall be taught gratuitously in the public schools. The elementary schools are parochial, and the number of pupils is about one in eight of the population. There is a very small proportion of illiterates. The higher schools and the University of Copenhagen are also supported by the State, or endowed by the Church property appropriated in the sixteenth century.

Less than 1 per cent. of the population belongs to denominations other than the Lutheran; but there is complete. toleration.

The usual Parliamentary method of finance Finance. has been established. In place of the Exchequer, or Court of Accounts, each Chamber nominates two salaried Revisers, who check accounts and expenditure. Their reports are submitted to both Chambers; but only the Folkething can initiate money Bills and supplementary credits.

The estimated Revenue for 1887-8 was £2,966,000, of which more than half was from Customs; and the Expenditure was £3,446,000. There is a reserve fund (rapidly diminishing) of about two millions sterling. Public debt, about £11,000,000.

DANISH DEPENDENCIES.

Iceland.

With an area of 40,000 square miles, Iceland (capital, Reikjavik) has a population of less than 75,000, mainly farmers and fishermen, without manufactures, and with very little municipal life. The island came to the Danish Crown with Norway, in 1380, and was not transferred when Norway passed to Sweden in 1814.

The ancient Assembly, or Althing, ceased to meet in 1720, and was formally abolished in 1800. In 1834, two deputies from Iceland and one from the Faroe Islands were nominated by the King to the Provincial Council of Laaland; but four years later a commission of ten was. appointed to sit in Reikjavik, which in 1843 developed into an Althing of 20 elected deputies, with 6 nominated by the King. After sundry changes and long negotiation the present Constitution was established by a law of the Rigsdag in 1871, and a Constitutional Law was passed in 1874. The general principles of these documents are identical with those laid down in the Danish Constitution. The distinctive features are as follows:

The Law of 1871 declares that "Iceland is an inseparable part of the Danish State, with special privileges. Whilst Iceland is not represented in the Rigsdag it will not share in the exercise of legislative power in regard to the general

affairs of the monarchy; and, on the other hand, no contribution to the general needs of the monarchy will be required from it. The special affairs of Iceland are (1) Civil and penal law, and the administration of civil and criminal justice. Nevertheless the Supreme Court may not be organized as one of final appeal for Icelandic litigation without the concurrence of the general legislative authority of the monarchy. (2) Police. (3) Public worship and (5)

instruction. (4) Medical and sanitary administration. Communal institutions and public aids. (6) Roads and local posts. (7) Agriculture, fisheries, commerce, navigation, and all other industries. (8) Direct and indirect contributions. (9) The public property, establishments, and funds.

The expenses of the Althing, and of the local administration indicated above, with official pensions, are to be regarded as special expenditure, and to cover this the national Treasury will furnish an annual subvention of 30,000 rix-dollars, or £3,360, in addition to an extraordinary subvention of £224,000 for ten years, and £112,000 for the following twenty years, when the extraordinary subvention will cease. The cost of the Danish administration in Copenhagen is borne by Denmark.

There is a Minister for Iceland in the Danish State Council, and a local Governor appointed by the King, who also appoints the other public officers. The Althing has now 30 elected members and 6 nominated. It is renewed every six years, and the electors are the taxpayers over a certain limit. The six nominated members, and six others selected by the whole Althing from the elected members, sit in a separate Chamber.

1887.

The actual condition of politics in Denmark aptly shows how much more is necessary to the smooth working of representative methods of government than a mere written Constitution. For something like twenty years an increasingly powerful party has demanded that the ministers of the King shall be responsible to the representatives of the people, and that the confidence of the most representative Chamber shall be deemed necessary to the Cabinet. Ministerial responsibility is in general terms affirmed by the Constitution, but it is not defined, and the dispute as to its proper limits has been continued without intermission down to the present day. On October 19, 1887, the Folkething rejected the budget by a majority of 68 to 25, and the Rigsdag was thereupon adjourned, in order that the Government might "place the administration of public business on a new legal basis." On the following day a royal rescript authorized the Government to collect the taxes during the coming financial year, to defray the necessary expenditure; and the Rigsdag was prorogued. The action of the Crown on this occasion seems to have been based on the 25th clause of the Constitution, which declares that "in specially urgent cases the King may, in the interval between two sessions of the Rigsdag, decree provisional laws, which nevertheless must not be contrary to the Constitution." It is questionable whether this clause can be fairly said to cover the rescript, and especially questionable whether the right of the Crown extends to financial laws; but the same course has been pursued on former occasions, and the Folkething has no means of bringing the nominally responsible ministers to account. It has impeached them before the Rigsret, as the Constitution provides; but they have been acquitted.

It is evident that responsible government-parliamentary government in the ordinary sense of the term-is suspended in Denmark. After each dissolution in recent years there has been a considerable majority in the Folkething against the King's ministers. The latter have refused to resign so long as there is a majority in their favour in the Landsthing, contending that the Constitution does not require that they should do so. Amongst the incidents of the struggle are the refusal to pay taxes on one side, and, on the other, suspension of the freedom of the press and the right of public meeting. Nevertheless the King and the royal family seem to be personally popular with the nation at large.

There are three political parties in Denmark—(1) the Right, or Government party; (2) the Danish or Moderate Left party, representing the cottars and peasant proprietors, who form nearly half the population of the country; and (3) the European or Radical Left, which has its main strength in the towns. It is the union of the two Lefts which has hitherto placed the Cabinet in a minority. One of the most prominent difficulties of the present situation arises out of the question of national defence. The Government wishes to surround Copenhagen with fortifications, and for this and other kindred purposes to raise a large revenue; but the united Lefts maintain that it is impossible to provide an effective defence, that guarantees and treaties would give greater security than the expenditure of millions of money, and that to make Copenhagen impregnable would only excite the cupidity of the Great Powers.

But a still more important and comprehensive question is that which concerns the social condition of the people,

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