DENMARK

DENMARK, a kingdom in the north of Europe, which, though limited in extent, is an interesting object to the political philosopher, from the pacific and enlightened manner in which it has long been governed. It received a severe blow by the cession of Norway in 1814, Swedish Pomerania (subsequently exchanged for Lauenburg and a sum of money) being altogether an inadequate return for that ancient possession. However, Denmark exhibits in its present state a concentrated territory, possessing very considerable means of increasing its resources, both by navigation and inland improvement. Its continental part consists of a long tract of land, beginning in the neighbourhood of Hamburg, and stretching northward above four degrees of latitude (from $53\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}^\{\backslash circ\}$ to beyond $57\backslash frac\{1\}\{2\}^\{\backslash circ\}$) to the extreme point of Jutland; Holstein forming the southern division, Sleswick the central, and Jutland, which is by much the largest, the northern. Adjacent to this mainland tract are the Islands, viz. Funen, of which the capital is Odense, and the larger island of Zealand, which contains Copenhagen. The smaller islands are Laaland, Falster, Moen, Laugeland, and Femern, along with others of still less importance. The islands, and the portion of continent just mentioned, form the integral part of Denmark, and contain, along with Sauenburg, a surface of about 22,000 square miles. The remote appendages of the monarchy are much more extensive though of infinitely less consequence, consisting of Iceland, the Faroe Isles, and part of Greenland; along with possessions in the East and West Indies.

Aspect, Climate, and Products. The surface of the Danish territory, particularly of the mainland, is in general level; there are consequently no rivers of magnitude, but a number of smaller streams. The climate is not unlike our own, partaking greatly of the characteristics of a northern region, indented by the sea. The atmosphere is often thick and cloudy, but the extremes of cold, and still less those of heat, are seldom intense, or of long continuance. The moisture of the air affords, as in Britain, a freshness and richness of pasture, which is sought in vain in the interior and southern parts of Europe; hence the superiority of their horses and

horned cattle, both of which are much valued, and form a considerable article of export, particularly from Holstein; the annual export of horses exceeds 15,000, the value L. 200,000. Butter and cheese are likewise abundant, and are exported in large quantities. Sheep were not improved with equal success, their wool being short and coarse; they have, however, of late, been considerably ameliorated by an intermixture with merinos.* The agricultural produce consists of oats, barley, beans, peas, and particularly of potatoes: wheat is raised, but not to a great extent. Hops, flax, and hemp, are also objects of cultivation, but in inconsiderable quantities. Gardening is little practised, unless in the island of Amak, the grand store-house for kitchen vegetables for the adjacent metropolis. Madder is good in quality, and considerable in quantity.

The forests of Jutland, formerly so extensive, have now in a great measure disappeared; hence the necessity of importing timber for building, and of resorting to turf for fuel. Of salt, a large quantity is made from brine springs, near Oldesloe; but as this is the only salt work in the kingdom, a great importation of the article takes place annually. Of coals, very few veins have as yet been found.

There has not been for some time back a complete enumeration of the inhabitants; judging from the returns of 1803 and 1811, we should put down the following as approximate numbers.

So that since the dismemberment of Norway (the population of which exceeded 900,000), the Danish dominions do not contain above 1,800,000 inhabitants.

The Danes are of middling stature and fair complexion, habituated, more than the inhabitants of the South of Europe, to the use of animal food and spirituous liquors. The inhabitants of Holstein, and even of Sleswick, partake a good deal of the German character. Without going into any nice discrimination of manners, it may be remarked in general terms, that the Danes have the habits of a people living in a northern latitude,

Denmark. and little acquainted, except in the capital, with the improvements of the more polished part of Europe. The peasantry, moreover, are but recently emancipated from a state of feudal subjection. On the other hand, the Danes possess the advantages resulting from the establishment of the Protestant religion, and from a long exemption from the superstition and idleness attendant on the Roman creed: speaking generally, improvement has made a visible progress among them during the last half century.

Government. The government of Denmark, like that of other Gothic countries, was formerly far from despotic; the succession to the crown was even elective, until the revolution of 1660; a revolution in which monarchy was not only declared hereditary, but absolute, in the most unqualified sense of the word, it being inserted as a fundamental article, that any prerogative not conferred by the act then past, if found to be enjoyed by the king of any other country, was to be tacitly considered as vested in the king of Denmark. This singular change is to be explained, not by supposing, on the part of the nation, an indifference to liberty, but by a resentment of the overbearing conduct of the nobility, and a consciousness of the perpetual uncertainties of an elective government. The court found it thus a matter of no great difficulty to unite the clergy and commons against the aristocracy; and the power of the crown has since continued without any constitutional check. It is tempered, however, in various ways;—by the influence of the reformed faith, the freedom of the press, and the progressive improvement of the nation.

Law. In regard to law, there is as yet no general code for the kingdom at large; Sleswick and Holstein preserving their respective usages and institutions, while Jutland and the islands are governed by the code of Christiern V. Jutland is divided into four; the islands into three great bailiwick.

Revenue, Navy, and Army. The revenue of Denmark is between L. 1,500,000 and L. 2,000,000 sterling a-year; of this about L. 120,000 arise from the dues at the Sound. The national debt, formerly very inconsiderable, has been increased by the emission of paper. Its amount, from the fluctuating value of this currency, hardly admits of calculation, but may be put down at nearly ten millions sterling. In regard to the army, the peace establishment of regulars was, by a late return, 24 regiments, consisting of nearly as many thousand men. In 1801, before their maritime disasters, the Danish navy consisted of more than 20 sail of the line, fit for service, and well provided with stores; the arrangements of the naval arsenal at Copenhagen being an object of general admiration. But their force is much reduced since 1801, and still more since 1807. The naval establishment in peace is calculated for only 4000 men; but as the number of sea-faring people in the kingdom is great, and nearly 15,000 of them are registered for service, there is no difficulty in manning the royal shipping.

Religion. The established religion in Denmark is the Lutheran, which was introduced so early as 1536, the church-revenue being at that time seized and retained by the crown. At present the nomination of the bishops is vested in the king, and the number of these

dignitaries, since the cession of Norway, is only nine; of clergymen the number in Jutland and the islands is 1063; in Sleswick and Holstein 517. The bishops in Denmark have no political character; they inspect the conduct of the subordinate clergy, and confer holy orders, doing, in short, most of what is done by their fellow dignitaries among us, except voting in the legislature. Complete toleration is now enjoyed in Denmark, and considerable progress has been made in diffusing Christianity in Lapland, Greenland, and the East Indies, by a missionary institution long established in Copenhagen.

In regard to manufacture, the Danes have made no conspicuous progress, confining themselves to their own supply in certain articles, and in others importing from this country and Germany. Linen is said to be imported to the value of half a million sterling: to make that manufacture flourish, it would be necessary to produce more flax at home; the freight on so bulky an article adding materially to the price. Earthen-ware is made in many places, but the export of it is inconsiderable; the porcelain manufacture is carried on for account of the crown. The only considerable works in copper and brass are in Holstein; the cannon foundry at Fridrichswark is very extensive; but of iron foundries there are only four in the kingdom. The number of paper-mills throughout the country was, by a late return, only 22; that of sugar refineries 46. The other branches of manufacturing industry worth noticing are the tanning of leather, the knitting of stockings, the making of hats, and, among the peasantry, the practice of making their own linen.

The Danish government was formerly so unenlightened, in regard to the principles of productive industry, as to imagine that labour of almost any kind must be attended with a profit, without considering whether the raw materials were of home growth, or whether the employment in question was particularly adapted to the country; hence encouragements by public premiums and otherwise, to the manufacture of silk, attended with just as little benefit as the assistance so frequently given to our Spital-fields weavers. It is from the north of Germany, and in particular from Lubeck, Hamburg, and Bremen, that improvement in the useful arts has made its way into Denmark; the principal workmen in a former age were, and some even at present are, from that quarter.

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch were the general navigators of Europe; and the commerce of Denmark, such as it then was, was carried on in their vessels. The wars at the close of that century, and still more at the beginning of the eighteenth, were adverse to the extension of mercantile enterprise; but after the peace of Stockholm in 1720, Denmark enjoyed a long continuance of tranquillity, and experienced its happy effects in a regular increase of her productive industry. The conflicts of other nations, particularly our American war (from 1775 to 1783), and still more that of the French revolution, called neutrals into new scenes of navigation, and added greatly to the activity of the Danish sea-ports. In the year 1800, the number of Danish merchantmen exceeded 2000; their tonnage 250,000; their sea-

Denmark. men 20,000. Next came the rupture with England in the spring 1801, which, however disastrous, was of short duration, and would soon have been forgotten in the commercial prosperity that followed our second war with France, had it not been for our extraordinary attack on Copenhagen in 1807; an attack which was followed by the loss to both parties of all the benefits of a state of peace. Stripped of their colonies, and excluded from distant navigation, the Danes could exert themselves only in annoying our traffic in the Baltic; to it they proved a very formidable enemy, and exhibited a striking example of the impolicy of injuring the feelings and violating the independence even of a small state.

The chief commercial towns are Copenhagen, Altona, and Tønningen; of these the trade of the capital is beyond all comparison the greatest. The Greenland whale-fishery forms a considerable branch of Danish navigation; also the intercourse with the different harbours in the Baltic, from several of which they import timber, flax, iron, and corn. From Norway, Denmark receives wood, iron, and fish; from Iceland, oil, beef, tallow, hides, and wool. The trade with that island was, till lately, in the hands of a company of merchants, and afterwards in those of government; since 1788, this absurdity has been relinquished, and the traffic opened to the public. With the Faroe Isles the intercourse is not yet unrestricted: the articles of import are nearly the same as from Iceland. These are insignificant branches; but the Danes are in habits of extensive intercourse with England, Holland, France, and the shores of the Mediterranean. To the last they convey large quantities of dried fish, and derive a profit from hiring their vessels in the ports of Italy and the Levant, their flag being generally respected by the Barbary corsairs.

No country is more favourably situated for fisheries than Denmark, whether we look to its extent of coast, or the numerous inlets of the sea. Fishing, of one kind or other, has accordingly formed, almost from time immemorial, a principal branch of occupation; and it is remarkable, that the waters of the Baltic contain so little salt, that fresh water fish are found to thrive in the arms of the sea.

The navigation from the north of Germany to Denmark, around the northern point of Jutland, being always tedious, and sometimes dangerous, gave rise to the idea of uniting the two seas by a canal, communicating with the river Eyder. It was begun in 1777, and finished in the course of seven years, at a great expence. This is the canal of Kiel, which begins near that town, on the side of the Baltic, and extends eastward about twenty-three miles, when it comes in connection with the Eyder. Its least depth of water is ten feet; it admits vessels of 120 tons burden; and of such small shipping, no less than from 2000 to 3000 pass in a year. Tønningen is the port on the east coast, and the length of navigation from there to the Baltic is about 105 miles.

After 1807, when the open war between Denmark and Britain made the passage by the Sound inexpedient, if not impracticable, for our mercantile convoys proceeding up the Baltic, recourse was had by them to the Great Belt, the width of which is no where less than 10 miles, and in most parts much

greater. Communication by water is very easy in Denmark, but the roads were long neglected; of late, however, considerable improvements have taken place, particularly in Zealand. They were much wanted for mercantile purposes, as well as for travelling; periodical fairs being here, as in other parts of the continent, the grand occasions for the sale of merchandise.

In point of colonies, the Danes, if they have not colonial settlements of first rate importance, are sufficiently settled in regard to number; having establishments in Asia, on the coast of Coromandel and the Nicobar islands; in Africa, at Christiansburg, and other places on the coast of Guinea; and, in the West Indies, in the islands of Santa Cruz, St Thomas, and St John.

The three West India islands just mentioned contain above 30,000 negroes. Their trade with Denmark, subjected formerly to restrictions, is now entirely open. Their average produce may be estimated at 30,000 hhd of sugar and 12,000 casks of rum, part of which are sold on the spot, and the rest conveyed to the mother country. This gives employment to 60 or 70 sail of merchantmen. The planters were indebted to Dutch capitalists for the advances that enabled them to bring their lands into cultivation. The amount of this debt (nearly L. 400,000) was taken over soon after 1786 by the crown of Denmark, on the calculation that it was better that the colonists should owe the money to the mother country than to foreigners.

The Danes possess the fort of Christiansburg on the coast of Guinea. They have the credit of being the first European state that abolished the slave trade; their government having published a preparatory edict in 1792, and the traffic having finally ceased in 1803.

In India the Danes have several factories or settlements, of which the chief is Tranquebar, on the coast of Coromandel. Their East India Company was established in 1732, and the charter has since been repeatedly renewed, each time with an extension of the right of the public to participate. Since 1797 vessels may be sent out to Danish settlements by private undertakers without restriction. The trade to China, however, continues, as with us, in the hands of the company. But these distant voyages and consequent long credits are not suited to a country of such limited capital. The Danes have been introduced to them by the effect of war and the value of a neutral flag. These gave them great advantages in acting the part of carriers; but they had no higher character; for a trifling proportion of the articles imported into Copenhagen during war remained in the country. The capital of the Danish East India Company hardly exceeds half a million Sterling.

The Danish approaches nearer than any of the Scandinavian dialects to German, but it has much less harshness than that language. It is of late only that it has been cultivated for literary purposes. It now contains some good specimens of composition, although rapid improvement is not to be expected in a country of small extent, and where few individuals possess property enough to give them the command of time.

Denmark. The names of the Danish literati of the present age are little known in foreign countries, in consequence partly of the local interest of their publications, but more from their language being so little cultivated abroad. The travels of Niebuhr are familiar to most of our readers; and the name of Malthe Brun, a Dane residing at Paris, and deeply skilled in geography, cannot be altogether unknown to them. But Denmark possesses various writers of merit, such as Bartholin, Langebeck, and Schjonning in Scandinavian antiquities; Holberg, Suhm, and Snedorf in history; Boye, Gamborg, and Freschow in moral philosophy. Physic, natural history, and, in particular, botany, are also cultivated here. In poetry, lyrics are the department in which the Danes have been most successful. There are a number of scattered societies of men of letters, but no collective body on the plan of the French Institute. The University of Copenhagen was founded in 1476 with ample funds, but with very defective regulations; the latter are, however, much improved of late. Kiel has a university on a small scale, but of comparatively late erection, and on a better plan. Odense, the capital of Funen, has a college with four professors. There are nine seminaries for the education of schoolmasters, and the number of village schools, great and small, is computed at no less than 3000.

History. A sketch of the history of Denmark is given in the Encyclopædia down to the beginning of the French Revolution. Since then, the foreign policy of the Danish government has been very simple. It has avoided, as much as possible, to take part in war, and has, on all occasions, held an equal and impartial course between the contending powers. Nothing can be more groundless than the allegations repeatedly brought forward of its disposition to favour the French; neutrality, in the strictest sense, being equally its wish and its policy. Repeated complaints, and occasional detentions of the Danish merchantmen took place on our part, during the war of 1793, without, however, leading to a rupture, until the spring of 1801; when the court of Russia, governed by a madman (Paul I.), and impelled by Bonaparte, prevailed on Denmark and Sweden to join in measures which indicated a disposition to assert the right of conveying enemy's property in neutral bottoms. This alliance was crushed in the outset by our attack on Copenhagen. During our second war with France, Denmark forbore all assertion of these rights, and was admitted by our government to have acted the part of a faithful neutral, even in 1807, when our ministers suddenly adopted the determination of seizing their navy. That singular aggression was defended in parliament, not by charging the Danes with hostile intentions, but by urging their inability to resist the increasing power of France. The measure, however, is deeply to be deplored, both as dishonourable in itself, and as calculated to render our name odious in a country where we should otherwise have found sincere well-wishers and cordial allies. Unhappily the connection into which they were thus forced with France could not be discontinued; and it is to our infraction of their neutrality that they may attribute

the subsequent loss of Norway, which had been governed by the same rulers for four centuries, and had become, both from intimate intercourse and popular feeling, an integral part of the monarchy. There was only one moment in which Denmark had a prospect of separating herself from France—this was at the end of 1812, after Bonaparte's forces had perished in Russia. She availed herself of it, and opened a negotiation with Britain and Russia, which would in all probability have proceeded to an amicable conclusion, had not these powers, in the strain of the preceding year, come under an engagement to Bernadotte, which implied the cession of Norway to Sweden. This cruel circumstance threw the Danes once more into connection with France. When the battle of Leipsic had confirmed the liberation of Germany, Bernadotte had the power of asserting by force of arms his claim to Norway. He invaded Holstein, and, after several severe conflicts, obliged the Danish court to subscribe to the cession of that valuable part of its dominions, in return for Swedish Pomerania, which was subsequently exchanged with Prussia for a part of the country of Lauenburg, and a pecuniary consideration. On the part of England, all was restored except Heligoland. (p. v.)