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The Netherlands: Church

RELIGION AND EDUCATION. - As early as 1536 the Lutheran religion was introduced into this kingdom, and has secured firm establishment. In that year the Church revenue was seized and retained by the Crown. In no country in Europe was the Reformation introduced in a more bloodless and easy way. The Church affairs are administered by 7 bishops, who have no political character, but inspect the conduct of the subordinate clergy, confer holy orders, and enjoy about the same privileges as ecclesiastical dignitaries in Great Britain, except that of voting in the Legislature. Every sect enjoys religious toleration, all citizens being permitted to "worship God according to their own fashion, provided they do not offend morality or public order." No man is bound to contribute to the support of a form of worship with which he is not in sympathy, nor can he be deprived of his civil and political rights on the score of religion. At one time the Mormon apostles sent out from Utah found an excellent field for proselyting in Denmark, but of late years the emigration to Salt Lake City has been comparatively small. At the latest Church census less than I per cent. of the population belonged to any religious body other than Lutheran. One-third of this number were Jews, and the remainder about equally divided between Catholics, Calvinists, Mormons, Anabaptists, etc. Few countries can compete with Denmark in respect to their educational institutions. School attendance is obligatory upon all children between the ages of 7 and 14. All the schools are managed by a Royal Commission, having no superior but the King. Poor parents pay a nominal sum weekly for the education of their children at the Government schools, so that nearly all the lower classes can read and write. Those who cannot pay for the instruction of their children are afforded equal advantages. Instruction at the public expense is also given in the parochial schools spread all over the country. Of these the number is 2,940; 28 in Copenhagen, 132 in the towns of Denmark, and 2,780 in the rural districts. Confirmation is compulsory; and certificates of baptism, and vaccination are indispensable before entering on service, apprenticeship, or matrimony.

DEPENDENCIES. - Denmark has several colonial possessions scattered over the surface of the globe. These are the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and the Danish West Indies. The Faroe Islands lie nearly midway between Shetland and Iceland. The West India possession are St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas; the latter being the island for which the United States was negotiating a few years ago. Iceland, which down to 1874 was considered as a colony of Denmark, now has a constitution and an independent administration. While the whole continent of Greenland is nominally in the possession of Denmark, she really has but a few trading stations along the western coast. The West India possessions alone are of any commercial importance. The inhabitants, mostly free negroes, engage in the cultivation of sugar-cane, the exports of raw sugar reaching from

12,000,000 to 16,000,000 lbs. annually, while of rum upwards of 1,000,000 gals. are exported.

GOVERNMENT. - The succession to the Crown of Denmark was elective until 1660, when the Government became entirely without constitutional check upon the will of the king. For a period of nearly 200 years the succession was hereditary and the Government despotic. It was not until 1849 that the then reigning monarch, Frederick VII., upon coming to the throne agreed to make great concessions, promising to resign his nearly absolute power, and the charter which was drawn up and signed by the king, acknowledged the principal of limited monarchy, and made the future government of the kingdom dependent upon a Parliament, or Diet, consisting of two houses, both elective, the King and his responsible Ministers holding the executive power. The religion of the State is the Evangelical Lutheran, and of this Church the king must be a member. The Diet or, as it is generally termed, the Rigsdag, is composed of the Landsthing and the Folkething, the former corresponding to our Senate and the latter to the House of Representatives. A portion of the Landsthing is nominated by the Crown for life, and the remainder elected indirectly by the people for a term of 8 years, while the entire membership of the Folkething are returned in direct election, by universal suffrage, for a period of 3 years. Every male citizen who has reached his 30th year, and is not a pauper, is entitled to the elective franchise. The Landsthing has the privilege of discussing the budget, while the Folkething confines itself to local affairs. The executive body, acting under the King as President, consist of the Ministers of the following departments, in addition to the President of the Council, who is also the Minister of Finance :- Foreign Affairs, the Interior, Public Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs, Minister of Justice and for Iceland, War, and Marine. The army on a war footing numbers 50,552; the navy consists of 37 steam vessels, of which 4 are ironclads, mounting in all 227 guns, with 1,270 officers and men.

HISTORY. The earliest historical accounts show that Jutland was inhabited by a large number of petty chieftains, warlike, and constantly bent upon subduing one another. They were entirely distinct from the Eastern Danes of the islands. These also were ruled by a variety of chiefs. Western Denmark was known to the Northmen as Red Gotland, and consisted of all the mainland N. of the Elbe, that is, Holstein, Schleswig, and Jutland. There is an immense number of mythical and semimythical stories concerning the early history of Denmark. About the first authentic account commences with the 10th century, when we hear of the Danes planning and executing their predatory excursions by land and water, crossing a sea 400 m., with no knowledge of the compass, descending upon Scotland at the N., and sweeping into what has become known as Normandy in France, conquering the natives. In the 11th century the great Canute, King of Denmark, completed the conquests begun by his father, and became King of England as well as Denmark in 1018. In 1042 the Danish dynasty in England came to a close, Harold and Hardicanute having followed Canute in brief reigns. In 1217 the authority of the King of Denmark, through force of arms, was established over Holstein and Pomerania, and over a large part of the N. of Germany-all, in fact, N. of the Elbe. With her victories of arms came acknowledged commercial supremacy, and the Baltic was regarded as a Danish inland sea, to visit which every foreign vessel was compelled to pay heavy toll. It was in 1397 that the most important event in the history of Denmark, in the middle ages, occurred in the conjunct submission of Sweden, Denmark, and Norway under one monarch, Margaret, the daughter of Valdemar III., who had married the King of Norway, and was at this time his widow. This act in history is known as the Treaty of Calmar. The union of the 3 countries remained in force until 1523, when insurrections in Sweden led to a definitive separation of the 2 Crowns. Norway remained with Denmark until 1848, when it was ceded to Sweden. In 1660, after a series of wars with neighboring States, the monarch turned his attention to domestic politics, and succeeded in taking the Crown, hitherto in some degree elective, and forming an absolute monarchy with right of succession. From this time down to 1848 the history of Denmark is characterised by almost continuous deeds of arms, the rapidly changing map of Europe, brought about by the aggrandizing policy of succeeding monarchs, necessitating either offensive operations or alliances that would aid in warding off the attempts at appropriations of portions of the kingdom. In 1848 an outbreak occurred in the Duchy of Holstein that threatened the entire kingdom. It had the effect to draw Prussia into the contest against Denmark, she having long had an eye upon both Holstein and Schleswig, and a portion of her army co-operated with the Holsteiners in their insurrection. It ended, however, after severe fighting, with a peace concluded in Prussia, in 1850, by which the latter abandoned the Duchies to their own fate, and soon afterwards aided in their subjection. This was brought about largely by the intervention of Austria. A protocol drawn up at London in 1852 returned the Duchies under Danish sway. But these treaties did not fulfil the expectations of the parties to them as to a settlement of the agitation in the Duchies. In 1863 the King, Frederick VII., died very suddenly, and under the protocol, based upon the event of the King dying without direct male issue, Prince Christian, of Glucksburg, was proclaimed King as Christian IX. At the same time the Duke of Augustenburg appeared in Schleswig and laid claim to the throne under the title of Frederick VIII. The pretender's claims were supported by Prussia, Austria, and other German States, and before the end of the year Prussian and Austrian troops occupied the Duchies. Germany peremptorily called upon Denmark to give up Schleswig-Holstein to military occupation until the claims of the Duke of Augustenburg should be settled. After appealing to France and England, and receiving what it considered encouragement, Denmark declared war against Germany early in 1864. In the contest which ensued, the Danish army/ met with a series of reverses which almost caused a panic in the country. France and England showed no intention of taking part in the contest. Everywhere the German arms were victorious. At last the Danes gave way, accepted the terms of the peace of Vienna in October 1864, and Christian IX. renounced all right to Lauenburg, Holstein, and Schleswig. Although it was understood that the Duchies should be restored to Denmark, should the people so express their wish by a popular plebiscite, they have ever since remained an integral part of Prussia. Although so extensively dismembered, Denmark has prospered to an astonishing degree, through the steady and combined industries of her people. The Danes are thrifty, their habits in this respect much resembling those of the N. Germans.