sarest sign of a poor country. The rix-dollars per annum, with some perfeudal system never took root very quisites; that of a private 6 schellings deeply in Norway: the greater part of a day. The entry into the Danish the lands are freehold and cultivated by states from the German side is natutheir owners. Those which areheld rally strong. The passage between under the few privileged fiefs which Lubeck and Hamburg is only eight still exist in Norway, are subjected miles, and the country intersected by to less galling conditions than farms of marshes, rivers, and lakes. The straits a similar tenure in Denmark. Mar- of the Baltic afford considerable securiage is a mere civil contract among rity to the Danish isles; and there are the privileged orders: the presence of very few points in which an army could a priest is necessary for its celebration penetrate through the Norway mounamong the lower orders. In every tains to overrun that country. The large town, there are two public tutors principal fortresses of Denmark are appointed, who, in conjunction with Copenhagen, Rendsbhurg, Gluchstadt, the magistrates, watch over the in- and Frederickshall. In 1801, the terests of wards, at the same time that Danish navy consisted of 3 ships of they occupy themselves with the care 80 guns, 12 of 74, 2 of 70, 3 of 64, and of the education of children within the 2 of 60; 4 frigates of 40, 3 of 36, 3 of limits of their jurisdiction. Natural 24, and a number of small vessels; children are perhaps more favoured in all 22 of the line, and 10 frigates.* in Denmark, than in any other kingdom of Europe; they have half the portion which the law allots to legitimate children, and the whole if there are no legitimate. A very curious circumstance took place in the kingdom of Denmark, in the middle of the last century, relative to the infliction of capital punishments upon malefactors. They were attended from the prison to the place of execution, by priests, accompanied by a very numerous procession, singing psalms, &c. &c. : which ended, a long discourse was addressed by the priest to the culprit, who was hung as soon as he had heard it. This spectacle, and all the pious cares bestowed upon the criminals, so far seduced the imaginations of the common people, that many of them committed murder purposely to enjoy such inestimable advantages, and the government was positively obliged to make hanging dull as well as deadly, before it ceased to be an object of popular ambition. In 1796, the Danish land forces amounted to 74,654, of which 50,880 were militia. Amongst the troops on the Norway establishment is a regiment of skaters. The pay of a colonel in the Danish service is about 1740 The militia is not embodied in regiments by itself, but divided among the various regiments of the line. The revenues of Denmark are derived from the interest of a capital formed by the sale of crown lands; from a share in the tithes; from the rights of fishing and hunting let to farm; from licences granted to the farmers to distil their own spirits; from the mint, post, turnpikes, lotteries, and the passage of the Sound. About the year 1750, the number of vessels which passed the Sound both ways was annually from 4000 to 5000; in 1752, the number of 6000 was considered as very extraordinary. They have increased since in the following ratio : In 1770, the Sound duties amounted to 459,890 rix-dollars; and they have probably been increased since that period to about half a million. To 47,000 men, regulars and militia; their navy these sources of revenue are to be added | Copenhagen, export Danish ducats to a capitation tax, a land tax, a tax on a large value. The court of Denmark rank, a tax on places, pensions, and has no great credit out of its own the clergy; the stamps, customs, and dominions, and has always experienced excise; constituting a revenue of a considerable difficulty in raising its 7,270,172 rix-dollars.* The follow-loans in Switzerland, Genoa, and Hol. ing is a table of the expenses of the land, the usual markets it has resorted Danish Government: to for that purpose. The Court In the census taken in 1769, the return was as follows: : The minor branches of the In Denmark 707,500 Iceland Secret service money and Faroe Isles Sleswick 2,080,000 Holstein. Navy 1,200,000 East India colonies 180,000 The state of the Danish debt does not appear to be well ascertained. Voyage des deux Français makes it amount to 13,645,046 rix-dollars. Catteau seems to think it must have been above 20,000,000 rix-dollars at that period. The Danish government has had great recourse to the usual expedient of issuing paper money. So easy a method of getting rich has of course been abused; and the paper was, in the year 1790, at a discount of 8, 9, and 10 per cent. There is, in general, a great want of specie in Denmark; for, though all the Sound duties are paid in gold and silver, the government is forced to export a considerable quantity of the precious metals, for the payment for its foreign debts and agents; and, in spite of the rigid prohibitions to the contrary, the Jews, who swarm at Upon the subject of the Danish revenues, see Toze's Introduction to the Statistics, edited and improved by Heinze, 1799, tom. xi. From this work Mr. Catteau has taken his information concerning the Danish revenues. See also the 19th cap. vol. ii. of Voyage des deux Français, which is admirable for extent and precision of information. In general, indeed, this work cannot be too much attended to by those who wish to become acquainted with the statistics of the north of Europe. Oldenbourg and Delmenhurst 79,071 2,016,127 This census was taken during the summer, a season in which great numbers of sailors are absent from their families; and as it does not include the army, the total ought, perhaps, to be raised to 2,225,000. The present population of the Danish states, calculating from the tables of life and death, should be about two millions and a half; the census lately taken has not yet been published. From registers kept for a number of years, it appears that the number of marriages were, to the whole population, as 1 to 125; and the number of births to the whole population were as 1 to 32 or 33; of deaths, as 1 to 38. In 1797, in the diocese of Vibourg, out of 8600 children, 80 were bastard: in the diocese of Fionia, 280 out of 1146. Out of 1356, dead in the first of these dioceses, 100 had attained the age of 80, and one of 100. In 1769, the population of the towns was 144,105; in 1787, it was 142,880. In the first of these years, the population of the country was 641,485; and in the latter, 667,165. The population of Copenhagen consisted, in the year 1799, of 42,142 males, and 41,476 females. The deaths exceeded the births, says Mr. Catteau; and, to prove it, he exhibits a table of deaths and births for six years. Upon calculating this table, however, it appears, that the sum of the births, at Copenhagen, during that period, exceeds the 702 sum of the deaths by 491, or nearly vées and other servile tenures begin to 82 per annum; about of the whole be commuted for money. A bank of population of the city. The whole credit is established at Copenhagen, for kingdom increases, or nearly in the loan of money to persons engaged a year. There is no city in Denmark in speculations of agriculture and minProper, except Copenhagen, which has ing. The interest is 4 per cent., and a population of more than 5000 souls. the money is repaid by instalments in The density of population in Denmark the course of from 21 to 28 years. In Proper is about 1300 to the square the course of 12 years the bank has lent mile. The proportion of births and about three millions of rix-dollars. The deaths in the duchies is the same as in external and domestic commerce of Denmark; that of marriages, as 1 to grain is now placed upon the most 115. Altona, the second city in the liberal footing. The culture of potatoes Danish Dominions, has a population (ce fruit modeste) has at length found of 20,000. The density of population its way into Denmark, after meeting in Marschland is 6000 per square mile. with the same objections which it exThe paucity of inhabitants in Norway perienced at its first introduction from is not merely referrible to the difficulties every nation in Europe. Hops are a of subsistence, but to the administrative good deal attended to in Fionia, though system established there, and to the enough are not yet grown for the supply bad state of its civil and economical of the country. Tobacco is cultivated laws. It has been more than once ex- in the environs of Fredericia, in Jutland, posed to the horrors of famine, by the by the industrious descendants of a monopoly of the commerce of grain French colony planted there by Fredeestablished there, from which, however, rick IV. Very little hemp and flax is it has at length been delivered. The grown in the Danish dominions. They proportion of births to the living, is as had veterinary schools previous to the 1 to 35; that of deaths to the living, present establishment of them in Great as 1 to 49. So that the whole Danish Britain: indeed, there was a greater dominions increase, every year, by necessity for them in Denmark; as no about; and Norway, which has the country in Europe has suffered so worst climate and soil, by about; severely from diseases among its aniexceeding the common increase by mals. The decay of the woods begins nearly of the whole population. to be very perceptible; and great quanOut of 26,197 persons who died in tities, both for fuel and construction, are Denmark in 1799, there were 165 be- annually imported from the other countween 80 and 100; and out of 18,354 who tries bordering the Baltic. They have died in Norway the same year, there pit-coal; but, either from its inferior were 208 individuals of the same ad-quality, or their little skill in working vanced age. The country population is to the town population in the ratio of 13 to 137. In some parts of Nordland and Finmarken, the population is as low as 15 to the square mile. Within the last twenty or thirty years the Danes have done a great deal for the improvement of their country. The peasants, as we have before mentioned, are freed from the soil. The greater part of the clerical, and much of the lay tithes, are redeemed; and the corThe average time in which old countries double their population is stated by Adam Smith to be about 500 years. The same rule is used here as in p. 28. This proportion is a very remarkable proof of the longevity of the Norwegians. it, they are forced to purchase to a considerable amount from England. The Danes have been almost driven out of the herring market by the Swedes. Their principal export of this kind is dried fish; though, at Altona, their fisheries are carried on with more ap. pearance of enterprise than elsewhere. The districts of Hedemarken, Hodeland, Toten, and Romerige, are the parts of Norway most celebrated for the cultivation of grain, which principally consists of oats. The distress in Norway is sometimes so great, that the inhabitants are compelled to make bread of various sorts of lichens, mingled with their grain. It has lately been dis covered that the lichen rangiferus, or from Lubeck to Hamburg. The amount reindeer's moss, is extremely well cal- of cargoes despatched from Copenhagen culated for that purpose. The Norway for Iceland, between the years 1764 and fisheries bring to the amount of a million 1784, was 2,560,000 rix-dollars; that and a half of rix-dollars annually into of the returns, 4,665,000. The comthe country. The most remarkable merce with the isles of Faroe is quite mines in Norway are, the gold mines inconsiderable. The exports from of Edsvold, the silver mines of Konigs-Greenland in the year 1787 amounted berg, the copper mines of Ræraas, and to 168,475 rix-dollars; its imports to the iron mines of Arendal and Krageræ, 74,427. None of these possessions the cobalt mines of Fossum, and the are suffered to trade with foreign nablack-lead mines of Englidal. The tions but through the intervention of Court of Denmark is not yet cured of the the mother-country. The cargoes defolly of entering into commercial specu-spatched to the Danish West Indies conlations on its own account. From the year 1769 to 1792, 78,000 rix-dollars per annum have been lost on the royal mines alone. Norway produces marble of different colours, very beautiful granites, mill and whetstones, and alum. sist of all sorts of provisions, of iron, of copper, of various Danish manufactures. and of some East India goods. The returns are made in sugar, rum, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and coffee. There are about 75 vessels employed in this comThe principal manufactures of Den-merce, from the burden of 40 to 200 mark are those of cloth, cotton-printing, tons. If the slave trade, in pursuance sugar-refining, and porcelain ; of which of the laws to that effect, ceases in the latter manufactures, carried on by the Crown, the patient proprietors hope that the profits may at some future period equal the expenses. The manufactories for large and small arms are at Frederickwaerk and Elsineur; and, at the gates of Copenhagen, there has lately been erected a cotton spinningmill, upon the construction so well known in England. At Tendern, in Sleswick, there is a manufacture of lace: and very considerable glass manufactories in several parts of Norway. All the manufacturing arts have evidently travelled from Lubeck and Hamburg; the greater part of the manufacturers into execution, the Danes will enjoy the are of German parentage; and vast glory of having been the first to erase numbers of manufacturing Germans this foulest blot in the morality of are to be met with, not only in Denmark, but throughout Sweden and Russia. The Holstein Canal, uniting the Baltic and the North Sea, is extremely favourable to the interior commerce of Denmark, by rendering unnecessary the long and dangerous voyage round the peninsula of Jutland. In the year 1785, there passed through this canal 409 Danish, and 44 foreign ships. In the year 1798, 1086 Danish, and 1164 foreign. This canal is so advantageous, and the passage round Jutland so very bad, that goods, before the creation of the canal, were very often sent by land Danish colonies, the establishments on the coast of Africa will become rather a burthen than a profit. What measures have been taken to insure the abolition, and whether or not the philanthropy of the mother-country is likely to be defeated by the interested views of the colonists, are delicate points, which Mr. Catteau, who often seems to think more of himself than of his reader, passes over with his usual timidity and caution. The present year is the period at which all further importation of negroes ought to cease; and if this wise and noble law be really carried Europe, and to abolish a wicked and absurd traffic, which purchases its luxuries at the price of impending massacre and present oppression. Deferred revenge is always put out to compound interest, and exacts its dues with more than Judaical rigour. The Africans have begun with the French: Jam proximus ardet Ucalegon. Tea, rhubarb, and porcelain are the principal articles brought from China. The factories in the East Indies send home cotton cloths, silk, sugar, rice, pepper, ginger, indigo, opium, and ar- though they do not take the sacraments rack. Their most important East Indian exactly in the forms prescribed by the settlement is Fredericksnager.* Den- established church. There is no doubt, mark, after having been long over- however, of the existence of this very shadowed by the active industry of the extraordinary fact; and, if Mr. Catteau's Hanseatic towns, and embarrassed by authority is called in question, we are its ignorance of the true principles of ready to corroborate it by the testimony commerce, has at length established of more than one dozen German statimportant commercial connections with ists. The Danish Church consists of all the nations of Europe, and has 13 bishops, 227 archpriests, and 2462 regulated those connections by very priests. The principal part of the beneliberal and enlightened principles. The fices are, in Norway, in the gift of the regulations for the customs, published Crown. In some parts of Denmark the in 1791, are a very remarkable proof proprietors of the privileged lands are of this assertion. Everything is there the patrons; in other parts, the parishes. arranged upon the most just and simple The revenues of the clergy are from the principles; and the whole code evi- same sources as our own clergy. The dences the striking progress of mer- sum of the church revenues is computed cantile knowledge in that country. In to be 1,391,895 rix-dollars; which is Looking over the particulars of the little more than 500 for each clergyman. Danish commerce, we were struck with The Court of Denmark is so liberal the immense increase of their freightage upon the subject of sectaries, that the during the wars of this country; a whole Royal Family and the Bishop of circumstance which should certainly Seland assisted at the worship of the have rendered them rather less disposed Calvinists in 1789, when they celebrated, to complain of the vexations imposed in the most public manner, the centenary upon the neutral powers during such of the foundation of their church. In periods. In the first six months of spite of this tolerant spirit, it is comthe year 1796, 5032 lasts of Danish puted that there are not more than shipping were taken up by strangers 1800 Calvinists in the whole Danish for American voyages only. The com- dominions. At Christianfield, on the mercial tonnage of Denmark is put at frontiers of Sleswick and Jutland, there about 85,000 lasts. is a colony of Northern Quakers, or Hernhutes, of which Mr. Catteau has given a very agreeable account. They appear to be characterised by the same neatness, order, industry, and absurdity as their brethren in this country; taking the utmost care of the sick and destitute, and thoroughly persuaded that by these good deeds, aided by long pockets and slouched hats, they are acting up to the true spirit of the Gospel. The Greenlanders were converted to Christianity by a Norwegian priest, named John Egede. He was so eminently successful in the object of his mission, and contrived to make himself so very much beloved, that his memory is still held among them in the highest veneration; and they actually date their chronology from the year of his arrival, as we do ours from the birth of our Saviour. There appears to exist in the kingdom of Denmark, according to the account of Mr. Catteau, a laudable spirit of religious toleration; such as, in some instances, we might copy, with great advantage, in this island. It is not, for instance, necessary in Denmark that a man should be a Lutheran before he can be the mayor of a town; and, incredible as it may seem to some people, there are many officers and magistrates who are found capable of civil trusts We should very willingly have gone through every branch of the Danish commerce, if we had not been apprehensive of extending this article too far. Mr. Catteau gives no general tables of the Danish exports and imports. A German work places them, for the year 1768, as follows:Exports, 3,067,051 rix-dollars; imports, 8,215,085.-Ur. Kunden, par Gatspari. To say nothing of the increased sale of Norway timber, out of 86,000 lasts exported from Norway, 1799, 76,000 came to Great Britain. * The Jews, however, are still prohibited from entering the kingdom of Norway. |