DANISH FEELING TOWARDS ENGLAND.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—The following extract from a letter written by a Danish Judge of the Supreme Court in Copenhagen will, I think, be interesting to your readers :— " I am sure that the majority of my countrymen are with the British arms in this disastrous war. At the outbreak of the war the people here, as a small nation, and not sufficiently instructed about the matter, took involuntary interest in the smaller one, but now, intelligent men having explained the matter in the papers, English sympathies are the prevailing ones. I give you a curious piece of evidence. Some days ago a meeting was held here, consisting of prominent persons of all parties, with the view to the erecting in Copenhagen a monument in memory of our battle of 1801 with Nelson and the British Fleet. In a way, too complicated to describe here, this battle is con- nected with the rise of public feeling and public opinion in my country, and with a new birth in literature and art. But, nevertheless, the Liberal party—at present the majority of the people—declined to co-operate in erecting a monument if it was not the intention to invite English people to take part in the monument, as one of sympathy, reconciliation, and friendship between the two nations. The question is still pending, but I refer to it because I think it means sympathy when the beaten nation proposes to invite the conquering one to celebrate together the day of the defeat. The world cannot do without English culture. It must be the conqueror, and I heartily hope that the time of victory is near."
—I am, Sir, &c., J. M. L.
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