THE CRISIS IN DENMARK.
THE news that the situation in Denmark is more threaten- ing than at any period since the revolutionary, times of the year 1848, if unpleasant, is. certainly not surprising. It would seem that the Danish Tories are bent on discovering, the point at which popular discontent turns to popular insur- rection. We cannot say that it would grieve us to see them, chased from office and power by a sharp explosion of national wrath, were it not for the peculiar situation of Denmark and the danger that any internal disturbances might be made an excuse for foreign interference. The action of the governing party in Denmark for the past three years has been so care fully modelled on the worst traditions of English Stuarts and French Bourbons, that it is hard to perceive how the resem- blance can be accidental. Do the reactionary leaders hope to make the Danish kingdom an example to liberal and pro- gressive Europe of the perfection to which the art of ignor- ing the wishes of the people can be still brought in the fourth quarter of the nineteenth century? There is something grimly comical in the idea of a little State like Denmark,, which draws almost all its strength from the respect which Europe feels, or would desire to feel, for the excellence of its administration, being subjected• to all the high and mighty pranks of a set of small imitators of the advisers of Charles L of England and Charles X. of. France, Of the Danish Ministers it may be said that they change but do not improve. The Estrup Cabinet is the repetition of the Fonnesbech-Holstein Cabinet The latter Ministry was ostensibly removed from office in con- Emmanuel hesitate about calling to his councils the leaders sideration of the clear and emphatic reply returned by the whom the Parliamentary verdict marked out for his choice ? constituencies at the General Election, but the Cabinet of M. The result is that the Cabinet of " Socialists" and " Revolt!, Estrup is to its predecessor apparently what a Ministry of the tionists " is conducting the business of the kingdom with at hangers-on and admirers of Polignac would be to the Polignac least as much circumspection as its more Conservative pre- Ministry itself. The change has been illusory. The identity decessors, and that, besides, a good many persons who used t o is real. Government is still carried on by a minority, in the coquette with Republicanism, and perhaps fancy themselves rigid name of a minority, in open defiance of the majority in the Republicans, are now fain to confess that a Constitutional Chamber and in the country. The reactionists are confessedly Monarch, who acts up to the Constitution, is one of "the best unable to conduct the public business constitutionally, and of Republics." In France, in a similar manner, Marshal Mac- they prefer to conduct it unconstitutionally rather than permit Mahon has called M. Jules Simon to the Premiership, and who the leaders of the majority to take the place which the Con- can doubt that affairs will be managed in a much more mo- stitution indicates and which the national liberties demand. derate spirit in consequence ? The Danish " Liberal-Conser- We believe that the Estrup Cabinet calls itself Liberal- vatives " are playing fast-and-loose with the liberties and Conservative. The same pretence was upheld by the Cabinet perhaps the independence of their country, by their parade of of MM. Fonnesbech and party. We need not, however, be at despotic tendencies. A free Denmark implies a free Danish a loss to pierce the thin disguise of such party ambiguities, people, and assuredly a Denmark in which the public revenue when we find the same policy of appealing to the country will be raised, like Stuart ship-money, by royal warrant, instead and then disregarding the verdict of the country, of professing of by lawful taxation, will not be a country in whose preserva- to rule by means of Parliament and of preferring to rule by tion liberty-loving nations can continue profoundly interested. Royal prerogative, maintained in unbroken vigour and cham- pioned with unflinching effrontery. The defence which the governing party and governing THE SITUATION IN CONSTANTINOPLE.
classes in Denmark offer for their defiance of constitutional THE intelligence of the week from Constantinople is be principles is, that if constitutional principles were to strictly 1 decidedly unfavourable to the maintenance of peace. observed, men of " Socialist " ideas would become the leaders General Ignatieff, it seems clear, has made several "concessions," of the State. It is also, we believe, maintained that the Upper such, for example, as consenting to see Bulgaria garrisoned by House is a more real representative of the permanent interests the troops of aneutral and powerless State, under the general con- of the kingdom than the Chamber of Deputies, whose transitory trol of Europe, and possibly—though we do not think so—agree- character is shown by the changing nature of its component ing to be content if Lord Dufferin is appointed Governor-General elements, and that so long as the Landsthing continues to show of Bulgaria, with a body of Anglo-Indian subordinates ; but he has a majority for the Cabinet, the fact of an anti-Ministerial never receded from his original stand-point, that the Christians majority in the mere Volksthing is a regrettable but secondary of European Turkey must be protected by external influence, and consideration. This reasoning, though it may be found in he has probably known that to this very protection the Pashas some of the political manifestoes under which " Disraeli were immovably opposed. At all events, that has turned out the Younger" sought to cover his transition from extreme to be the case. The long contest between Mahommed Rushdi Radicalism and the patronage of Hume and O'Connell to ex- and Midhat Pasha has ended in a victory for the latter,—that treme Toryism and the patronage of the squirearchy, need not is, for the party which maintains that the Ottoman caste, if it be seriously attended to at the present time of day. The fact Makes reforms, must make and supervise them for itself ; that that it receives open expression in some Danish Ministerial any form of occupation or foreign interference is inadmissible ; organs, and implicit adhesion and application in the policy of and that if Russia insists, Russia must be defied in the field. the Cabinet, only exhibits the helpless antagonism which The Powers have therefore been informed, in an informal but exists between the conduct of the Estrup Cabinet and the unmistakable way, that Turkey will make no concessions interests of the Danish nation. The argument that " a social except by proclaiming a Constitution for the whole Empire ; necessity" compels the Ministry to govern against the Consti- and it is at least doubtful whether the regular Conference, tution, inasmuch as government by the Constitution would be fixed for to-day, will ever meet, and whether the Armistice government by anarchists and revolutionaries, is hardly a more will be extended beyond the 2nd January. The so-called respectable, and certainly not a more tenable one. It is true Constitution will be proclaimed at once, and the Turkish that MM. Hansen and Berg, and the other leaders of the Government, with its army all ready and eager for action, Parliamentary majority, would introduce many measures which will await any steps that Russia or Europe may please to take the representatives of some existing interests detest. The in an attitude of quiet scorn.
introduction of Voluntaryism into the State Church is always We are the more inclined to believe in this account of the sure to rouse the passionate indignation of the Tory-parson situation, because it is entirely in accord both with Midhat's element, but where a State Church has admittedly ceased to character and with the known temper of the ruling Pashas at correspond with the wants of the nation, reform may excite Constantinople. The new Grand Vizier is a man of great nerve, opposition without becoming the less urgent on that account. great ambition, and great confidence in the value of audacity ; The Danish peasants prefer to be led, it is reported, by the vil- and he sways Pashas who, on this side, are very willing to lage schoolmaster rather than by the village parson. The cir- follow his directions. They are weary of European dictation. cumstance may be deplorable, but we presume that the peasants They do not want to see Bulgaria well governed, whether by have a right to choose for themselves. As for the reproach Russian Viceroys, or International Commissioners, or Lord of " socialism "—that ready taunt of every Tory to every Dufferin, but want to govern it themselves for their own Reformer—it is simply absurd to imagine that the rural advantage, and think they can govern it quite well enough. electors of Denmark would, year after year, and election after If they are not to govern, they may as well lose the election, persist in putting at the head of the polls a body of province, and that they believe is, the worst that could representatives pledged to the confiscation of landed property. happen even if they were defeated. They do not care It is just as rational to suppose the French peasantry voting for much, to do them justice, about their own necks ; and the abolition of small holdings. A charge more likely to be as to the total overthrow of the Empire, they know trae alleges the utterance of seditious language by the Opposi- that cannot happen until Constantinople is shelled, and tion leaders. " Sedition" is, of course, a formidable affair, but they have satisfied themselves that Great Britain will when a King sworn to rule by the Constitution, persists in not allow the shelling. At heart, indeed, they do maintaining Cabinets which represent nothing but the popular not believe that Great Britain will in the end allow displeasure, it is not to be wondered at that some language them to be defeated in the field. They know nothing very displeasing to royal ears should now and then make itself of public opinion and little of Cabinets, they see that heard. If Kings want to be complimented, they had better not the English Grand Vizier desires war for their sake ; they persist in governing or misgoverning in spite of their subjects. perceive that the most Turkish of Englishmen is allowed-1 For a parallel to the state of things in Denmark, we may go to remain Ambassador to the Porte ; and they hear from their to Italy when the Minghetti Ministry had been rejected by the own Embassy in London that in any event Constantinople vote of Parliament, and when it was clear that the Electorate is to be protected. Consequently, they believe that official was in favour of the present Cabinet. In Italy, as in Den- England is on their side, and will protect them against mark, the reproach of " Socialism " and " Republicanism " was total annihilation. They therefore believe that they freely made against the Left by the party of Signor Minghetti. are only called on to fight Russia, and that in fighting There were, in fact, not a few ex-Republicans and some actual Russia they fight a battle in which they cannot be ruined, and ones in the ranks of the Left. Did, however, King Victor which they can always compromise by granting the terms now
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