No. 80.
Mr. Cramer
to Mr. Fish.
Copenhagen, December 8, 1876. (Received December 27.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the political situation here is extremely unsatisfactory to the public.
About a year ago the lower house of the Rigsdag, the opposition or peasants’ party being in the majority in that house, was dissolved and new elections were held, both by order of the King. But a still larger opposition majority was returned to that house.
On the 2d of October last the ordinary annual session of the Rigsdag was opened without a “speech from the throne.” Since then the opposition majority in that house has pursued a course of systematic opposition by rejecting all, or nearly all, the bills introduced by the ministry that have a political coloring or significance. The most important among them are the bills contemplating the reorganization of the army (as provided in the existing army law) and navy $ the modification of the tariff; the construction of new forts and war-vessels, &c. The discussion of the financial bill has also thus far been delayed. (The Danish fiscal year closes with the 31st of March of each calendar year.)
Now, according to the constitution of Denmark, the Rigsdag cannot be in session longer than two months at a time without the consent of the King. The first two months of the present session having expired on the 2d of this month, the president of the ministry on that day communicated to both houses of the Rigsdag a royal resolution, by which its session is prolonged till the 2d of February next. It is doubtful whether the King will prolong the session beyond that date, unless the lower house should show a will to pass the financial bill before the close of the present fiscal year. That this will be done, is extremely uncertain. On the contrary, it appears to be the intention of the opposition majority in the lower house (the upper house having a large majority on the side of the government) either to compel, if possible, the present ministry to resign, and the King to select a ministry from among themselves, or, in case this is not done, to refuse to pass the financial bill, and thus to cut off the means of carrying on the government.
Now, it is well known here that the King has an intense aversion to select a ministry from among the opposition or peasants’ party; and the present ministry has also declared that, possessing, as it does, the full confidence of the King, its members will not resign unless men could be found strong and influential enough to carry all the proposed measures through the Rigsdag. Thus, the lower house on the one side, and the upper house and the executive government on the other, have virtually come to a dead-lock in legislative matters. What will be the outcome, is difficult to conjecture. It is supposed that, if the lower house refuses to pass the financial bill, or passes it in such a form as to be unacceptable to both the upper house and the ministry, the latter will then adopt a provisional financial law; in which case the lower house would impeach the ministry before the Rigsret. The much-discussed question, whether a ministry has the right to adopt a provisional financial law in case the regular financial law has, for some reason or other, failed to be [Page 120] passed by the Rigsdag, would then have to be settled by the Rigsret. The Rigsret, whose sole business is to decide constitutional questions, is composed of the ordinary members of the supreme court of the kingdom together with an equal number of members of the upper house of the Rigsdag, who are elected by that house for a term of four years. How the question referred to would be decided by the Rigsret, no one has ventured, so far as I am aware, to express a decided opinion.
It appears that Denmark, if it has not yet arrived, will soon arrive at a constitutional crisis; and while there is much dissatisfaction at this state of things among all classes of the population, it has as yet produced no disturbance of the public peace, and it is not likely that it will.
I am, &c.,