No. 82.
Mr. Cramer
to Mr. Evarts.
Copenhagen, April 14, 1877. (Received May 3.)
Sir: Referring to the last dispatch from this legation, No. 423, of the 9th instant, in which you were informed that the constitutional crisis in Denmark, so long threatening, had at last set in, that the Rigsdag had failed to pass the financial law for the current fiscal year, April 1, 1877, to March 31, 1878, and that the executive government would in all probability issue a provisional financial law, I have now the honor to further inform you that the King, on the 12th instant, issued such a law under his royal seal and signature and countersigned by his cabinet ministers. It is entitled “A provisional law to regulate the revenues and expenditures until the financial law is given for the fiscal year commencing with April 1, 1877, and closing with March 31, 1878,” and translated, reads as follows:
We, Christian the Ninth, &c., &c., make known: That, since in the ordinary session of the Rigsdag which was closed on the 4th of this month, no agreement has been arrived at between the Folkething and the Landsthing on the financial law for the fiscal year 1877 to 1878, we have found it necessary, in accordance with Article XXV of the constitution, through this provisional law, to make such arrangements as are required by the general welfare, in order that the government of the state may be carried on without interruption. Therefore, we order and command as follows:
- § I.
- Until the financial law for the fiscal year April 1, 1877, to March 31, 1878, is given, the government is authorized to meet the necessary current expenses according to the regulations heretofore in force; yet so as not to exceed the total sums and items mentioned in the financial bill for the said fiscal year submitted to the Rigsdag, and, also, to meet those expenses allowed by both the Folkething and the Landsthing under the single reading of said bill on the 31st of March of this year, as well as to collect the existing taxes and imposts.
- § II.
- This law is to go into force on the 16th of April, 1877, and all whom it may concern are to govern themselves accordingly.
To the law, as published in the government journal, is appended d. memorandum addressed to the King and signed by the ministers, reciting the history of the present constitutional crisis, or of the conflict between the lower house (Folkething) of the Rigsdag on the one side, and the Landsthing (upper house) and the ministry on the other. The substance thereof is contained in my No. 423.
Article XXV of the Danish constitution referred to by the King in his provisional financial law reads, when translated, as follows:
The King has the power, in case of urgency, when the Rigsdag is not assembled, to decree provisional laws, provided they are not contrary to the fundamental law. These laws are always to be submitted to the Rigsdag at its following session.
The first part of Article XLVII of said constitution, having reference to taxes, reads thus: “No taxes can be established, modified, or abolished, except by law;” and Article XLIX, having reference to the collection of taxes, reads thus: “Taxes should only be collected after the adoption of the financial law; and no expenditures shall be made which have not been authorized by the said law, or by a supplementary credit.”
According to the three articles quoted above, the provisional financial law issued by the King and countersigned by his ministers is, in my opinion, to be judged.
A noteworthy fact may be mentioned, namely, that since the adjournment of the Rigsdag quite a number of resolutions and addresses adopted at political meetings held in various parts of the kingdom have been sent to the president of the ministry, expressing not only disapproval of the course pursued by the opposition party, but also entire confidence both in the King and the ministry, and encouraging them in their struggle to maintain the rights both of the Crown and the upper house of the Rigsdag.
No disturbance of the public peace has as yet anywhere taken place.
I have, &c.,