Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/97

 Aalborg, of Viborg, and of Elbe. They have no political function by reason of their office, although they may, and often do, take a prominent part in politics. Dissent is comparatively unknown, or at least it has not yet become a serious danger to the national church. The Mormon apostles for a considerable time made a special raid upon the Danish peasantry, but the emigration to Great Salt Lake City is now but small. Roman Catholics were until lately hardly existent in Scandinavia, where their presence was not tolerated. The following statistics will show the proportion of religious bodies at the census of 1870:—Lutherans, 1,770,000; Jews, 4300; Baptists, 3200; Mormons, 2200; Roman Catholics, 1800; Irvingites, 350. Complete toleration is now enjoyed in Denmark.

The educational institutions of Denmark have reached a very high degree of perfection; indeed few countries, if any, can compete with Denmark in this respect. Most of the peculiar advantages in the Danish system seem to arise from this, that all schools, both grammar and other, have been put in a state of dependence on the university of Copenhagen, and under its control, while the university itself is particularly well managed. All educational institutions of the country are now managed by a royal college, consisting of three or four assessors and a president, called the royal commission for the university and grammar schools. This commission has no superior but the king, and reports to him directly. It appoints all professors in the university of Copenhagen, all rectors, co-rectors, and other teachers of grammar schools, and also promotes these functionaries from lower to higher grades. Education is compulsory. Poor parents pay a nominal sum weekly for the education of their children at the Government schools, so that almost all the lower class can read and write. Confirmation is also compulsory, and till that rite has been received, the youth of both sexes are in statu pupillari. Certificates of baptism, confirmation, and vaccination are indispensable before entering on service, apprenticeship, or matrimony.

Territorial divisions.—These consist of provinces, amts, and parishes. The provinces are seven, and correspond to the episcopal sees above mentioned. Of these provinces three are in the islands:—Zealand, which includes Bornholm and Möen; Lolland and Falster, comprising those two islands; and Funen, which also includes Langeland, Ærö, and Taasinge. Four provinces are on the mainland:—Aarhuus, occupying the south-east of Jutland; Aalborg, the north; Viborg, the centre; and Ribe, the south-west of the same. Each of these provinces is divided into several amts, answering very much to the English hundreds.

The only large city in Denmark is Copenhagen in Zealand, which was estimated in February 1876 to have a population of 199,000, and, with its suburbs, of 233,000. Thirteen other towns contain 5000 inhabitants and upwards—viz., Odense (Funen), 17,000; Aarhuus (Jutland), 15,000; Randers and Aalborg (Jutland), 12,000 each; Horsens (Jutland), 11,000; Helsingör (Zealand), 9000; Fredericia (Jutland), 7000; Viborg (Jutland), Svendborg (Funen), and Veile (Jutland), 6000 each; Rönne (Bornholm), Slagelse (Zealand), Kolding (Jutland), and Roeskilde (Zealand), 5000 each.

Communication both by land and water is well provided for in Denmark. A railway from the Schleswig frontier proceeds to Fredericia, from whence one branch passes to the extreme north of Jutland, another crosses the island of Funen from Middelfart to Nyborg. This is the direct route from Germany to Copenhagen. From Nyborg a packet crosses the Great Belt to Korsör, and thence another line runs through Zealand to Copenhagen. There is also a south Zealand line, from Roeskilde to Vordingborg, which is continued through the island of Falster, besides

a short line in Lolland. The only canal is the Thyborön, a short canal which connects the Liim Fjord (the arm of the sea which penetrates so far into the north of Jutland) with the German Ocean. This is a natural canal, formed after the Agger channel (a passage opened by the storm of the 3d of February 1825) had become choked with sand. The canal can only be used by vessels of very small burden.

Dependencies.—The colonial possessions of Denmark are the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland, and the Danish West Indies. The Faroe Islands are an archipelago nearly midway between Shetland and Iceland. They are considered as an out-lying amt of the mother-country rather than as a colony. Seventeen of these islands are inhabited; the largest is Stromö, on the eastern shore of which is built the capital Thorshavn. The islands are governed by an amtmand.

Iceland is a large island at the north-western extremity of the map of Europe, just outside the Arctic Circle. Until lately it was considered as a colony of Denmark, and was subject to a tyrannous exercise of the laws of the mother country on the part of small officials. At the visit of Christian IX., however, in 1874, it received a constitution and an independent administration, which came into force in August of that year.

The possessions of Denmark in the West Indies consist of three islands lying to the east of Porto Rico. Of these St Croix is the largest, and St John the smallest, while the chief town and the residence of the governor are on St Thomas. A few years ago the last named island was offered to and very nearly purchased by the United States, but the proceedings fell through.

The whole peninsula or continent of Greenland is nominally in the possession of Denmark; but in point of fact her dominion there is limited to a few scattered trading stations along the western coast. It is divided into two provinces, north and south. Of these, the former contained, according to a census of 1874, 4095 native inhabitants, and the other 5512. The whole European population was only 236, the inhabitants of the entire colony thus numbering 9843.

Population.—There was a census of Denmark taken in 1870, according to which the population of the mother country was 1,784,741, of the Faroe Isles 9992, and of the other dependencies 117,409. On the 1st of February 1876 the following official estimate was made:—

Denmark proper has 130 inhabitants to the English square mile. The density of population is much greater on the islands than in Jutland, Zealand having nearly 250 inhabitants to the square mile. The increase in the population of the towns has of late years been very rapid, and has much exceeded that of the country districts. Of the provincial towns, the most prosperous is Aarhuus, which, from being comparatively insignificant, has become the most important place in Jutland. The only exception to this rapid increase is in the case of the towns on the new German frontier, especially Fredericia and Ribe. 