Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/844

 488 DENMARK

July 28, 1866. According to this charter, the executive power is in the king and his responsible ministers, and the right of making and amending laws in the Rigsdag, or Diet, acting in conjunction with the sovereign. The king must be a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, which is declared to be the religion of the State. The Rigsdag comprises the Landsthing and the Folkething, the former being a Senate or Upper House, and the latter a House of Commons. The Landsthing consists of 66 members. Of these, 12 are nominated for life by the Crown, from among actual or former representatives of the Kingdom, and the rest are elected indirectly by the people for the terms of eight years. The choice of the latter 54 members of the Upper House is given to electoral bodies composed partly of the largest tax- payers in the country districts, partly of deputies of the largest taxpayers in the cities, and partly of deputies from the totality of citizens possessing the franchise. Eligible to the Landsthing is every citizen who has passed his twenty-fifth year and is a resident of the district. The Folkething, or Lower House of Parliament, consists of 114 members, returned in direct election, by universal suffrage, for the term of three years. According to the ConstitutioTi there should be one member for every 16,000 inhabitants. The franchise belongs to every male citizen who has reached his thirtieth year, who is not in the actual receipt of public charity, or who, if he has at any former time been in re- ceipt of it, has repaid the sums so received, who is not in private service without having his own household, and who has resided at least one year in the electoral circle on the lists of which his name is inscribed. Eligible for the Folkething are all men of good reputation past the age of twenty- five. Both the members of the Landsthing and of the Folkething receive payment for their services at the rate of 3 rixdalers (6s. 8d.) per day during the actual session, and are reimbursed for travelling expenses to and from the capital.

The Rigsdag must meet every year on the first Monday in October. To the Folkething all money bills must in the first instance be submitted by the Government. The Landsthing, besides its legislative fiuictions, has the duty of appointing from its midst every four years the assistant judges of the Rigsret, who, together with the ordinary members of the HiJiesteret, form the highest tribunal of the Kingdom (Rigsret), and can alone try parliamentary impeachments. The ministers have free access to both of the legislative assemblies, but can only vote in that chamber of which they are members.

The executive, acting under the king as president, and called the State Council — Statsraadet — consists of the following eight departments : —

1. The Presidency of the Council and Ministry of Finance. — H. E. Horrinq, appointed May 25, 1897.

2. Ministry of the Interior.— V. de Barden/lefJi, May 2r., 1897,