Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/879

 CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT 757

services at the rate of 10 kroner [lis. Id.) per day, including Sundays and holidays, during the first 6 months of the session, and 6 kroner (6s. 8d.) for each additional day of the session. Members must accept payment. They also receive second-class free passes on the railways and may charge travelling expenses to and from Copenhagen at the beginning and end of the session.

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 functions, has the duty of appointing from its midst every four years judges who, together with the ordinary members of the Hoiesteret, form the Rigsret, a tribunal who 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 (appointed July 5, 1910), acting under the king as president, and called the State Council — Statsraadet — consists of the follow- ing ten departments : —

1 and 2. The Presidency of the Council and Ministry of Defence. — Klaus Berntsen.

3. Ministry of Foreign Affairfi—Q. W. G. Ahlefeldt-Lmcrvig.

4. Ministry of the Interior. — J. Jensen- Sondcrup.

5. Ministry of Justice. — F. T. Biilow.

6. Ministry of Finance. — Niels Neergaard.

7. Ministry of Puhlic Instruction and Ecclesiastical Affairs. — Jacob A2)pel.

8. Ministry of Agriculture.. — Anders Nielsen.

9. Ministry of Public Works. — Thomas Zarse^i.

10. Ministry of Commerce and Navigation. — 0. H. V, B. Muus.

The ministers are individually and collectively responsible for their acts, and if impeached, and found guilty, cannot be pardoned without the consent of the Folkething.

Landsthing, elected 1910 : — 28 Right, 23 Left, 5 Free Conservatives, 4 Socialists, 4 Radicals, and 2 Independents.

Folkething, elected 1910 :— 57 Left, 20 Radical Left, 24 Socialists, 13 Right.

Denmark is divided into 18 counties (Amter), each of which is administered by a Governor (Amtmand), and the counties into Hundreds (Herreder), each with a portion of the Peace (Herredsfoged or Birkedommer). In the towns there is a Mayor, appointed by the government, with or without aldermen. The Hundreds are divided into parishes of which there are, in all, about 1,100. Copenhagen forms a district by itself, and has its own form of administra- tion.

The chief of the dependencies of the Crown of Denmark, Iceland, has its own constitution and administration, under a charter which came into force August 1, 1874. By the terms of this charter, modified by two laws of October 3, 1903, the legislative power is vested in the Althing, consisting of 40 members, 34 elected by popular suffrage, and 6 nominated by the king.