Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/348

 340] FOEEIGN HISTOEY. [1899.

part of the session, having also been discussed in previous years, was passed by the Lower House towards the end of the session. Having been referred to a committee by the Landsthing it was ultimately passed through both Houses ; as was also a bill dealing with the regulation of property between husband and wife. Altogether, of 124 bills laid before the Eigsdag, forty- three were passed before the closure (March 29) of the fifty- first ordinary session ; but foremost amongst those not meeting acceptance were the four Taxation Bills.

During the summer few political meetings were held, the most important being the one at Odense, where the claims of the farming classes to protection through an import duty were discussed. A resolution was unanimously passed urging the Government to appoint a special commission to investigate and report on this important but intricate question ; and with this request the Government found opportunity to comply.

Without waiting for a further expression of parliamentary opinion three of the Ministers of State handed in their resigna- tions (Aug. 28), viz. 9 M. Bardenfleth, Minister of the In tenor ; M. Bump, Home Secretary and Minister for Iceland ; and Colonel Tuxen, War Minister. The Premier (M. Horring) temporarily took over the portfolios held by M. Bump, and the others were respectively given to M. Bramsen and Colonel Schnack. These changes were of no political importance, but it was thought that the new Ministers might be found more acceptable to the Folkething than their predecessors.

The Eigsdag having reassembled (Oct. 2) for its fifty-second ordinary session, the Minister of Finance at once introduced (Oct. 3) the Budget for 1900-1 — showing a surplus of nearly 7,000 kr., as compared with a deficit of aoout 1,800,000 kr. on the current Budget. The Minister stated that the Budget would be regarded as fairly satisfactory, there being a material increase in almost all the indirect taxes, more especially in the Customs revenue. A new item on the expenditure was a sum of 2,000,000 kr. to be applied on loan towards the purchase of small holdings for agricultural labourers. The Minister also laid the final Budget for 1898-9 before the House, pointing out that the deficit of upwards of 5,000,000 kr. was practically counterbalanced by the Government not having availed them- selves of their right to sell stock for a similar amount which had been voted for the construction of new railways. The debate on the Budget was opened (Oct. 10) by M. Christensen- Stadil, leader of the Left Eeform party, in a speech which gave the keynote of his and his party's attitude towards the Government. He complimented the new War Minister on his personal qualifications — but he looked upon the political conditions for co-operation as extremely unsatisfactory. He (Colonel Schnack) had joined a Ministry, the Premier of which had ignored and slighted the will of the Folkething, and in the plain words of the Constitution, had used money which had not