62

LAWS OF DENMARK.

A few miles from the capital, on one side of the public road,

is a plain and simple monument, expressive of the condition of those who raised it: it was erected by the peasants of the late Count Bernstoff, in gratitude for their liberation:

'Tis liberty alone that gives the flow'r

Of fleeting life its lustre and perfume;
And we are weeds without it.

Cowper.

Curiosity led me one day into the principal court of judicature it was a handsome large room, in a range of buildings in which the governor of the city resides: the throne was in front; twelve judges presided attired in rich costume; there were only two advocates present, who wore embroidered capes and blue silk gowns. The laws of Denmark, with an exception to the forest laws, are simple and wholesome, and are impartially administered, although the king is despotic. Justice does not appear, preceded by Corruption, and followed by Famine. There is one law in Denmark which restrains the tyranny of parents towards their children, that deserves to be particularly mentioned: No parent can, by his own act, disinherit his child: if he thinks that his son will dishonour him, and dissipate his fortune, he cannot change the usual channel of his property, without applying to the sovereign for permission, who, in council, cautiously considers the allegation and answer; and thus the refusal or permission is the result of a public process. Admirable as the laws of England are, it

GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK.

63

would be well if such a law as this, adapted to the genius of the constitution, could be introduced. Alas! in England, how often is the happiness of an excellent child sacrificed to the unnatural caprice or pride of an angry, foolish, mercenary parent!

The mildness of the Danish government is such, that when the king and the subject, as is frequently the case, happen to be engaged in litigation, respecting titles to land, the judges are recommended, if the point be dubious, to decree in favour of the subject. A short time before we arrived, a woman had been found guilty of murder, and she was sentenced only to four years of solitary confinement. The Crown Prince is unwilling to see the sword of justice stained with human blood: he is merciful almost to a fault;

The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heav'n,
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed:
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.

The internal taxes are raised or reduced at the discretion of the king, which with the customs and tolls upon exports and imports, the duties paid by foreigners, and his own demesne lands and confiscations, constitute the revenues of the crown. The land tax ad valorem is admirably managed in Denmark, by which the soil is charged according to its fertility, which is estimated by the quantity of grain required to sow a certain

64

HOSPITALITY OF THE DANES.

quantity of land. This tax is formed into classes: the peasants have no assignable property in the soil, like tenants in England upon long leases; they contract with their lord to cultivate so much land, in the manner prescribed by the ordinances respecting agriculture, and pay their rent either in money or provision. Such is the law now, that they can experience no oppression :

Princes and Lords may flourish or may fade,

A breath can make them as a breath hath made,
But a bold Peasantry, their Country's pride,
When once destroy'd can never be supplied.

The hospitality of the numerous and highly respectable famity of the De Conincks, the principal merchants at Copenhagen, would not suffer us to quit the capital, without visiting their beautiful seat called Dronningaard or Queen's palace. As we reserved Sunday for this little country excursion, we learned, not without some inconvenience, that the Danes are remarkably rigid in their observance of the hours of worship. On that day during divine service no one is permitted to quit or enter the city but at one gate. Immediately after we had passed the wrong draw-bridge, the clock struck eleven, and the gate closed upon all erratic sinners: this unlucky event compelled us to go round the ramparts, and make a deviation of several miles. Thoroughly impressed as I am with the necessity of preserving the sanctity of the Sabbath, I must confess I am at a loss to see the utility of barring gates to keep

religion in. This expedient appears to me as useless as that of a burgomaster, who, upon a favourite lady flying to him in tears to tell him that her canary bird had escaped from its cage, ordered the drawbridges of the town to be raised to prevent the elopement of the little fugitive. The gates are shut in summer at twelve, and in winter at seven at night.

Dronningaard is the first private residence in Denmark, lies about sixteen English miles from the city; the grounds, which are very extensive, and tastefully laid out, slope down to a noble lake, twelve English miles in circumference, and is skirted with fine woods, and romantic country houses. At the end of a beautiful walk I was struck with the appearance of an elegant marble column, on a tablet affixed to which was inscribed:

"This Monument is erected in gratitude to a mild and
beneficent Government, under whose auspices

I enjoy the blessings that surround me."

In another part of the grounds, in a spot of deep seclusion, we beheld the ruins of a hermitage, before which was the channel of a little brook, then dried up; and a little further, in a nook, an open grave and a tomb-stone.

The story of this retired spot deserves to be mentioned. Time has shed many winter snows upon the romantic beau

K

66

THE HERMIT OF DRONNINGAARD.

ties of Dronningaard, since one who, weary of the pomp of courts and the tumult of camps, in the prime of life, covered with honours and with fortune, sought from its hospitable owner permission to raise a sequestered cell, in which he might pass the remainder of his days in all the austerities and privation of an anchorite. This singular man had long, previous to the revolution in Holland, distinguished himself at the head of his regiment, but in an unhappy moment the love of aggrandizement took possession of his heart, and marrying under its influence, misery followed: and here, in a little wood of tall firs he raised this simple fabric: moss warmed it within, and the bark of the birch defended it without; a stream of rock water once ran in a bed of pebbles before the door, in which the young willow dipt its leaves; and at a little distance from a bed of wild roses the labernum gracefully rose and suspended her yellow flowers: he selected an adjoining spot for the depository of his remains when death

like a lover's pinch

That hurts, but is desir'd,

should have terminated all his sufferings here. Every day he dug a small portion of his grave until he had finished it: he then composed his epitaph in French, and had it inscribed upon a stone; the reader I think will be pleased with it in the English dress which it has received from the distinguished pen of William Hayley, Esq. :