Denmark was then governed by a king chosen by a delegation from people of all ranks, assembled in a diet, who in their choice paid a due regard to the family of thepreceding prince; and if they found one of his line properly qualified to discharge the duties of that high station, they thought it just to prefer him before any other, and the eldest son before a younger, if his merits warranted the adoption; but if those of the royal family were either deficient in abilities, or had rendered themselves unworthy by their vices, they chose some other person, and sometimes raised a private man to that dignity. To the king thus elected, and a senate consisting of the principal nobility, the executive powers of the government were entrusted. One of the most fundamental parts of the constitution was the frequent meetings of the states, in order to regulate everything relating to the government. In these meetings new laws were enacted, and all affairs relating to peace or war, the disposal of great offices, and contracts of marriage for the royal family, were debated. The imposing of taxes was merely accidental, no money being levied on the people, except to maintain what was esteemed a necessary war, with the advice and consent of the nation, or now and then by way of free gift, to add to a daughter's portion. The king's ordinary revenue consisted only in the rents of lands and demesnes, in his herds of cattle, his forests, services of tenants in cultivating his ground &c., for customs on merchandise were not then known in that part of the world; so that he lived like a modern nobleman, upon the revenues of his estate. But in the year 1660, the three states, consisting of the nobility, clergy, and commonalty, being assembled in a diet, for the purpose of finding means for discharging the debts incurred by a war with Charles X., king of Sweden, the nobility endeavoured to lay the whole burden on the commons; while the latter, who had defended their country, and particularly their capital, with the utmost bravery, insisted that the nobles, who enjoyed all the lands, should at least pay their share of the taxes, since they had suffered less in the common calamity, and done less to prevent its progress. At this the nobility were enraged, and many bitter replies passed on both sides. At length a principal senator standing up, told the president of the city, that the commons neither understood the privileges of the nobility, nor considered that they themselves were not better than slaves. The word slaves was followed by a loud murmur from the clergy and burghers, when Nanson, the president of the city of Copenhagen and speaker of the house of commons, observing the general indignation it occasioned, instantly arose, and swearing that the commons were not slaves, which the nobility should find to their cost, walked out, and was followed by the clergy and burghers, who proceeding to the brewers'-hall, in the city, debated there on the most effectual means of humbling the arrogance of the nobility. Then it was that the first idea of rendering the crown of Denmark hereditary was started by the bishop of Zealand, but nothing like investing the king with absolute power was at that time thought of, although it was soon after adopted. The assembly afterwards adjourned to the bishop's palace, where the plan of hereditary succession received the unanimous concurrence of the whole assembly.

Frederic III., who then possessed the crown of Denmark, has been represented as a prince naturally supine and unambitious, of engaging manners and a benevolent heart, yet his habits of life were as little likely to render him highly popular as generally odious; but what the common course of events would not have brought about, the exigencies of the times effected. Charles X. of Sweden, having broken the treaty he entered into at Roskild, in the year 1658, and invaded Denmark, for the avowed purpose of subduing both that kingdom and Norway, to annex them to the crown of Sweden, Frederic beheld the impending storm with the firmness of a king'; he renounced his beloved ease, led on his troops

in person, and, by his activity, conduct, and bravery, delivered his capi tal, repelled the invaders, and forced them disgracefully to evacuate his territories. These achievements deservedly endeared him to the people, and before the fervour of their gratitude had subsided, the dissensions between the nobles and the commons broke forth. Had the smallest spark of ambition existed in the king's breast, such an event would have kindled in into a flame; but this prince is represented, by some historians who have related this memorable révolution, as having relapsed into his former habits of inactivity, and that the intrigues of two principal men in his court brought about an event which he himself shewed no solicitude to procure.

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The commons and clergy the next morning repaired in great order to the council-house, where the nobles were assembled; and there the president Nanson, in a short speech, observed, that they had considered the state of the nation, and found that the only way to remedy the disorders of the state was to add to the power of the king, and render his crown hereditary in which, if the nobles thought fit to concur, they were ready to accompany them to his majesty, whom they had informed of their resolution, and who expected them in the hall of his palace. The nobles, filled with a general consternation at the suddenness of this proposal, and at the resolution with which it was made, now endeavoured to soothe the commons by fair speeches; and urged, that so important an affair should be managed with due solemnity, and regulated in such a manner as not to have the appearance of precipitation or tumult. To this the -president replied, that it was evident the nobles only aimed at gaining time, in order to frustrate the intentions of the commons, who came not thither to consult, but to act. After farther debate, the commons growing impatient, the clergy with the bishops at their head, and the burghers, headed by the president, proceeded without the nobles, to the palace, and were met by the prime minister, who conducted them to the hall of audience, whither the king soon came to them. The bishop of Zealand made a long speech in praise of their sovereign, and concluded with offering him an hereditary and absolute dominion. The king returned them thanks; but observed that the concurrence of the nobles was necessary: he assured them of his protection, and promised to ease their grievances.

The nobles, divided among themselves, but abhorring the measure which they were required to sanction, prepared to quit the capital, and several had actually withdrawn. As such a secession would have dissolved. the diet, and nullified the whole proceedings, orders were issued in the king's name, for the gate to be shut, which procured an immediate and explicit acquiescence. On the 16th of October, the estates absolved the king of all obligations he had entered into on receiving the crown; and, two days after, scaffolds covered with tapestry were erected in the square before the castle, when orders were given for the burghers and soldiers to appear in arms, under their respective officers. In the morning, the king and queen, being seated in chairs of state under velvet canopies, received publicly the homage of all the senators, nobility, clergy, and commons; which were performed on the knee, each taking an oath to promote the interest of the sovereign in all things, and to serve him faithfully as became hereditary subjects. Gersdorf, a principal the only person who had the courage to open his lips in behalf of their expiring liberties, He hoped and trusted, he said, that his majesty designed nothing but the good of his people, and not to govern them after the Turkish manner; but wished his successors would follow the example his majesty would undoubtedly set them, and make use of this unlimited power for the good, and not for the prejudice, of his subjects. Those who had paid their homage then retired to the council-house, where the

nobility were called over by name, and ordered to subscribe the oath they had taken, which they instantly obeyed. Thus, in the space of four days, the kingdom of Denmark was changed from a state but little different from an aristocracy, to that of an unlimited monarchy. We here see a house of commons stimulated by resentment, and filled with indignation at the insolence of the nobility, betraying their constituents, and, instead of a noble effort to oblige those nobles to allow them those privileges they had a right to demand, voluntarily giving up for themselves, their constituents, and their posterity, what they ought to have struggled to preserve at the hazard of their lives; while the only comfort the people had left, was, in being freed from the tyranny of their former oppressors, and seeing them as much humbled as themselves.

The revolution being thus accomplished, a new constitution was established, by an edict consisting of forty articles, and entitled "the royal law of Denmark," by which the succession was settled on the king's eldest son, and, on failure of male issue, in the female line. The kings of Denmark and Norway are therein declared to be above all human laws, acknowledging in all ecclesiastical and civil affairs, no higher power than God alone. They may make, interpret, abrogate, and dispense with laws, except the royal law, which must remain irrevocable, and be considered as the fundamental law of the state. The kings of Denmark have likewise the power of declaring war, making peace, imposing taxes, and levying contributions of all kinds. The kings who have reigned since this revolution have been Christian V., (1070); Frederic IV., (1699); Christian VI., (1730); Frederic V., (1746); Christian VII., (1766); Frederic VI., (1808); and Christian VIII., (1840).

In 1792, when the allied powers wished Denmark to take part in the war against France, she maintained her neutrality. But in her accession to the northern confederacy in 1800, she was involved in a war with Great Britain, in which the Danish fleet was defeated at Copenhagen, April 2, 1801. The courage of the Danes very deservedly obtained for them a truce; upon which Denmark acceded to the treaty of Russia with England, evacuated Hamburg and Lubeck, of which she then had possession, and received back her own colonies. At length, in 1807, this state was included in Napoleon's continental policy. A French army stood on the borders of Denmark; Russia had adopted the continental system at the peace of Tilsit; and England thought it her duty to prevent the accession of Denmark to this alliance. To carry that object, an English fleet, conveying a large army, was sent up the Sound; and as the Danish government refused to join in a defensive alliance with Great Britain, as demanded, or to surrender the fleet as a pledge of its neutrality, the capital was bombarded for three days, and the whole fleet, consisting of eighteen ships of the line, fifteen frigates, &c., was delivered up to the British, and carried off. Great Britain now offered the crown-prince neutrality or an alliance. If he accepted the first, the Danish fleet was to be restored in three years after the general peace, and the island of Heligoland was to be ceded to the British crown. The crown-prince, however, rejected all proposals, declared war against Great Britain in October, 1807, and entered into a treaty with Napoleon.

This alliance with France was no sooner concluded than Bernadotte occupied the Danish islands with 30,000 men, in order to land in Sweden, against which power Denmark declared war in April, 1808; but this plan was defeated by the war with Austria, in 1809. The demand made by the court of Stockholm, in 1813, of a transfer of Norway to Sweden, was followed by a new war with this crown, and a new alliance with France. On this account, after the battle of Leipsic, the northern powers who were united against France, occupied Holstein and Slesure. Gluck.

stadt and otner fortifications were captured, and the Danish troops, driven beyond Flensburg:

The court of Denmark seeing the unfavorable position in which the country was placed by the declining fortunes of Napoleon, not only concluded a peace with England and Sweden, but entered into alliance against France, and contributed a body of troops to the allied forces. Denmark was also obliged to cede Heligoland to Great Britain (receiving in exchange several West India islands), and Norway to Sweden (for which she was compensated by Swedish Pomerania and Rugen, but which were afterwards exchanged for Lauenburg with Prussia). A peace was concluded with Russia in February, 1814.

NORWAY.

THE observations that have been made respecting the early history of Sweden and Denmark apply also to Norway. Up to the ninth century it was governed by a number of petty princes; until one more bold and powerful than the rest, named Harold Harfaagre, who had renounced the idols of Scandinavian worship for the doctrines of Christianity, conquered them, and became sole and absolute monarch of the country.

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Like the other christian princes of Europe, Harold Harfaagre wa anxious to introduce the feudal system; and having wrested the various petty principalities from those who before possessed them, he reduced the people to a state of vassalage, and placed a governor over each province, to collect the revenues and hold courts of justice. But among so brave and stubborn a race as these Northmen, many there were who, rather than submit to Harold's despotism, emigrated to other countries, Ireland being among the number. They, however, chiefly settled in Iceland, an uninhabited and uninviting spot, yet in time it became not only very populous, but was the favourite resort of their scalds, or poets, and their historians, whom they treated with every mark of honourable regard.

Norway having become a regular and independent kingdom under Harold Harfaagre, during a reign which lasted more than half a century, many customs were introduced which tended to raise the characters of Norwegians as a nation desirous of cultivating the arts of civilized life, but which still would not abate one iota of its warlike pretensions. He had bestowed fiefs on many of the nobles, amongst whom Rognvald, father of the famous Rollo, duke of Normandy; so that, in fact, it may be said that the usurpation of Harold in Norway led to the settlement of the Normans in France. Harold died in 934, and was succeeded by his son Eric, who proving a tyrant, some of the principal chiefs made propositions to his brother Haco, who had been educated in England, and was then residing at the court of the king of Athelstan. He accordingly went over to Norway, and having pledged himself to abolish the feudal laws, and restore the allodial tenure, he was proclaimed king. Eric seeing that there was no chance of recovering the throne, collected a fleet, and sailed to the Orkney islands, from which point he could readily assail the coasts of Scotland and Northumbria.

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In 1028, Canute the Great, king of Denmark, conquered Norway, but did not long retain possession of it, and the country had its own monarchs again from 1034 to 1380. On the death of Olaf IV., his mother, Margaret, daughter of Waldemar III., king of Denmark, inherited both thrones; from which time Denmark and Norway remained united, till 1814, when its cession to Sweden took place.

THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA.

THE original inhabitants of this gigantic empire (which embraces nearly half of Europe, and the whole of Northern Asia-reaching from the frontiers of China to the confines of Poland, Sweden, and Turkeybesides having vast possessions on the north-western coast of North America) were doubtless a multitude of nomadic tribes, classed under the common appellation of Sarmatians and Scythians. These northern hordes at a very early period began to menace the Roman frontiers, and, even before the time of Cyrus, had invaded what was then called the civilized world, particularly Southern Asia. They inhabited the countries described by Herodotus between the Don and Dnieper; and Strabo and Tacitus mention the Roxolani, afterward called Ros, as highly distinguished among the Sarmatian tribes, dwelling in that district. The Greeks early established colonies here; and in the second century the Goths came from the Baltic, and, locating in the neighbourhood of the Don, extended themselves to the Danube.

In the fifth century, the country in the neighbourhood of these rivers, was overrun by numerous migratory hordes of Alans, Huns, Avarians, and Bulgarians, who were followed by the Slavi, or Sclavonians, a Sarmatian people, who took a more northerly direction than their predecessors had done. In the next century, the Khozari, pressed upon by the Avarians, entered the country between the Wolga and the Don, conquered the Crimea, and thus placed themselves in connection with the Byzantine empire. These and numerous other tribes, directed the course of their migrations toward the west, forced the Huns into Pannonia, and occupied the country between the Don and the Alanta; while the Tchoudes, or ishudi, a tribe of the Fiunic race, inhabited the northern parts of Russia. All these tribes maintained themselves by pasture and the chase, and exhibited the usual barbarism of wandering nomades.

The Sclavonians, coming from the northern Danube, and spreading themselves along the Dnieper, in the fifth and sixth centuries, early acquired, from a commerce with their southern neighbours, habits of civilized life, and embraced the Christian religion. They founded, in the country afterward called Russia, the two cities of Novogorod and Kiof, Their wealth, however, which early attained a commercial importance. soon excited the avidity of the Knohozari, with whom they were compelled to maintain a perpetual struggle; but Novogorod found another and more formidable enemy in the Varangians, a race of bold pirates, who infested the coasts of the Baltic, and who had previously subdued the Courlanders, Livonians, and Esthonians. To these bold invaders the name of Russes, or Russians, is thought, by the most eminent authors, to owe its origin. Be that, however, as it may, it appears certain that, in these dark ages, the country was divided among a great number of petty princes, who made war upon each other with great ferocity, so that the people were reduced to the utmost misery; and the Sclavonians, seeing that the warlike rovers threatened, their rising state with devastation, were prompted, by the necessity of self-preservation, to offer the government of their country to them. In consequence of this, a celebrated Varangian chief, named Ruric, arrived, in 862, with a body of his countrymen, in the neighbourhood of the lake Cadoga, and laid the foundation of the present empire of China, by uniting his people with those who already occupied the soil. Ruric has the credit of being zealous for the strict administra