Constitution and Government.
The present Constitution of Denmark is embodied in the charter of June 5, 1849, which was modified in some important respects in 1855 and 1863, but again restored, with various alterations, by a statute which obtained the royal sanction on 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 members of the Folkething, and the rest are elected indirectly by the people, for the term of eight years. The choice of the latter 54 members of the Upper House is given to electoral bodies composed partly of the largest taxpayers 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 thirtieth year, and is of unspotted reputation. The Folkething, or Lower House of Parliament, consists of 101 members, returned in direct election, by universal suffrage, for the term of three years. The franchise belongs to every male citizen who has reached his twenty-fifth year, who is not in the actual receipt of public charity, or who, if he has at any former time been in receipt 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 thirty. Both the members of the Landsthing and of the Folkething receive payment for their services, at the same rate.
The Rigsdag must meet every year on the first Monday of 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 electing from its midst every four years the assistant judges, four in number, of the Höiesteret, or Supreme Court, who, together with the four judges, form the highest tribunal of the kingdom, 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.
