THE REFORMER.
1770-1771.
A short time after Bernstorff's fall and Osten's promotion, Struensee
was appointed (or rather appointed himself) Master of Requests, a
new office which, as the English envoy said, "might mean anything or
everything". It was an office invented by Struensee, and in practice
seemed to combine the authority of Prime Minister with power to
interfere in every department of government. The only obstacle which
now stood between the imperious minister and absolute power was the
Council of State, which had lost enormously in prestige since the
dismissal of Bernstorff and the royal rescript limiting its powers.
This council was a committee of nobles with conservative tendencies,
and though it was no longer able to decide anything, it still had the
power to delay new measures. Struensee, who determined to break the
power of the nobility in the same way as he had broken the yoke of the
foreign envoys, therefore resolved on a daring step. He would abolish
the Council of State, and place all authority in the hands of the King.
After going through the farce of appointing a committee, who reported
exactly as it was ordered to report, Struensee swept away the Council
of State by the following decree which, though drawn up by the
Minister, was written throughout and signed by the King:--
"We, Christian VII., by the Grace of God King of Denmark, Norway, of
the Goths and Wends, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, Stormarn and the
Dittmarsches, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst, etc., etc., decree
and announce herewith:
"As the affairs of state in an absolute government are only confused
and delayed when many of the nobility take part in them, owing to the
power and honour which they acquire from time and custom, and the
despatch of business is thereby retarded,
"We, who have nothing so much at heart as zealous promotion of the
public weal, hereby declare that We will not let Ourselves henceforth
be checked or hindered in those measures and arrangements that are for
the national good.
"We therefore think fit to abolish and absolutely suppress Our former
Council of State. In doing this Our object is to restore to the
constitution its original purity, and maintain the same. Thus, then,
the form of government will henceforth be, and remain exactly, as it
was handed to Our ancestors of glorious memory by the nation, and
nothing will remain to make it seem that We wish in any way to depart
from the sense and intention with which the nation transmitted it to
Our ancestors. In further confirmation of this We have had the present
decree drawn up in duplicate both in Danish and German, and command
that the copies shall be preserved for ever in the archives of the
chanceries.
"Given under Our royal hand and seal at Our palace of Frederiksberg
this December 27, 1770.
(Signed) "CHRISTIAN."[153]
[153] Translated from the original document in the royal archives of
Copenhagen.
The constitution which the King in this decree stated that his
ancestors received from the nation was the _Lex Regia_, or royal law of
Denmark and Norway, promulgated in 1660 by Frederick III. It had its
origin in a revolution against the power of the nobles, who had reduced
the King to a mere puppet of sovereignty, and formed an oligarchy which
governed the country entirely in their interests. Frederick III. freed
himself from this thraldom by a _coup d'état_, and with the consent of
the burghers and people, and the enforced sanction of the nobles, he
established the _Lex Regia_. It was therefore a most convenient weapon
for Struensee to refurbish and use against the nobles again, for with
a half-imbecile monarch, the whole of its tremendous powers would pass
to the Minister. Some description of this law may be given to show the
power which Christian VII., or rather Struensee the reformer, proposed
to gather into his own hands.
[Illustration: THE FREDERIKSBERG PALACE, NEAR COPENHAGEN.
_From a Print, temp. 1770._]
The _Lex Regia_ consisted of forty articles, which declared, _inter
alia_, that "the hereditary kings of Denmark and Norway shall, and
must, be regarded by their subjects as the only supreme chiefs on
earth. They shall be above all human laws, and whether in matters
spiritual or matters temporal shall recognise no other superior
than God." That "the King only has the supreme right of making and
interpreting laws, of abrogating, amending, or superseding them".
That "the King only has the power of conferring office, or removing
from office, according to his mere pleasure". That "all dignities
and offices of whatsoever kind are derived from the King, and held
at his will". That "the King alone has the right of disposing of the
fortresses and troops of the realm; he alone can declare war, with
whom, and when, he pleases; he alone can make treaties, impose taxes,
or raise contributions of any kind". That "the King alone has supreme
jurisdiction over all the ecclesiastics of his dominions; he alone can
regulate the rites and ceremonies of public worship, convoke councils
and synods, terminate their sessions, etc.". That "all the affairs of
the kingdom, all letters and public acts, can only be expedited in the
royal name--sealed with his seal and signed by his hand". That "the
King shall not be required to take any oath or form any engagement,
whether verbal or written, since in quality of free and absolute
monarch, his subjects can neither impose an oath upon him nor prescribe
any conditions to limit his authority". That "the whole realm of
Denmark and Norway, its provinces, dependencies, islands, fortresses,
rights, jewels, money of every kind, its army, navy, everything now
enjoyed, everything that may be acquired hereafter, are the inalienable
property of the sovereign alone, and can never be divided or separated
from the crown".
These few quotations from the _Lex Regia_ will serve to show that
Christian VII. arrogated to himself by this decree a power which no
other monarch in Europe claimed. Not even that most mighty empress,
Catherine of Russia, was so great an autocrat as this. In the
_Lex Regia_ of Denmark we find the most boundless, irresponsible,
unmitigated despotism, without a single provision in favour of
the life, substance, or liberty of any subject, high or low. The
re-establishment of this despotism in all its nakedness was the
essence of Struensee's policy, for, since the reign of the monarch who
promulgated it a century before, it had gradually fallen into disuse.
Frederick III., the author of the _Lex Regia_, was an absolute monarch
in practice as well as theory; he broke the power of the nobles, and
nothing stood between him and his imperious will. His successor,
Christian V., began his reign on the same principles, but he found it
necessary before long to conciliate the nobles, and one of his first
acts was to create an order of titled nobility. Previously, all of
noble birth had been merely styled nobles, but now they were given
the titles of counts and barons--as if to console them for the loss
of their authority. Certain other privileges were granted to them,
but they still had no share in the government of the country, which
the King kept in his own hands. Gradually, however, there was formed
a Council of State, or Privy Council, which consisted of the heads of
the different departments in the state--such as the minister of foreign
affairs, the minister who was responsible for the army, the head of
the naval department, and the head of the finance department. These
posts at first were filled by the King's creatures, who relieved him
of detail business, but were unable to come to any decision apart from
him; but as time went on the nobles gradually crept back into office,
and were nominated one by one as heads of departments, until the
Council of State assumed more importance. Under the reign of Christian
VI. the Council of State was practically a committee of nobles, through
whom the King governed; and during the latter part of the reign of
Frederick V. (Christian VII.'s father) it usurped the sovereign power,
and the King became a puppet in the hands of his ministers. Once more,
despite the _Lex Regia_, the nobles became the rulers of Denmark. Had
they used their power wisely, they might have remained so; but great
abuses grew up. They filled every post with their creatures; they
betrayed the interests of Denmark to foreign countries; the departments
of state were badly administered, the national defences neglected, and
the people heavily taxed. This was the state of affairs which Struensee
was determined to remedy.
Christian VII., who had fretted under the yoke of the Council of State,
especially when he first came to the throne (when the ministers who
composed it strove by every means to prevent him from governing and
to keep the power in their own hands), was quite ready to carry out
the daring policy of its abolition, though that policy was dictated
to him by Struensee. The King did not see that he was exchanging the
tyranny of King Log for that of King Stork. He always wearied of those
who dictated to him, whether ministers or favourites. He had wearied
of Moltke, he wearied of Bernstorff, and in the same way he wearied
of Sperling and Holck; and the time was coming when he would weary
most of all of Struensee and Brandt. But at present he was indifferent
to everything; he had long since ceased to take the initiative, and
only asked to be relieved of the burden of state. Sunk into premature
dotage--a listless gazer at the drama of life--so long as he was left
in peace to enjoy the few things he still cared about, he recked
nothing of his government, his kingdom, or the world. By the abolition
of the council he had become in theory the most absolute autocrat
in Europe. He had only to speak the word, or sign a paper, for the
word and the writing to immediately become law; but in fact he was an
imbecile, who let his whole power and authority drift into the hands of
another--nominally, into those of the Queen, in reality of Struensee,
who greedily snatched at every atom of power. In his muddled brain
Christian VII. still clung to the belief that he was rendering himself
equal to his great exemplar, Frederick the Great. The King of Prussia
had found a way of diminishing the power of his ministers by becoming
his own minister, and by signing the decree abolishing his Council
of State Christian VII. imagined that he was acting on a similar
plan. But, needless to say, there was no resemblance between the two
monarchs; Frederick the Great did everything himself, but the Danish
King did nothing, and the stereotyped answer he made to everyone at
this time was: "Apply to Struensee". Struensee had become a sort of
Grand Vizier.
The day after the suppression of the Council of State a new body was
established, called the Council of Conferences, but it had no real
power. The members, who were the heads of the different departments of
the state, and all Struensee's nominees, met when commanded to do so by
the King, and expressed their views on such business as was laid before
them, advised on matters of form, and sent in their reports in writing.
As these reports all passed through Struensee's hands in his new office
of Master of Requests, they were very useful to him; they set him right
in matters of detail, and gave him the information he required without
his seeming to seek it. As that shrewd observer, Gunning, wrote: "This
is no ill-timed political scheme for those at the helm, who will, by
this method, be able to gain considerable lights without suffering any
one to have access to the King, their master, but themselves".[154]
[154] Gunning's despatch, January 1, 1771.
The abolition of the Council of State, though it was so drastic a
measure, was greeted with applause by the people--the burghers and the
peasants--who had long groaned under the tyranny of the nobility, and
had come to look upon them as the cause of all their ills. The royal
decree of course called forth a tremendous uproar from the privileged
classes, and if the nobles could have conferred together the situation
might have become dangerous. But Struensee hit on a very ingenious plan
for driving them out of Copenhagen. Most of them were heavily in debt,
and under the old order of things had set their creditors at defiance.
Struensee, therefore, obtained an order from the King, decreeing that
any creditor could arrest his debtor, if unable to pay at the time of
demand, and keep him in prison until the debt was discharged. In a very
short time nearly all the nobility were hurrying from the capital to
their country seats. Having scattered them, Struensee took a further
step to prevent them from returning to Copenhagen. He issued a decree,
signed by the King, to the effect that it was undesirable to encourage
the flocking to court of persons who hoped to make their fortunes
there, for it only tended to ruin and impoverish the country districts,
and entail great expense on the King. It would be much better for the
nobility, who did not desire official employment, to remain on their
estates and spend their money there instead of coming so much to the
capital; and those nobles who desired employment in the future must
first qualify themselves for it in subordinate posts. In giving these
appointments the King, henceforth, would be guided entirely by service
and merit, and pay no regard to favour or backstairs influence.
From the enforced retirement of their country seats the Danish
nobility cursed Struensee with impotent wrath; he gave them more to
curse him for before long. Having got rid of them he next abolished
their placemen and parasites, who might have acted as their agents in
the capital. He issued a circular to all the Government departments,
informing them that in future no lackey who waited on a master would be
eligible for a public office; and thus the hateful system of lackeydom
was abolished. Formerly the nobles at the head of the departments
had given minor offices to their coachmen and their footmen in lieu
of payment, and with the result that a great number of ignorant and
incapable men were foisted upon the state, and the administration of
the Government departments was hopelessly mismanaged. Struensee sought
to break down all privileges of caste. Formerly only the nobility were
allowed to use torches at night when they drove out in their carriages,
but now an order was promulgated giving leave to all persons, of
whatever rank, whether in hired carriages or their own, to use torches
at night. But the permission was not generally availed of--probably
because the good burghers of Copenhagen found that if they and their
wives encroached upon the privileges of the nobility, they did so at
the risk of losing their custom.
Having clipped the claws of the nobility, Struensee next aimed a series
of blows at his other enemies, the clergy. During the two previous
reigns the clergy had gained great influence in Denmark, and now
encroached in matters outside their sphere. Not content with their
spiritual sway, they expressed their opinion on political matters
with great frankness from their pulpits, and even the court did not
escape censure. Struensee, though the son of an eminent divine, was
a freethinker, and hostile to clerical influence, and both the King
and Queen disliked being preached at. Therefore it was not long
before the clergy were made to feel the weight of their displeasure.
A great number of religious festivals were still kept in Denmark as
public holidays, to the hindrance of business, and the encouragement
of idleness and extravagance on the part of the people; the clergy
cherished these festivals, and hitherto the Government had not dared
to abolish them, for fear of giving offence to the Church. But the
new order of things had scant reverence for old abuses, and a royal
decree was promulgated, which abolished, henceforth and for ever, the
public holidays at Christmas, Easter and Whitsuntide, the Epiphany, St.
John's Day, Michaelmas Day, All Saints, the Purification, Visitation
and Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, and the annual _Te Deums_ in
celebration of the deliverance of Copenhagen from Charles X.'s attack
on February 11, 1659, and of the great fire. By another decree liberty
of conscience was granted to all, and universal toleration in matters
of religion. Henceforth every man would be allowed to follow his own
belief without let or hindrance, to choose his own form of worship,
or not to worship, as he pleased. These decrees gave great offence to
the established clergy, who considered the first to be unwarrantable
interference with the vested rights of the Church, and the second, an
encouragement of godlessness and infidelity.
Struensee was a great believer not only in new measures but new men.
Some of his appointments were good ones--notably that of Professor
Oeder (an able man who had hitherto been a member of the agricultural
commission) as head of the financial department. Oeder helped Struensee
materially in his gigantic labours, and often warned him against
precipitate and violent measures. Struensee also summoned his brother,
Charles Augustus Struensee, to Copenhagen, and appointed him one of the
deputies in the College of Finances. Charles Augustus was a clever and
hard-working man, without his brother's genius, but with a great deal
more ballast, and no objection could be taken to his appointment except
on the score of nepotism--a charge which could not fairly be brought
against Struensee, for his brother was the only member of his family
whom he appointed to any important office. Dismissals were the order
of the day in every department of the state; the imperious minister
brooked no opposition to his will even in the most trifling details.
Count Moltke, court marshal, son of the former Prime Minister, was
dismissed because he demurred to some change in ceremonial, on which
he was a much better authority than Struensee; a page of the chamber,
who was so imprudent as to speak disrespectfully of Struensee, was sent
away without warning, and the young chamberlain Warnstedt, who was a
favourite of both the King and the Queen, and had stood in confidential
relations with Struensee, was banished from court in consequence
of having made a single incautious remark about him. The aged and
respected Viceroy of Norway, Benzon, was dismissed from office without
any explanation; the Burgomaster of Bergen was discharged in the same
way; the bailiff and under-bailiff of Copenhagen were displaced at
an hour's notice. In fact, no official considered himself safe any
longer, but was liable at any moment to be dismissed without warning,
explanation or pension. As the disgraced official generally had his
discharge handed to him by a groom of the royal stables mounted on a
yellow horse, it became a saying in Copenhagen: "Whom did the yellow
horse visit last?" or, "If you are not careful, you will see the yellow
horse to-morrow".
Struensee's idea of government was absolute despotism, combined, oddly
enough, with a liberal and enlightened policy. He was a despot, but
he was also a _doctrinaire_, and his ideas generally were in advance
of his time. He had read widely German philosophy, notably that
of Leibniz, and was a firm believer in the so-called eudæmonistic
utilitarianism--the greatest possible happiness of the greatest
possible number. He believed also in perfectionism--the inherent
right of the individual man to work out his own perfection in every
respect. Leibniz was an exponent of this school, so was Goethe, who
called his Faust a "Beyond-man".[155] Struensee was a pioneer who
sought to reduce these views to practice. He grafted on his German
philosophy certain Pagan ideals, he affected a benevolent despotism,
and he believed himself to be an _uebermensch_, a "Beyond-man," a man
of destiny. So thoroughly did he believe in himself, that he forced
the same conviction on others for a time--even his enemies, who saw in
him something superhuman and dreaded him accordingly. He bore down all
outside opposition by the sheer force of his will, and so long as he
was sure of himself his power was assured.
[155] So too in our day has been Nietsche, who elaborated these views
in _Thus Spake Zarathustra_ and other works.
Struensee was a great reformer, and the intrepidity with which he
carried out his theories compels admiration, but like many other
reformers he neglected to temper his zeal with discretion. Perhaps
he had an instinct that his day would not be long, for he was a
reformer in a hurry. Within a few months after the abolition of the
Council of State he revolutionised the government of the kingdom. By
a series of royal decrees, nominally issued by the King, he reformed
every department of the state. He rearranged the finance department,
he overhauled the admiralty and the war office, he cut down the
expenses of the Danish legations abroad, he abolished the method under
which titles, places and pensions had been granted, and revised the
collection of taxation. Efficiency and economy were his watchwords;
and had his system been given time to work, there is every reason
to believe that he would have achieved both in the great spending
departments of the state.
This is not the place to write a detailed account of Struensee's
administration,[156] but a brief summary may be given of some of his
principal reforms, because they throw a light upon the character and
career of this extraordinary man. They were planned on the broad
principle of "the greatest possible good for the greatest possible
number," and nearly all of them aimed at benefiting the people at the
expense of vested interests. To appreciate his reforms we have to
remember that the government of Denmark was honeycombed with abuses,
and the peasants were ground down to the level of beasts of burden.
Only drastic measures could remedy this state of things, and those
which Struensee proposed were so sweeping as to amount to a revolution.
[156] Professor E. Holm of Copenhagen has dealt with it most admirably
in his recent work, _Danmark-Norges Historie_, 1720-1814.
Perhaps the most important reform he effected was in the administration
of justice. It was decreed that henceforth all men, whatever their
rank, were equal before the law; judges who had shown themselves
corrupt or negligent in the performance of their duties were removed
from their posts, and the delay in hearing trials was censured. A
multiplicity of law courts existed in Copenhagen and the provinces,
which caused great confusion and hindered the course of justice;
these were all abolished, and in their stead a single jurisdiction
was instituted. This reform gave great offence to lawyers, who lost
many fees thereby, but it proved most effectual for the better
administration of justice.
The civic government of Copenhagen was reformed with a view to
bettering the management of the city revenues and the carrying out of
improvements. The streets were named and lighted, and the houses were
numbered. These changes gave almost as much offence to the burghers
as the abolition of festivals had given to the clergy, for they were
regarded as encroachments on the rights and liberties which the city
had obtained at various times from the Kings of Denmark. But Struensee
did not heed, and routed the forces of bumbledom in the same way as he
had routed those of bigotry. He even aimed a blow at Sabbatarianism,
and forbade the police of Copenhagen to enter private houses without
a warrant, and meddle with what might, or might not, be done by the
inhabitants on Sundays. Heretofore if found working or indulging
in "unseemly merriment" in their houses on Sundays, citizens were
liable to fine or imprisonment--a system which led to gross abuses
of the power of the police, but which was tenaciously upheld by the
magistrates and clergy.
Other reforms included the abolition of the censorship of the press,
leaving it perfectly free; a regulation aimed at the fraudulence of
trustees; and another to check the extravagant expense of funerals,
which were often so costly as to entail ruin on the family of the
deceased. No abuse seemed too small to escape the eagle eye of the
reformer.
A royal decree was issued which benefited the serfs. Hitherto they had
been helpless slaves in the hands of their tyrannical masters--the
nobles and landowners; but now they were only required to render
compulsory service on certain days and hours of the week, and the
remaining time was their own. The peasants were also placed under
the protection of the law, and all the privileges that belonged to
ordinary citizens were granted to them. The peasant question was a very
difficult one in Denmark, and it was Struensee's intention one day to
abolish serfdom altogether. But in this reform even he was compelled to
proceed by degrees.
Another royal decree abolished the salt tax, which had lain very
heavily on the poorer classes, and had caused an outbreak among the
peasantry. The abolition of this tax was most popular, though the
reform was resisted by the nobility. A similar measure was an order
forbidding the exportation of corn to foreign countries, while the
importation from the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein and from one inland
province to another was encouraged. The large landowners had been in
the habit of selling their corn for export abroad at high prices, while
their peasantry were starving for bread. This was effectually checked
by this edict; many thousand loads of grain of every description were
prevented from leaving the kingdom; and, during the severe winter which
followed, were brought from the provincial granaries to Copenhagen,
with the result that flour was sold at half the ordinary price to the
inhabitants. It was also decreed that bread should be sold at the same
low rate to the poor.
Queen Matilda had probably something to do with the measures for
improving the condition of the poor, for she had great sympathy with
toiling and suffering humanity. A few weeks after the regulations
enforcing the sale of cheap bread, a hospital for six hundred poor
children was established in Copenhagen. In this institution the Queen
took a keen interest, and to cover the cost of founding and maintaining
it a tax was levied on all carriage and saddle horses in the
capital--another device by which the rich were taxed for the benefit of
the poor, a complete reversal of the former order of things, whereby
the poor were ground down for the benefit of the rich.
Against these beneficial reforms no objection could reasonably be
taken, and whatever the private character and motives of the man
responsible for them, they reflected great honour on his public
administration. But when he came forward as a moral reformer, his
views were more open to cavil. Copenhagen in the eighteenth century
was a very immoral city despite severe penalties on immorality, and
a system of police supervision that interfered with the liberty of
the subject--if the subject were poor. Struensee would have done well
to correct the abuses of the existing system for the suppression of
vice, but he chose rather to abolish it altogether. "Improved morals,"
wrote this eminent moralist, in one of his virtuous monarch's royal
decrees, "cannot be brought about by police regulations, which are
also an encroachment on human liberty; for immoral conduct, if it
have no directly injurious influence on the quiet and safety of
society, must be left to the conscience to condemn. The secret vices
which enforced constraint entail are frequently much greater offences
against morality, and constraint only generates hypocrisy." There was
no doubt something to be urged from Struensee's point of view. He had
theories about racial perfectionism, and like many before and since,
believed that artificial selection would produce a higher breed of
men. With these ideas the conventional views of morality seemed to him
superfluous, and his reforms were aimed quite as much against them as
against social abuses.
For instance, the Danish penal laws directed against illegitimacy
were barbarous; they called for reform, but Struensee swept them away
altogether. He decreed that henceforth illegitimate children should
not rest under any stigma; they were in future to be christened in
precisely the same way as if they were legitimate, and irregular birth
should no longer prevent a man from learning a trade, or carrying
on a business. Mothers of illegitimate children were no more to be
punished--the fathers had always got off scot free. For a long time,
in consequence of these same cruel laws, secret births, child murder,
and the desertion and exposure of new-born infants to the cold had
been common in Copenhagen. To remedy this evil Struensee and the Queen
imitated Catherine of Russia, and established a Foundling Hospital
in Copenhagen,[157] but apparently without any safeguards to prevent
its abuse. It began in a small way. A drawer containing a mattress
was placed outside a window of the lying-in hospital; a notice was
affixed that unfortunate mothers who were unable to maintain, from
any cause, their children, could leave them there, to be taken care
of by the state. This _crêche_ was so eagerly availed of that no less
than twenty-four children were found in it during the first four days,
and the number increased rapidly. The following Sunday, from almost
every pulpit in Copenhagen, came denunciation of the new institution
for foundlings. The clergy denounced it root and branch, as putting
a premium on illegitimacy and immorality, and as throwing an unjust
burden on the virtuous and industrious classes, by compelling them to
rear and maintain the deserted offspring of the immoral and the idle.
But Struensee did not heed. The old order of things, he maintained,
had resulted in infanticide, and wicked waste of human life. And he
held that these children, who had no fault but their illegitimacy,
which was not their fault, might with proper care be reared into useful
citizens. That he might thereby be going against his pet theory of
racial perfectionism, and encouraging the multiplication of the unfit,
apparently did not occur to him.
[157] Catherine the Great established a Foundling Hospital in St.
Petersburg in 1763, with the aid of the philanthropist Demidoff. The
Empress gave 50,000 roubles towards its maintenance, and granted it
privileges and favours such as no benevolent institution had ever
received before, including exemption from taxation and the monopoly of
the state lottery.
Struensee followed up this by an attack upon the marriage laws. It
was decreed that henceforth none but the injured party should bring a
charge of adultery. The custom by which persons convicted of adultery
were put in the pillory and preached at publicly by the clergyman of
the parish was also abolished, and all penalties beyond the dissolution
of the marriage tie were forbidden. The table of kindred and affinity
was rearranged, and marriages within certain prohibited degrees were
allowed. The Church disapproved of the marriage of first cousins
(though both Frederick V. and Christian VII. had contracted these
alliances); they were not forbidden, but a dispensation was always
required. This dispensation was now declared to be unnecessary by royal
decree, and the same authority henceforth gave a man permission to
marry his deceased wife's niece, or his deceased wife's sister. This
aroused furious protests from the clergy, but Struensee did not heed,
and further aggrieved the Church by converting two disused chapels into
hospitals for the sick poor.
Thus it will be seen that, in his zeal for reform, Struensee aroused
against himself the antagonism of nearly every class. The court
officials, the nobles, the clergy, the lawyers, the burghers were
attacked in turn, and all saw their ancient privileges torn away from
them. Under the circumstances, their hostility to the new order of
things was natural, but the unpopularity of Struensee among the people,
whom he sought so greatly to benefit, is not so easy to understand.
That he was unpopular there is no doubt. A good deal of this was due
to the prejudice among the Danes against the German and the foreigner.
Nearly all the advisers who now surrounded the King were of German
extraction, and were dubbed "the German Junto". All grace was taken
from the royal decrees in the eyes of the Danes by the fact that they
were issued in German. It is true the court had been for centuries the
centre of Germanism in Denmark; but the people knew that Christian VII.
spoke and wrote Danish very well, and until the advent of Struensee
all royal decrees and government regulations (except those addressed
to the duchies of Schleswig-Holstein) had been written in the Danish
language. Now, in disregard of the national prejudice, they were issued
in German; and the Danish people regarded this as an insult offered to
them by a German minister. Moreover, it gave colour to the rumour that
the King was for the most part ignorant of the decrees which appeared
in his name, for it was said that otherwise he would most certainly
have framed them in his own language when addressing his own people.
Struensee, who had a contempt for forms and prejudices, and looked
at everything from the broad point of view, excused himself on the
ground that he had no time to learn the Danish language; but even so it
would have been easy for him to have had these decrees translated into
the Danish. As it was he threw away all the popularity he might have
gained from his beneficial measures by wantonly affronting the national
sentiment.