more or less, have been the conduct of Russia in Poland, and of Austria in Italy. But with regard to Denmark, her relations to the duchies have been entirely different. Her paternal rule had ever truly respected the nationalities and rights of her subjects. Her present liberal-minded monarch, on his succession to the throne, had given a free constitution, and such had been his desire to allow equal privileges to every part of his dominions, that he had proposed to give to Schleswig and Holstein, though the smaller population, the same representation and advantages which he conceded to his Danish people. The concessions freely granted by the enlightened sovereign, from his own conviction, in the midst of profound peace, and without a sign of disorder, had been hailed with universal satisfaction; and afterwards, when violent commotions began to shake all Europe, and the general vertigo reached Holstein, the majority of the people in Schleswig, who had ever been sincerely attached to their mother-country, instantly stood forward, and in the most energetic manner protested against the separation, and the dreaded union with Germany. Looking from a distance upon the rapid course of events, and the steadfast opposition of all Scandinavia, united, with one heart and hand, against the attacks and pedantic boastings of the German Parliament, we may, through the dim vista of futurity, with confidence proclaim the victory of the righteous side; and in the mean time historically and impartially prove that the cause of the Danes is as good as their swords that the rebellion in Holstein was brought about, not by the desire of the mass of the people in the duchies, but by the ambition of a few ringleaders, directly supported by Friederich Wilhelm IV., the hare-brained King of Prussia, who by means of kindling the flame of war in the North, and of promising the Germans a flag and a fleet, flattered himself to avert from his own guilty head the revenge of his exasperated subjects for the horrible slaughters in his own capital. We shall now carry our readers to the shores of the Baltic, and going back to the remote ages of feudality and chivalry, trace the origin and progress of the protracted struggle between German and Scandinavian nationality, and then terminate this essay with a picture of the present war. faithfully drawn up from authentic sources, and direct communications both from Denmark and Germany. The peninsula of Jutland, known by the ancient Romans as the ChersonESUS Cimbrica, is bounded on the east by the Kattegat, the little Belt, and the Baltic; and on the west by the North Sea. It is divided from Germany by the river Eyder, and extending northward for two hundred and seventy miles, terminates at the low headland of Skagen. Its breadth from east to west is from thirty to ninety miles The middle part of this low peninsula, nearly in its full length, consists of dreary heaths and moors, intermixed here and there with some patches of arable lands and good pastures for cattle and flocks of sheep and goats. The northwestern coasts | are low, sandy, and full of dangerous shoals. The violent west wind, sweeping across that inhospitable region, impedes the growth of forest trees, and renders the climate damp, cold, and disagrees throughout the year. Farther south. 2 Schleswig, the western coast consists meadow lands, (marskland,) which ale rich pastures, and are defended by dies against the swell of the North Sea. Qus different is the character of the easter part of the country. The shores of thi Baltic and Kattegat are high and ce covered with fine forests. They sometias present romantic and picturesque scene? from the many deep indentations of the a called fjorde, or friths, which for miles into the land, where they expand into en sive sheets of water, and are bordered beautiful oak and beech woods asce A gradually to the tops of the hills. T largest frith is the Liim-Fjord, rutr across the whole breadth of Jutland the Kattegat to the North Sea, and m the northern part of it an island banks are bleak and dreary; the de forests which in the tenth and elrend centuries covered that hilly region only remain in Salling Land, a smil, b *The North Sea broke through the k with the Liim-Fjord by a breach, thronga coast near Lemvig, a few years ago, and now small vessels can pass. tiful tract, well cultivated, and inhabited | other Northmen, on their prancing seaby a rich and laborious yeomanry. The lands on the eastern coast are very fertile for several miles in the interior, and produce an abundance of rye, wheat, barley, oats, beans, pease, rape-seed, and excellent pulse and fruits. In many parts the heaths are broken up and converted into arable lands, agriculture being highly encouraged by the Danish government. Still the raising of cattle and horses supplies the principal revenue of Jutland. The huge oxen are driven to the rich meadowlands of Holstein, where they are fattened and afterwards sold in Hamburg and Berlin. In later years large exportations of oxen are made by sea to France and England. The horses of Jutland and Holstein are strong, large, well-formed, and eminently fitted for war. Jutland is, by the small rivers Skodorg-aa and Konge-aa, divided into North Jutland, containing 9,500 square miles, and South Jutland, or Schleswig, 2,624 square niles. The latter province is more fertile nd better cultivated. Here the geest or rable lands from the broken-up heaths mount to 700 square miles, the meadowinds 320, the forests 112, the moors 224, nd the barren heaths 450. North Jutand has twelve more or less considerable >wns, and 550,000 inhabitants. Schlesig possesses six towns, among which are he beautiful and well-built Schleswig, anding in a pleasant and picturesque sitition on the Schley, and the lively comercial town of Flensborg; the province ›ntaining 350,000 inhabitants. Schleswig bounded on the south by the German ichy of Holstein, extending seventy iles from the Baltic to the North Sea, and rty-eight miles from the Eyder on the rth, to the Elbe and the duchy of Lauborg on the south. It contains 2,528 uare miles, with 440,000 inhabitants. olstein is thus of smaller extent than hleswig, but more productive and better ltivated, and has a larger population. e Jutlander and the Schleswiger are th of Scandinavian origin, and the mass the people have nearly the same genecharacter, manners, and customs, exot the greater liveliness and elasticity, ich the Schleswiger has acquired by his ercourse and intermixture with the The Jutlanders are no longer bold and daring rovers, who with the rmans. horses, made the shores of Germany, France and England tremble at their approach. They are still a brave, but a peaceful and quiet people; they are laborious and persevering, but extremely slow and somewhat awkward in their manners. They are hospitable and cheerful with their countrymen, but cold and retired towards foreigners, with whom they have but little intercourse in their far-off and dreary country. They are more fond of ease than of show; and consequently the people in Jutland are more comfortable than the careless inhabitants of the sunny south. They are accustomed to substantial food, and make five meals a day; they are more economical than industrious, and do not know or regret the refinements of foreign countries. They are judicious observers and profound thinkers. They speak very slowly, with a harsh and inharmonious pronunciation, and are by their countrymen. on the Danish islands considered cunning in calculating their own profit; the proverb is, "as sharp as a Jute." They are endued with imagination, and possess tender and beautiful national songs in their own dialect. Though they are patient and enduring, they can be roused to the highest pitch of enthusiasm. They are strongly attached to their king and country, but care nothing about politics or newspapers, having been for centuries accustomed to the dull calm of an absolute government; and yet they possess an independent feeling of their own, and will not submit to harsh or arbitrary treatment from their superiors. The country people are generally middle-sized, short, fair-haired, of a gentle and agreeable physiognomy; their women are pretty, with blue eyes and rosy cheeks, but as clumsy as their helpmates, clattering along on wooden shoes. This short sketch gives an idea of the people and country in times past; the eventful movements of late years have of course, in some degree, exerted their influence even as far as the distant shores of the Liim-Fjord. In South Jutland, both the Danish and Low German (Plat-tydske) dialects are in use. In 1837, Danish was spoken unmixed in 116 parishes, with 113,256 inhabitants; in these districts Danish is the language used not only in common intercourse, but both in the churches and schools. In 36 parishes, with 45,460 in habitants, that language is generally | time, A. D. 810, occupied in the conve spoken, but the German is employed in the churches and schools. Danish is likewise spoken and understood in Tondern, Flensborg, and the dioceses of Gottorp and Bredsted, with 36,000 souls; so that Danish is still the mother tongue for 194,700 Schleswigers among the 350,000 which inhabit the duchy, thus forming a decided majority. Quite different is the deportment and character of the Holsteiner. He is tall and handsome, with auburn hair. He is economical and industrious, like the Hollander; active and dexterous, ambitious and quarrelsome. He is arbitrary and imperious; witty, lively, but proud and overbearing toward his inferiors. He is full of talent and capacity, but boastful, grandiloquent and selfish. The Holstein cultivators own their lands and are a laborious, brave and intelligent people. Their farms are exceedingly well kept, and comfort and wealth are seen everywhere. The Holstein mariner is clever, bold and enduring, and sings his national German songs with the liveliness and spirit of an Italian. Such is the character of the soil and the inhabitants of these three interesting provinces of the Danish monarchy. sion and subjugation of the Saxons. T Towards the close of the ninth cen The whole peninsula was in the remotest times of the middle ages inhabited by Jutes, Angles and Saxons. After the maritime expeditions of the two latter tribes to Britain, towards the middle of the fifth century of our era, Jutes and Frisians began to settle in the abandoned districts of Angeln or South Jutland, north of the Eyder; while large swarms of Vendes, Obotrites, and other western tribes of the Slavonic nation, occupied the eastern coasts of Nordalbingia or Holstein, the seat of the Saxons on the Elbe. In the eighth century Denmark did not yet form a united kingdom; different sea-kings ruled on the islands of the Baltic. Godfred, the king of Reit-Gothland or Jutland, advanced on the Eyder, where he erected the celebrated wall or mound of earth and stones called the Dannevirke across the peninsula from the bay of the river Schley, (Slias-wyk or Schleswig,) westward to the North Eyder, to protect his Scan-Romani terminus imperii, which for cen dinavian dominions from the inroads of the conquering Franks of Charlemagne, at that *This German settlement beyond the Fri is very doubtful. Some chroniclers as si Charlemagne; others with more prolata the Saxon Henry the Fowler (919-956 Haz converted to Christianity so early as A. D Klak, a petty king of South Jutland, The intrepid missionary of the North, Anscha built the first church in Schleswig at that t and sowed the first seed of Christian p love among the wild worshippers of Okia 43 Freya. The existence of this treaty between man Emperor and the King of Denmark firmed by a very ancient inscription: stood over the Old Holstein Gate of Res This town was at that time the border fortro & Denmark, who possessed all the tolls and done incorporated with the rest of South Jutland, remained in immediate dependence upon the crown of Denmark. In this whole period we find that the South Jutes or Schleswigers had their language, laws, and customs in common with their northern brethren, the Islanders and the [Skoningers or Danish inhabitants of Scania. The ancient division of the provinces into districts or shires, called Herreder and Sysler, and the genuine Scandinavian names of towns, villages and natural scenery, down to the very banks of the Eyder, give the most evident proof of the Danish nationality of the South Jutes. Yet the wars with the Slavonic and Germanic tribes, rendered it necessary for the kings of Denmark to place a powerful commander in the border province, who, possessed of more independence and a strong army, might better secure the Danish frontiers towards Saxony. The 2oble-minded Knud Lavard, the son of King Erik the Good, was thus proclaimed the first duke (dux or Hertug) of South Jutland in 1102, and took up his resilence in Hedeby (Schleswig) on the Schley, which had been erected into an episcopal see. Crossing the Eyder, Duke Knud, in many arduous expeditions, vanquished and converted the heathen Vagriins, Obotrites, and Vendes; he extended his conquests as far as Pomerania, and forced the German Dukes of Saxony and Holstein to recognize his rights over Vendand. Holzatia (woody Saxony) formed a part of the duchy of Saxony, belonging to he warlike house of Billungen, and consisted of Holstein Proper, Stormarn and the western district of the Ditmarskers. In the year 1106, after the extinction of hat family, the Emperor Lothaire erected Holstein into a county, with which he inrested Count Adolph of Schauenborg, a astle on the Weser, as a fief dependent on he German Empire. The Holstein counts ow assisted Knud Lavard in the reduction f the wild Slavonic tribes on the eastern past; new settlers from Germany and the river. In the fourteenth century, Rendsorg was ceded to the Counts of Schauenborg. he Latin inscription was taken down from the te in 1806, on the dissolution of the German npire, and is now deposited in the Royal Artily Arsenal of the fortress. Holland were invited into the country, a bishopric was established in Lübeck, and the brave duke proclaimed king of the Obotrites. Yet this sudden accession of power kindled the jealousy of King Niels of Denmark, who considered the enterprising duke of the border province a dangerous competitor for the crown. He ordered Knud Lavard to his court at Roeskilde in Zealand, where that excellent and unsuspecting chief was waylaid in a wood by Magnus, the prince royal, and assassinated, in the year 1129. During the following reigns of Valdemar I., the son of Knud Lavard, and Knud VI., the Danish power became formidable and threatening to all their neighbors. King Valdemar II., the Victorious, conquered the county of Holstein, which by a treaty, in 1214, with the German Emperor Friederich II., of Hohenstaufen, was incorporated with Denmark. He extended his feudal possessions in Pomerania, and even attacked the distant Esthonia, where the Danish crusaders, with the cross and the sword, introduced Christianity among the Slavonians, and swept the Baltic with their numerous fleets. During this period of seventy years (1157-1227) of victories and conquests, the external dominion of Denmark was raised to a higher splendor than it had ever attained since the reign of Canute the Great. The Danes were the ruling nation of the North; but their chivalrous conquests were soon to be lost by one of those sudden turns of fortune which are characteristic of those turbulent times of the middle ages. King Valdemar, while hunting with his son on the island of Lyöe, was taken prisoner by his vassal, Count Henry of Schwerin, and confined in a castle in Mecklenburg, until he by treaty ceded all the conquered territories between the Elbe and the Eyder, including the county of Holstein, Vagrién, and the whole duchy of Pomerania. The king, on his return to Denmark, immediately assembled a large army and crossed the Eyder. But a powerful confederacy had been formed against him, between the counts of Holstein and Schwerin, the free cities of Hamburg and Lübeck, and the primate of Bremen. In the bloody battle, at Bornhöved, near Segeberg in Holstein on the 22d of June, 1227, King Valdemar suffered a total defeat, and was forced to give up all his pretensions to the countries | ambitious Holsteiner administrator of the south of the Eyder. Valdemar II. died 1241, and the subsequent civil war, which broke out among the pretenders to the crown, brought Denmark to the very brink of destruction. This principal cause of such a rapid decline, was not only to be ascribed to the haughty bearing and dangerous influence of the rich and proud Catholic clergy and feudal nobility, mostly of German origin, who had received fiefs in the kingdom, but particularly to the pernicious practice at that time, of investing the royal princes, or other relatives of the kings, with the duchy of South Jutland, (ducatus Futiæ,) as a fief dependent on the Danish crown. Abel, the younger son of Valdemar, who had been invested with the duchy of Schleswig, laid claim to this province, as a free and independent patrimonial inheritance against his elder brother, King Erich Plough penning. Abel was defeated, and forced to receive the investiture of the duchy as a personal fief, not hereditary; but he took revenge against his brother, by the assassination of the latter on the Schley in 1250. The civil dissensions between the Kings of Denmark and their powerful vassals, the Dukes of South Jutland, who contended either for independent dominion or hereditary tenure, continued nearly without interruption; but though they often received aid from the German counts of Holstein, beyond the Eyder, they never succeeded in accomplishing their object. The most distinguished of all the Holstein counts, Gerhard the Great, of Rendsborg, assumed, on the death of Duke Erich of South Jutland, the guardianship of his young son Valdemar, in opposition to the demands of his uncle, King Christopher II. of Denmark, who laid claim to that right. The king, at the head of a brilliant feudal army, entered the duchy and occupied the castle of Schleswig; but he shortly afterward suffered a signal defeat by the Holstein count on the Hesteberg; in consequence of which the Danes evacuated the duchy and retreated to North Jutland. The nobility of the kingdom, being disgusted with Christopher, expelled him from the country, and, yielding to the intrigues of Count Gerhard, called his ward, the young Valdemar Erikson, to the throne, and elected the kingdom, during the minority of the prince. In return for these good offices of his powerful uncle, Valdemar, who, at that time, (1326,) was only twelve years of age, bestowed the whole duchy of South Jutland upon Count Gerhard as a hereditary fief, and, according to the Holstein historians, signed an important act in Lübeck, by which he declared Schleswig and Holstein to be eternally united, and bound himself never to reclaim the duchy, I or reunite it with the crown of Denmark. Thus we have arrived at the first union of these two provinces, in the year 1326. But it is fully evident from whatsoever point we view the subject, that this act was without legality, and did not create those rights, which the haughty counts of Holstein inferred from it. The guardian could not lawfully accept a grant of his own ward under age, the validity of which he had to confirm himself. Nor could s prince, chosen by a party of dissatisfied nobles, dispose of an integral part of the kingdom, quite contrary to the capitulation of rights (Haandfæstning) which his guardian had signed in his name, and without consent of the general elective Diet of the kingdom-the Dannehef Duke Valdemar was never crowned king of Denmark; he is not numbered among the monarchs of that country, and was shortly afterwards forced to give up his pretensions and retire to Schleswig The Holstein historians pretend tha this document this magna charta & "Schleswig-Holstein," which they c the Constitutio Valdemariana, forms the very basis in the dispute between the kings of Denmark and their German subjects in the duchies, by the guaranty which it is supposed to give to the separability of the two provinces. But is a highly remarkable fact that the exist ence of this document never has be proved; no copy of it has ever bee found, and it may, therefore, with good ground, be considered as altogether specry phal. No mention whatever is made it in the original capitulation of Pr Valdemar, nor in the letter of feofinest which Count Gerhard received in 1994, by which the Danish Council of Sa (Rigsraad) confirmed the investiture South Jutland as a simple banser (Fanelehn) of the Danish crown. Supp |