from all his engagements, and cancelled all the limitations imposed upon his sovereignty! The whole was concluded by the ceremony of doing homage, taking the new oath with great ceremony; after which a new form of government was promulgated under the title of The Royal Law of Denmark.

Frederic III. was succeeded, in 1670, by his son Christian V., who obliged the duke of Holstein Gottorp to renounce the advantages he had gained by the treaty of Roschild. He then recovered a number of places in Schonen; but his army was defeated in the bloody battle of Lunden by Charles XI. of Sweden. This defeat did not put an end to the war, which Christian obstinately continued till he was defeated entirely at the battle of Landscroon; and, having exhausted his dominions in his military operations, he was in a manner abandoned by all his allies, and forced to sign a treaty on the terms prescribed by France, in 1679. Christian, however, did not desist from his miliary attempts; and at last became the ally and subsidiary of Louis XIV. He died in 1699, and was succeeded by Frederic IV., who, like his predecessors, maintained his pretensions upon Holstein; and, probably, would have become master of that duchy, had not the English and Dutch fleets raised the siege of Tonningen; while the young king of Sweden, Charles XII., then only sixteen years of age, landed within eight miles of Copenhagen, to assist his brother-in-law the duke of Holstein. Charles probably would have made himself master of Copenhagen, had not his Danish majesty agreed to the peace of Travendahl, which was entirely in the duke's favor. By another treaty concluded with the States General, Frederic obliged himself to furnish a body of troops who were to be paid by the confederates; and who afterwards did great service against the French. Notwithstanding this peace, Frederic was perpetually engaged in wars with the Swedes. While Charles was an exile at Bender, he marched through Holstein into Swedish Pomerania, and in 1712 into Bremen, and took the city of Stade. His troops, however, were totally defeated by the Swedes at Gadesbusch, who laid his favorite city of Altona in ashes. Frederic revenged himself by seizing great part of the ducal Holstein, and forcing the Swedish general, count Steinbock, to surrender himself prisoner, with all his troops. In 1716 the success of Frederic was so great, in taking Tonningen and Stralsund, driving the Swedes out of Norway, and in reducing Wismar and Pomerania, that his allies began to suspect he was aiming at the sovereignty of all Scandinavia. Upon the return of Charles of Sweden from his exile, he renewed the war against Denmark with a most embittered spirit; but upon his death at the siege of Fredericshal, Frederic durst not refuse the offer of his Britannic majesty's mediation between him and the crown of Sweden; in consequence of which a peace was concluded at Stockholm, which left him in possession of the duchy of Sleswick. Frederic died in 1730, after having seen his capital reduced to ashes by an accidental fire, in 1728. His son and successor Christian VI. made no other use of his power,

and the advantages with which he mounted the throne, than to cultivate peace with all his neighbours, and to promote the happiness of his subjects, whom he eased of many oppressive taxes. In 1734, after guaranteeing the Pragmatic Sanction, he sent 6000 men to the assistance of the emperor, during the dispute about the succession to the crown of Poland. Though he was pacific, yet he was jealous of his rights, especially over Hamburgh. He obliged the Hamburghers, in 1736, to call in the mediation of Prussia, to abolish their bank, to admit the coin of Denmark as current, and to pay him a million of silver marks. He had, in 1738, a dispute with king George II. about the little lordship of Steinhorst, which had been mortgaged to the latter by the duke of Holstein Lauenburg, and wnich Christian said belonged to him. Some blood was spilt during the contest; in which Christian, it is thought, never was in earnest. It brought on, however, a treaty, in which he availed himself of his Britannic majesty's predilection for his German dominions; for he agreed to pay Christian a subsidy of £70,000 sterling a year on condition of keeping in readiness 7000 troops for the protection of Hanover: which was a gainful bargain for Denmark. And two years after ne seized some Dutch ships for trading without his leave to Iceland: but the difference was made up by the mediation of Sweden. Christian had so great a party in that kingdom, that it was generally thought he would revive the union of Calmar, by procuring his son to be declared successor to his then Swedish majesty. Some steps for that purpose were certainly taken: but whatever Christian's views might have been, the design was frustrated by the jealousy of other powers. Christian died in 1746, with the character of being an excellent monarch. His son and successor, Frederic V., had, in 1743, married the princess Louisa, daughter to king George II. He improved upon his father's plans for the happiness of his people; but took no concern, except that of a mediator, in the German war. For it was by his intervention that the treaty of Closterseven was concluded between the duke of Cumberland and the French general Richelieu. Upon the death of queen Louisa, mother to the late king, he married a daughter of the duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel; and died in 1766.

He was succeeded by his son Christian VII. who married the princess Carolina Matilda of England, an alliance which proved unfortunate, as is generally stated through the intrigues of the queen dowager. The king had displaced several of her friends who had for some time had a share in the administration; and the two new favorites, Brandt and Struensee, who had now appeared, paid great court to the queen. The dowager on this took occasion to insinuate, that the queen had condescended to an intrigue with Struensee. The result is familiar to most of our readers. When the plan of removing the existing administration was brought to maturity, it was resolved to surprise the king in the middle of the night, and force him instantly to sign an order for committing the ministers to separate prisons; to accuse them of high treason in general, and particularly with a design to dethrone or poison

the king. If this could not be properly authenticated, it was determined to suborn witnesses to confirm the report of a criminal correspondence between the queen and Struensee. This design was executed on the night of the 16th of January, 1772, when a masked ball was given at the court. The queen, after having danced most part of the evening with count Struensee, retired to her chamber about two in the morning. About four the same morning prince Frederic rose, and went with the queen dowager to the king's bed-chamber, accompanied by general Eichstedt and count Rantzau. Having ordered his valet de chambre to awake the king, they informed him that the queen, with Struensee, his brother, and Brandt, were at that moment busy in drawing up an act of renunciation of the crown, which they would immediately after compel him to sign; and there was therefore a necessity for him to give an order for their arrest. Christian is said to have hesitated for some time, and to have been inclined to refuse this scandalous requisition; but at length, through importunity, and, according to some accounts, being even threatened into compliance, he consented to what they required. Count Rantzau was despatched, at an untimely hour, into the queen's apartments, and immediately executed the orders of the king. This unfortunate lady, together with an infant princess, was conveyed in one of the king's coaches to the castle of Cronenburgh, escorted by a party of dragoons. Struensee and Brandt were seized in their beds and imprisoned, as well as other members of the administration to the number of eighThe queen dowager and her adherents assumed the government, and a total change took place in all departments of the state. The prince royal, son of queen Carolina Matilda, then in the fifth year of his age, was put under the care of a lady of quality, who was appointed governess, under the superintendency of the queen dowager. Struensee and Brandt were put in irons, and underwent long and frequent examinations. Struensee at last confessed that he had conducted a criminal intrigue with the queen. These ministers were both beheaded on the 28th of April; but many of their partisans were set at liberty. Such is one mode of accounting for the revolution of 1772. The confession of Struensee is by many supposed to have been extorted by fear of the torture, and to have no foundation in truth; but, as no means were used by the court of Great Britain to clear up the queen's character, the affair undoubtedly wears a suspicious aspect. At last, however, his Britannic majesty interfered so far as to send a small squadron of ships to convoy the unhappy princess to Germany. The city of Zell was appointed for her residence; and in this place she died of a fever on the 10th May, 1775, aged twenty-three years and ten months.

teen.

statesman. He will be honored by after ages for what offended the Lutheran clergy: the free exercise of religious worship granted to Calvinists, to Moravians, and even to Catholics; for the Danish clergy were ambitious of retaining the right to persecute, not only long after it was impossible to exercise it, but even after they had lost the disposition to do so; at first to overawe, afterwards to degrade non-conformists; in both stages, as a badge of the privileges and honor of an established church.'

The same writer, in a Review of general Falkenskiold's Memoirs of the Revolution of 1772, observes, that the evidence against the queen consisted in a number of circumstances (none of them incapable of an innocent explanation) sworn to by her attendants, who were employed as spies on her conduct. She owned that she was guilty of much imprudence; but in her dying moments she declared to M. Roques, pastor of the French church at Zell, that she never had been unfaithful to her husband. (Communicated by M. Roques to M. Secretan, the editor of Falkenskiold, on the 7th of March 1780. Falk. 234.) It is true that her own signature affixed to a confession was alleged against her. But if general Falkenskiold was rightly informed (for he has every mark of honest intention), that signature proves nothing but the malice and cruelty of her enemies. Schack, the counsellor sent to interrogate her at Cronenburgh, was received by her with indignation when he spoke to her of her connexion with Struensee. When he showed Struensee's confession to her, he artfully intimated that the fallen minister would be subjected to a very cruel death if he was found to have falsely criminated the queen. 'What!' she exclaimed, do you believe that if I was to confirm this declaration, I should save the life of that unfortunate man? Schack answered with a profound bow. The queen took a pen, wrote the first syllable of her name, and fainted away. Schack completed the signature, and carried away the fatal document in triumph. Struensee himself, however, had confessed his intercourse to the commissioners. It is said that his confession was obtained by threats of torture, facilitated by some hope of life, and influenced by a knowledge that the proceeding against the queen could not be carried beyond divorce. But his repeated and deliberate avowals to Dr. Munter do not (it must be owned) allow of such an explanation. Scarcely any supposition favorable to this unhappy princess remains, unless it should be thought likely, that as Dr. Munter's narrative was published under the eye of her oppressors, they might have caused the confessions of Struensee to be inserted in it, by their own agents, without the consent, perhaps without the knowledge of Munter, whose subsequent life is so little known, that we cannot determine whether he ever had the means of exposing the falsification. It must be confessed, however, it is added, that internal evidence does not favor this hypothesis; for the passages of the narrative, which contain the avowals of Struensee, have a striking appearance of genuineness.

Their treatment of Matilda did not long prove advantageous to the queen dowager and her party.--Another revolution took place in April

That there is a cavity at the centre of the earth is made probable by the late experiments on the attraction of mountains by Mr. Maskelyne, who supposed from other considerations that the density of the earth near the surface should be five times less than its mean density. Darwin.

Dense shadowy leaves on stems aspiring borne With blight and mildew thin the realms of corn. Id.

DE'NSHIRE, v. a. A barbarous term of husbandry.

Burning of land, or burn-bating, is commonly call denshiring, that is Devonshiring or Denbigh shiring, because most used or first invented there.

Mortimer.

He omits the denticulation of the edges of the bill, or those small oblique incisions made for the better retention of the prey. Grew's Museum, The shells of all sorts of shell-fish, being burnt, obtain a caustic nature: most of them, so ordered Id. and powdered, make excellent dentifrices.

DENTALIUM, in natural history, a shell-fish belonging to the order of vermes testacea. The shell consists of one tubulous straight valve, open at both ends, and not divided into chambers. There are twelve species, distinguished by the angles, striæ, &c. of their shells.

DENTARIA, tooth-wort, or tooth-violet, in botany, a genus of the siliquosa order, and tetradynamia class of plants; natural order, thirand the valvules roll spirally backwards; the tieth, siliquosæ. The siliqua parts with a spring, stigma is emarginated; the calyx closing longitudinally. There are five species, all of them hardy perennials; producing annual stalks twelve or eighteen inches high, adorned with many lobed leaves, and spikes of quadrupetalous cruciform flowers of a red or purple color. They delight in shady places, and are propagated may be sown in autumn or early in the spring, either by seeds or parting the roots. The seeds in a shady border of light earth; and when the plants are three inches high, they may be planted where they are to remain. The time for parting the roots is in October or November, or early in the spring.

DENTATUS (Curius), a renowned Roman general, whose virtues render him more memorable than his victories, flourished A. A. C. 272. He was thrice consul; conquered the Samnites, Sabines, and Lucanians; and gave each citizen forty acres of land, allowing himself no more. The ambassadors of the Samnites making him a visit, found him boiling turnips in a pipkin; upon which they offered him gold to come over to their interest: he told them his design was not to grow rich, but to command those who were so. He defeated Pyrrhus near Tarentum, and received the honor of a triumph.