, 1873-01-29

sen, of the General Staff, has succeeded
nm IN both capacities, taking over defni-
lively the Ministry for War, and discharg-
ing al interim the functions of Marine Min
lister. | sent you on Monday a short tele-
gram announcing the fact, and shall now
enter more fully upon the affair to explain
the reasons of the change and its probable
consequences.
General Hattner is an eminent member
OF the Danish landed aristocracy, and pro-
prletor OF the splendid Egholm estate, not
Tar from Roeskilde, one of those estates
which have the right of primogeniture at
tached to them, this being a privilege
which might, until the great constitutional
change IN 1913, be created by any private
possessor with the sanction of the Grown.
He has, IN his private capacity, earned the
reputation of an able administrator and q
good landlord, and has considerably in
creased the incomes of his farms and for
eSts' AS q young man he served for some
years IN the cavalry, but left the army af-
ter having obtained a captains rank, and,
except IN the year 1848, when he com
manded a corps of Volunteer Cavalry, he
has had no active connexion with military
lite, his present title of General having
been conferred upon him after his entering
the Government, as q mere honorary desig-
nation. In the first years of our Constitu-
tlonal liberty NJ. Hatfner belonged to the
arlstocratic Opposition which viewed with
dlstrust the new order of things, and would
tam have made the leap back again, if not
exactly to the abSoIutism of former DAYS,
at least to something more moderate than
the new democratic charter, and offering
better guarantees for the influence of
wealth and property. With other mem
bers OF our Je0nesse dOr6e, the %well-known
Baron BiXen-Finecke among the number,
he Waged a passionate war against the mo-
dern liberal ideas aud against the national
principles prevailing at the time. Under
the influence Ofevents these Danish iMa-
he'S underwent about the same changes as
their PrusSian fellows with NJ, de Bismarck
at their head. Baron BIixen-F inecke from
uItra-COnserVative turned Radical his
TREND M. Hatfner did not 90 quite as far,
but stopped at a stage of mild and enligh-
tened Liberalism. As member of the
LandSthlng, or first Chamber of the Rigs
dag, he made himself conspicuous by some
able speeches, one of them about the re-
organization Of the army, then under dis
c%usslon, and finally carried by General
RaasI66. When, in September, 1869,
three members of the Friis-Friisenborg
Ministry retired, NJ. Hafner was invited
by the head of the Cabinet, who happened
to be his brother-in-law, to become Minis
ter for the Interior, and accepted. But
this position he did not keep long. In
May, 1870, the whole Friis Cabinet re-
signed upon an unfavourable vote of the
FoIkething, and the present Government,
presided over by Count Holstein-H olstein-
borg, was formed, NJ. Haftner entering it as
Minister for War, and d~ischarging ad inte-
RIM thefunctions of Marine Minister, the two
portfolios having been some months earlier
united under the same hand in Difference
to a wish expressed by the FoIkething.
During these two or three years General
Haffner has been a conscientious and labo-
rlous Minister, and has not without skill
defended the two services confded to his
care against the ever ready attempts at
retrenchment from the side of the Radi-
Gals, but it must be added at the same
time that he has had no great question to
solve, and that he has found very valuable
assistance in the final clause of the last
Army Law, e%nacting that the whole mill
AA---1