alism broke down (p. 562)
completely. The Government, finding its projects of military and
naval reform persistently thwarted and its budgets rejected, stretched
its prerogatives beyond all warrant of law. Provisional measures, in
the form of royal ordinances, and arbitrary decisions multiplied, and
budgets were adopted and carried into execution without so much as the
form of parliamentary sanction. In time the forces of opposition fell
into disagreement and the more moderate element was brought to the
point of compromise. Between the Conservatives and the National
Liberals, on the one hand, by whom the Government had been supported,
and the conciliatory element of the Liberal opposition, on the other,
a truce was arranged, and in 1894, for the first time in nine years,
it was found possible to enact the annual finance law in regular
manner. In this same year Estrup's retirement cleared the way for the
appointment of a moderate Conservative ministry. Under Estrup's
successors the conflict was continued, but not so vigorously as
before. More and more the political center of gravity shifted to the
Folkething, and when the general elections of 1901 returned to that
body an overwhelming majority of Liberals, Christian IX. was at last
compelled to give way and to call into being a Liberal ("Left Reform")
ministry. It is too much to say that the parliamentary system is as
yet completely established in Denmark. There is, however, a closer
approximation to it than ever before, and there is every prospect of
the ultimate and thorough triumph of the essential parliamentary
principle. In 1908, and again in 1909, a ministry was virtually forced
to resign by the pressure of parliamentary opposition.

IV. THE RIGSDAG--POLITICAL PARTIES

*618. The Landsthing.*--The Rigsdag is composed of two chambers--the
Landsthing, or Senate, and the Folkething, or House of Representatives.
The Landsthing consists of 66 members, of whom 12 are appointed by the
king, seven are elected in Copenhagen, 45 are elected in the larger
electoral divisions comprising rural districts and towns, one is
elected in Bornholm, and one is chosen by the Lagthing of the Faroee
Islands.[792] The king's appointment of members is made for life, from
among active or former members of the Folkething. Elected members
serve regularly eight years, one-half retiring every four years. The
seven members for Copenhagen are chosen by an electoral college
composed of (1) el