[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.