HALL, CARL CHRISTIAN Danish states man, was born at Christianshavn on Feb. 25, 1812, and was edu cated for the law. Returned to the Rigsforsamling of 1848 as member for the first district of Copenhagen, which he continued to represent in the Folketing till 1881, he displayed rare ability as a debater, while his extraordinary tact and temper disarmed opposition. Hall was not altogether satisfied with the fundamental law of June; but he accepted the existing constitution and sought to unite the best conservative elements of the nation in its de fence. Failing to rally the landed aristocracy to the good cause, he determined to organize the middle class into a political party. Hence the "June Union," whose programme was progress and reform in the spirit of the constitution, and at the same time opposition to the Bondevenner or peasant party. The "Union" exercised an essential influence on the elections of 1852, and was, in fact, the beginning of the national Liberal party, which found its natural leader in Hall. During the years 1852-54 the burning question of the day was the connection between the various parts of the monarchy. Hall was "eiderdansk" by conviction. He saw in the closest possible union between the kingdom and a Slesvig freed from all risk of German interference the essential condition for Denmark's independence; but he did not think that Denmark was strong enough to carry such a policy through un supported, and he was therefore inclined to promote it by diplo matic means and international combinations.
Hall first took office in the Bang administration (Dec. 12, 1854) as minister of public worship. In May 18S7 he became president of the council after Andrae, Bang's successor, had re tired, and in July 1858 he exchanged the ministry of public wor ship for the ministry of foreign affairs, while still retaining the premiership. Hall's programme, "den Konstitutionelle Helstat," i.e., a single State with a common constitution, was difficult enough in a monarchy which included two nationalities, one of which, to a great extent, belonged to a foreign and hostile juris diction. But as this situation had been guaranteed by the Con ventions of 1851-52, Hall sought to establish this "Helstat" by the Constitution of Nov. 13, 1863. For the failure of the at tempt see DENMARK : History. Hall himself soon became aware of the impossibility of the "Helstat," and his whole policy aimed at making its absurdity patent to Europe, and substituting for it a constitutional Denmark to the Eider which would be in a posi tion to come to terms with an independent Holstein. That this was the best thing possible for Denmark is indisputable, and "the diplomatic Seven Years' War," which Hall in the meantime con ducted with all the powers interested in the question, is the most striking proof of his superior statesmanship.
After 1864 Hall's unconquerable faith in the future of his coun try made him, during those difficult years, a power in the public life of Denmark. In 1870 he joined the Holstein-Holsteinborg ministry as minister of public worship ; he passed many useful educational reforms, but on the fall of the administration, in 1873, he retired from public life. He died on Aug. 14, 1888.
See V. C. S. Topsoe, Polit. Portraetstudier (Copenhagen, 1878) ; S. P. V. Birkedal, Personlige Oplevelser (Copenhagen, 189o-91) .