himself, hotly jealous in behalf of the interest of his friends and followers; animated by high ideas, which he often carried to the verge of Quixotry, and which, as we have seen, brought him too frequently into collision with the authorities and with routine; a gallant, loving, and generous nature-James Outram stands forth in our days as the true representative of the Chevalier whose name has been added to his own. He was, indeed, a knight sans peur et sans reproche. It is noteworthy that on his last departure from India, when he broke up his little stock of books among the soldiers' libaries, he carried away with him his copies of Froissart and Monstrelet.

We share Sir Francis Goldsmid's regret that Sir John Kaye did not live to fulfill his purpose of writing a life of Outram. Since Kaye's death, Anglo-Indian biography seems to have fallen upon evil days. No career in the present century affords ampler materials for a picturesque memoir than that of Outram. But Sir Francis Goldsmid has given us a biography which, but for its subject, would certainly have been tedious reading, and of which the chief value is the ample material it affords for forming an independent opinion apart from the biographer's reflections. It would require the pen of the genial canon of Chimay or of Sir Walter Scott to write a life of Outram worthy of such a preux chevalier.

Blackwood's Magazine.

ICELAND.

So far to the north-west of Europe lies this great island as to be a connecting link between the eastern and western continents, and it is said that on a clear day the Snæfells-Jökull in Iceland and Greenland's icy mountains may be seen simultaneously from the deck of a ship. Iceland is, however, a portion of Europe rather than of America; its fauna and flora are European, and its inhabitants are of the pure Scandivanian stock. Politically, as well as ethnologically, Iceland is an integral part of what we are accustomed to call "Scandinavia," a group of kindred countries, usually included by their own inhabitants in the comprehensive title of Norden, "the North." The countries so designated are Denmark, with its dependency Iceland, and the "United Kingdoms" (De Forenede Riger), Sweden and Norway.

These northern countries have their own political and religious history, separating them distinctly from the rest of Europe proper on one side, and from the semi-Asiatic empire of Russia on the other. The Northmen have visited, as invaders and conquerors, all the principal European countries, but they have never bowed

with his brother's goods;" here the author considers it necessary to add: "That was the rule in those days-wives were heritage like other things." Bork also assumed the priestly functions of Thorgrim, until he was superseded and turned out by Snorro, Thorgrim's posthumous son and true heir. Iceland was at that time ruled by an hereditary aristocracy or oligarchy of priestly chiefs, who wielded their authority mainly through the action of the District Things or assemblies, where they were all powerful, the Althing being indeed established, but not having as yet made good its jurisdiction over the whole island. Hellenic society, as it is described in the Odyssey, was ruled in a similar fashion about 2,000 years earlier, and a Baoilɛus in Ithaka 1000 B.C. must have been very like a priest in Iceland A. D. 1000.

During that long interval the Roman Empire arose, flourished, and declined, completely changing the face of European society by means of the civil law and the Christian religion; but" where Rome's eagles never flew," a primitive Aryan community maintained itself unmodified almost down to modern times.

The Icelandic Republic, which endured down to the middle of the thirteenth century, was a purely aristocratic commonwealth, and the Althing was an assembly constituted on the same principles as the original Comitia Curiata, in which the Patricians were supreme, and into which the client was admitted only as the follower of his patron. The Icelandic chiefs had not expelled a king, but had removed themselves out of his reach, and they established in their western island the same institutions which Harald Haarfager had overthrown in Norway. Their ideas of liberty, like those of other ancient and mediæval republicans, were thoroughly aristocratic, and their love of power was as strong as their hatred of subjection. The period immediately preceding the settlement of Iceland was throughout Europe one of political consolidation. Charlemagne united under his sceptre a large portion of the Western Roman Empire, England under Egbert became a single monarchy, and the three Scandinavian kingdoms were established. But the young colony was founded under peculiar auspices, and flourished for centuries amid the frost and fire of Ultima Thule, a republic of the early classical type, free from all taint of medieval feudalism or of modern democracy. The absence of towns in Iceland prevented the growth of a plebs, and the rural population was composed of freemen and thralls, or patricians and clients, for the Northern thrall resembled in social position rather the client of early Roman history than the slave of later times. The social equality characteristic of Iceland at the present day did not prevail during the palmy days of the Republic, which was in fact a confederation of chiefs, with no capital city or permanent central authority.

Notwithstanding constant feuds and contests between rival chiefs, the country flourished under this government, or rather in the ab

sence of all regular government, as it has never done since, and the most turbulent period of Icelandic history was also a period of the greatest literary activity, while the rest of Europe was plunged in intellectual torpor. But in Iceland, as elsewhere, foreign domination proved fatal to intellectual life, and with the loss of political independence was lost also literary pre-eminence. The Icelanders, seeking for political repose, surrendered themselves into the hands of the Norwegian kings, A. D. 1264, and soon discovered that in politics repose is death, and that mental vitality withers among a people ceasing to exercise any control over public affairs. When the free Icelanders became Norwegian subjects they did not lose their love of letters, but they lost all power of original thought and composition, and sank from authors into mere transcribers. When Norway was united to Denmark, A.D. 1380, Iceland was transferred to the Danish rule, under which it has since remained. The recent history of Iceland-a poor, outlying province of a distant metropolis-has been gloomy enough: misgovernment has combined with famine, pestilence, and volcanic eruptions to depress the condition of the inhabitants, who have distinctly retrograded in material prosperity since the days of Snorri Sturluson. A few Danish merchants enjoyed a complete monopoly of the Icelandic trade down to a recent date, when the legal bonds, which prevented the Icelanders from trading with the world at large, were relaxed. Governed entirely by Danes (whom they have always regarded as foreigners), compelled to deal with Danes only in all commercial affairs, it is not surprising that the natives of Iceland should gradually have lost much of the energy and self-reliance which characterized their free forefathers. Six centuries of subjection have succeeded four centuries of independence, and now a third era is commencing in the history of Iceland, which is henceforth to experience the benefits of local self-government, and is in fact to enjoy a modified form of "Home Rule."

In 1874 the King of Denmark celebrated by a personal visit to Iceland the thousandth anniversary of its colonization, and he also signed a new constitution whereby the Icelanders acquire legislative independence, and a certain amount of administrative control over their own affairs; being unrepresented in the Danish Rigsdag, they are not required to contribute to the general expenditure of the kingdom, nor have they any direct voice in the general State administration. The King has, however, retained a large share of power in his own hands, and the Icelanders can hardly be said to have a Parliamentary government or responsible Ministers. The King appoints a Governor, to whom the chief executive functions are intrusted, and who is responsible, not to the Althing, but to the Ministerial Department of Justice in Copenhagen. The Althing, or Legislative Assembly, meets each alternate year, and consists of six members nominated by the King, with thirty elected by the people, and is divided into two Houses. The Upper House contains the six nomi

nated members and six chosen from among themselves by the thirty elected deputies; the remaining twenty-four compose the Lower House. As regards judicial matters, there lies a right of appeal to the Supreme Court of Denmark from Icelandic tribunals in all criminal cases, and in civil cases when the matter in dispute is above a certain pecuniary value. Altogether the new constitution of Iceland is analogous to those of the Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man, and there is reason to hope that it may work as smoothly and favorably as in the case of those prosperous and loyal communities. It is, however, at present a grievance that the Secretary of State, on whose advice the King acts in vetoing or assenting to bills passed by the Althing, is responsible in Icelandic matters to the King only, although, as being also Danish Minister of Justice, he is liable to be turned out of office by a vote of the Rigsdag.

Primary education is diffused over Iceland to a degree which is quite marvelous, considering the sparseness of the population, the extent of the country, and the enormous difficulties of intercommunication. Time for teaching is afforded by the long dark winters, when out-of-door work is impossible, and teachers for children are abundant where all in childhood have been instructed. Even in the most remote habitations a certain knowledge of the humane arts has produced softness of manners, and rosy-faced, flaxen-haired urchins will walk up to a stranger and shake hands with a friendly "God Dag!" In Reykjavík, and among the clergy in general, are to be found men of high literary culture, scholars who would do credit to any seat of learning in Europe. It is to be regretted, however, that Icelandic students should devote their attention so exclusively to languages and literature, neglecting science and mathematics. Scholars and linguists abound, but architects and engineers are rare in Iceland, and educational reform is necessary even in this educated community. The achievements of their ancestors have been a damaging inheritance for the modern Icelanders, who are too conservative, and fail to realize the progress that human knowledge has made in recent times. In order to reap the full benefit of their new constitution the Icelanders must be prepared to inaugurate many practical reforms.

"They must be left free, unfettered, and unchecked by the State to which they belong (Denmark) to follow out the course which they think most beneficial to themselves. They must be made to feel the responsibility of the management of their own affairs that the making or marring of their fortune is in their own hands On their part the Icelanders must throw off the sluggishness and indolence of former years. They must not any longer be absorbed in the contemplation of the past. They must learn to become self reliant, to make it clear to themselves that they cannot expect anything from others, and if they wish to thrive, they must do so with their own means. *

*The Thousandth Anniversary of the Norwegian Settlement in Iceland, by Jón A. Hjaltalin. The first English pamphlet printed in Iceland.

If the Icelanders are able to carry out their "Home Rule" experiment under the conditions for which their countryman thus stipulates, it can hardly fail to prove a success, and to strengthen the hands of all who advocate decentralization and local self-government. Under similar conditions British colonies have risen, from the smallest beginnings, to be populous and wealthy States within the lifetime of one generation, while Ireland still suffers from the effects of the opposite course of policy.

Icelanders learn to speak the English language with an excellent pronunciation, due partly to the fact that they possess in their own vernacular the double sound of th, which is so great a stumbling block in English pronunciation to most Europeans. The Icelandic possesses two special letters: , identical with the Greek 0, and X, equivalent to : the first letter (or theta) is pronounced like th in "thing," the second (or delta) like th in “thou." These letters have been adopted in addition to the ordinary Roman alphabet, used in Iceland only since the introduction of Christianity, prior to which epoch there was no Icelandic literature, and the runes were the only known literary symbols. As a genuine living dialect, spoken, written, and even printed in newspapers at the present day, Icelandic may claim to be the oldest in Europe; for even Romaic, strongly as it resembles classical Greek, has dropped many cases and tenses, following the general tendency of modern languages. Thus Danish and Swedish are modernized and simplified dialects, while Icelandic still retains the archaic forms of the ancient Scandinavian tongue, once in use throughout Northern Europe. Icelandic literature, written in the popular idiom, was always much studied by the people, and has thus been the principal means of preserving almost unchanged this ancient language, an isolated survivor from a bygone historical period.

Iceland is a country of snow and glaciers, without trees and without coal, where the peat is bad in quality and can be dried only with great difficulty, and where fuel is so scarce that human beings and animals have no better resource against the cold than to huddle together in ill-ventilated, semi-subterranean dwellings. In such a country it is only natural that the existence of lignite in various situations among the basaltic rocks, which compose a very large portion of the island, should have been a fact full of interest, and even of hope, for the half-frozen inhabitants. Lignite, under the poetical name of " Surturbrandr " (Demon-coal), has long been known to the Icelanders, and it was at one time hoped that places might be discovered by experts where it would be sufficiently abundant, and sufficiently accessible, to become an article of commercial value in a land producing so little that is commercially valuable. These hopes have, however, been doomed to disappointment, and Surturbrandr is now interesting only from a geological point of view. It is found in small quantities, it is imperfectly