The Landfogued of Iceland is the treasurer
of the island, and to that office the one of
Byefogued is generally annexed, which is
the master of the police in the town of
Reikevig.
The court of criminal and civil judicature
consists of a judge* and two assessors (or
inferior judges) with a secretary. AH sentences
must be signed by the Stiftsamptman,
and an appeal lies from this court to the
supreme court of judicature at Copenhagen^.
Iceland knows of no trials by jury; for the
judge and assessors act both as jurors and
judges. Besides this superior court or althing,
* The present chief judge or justitiarius is the
learned Mi. Stephensen, whose name so often occurs
in the course of the Journal. He is generally called
by his Danish title of Etatsroed (Counsellor of
State).
■J" Of late years, in consequence of the difficulty of
communication between the parent country and Iceland,
supreme power and authority in the courts of
judicature have been given to the governor, in con*
junction with the chief judge and assessors. This,
however, is understood to be only a temporary arrangement.
which has its sittings six times in the year at
Reikevig (whither it has been removed
only within these few years from Thinge-
valle), there are annual provincial courts held
in the different syssels, and extraordinary
ones are occasionally appointed by the
Amptmen.
The punishments for capital offences are
at present the same as those in Denmark,
and the criminal is not hanged but beheaded.
It is a fact, however, that of late
years, no Icelander has been found who
would undertake the office of executioner,
so that it has been necessary for the very
few who have been sentenced to suffer death,
to be conveyed to Norway, there to receive
the punishment due to their crimes. The
common mode of punishing offences of a
less heinous kind, is either whipping, or
close confinement and hard labor in the
tughthuus, or house of correction, for certain
years, or for life.
Of the revenues accruing to the parent
state, I am not capable of speaking with
any degree of certainty. “ Some of them