Total Amount of the yearly Expenditure of the Island of
Iceland, in Salaries and Pensions, as paid
by the Landfogued,
Rdr. Sk.
Salaries paid out of the Jordebog’s Casse,")
that is of the Funds established out of > 11169 73
Royal or Episcopal Estates in Iceland.. J
Salaries paid out of the School Funds, to 1 4743 73
the Clergy and Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . J
Pensions paid out of the Skatkammerl ^
Casse, or Treasury................. J
Pensions paid out of the Post Casse, or l _
> 67* 0
Post Funds J ’
Pensions paid out of the Rentekammers, 1
or Chamber of Rents Poor-box . . . . . . J
Pensions paid out of the Danish War-Hos-1^ 14 U
pital Funds ............. J
Pensions paid out of the Icelandic or Fin-1
markish Company’s Funds ................. J
Pensions paid out of the former Guvernaesl
Hospital Funds . . . 5 ............................ j
Pensions paid out of the School Funds . . . . 642 77
Pensions paid out of the Funds established!
to pay the expences of the Post in the V 30S 0
Country^..,............................ /
Total sum . . . . . . 18713 63
Having thus, in a very cursory manner,
noticed a few of the most important circumstances,
connected with the civil and political
affairs of the country, I shall proceed to some
brief remarks on the religious history of the
ancient northern nations, and of Iceland in
particular; in doing which, I shall make
ample use of the valuable information contained
in the “ Northern Antiquities” of
M. Mallett.
The religion of the north, in its greatest
purity, taught the existence of a supreme
God, “ the author” according to the Icelandic
Mythology, “ of every thing that
existeth; the eternal, the ancient, the living
and awful being, the searcher into concealed
things, the being that never changeth”; to
whom, also, was attributed “ a boundless
knowledge and an incorruptible justice.”
From him sprung (as it were emanations
of his divinity) an infinite number of subaltern
deities and genii, of which every
part of the visible world, was the seat and
temple. These intelligencies were not contented
barely to reside in each part of
nature, but they directed its operations,