all Danes to remain within their own houses,
and prohibits every one from holding communication
with them: the ninth article
threatens those who act contrary to this
decree with being brought before a military
court and shot within two hours; while by
the eighth tenth and eleventh articles, are
promised to all native Icelanders undisturbed
tranquillity and a felicity hitherto
unknown
in Copenhagen, for which it might be considered a sort
o f equivalent. Some years ago, a great eruption took
place from Mount Hecla, which destroyed a number of
people and ruined many. In Denmark and other
countries a large sum of money was collected by subscription
for the relief of the suffering inhabitants on
the island, and deposited in Copenhagen. The sums
procured in such a manner have, positively never been
paid to the Icelanders, but detained by the Danish government.
Also, to indemnify Danish merchants for
their losses by property confiscated, the court at Copenhagen
has nothing to do, but to order them to be paid
from the Icelandic funds j and so could the merchants
not be sufferers, and there would still -remain a surplus,
which would more than indemnify government for
what public property was seized. ”
* Perhaps with a view of obtaining his share in the
general felicity held forth by this proclamation, a poor
On the evening of the same day, appeared
also a second proclamation, proceeding much
farther than the other, and decreeing in its
first article, that Iceland should be independent
of Denmark; and in the fifth, that
a republican constitution should be introduced,
similar to that which existed before
the country was united to Norway in the
thirteenth century, but, till this could be
peasant presented a brief to his Excellency, Governor
Jorgensen, who favored me with the following translation
:
“ A Petition from Biarne Thorlevsen,
S h e w e t h ,
<f That in the year 1805, my wife Thorunn Gunn-
laugdatter was sentenced to two years labor in the Icelandic
work-house, only for the simple thing of stealing
a sheep, which besides was nothing at all to me. The
separation which took place accordingly, occasioned
that I was compelled to take a young girl as my housekeeper,
who otherwise much recommended herself by
her ability and fidelity. The consequence of these circumstances
was that the girl produced two little girls,
after each other, whose father I am. We were then
separated by order of the magistrates, and in this manner
must the education of two innocent, but at the same
time right handsome little girls, remain neglected, unless
she as mother, in conjunction with me as father,