ninth announces the design of sending an
ambassador to his British Majesty to conclude
peace: the tenth contains something
relative to the duties and rights of British
subjects living in Iceland: the eleventh
states that none but Icelanders are qualified
to fill public employments: the twelfth
shews that Mr. Jorgensen intends continuing
in his office until a regular constitution
is established: the thirteenth again declares
the confiscation of Danish property, which, *
by the fourteenth, the Amptmend are enjoined
to execute: by the fifteenth we learn
that some civil officers, in order to secure
themselves against the displeasure of the
king, their master, had expressed a wish that
they might be compelled to exercise their
public functions: the sixteenth article has for
its object the upholding of the new governor
by forbidding all irreverence towards his
person: in the seventeenth and last it is
observed that the laws and regulations shall
remain as before until the new constitution
is established, except * that it is permitted
* This exception does not at all meet the approbation
of Count Tramp, who observes, f‘ that it is very favorable
for malefactors and suspicious persons.” But the
for every Icelander to proceed from place
to place, and to trade wherever and in whatever
manner he pleases, without having
passports from Amptmend or other authorities;
and it is decreed that all sentences
and acts of condemnation must be signed by
Mr. Jorgensen, before they can be put in
execution.
The Icelandic colors* ordained by this
proclamation, containing the representation
Etatsroed goes farther, and says that, ff the permission
granted to ramble without a passport along the country
is a circumstance unheard of in other places, and affords
very good opportunity to robbers, murderers, troops of
thieves, and criminals of all sorts to commit mischiefs
and crimes unpunished!” Mr. Jorgensen, however,
considers it a just and necessary clause, for, according
to the old laws, no person could remove from one district
to another without a written permission from an
officer ■, in consequence of which it frequently happened
that this officer would not grant a passport, without the
peasant promised to buy the necessary supplies for his
family from some particular factor, by which he perhaps
might be compelled to pay double what would be asked
by others.
* The true and old ensign of Iceland is a slit cod or
stock-fish, environed by an oval garland.