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240 NO BEGGARS.
bitants. Never was anything more true, as regards
Iceland, than what the poet has applied to another
and very different country :—
" Though poor the peasant’s hut, his feasts though small.
H e sees his little lot the lot of a l l ;
Sees no conspicuous palace rear its head.
To shame the meanness of h is humble shed.”
Poor as they are, I have some grounds to believe
that there is not a beggar in all Iceland,
and Dr. Johnson has given us a reason
why it should be so in this island as well as in
the Hebrides “ A country that has no money
is by no means convenient for beggars, both
because such countries are commonly poor, and
because charity requires some trouble and some
thought. A penny is easily given upon the first
impulse of compassion, or impatience of importunity,
but few will deliberately search their cupboards
or their granaries to find out something to
give. A penny is likewise easily spent; but
victuals, if they are unprepared, require house-
room, and fire and utensils, which the beggar
knows not where to find*.”
The poor Icelander is so strongly attached to his
native soil, that, like the Swiss when in a foreign
country, he is always sighing and repining after
home, and never so happy as when he sees a
* A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland.
prospect of returning to it. Instances are mentioned
where Icelanders, holding lucrative appointments in
Copenhagen, have thrown them up for the sake of
rejoining their family and friends on the island;—
so strongly does the love of soil cling to the hearts
of this poor people. There is not, in short, a
native Icelander, priest or peasant, who does not,
though he be
" T h e shuddering tenant of the frigid zone.
B o ld ly proclaim that happiest spot his own.”
Mr. Hooker, who had received his information
from Jorgen Jorgenson, the usurper and self-styled
Protector of Iceland, states that the value of the
glebe lands and tithes of 134 O living55s amounted to
6464 rix-dollars, which would give to each incumbent
about 50 rix-dollars, or 10/. a-year; but he
says that many others do not exceed 30 or 40
rix-dollars. Sir George Mackenzie, or Dr. Holland
rather, states, and Henderson bears out the
statement, that the average livings amount not to 0 5?
more than 34 or 35 dollars for each parish in the
island ; they must, therefore, depend almost entirely
for subsistence on their glebe land and their
stock of cattle, and a small pittance they are
entitled to for the few baptisms, marriages, and
funerals that occur among their parishioners. The
bishop even has only 2000 rix-dollars, or 500/.
a-year, a miserable pittance to make a decent
appearance, as he is obliged to do, and to exercise
M