and Denmark, whose chief dependency, Iceland, is 39,200 square miles in area, or 7,000 more than that of Ireland. The greatest length of the island is 300 miles from east to west, and its greatest breadth 201 miles. It is supposed that the population of Iceland was once 100,000, but it subsequently diminished. Since 1810, when it amounted to 57,094, a gra-lual increase has taken place, until, in 1880, it had reached 72,000. The chief town is Reykjavik, with about 2,500 inhabitants.

ADMINISTRATION.1

Formerly Iceland was divided into four quarters-the east, south, west, and north. Now the north and the east are united under one government and the south and the west under another.

The island is further divided into 18 counties (syslu), and these again into 169 rapes (hreppa) or poor law districts. Ecclesiastically Iceland constitutes one bishopric, divided into 20 deaneries, and these again into 290 parishes. Iceland has its own constitution and administration under a charter which came into force August 1, 1874. By the terms of this charter the legislative power is vested in the "Althing," consisting of 36 members, 30 elected by popular suffrage and 6 nominated by the King. A minister for Iceland, nominated by the King, resides at Copenhagen, but is at the head of the administration. He submits to the King for confirmation the legislative measures proposed by the Althing. It may here be said that the language, laws, and traditions of Iceland are quite distinct from those of Denmark, and its position so remote that there might seem to be difficulties in governing it properly as an integral part of the Danish Kingdom.

The highest local authority is vested in the governor-general, who resides at Reykjavik.

He carries on the Government according to the views of the minister at Copenhagen.

The governor general (Landshöfðingi) has two aids (or under-governors, one for the south and west, another for the north and east. Then there are the sheriffs (sýslumenn), who act as tax gatherers, and notaries public. The "sýslu-maor" has an assistant or "hreppstjori," in every poor law district. In such district there are also committees of from three to five members who administer the poor laws and look after the general affairs. These committees are controlled by the committees of the county boards, and these again by the quarter board of three members. The State church is Lutheran, and all Icelanders, without exception, belong to it.

HISTORY.

Notwithstanding its isolated situation, its few natural advantages and sparse population Iceland is of great interest to historian, philologist, and littérateur.

Résumé of article in Encyclopedia Britannica, V, XII.

1A territorial subdivision which, in Anglo-Saxon, is between a shire and a hundred.

The historian is delighted with the exactitude of its historical records and the strange phases of life to which they bear witness, and the singular circumstances which have determined the existence and life of the Teutonic community for a thousand years apart from the rest of the European family.

The philologist looks upon the island as the home of a language which most nearly represents in a living form the tongue of our earliest Teutonic forefathers. Others believe that Iceland had a brilliant period of intellectual life long before the literary eras of England and Germany, and a literature superior to any north of the Alps before the Renaissance.

The historical phase is the only one we can touch upon here, as the present conditions are an outcome of the past.

The unit of Icelandic administration was the homestead, with its franklin' owner ("búandi"), its primal organization, the hundred-moot ("thing"), its tie the chieftainship ("góðro"). The chiefs who led kinsmen to a new land held considerable power, and at first there was no higher organization; but disputes, uncertainties as to laws, etc., brought about the constitution of Ulfliot (in 930). Through this a central moot or "Althing" was created for the whole island, and "a speaker to speak a single law "2 (principally that followed by the "gula"-moot in Norway). In 964 the reforms of Thord Gellir fixed a certain number of local moots and chieftaincies, dividing the island into four quarters, to each of which a head-court or quarter-court was assigned. Ecclesiastical innovations (Christianity was introduced in 1000) caused upheavals, eventually putting an end to the commonwealth, which had produced men of mark and encouraged progress. The practical rule of Iceland was transferred by the union of the three crowns to Denmark in 1280; it had formerly been under Norwegian viceroys and Norwegian law; the island then received a foreign governor (Earl, Hirdstjóri or Stiftamstmaðr) and was divided into local counties (syslu), administered by sheriff's (sýslumenn); local affairs were attended to by the bailiff (hreppstjóri) and the quarter-courts were abolished.

The ideas agitating Europe percolated through Scandinavia to Iceland and successful efforts were made to educate the peasant class, who were about all that were left after the cruel wars of the thirteenth century had broken down the great houses which had monopolized the chieftaincies. The "Althing" had existed for fully nine hundred years, but sometimes as a mere council of powerless delegates. It was suppressed but reorganized in 1843. Thirty years' agitation brought about home rule in 1874. The absolutism of the sheriffs and the governor was replaced by officials assisted by elected boards. The government may be said to have been at first hierarchic and aristocratic; afterwards it became a kind of aristocratic republic.

1 The freeholder of former times held his lands from the Crown free from feudal servitude to a subject superior.

Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XII.

GENERAL CONDITIONS.

Two peculiar conditions exist in Iceland; these are the absence of towns and the equality of society in a sense which exists in no other European country. The priest, who has the title "sira," enjoys certain rank and distinction; but even the governor, with his office of power and dignity, is liable to be accosted familiarly by farmer or fisherman. The people are distinguished for honesty, purity of morals, and a wonderful love of education. Notwithstanding their poverty and other adverse circumstances, it is rare to find an Icelander who can not read and write.

At Reykjavik is the governor's residence; the "Althing," which once met in the valley at Thingvalla, meets here; the bishop has his home here; there is an observatory, a public library of 10,000 volumes, and Reykjavik is the seat of an Icelandic society established in 1794. Three newspapers are printed here, and since 1530 (when the first printing press was set up by Mathieson, a Swede) books, original and translated, have been annually printed in Icelandic. The translations have included portions of Milton's Paradise Lost, Shakespeare, Pope, and Cowper.

As for the language, as a genuine living dialect, spoken and written and even printed in newspapers of the present, Icelandic may claim to be the oldest in Europe. The Romaic has dropped many cases and tenses; Danish and Swedish are modernized and simplified dialects, while Icelandic retains the archaic forms of the ancient Scandinavian tongue once in use throughout northern Europe.

The literature reflects and perpetuates the beliefs and manners of the people through successive generations. Both language and literature are of historical and living interest to scholar and statesmen. Icelandic literature has always been much studied by the people and written in popular idiom; it has preserved the ancient language almost unchanged and hence is an isolated survivor of a bygone historical period.

GENERAL FEATURES OF EDUCATION.

Considering the extent of country, the sparseness of population, and the difficulties of intercommunication, the diffusion of knowledge seems astonishing, even to those familiar with the history of this island. In Reykjavik, and among the clergy in general, men of high literary culture are to be found, some of them scholars who would do credit to any seat of learning in Europe. A child of 10 who is unable to read is not to be found from one end of the island to the other. A peasant understanding several languages is no rarity, and the amount of general information is quite noticeable. Formerly all children were taught by their parents or neighbors; now a few elementary schools have been started; classical and general studies are found at a college in Reykjavik, which has about one hundred students and seven professors.

The general physician of the island, assisted by two medical men, gives lectures to medical students. Those who propose to enter upon a course of law have to attend the University at Copenhagen. There is also a flourishing academy in Mödruvellir, in the north of Iceland; an agricultural college at Olafefjord. The island also supports four seminaries for young women, the first one having been established in Reykjavik in 1876. Iceland has always been a land of learned men, and to this day erudite Icelanders may be found in almost every university of Europe; in no country is a scholar held in more esteem; yet it is stated that the Icelandic student devotes himself more exclusively to languages and literature, to the neglect of science and mathematics. In 1886 a limited suffrage was granted to women, permitting them to vote in the selection of clergy for the parishes. In the same year women were admitted as students in the higher institutions of learning. Owing to the difficulties attendant upon obtaining any very precise information regarding education in Iceland, a letter was sent, in the autumn of 1895, to the governor-general requesting more specific data. The reply of His Excellency Magnus Stephensen, the governor-general of Iceland, is here incorporated. He says:

In reply to your letter of the 18th September, I have much pleasure in sending you the following notes on education in Iceland. As the bulk of the population is scattered over the country in isolated farmhouses, with long distances between them, schools are impracticable in the rural districts, and the children receive the rudiments of learning from their parents or any other qualified member of the household. This instruction is superintended by the clergyman of the parish, whose duty it is to examine candidates for confirmation, not only as to their religious knowledge, but also as to their proficiency in reading, writing, and the first rules of arithmetic, and to refuse or postpone that rite until the children have acquired the necessary knowledge. Of late years a system of "circuit teachers" has been organized and is in operation in many country districts. These teachers travel from place to place during the winter, remaining for several weeks at each centrally situated farmhouse and teaching the children from all the surrounding farms within reach. They are supported by the people of their districts, and receive a small grant from the Icelandic treasury. In 1894 these circuit teachers numbered 165, and they taught 3,280 children, the subjects being reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, and religious instruction.

In the towns, trading stations, and fishing villages there are 26 children's schools, which in 1894 were attended by 826 children. These schools are open in the winter time for six to eight and a half months, and have generally one, but sometimes two, teachers. The subjects taught are reading, writing, orthography, arithmetic, religious knowledge, geography, the rudiments of natural science, and Icelandic grammar. Some schools in addition to these teach history, Danish, English, singing, gymnastics, and swimming. All these schools are locally supported, receiving in addition grants from the treasury.

The higher and specialized schools are three schools for women, where the higher branches of education, needlework, and housekeeping are tanght; two "Real schools," one at Mödruvellir, supported entirely by the Government, with three teachers; the other, called "Flensborg school," is supported by private endowment and Government grant, and serves also during part of the year as a seminary for teachers; one Latin school or high school in Reykjavik, with seven masters, besides assistants, and 115 pupils last year; four agricultural schools, and one nautical school. There is also a school for the deaf and dumb.

The professional schools are a theological seminary and a school of medicine, cach with four teachers, both situated in Reykjavik.

Tuition is free in all the higher schools; most of them provide free lodging for their pupils, and bursaries are attached to some.

METHODS OF EDUCATION.

Iceland furnishes a singular example of a country which has almost no primary schools, and yet primary education is universal. The pastors refuse to give illiterates in marriage, and these are rarely to be found. The mothers teach their children reading, writing, and arithmetic.1

At 7 years of age [says an Icelander] all children know how to read and write their language, and they know how to reckon. Even among the poor fishermen there are none who have not had a good elementary education. The mothers are the instructors: the rural home (boer) is the schoolroom. The nearest clergyman watches over the progress of the children, and the child who does not indicate sufficient knowledge for his years and the instruction given is refused confirmation. The mother of the family would die of chagrin if such were the case; hence she makes all effort to suitably prepare the child. Ask the first child whom you meet who taught him the history and geography of the country, the names of birds and flowers; his answer is invariably, my mother (modre min). Each house is in itself a school of intellectual, religious, and industrial training, after a crude fashion. The long winter evenings are given to reading, to traditional lore, to indoor occupation, by which every child is trained to such handicrafts as the necessities of their position require-making fishing tackle, boats, casks, sails, etc.-and the women to knitting, and working up moss, skins, feathers, and eider down into marketable and domestic use. Every able-bodied adult can do something for a livelihood, and the highest dignitary of Iceland, judge, governor, or bishop, can, if occasion requires, shoe his own horse and repair his own boat and tackle or land vehicle and harness.

The landed proprietors are responsible not only for the education of their own children, but those of their servants and of the families who are their tenants. The clergymen and their aids are expected to observe what progress has been made at least twice a year.

STUDIES PURSUED.

In a few towns on the coast there exist a number of villages which have primary schools. According to terms of the law the course of study includes moral and religious education, national history, reading, writing, and arithmetic.

At Reykjavik there is a gymnasium with 100 pupils, faculties of theology, medicine, and law; at Mödruvellir a school of agriculture, a course of study covering agriculture, Icelandic, Danish, and English languages, geography, history, physics, chemistry, and mineralogy.

The impression seems to be gaining ground that in this little country of the far North the learned men are taking a firm stand in regard to the carrying on of higher studies, and even now the humanities are thoroughly comprehended.

Bnisson: Dictionnaire de pédagogie et d'instruction primaire, V. 2, Pt. 1.