ICELAND IN 874 AND 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4146, 4 July 1874, Page 5

ICELAND IN 874 AND 1874.

[From the Melbourne Ari/us], A fine opportunity for studying “ Norwegian” manners, trade usages, and laws at the fountain head is open to those desirous of doing so. In this age of national exhibitions, Iceland (originally peopled from Norway) determined some time ago on holding a millennial exhibition in 1874 in commemoration of its colonization in 874. That exhibition is now, we believe, being held on the old lava plains of Thingvellir, where it was to assume the form of an Althing, or National Assembly, and to be conducted in the same way aa similar gatherings in the island’s moat turbulent days. From this, however, we must not run away with the belief that Reykjavik, the Arctic capital, is now abandoning itself altogether to pleasure, and not doing as much good, honest work in the cause of civilization as is done at other national exhibitions, in proportion to its size. Lest that should be the case, the little college and cathedral of Reykjavik were to be devoted, while the exhibition lasted, to the sole use of such men of science, whether nativeborn or not, as could throw any light on the past history of the country, or give any foreshadowing as to its future. Other countries can boast of a more hoary antiquity than Iceland, but there are few off-shoots from European nations which can say, as Iceland now does, that it has just reached the thousandth year of its age. In going over such an extended historical period these scientific men, small as tho country is, should have something to tell. Ingolf Aruarson, and his companion, Leif, two Norwegians of good estate, made the first formal and fruitful attempt to colonize Iceland in 874, and they were immediately followed by the families of other Norwegian chiefs, driven by tho loss of their independence under tho stem rule of Harold, the Fair-haired, the centralising and feudalising conqueror of tho day, to seek new homes for themselves. Physically, Iceland is a land of contrasts and anomalies, of geysers and glaciers, of sulphurousburning mountains and frost-bound coasts and harbors. Ethnologically, lier people form, in connexion with the Norwegians, from whom they are descended, the only members of the Aryan race in the polar regions, their language being tho oldest spoken idiom of the Teutonic stock. Historically, she furnishes one of the most striking examples of successful colonization, as exhibited in the struggles of her people against tho destructive energies of nature, and in their creating for themselves, amidst innumerable obstacles, a sound literature, a good social system, and a form of government suited to their condition. Commercially, she has put other nations to shame ever since 1855, by tho abolition in that year of tho oppressive trade monopoly theretofore enjoyed by the Danes, and by throwing tho island’s ice-begirt and rock-bound harbors open to tho commerce of tho world.

Tins, all this, and probably much more than this, will bo proclaimed at tho mid-summer millennial exhibition, in tho little college and cathedral of Reykjavik, alike by Icelanders, Norwegians, Danes, and Swedes, for all Scan-

dinavia is to be ransacked for speakers to grace the occasion. As a matter of couxse, the Norwegians, seeing the Icelanders to be neither more nor less tlxan a counterpart of themselves, will take the lead, and supposing the question of what we should call Constitutional or Par-liamentax-y law to turn up, they will, no doubt, be loud in their praise of the institutions which the Icelanders, flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, have borrowed from them. Whether they have borrowed that particular portion of their form of government which has been so much belauded here as tho “ Norwegian scheme,” is not now the question. But, supposing one of these Norwegian savans, with a good knowledge of the British Constitution and its working, to he informed that we are about to substitute their form of Government for ours, what would he think or say of us ? Without being chargeable in tho slightest degree with a tendency to national depreciation, he might, and very probably would, say, “ What a set of idiots these people must be to think of changing a form of Government which has worked so well in their own country for such a number of years, for one of the wox-king of which they ax-e in a state of absolute ignorance !” Ox-, suppose one of the Icelanders called upon to address himself to this question, what would he be likely to say ? Probably 'enough, in his own homely way, “ These Australians, Victorians, or whatever else they are to he called, seem to he doing for us what the dogs did for Lazarus when he sat at Dives’ gate. If they would mend their ways, of which there seems to be much need, instead of adopting the ‘ Norwegian scheme’ of bringing the two Houses to vote together-, let them do what we have done, tlu-ow open their harbors to the trade of the world, and they 11-111 then attx-act, as we have attracted, British capital for the development of their mines and other industries, and for the diffusion of hope and contentment throughout the whole land. People so fiscally heretical as to deny a man the right of buying and selling what and when and where he lilies, unobstructed by any partial law in favor of othex-s, and unburdened with any duties excepting only such as may be imposed with a real and exclusive view to the intex-ests of the public revenue, are not very safe guides on constitutional questions. Befox-e they think of adopting what is doubtful in its application to themselves, let them adopt what is universally applicable, and of no doubtful benefit to any country.” We must not, however, pursue this train of thought, into which we have been rather unconsciously betrayed, but we close with a simple x-eference again to the mai-velloxxs fact of a country celebrating the thousandth anuiveraary of its colonization. Where shall we be when our thousandth anniversary as a country comes round, if the world lasts so long ? That is not a question about which we need concern ourselves much, hut we should concex-n ourselves much about the laws we pass, if the country is to prosper-. Nor should we jump hastily to the conclusion that what suits our country as to its form of government will equally suit another. What suits Norway in that way, an intelligent Nonvegiau or Icelander would declare most unsuitable for us.