HISTORICAL NOTICE. 63 and short-sighted enough to listen to his persuasions ; among them being Snorri Sturlusson, the most famous of the saga-writers of Iceland. After considerable bloodshed, Hakon gained his purpose ; and Iceland was incorporated with Norway in the years 1262-64. ‘ The Icelandic republic was no more,’ says Ilerra Hjaltalin, and adds, ‘ We may suppose that the immediate object of the Icelanders was to obtain peace and tranquillity, and so far they were indeed successful. But they had not counted the cost of this political suicide, for it was a historical suicide as well.’ The subsequent history of Iceland has been a very mournful one until within the last thirty years. Peace brought indolence and apathy, because it was accompanied by the loss of independence and the responsibility of self-government. However, since 1848 a band of patriotic Icelanders, under the leadership of Herra Jon SigurSsson (who, alas! died in 1880), have fought a manful battle to raise Iceland from the political atrophy into which it had sunk. Space can only be spared to briefly notice the more important events from the loss of independence. In 1380, Norway was united to Denmark, and Iceland was also transferred to the Danish Crown. From 1540-51 is the date of the Icelandic Deformation, when Lutheranism prevailed over Catholicism. Both these changes took place without bloodshed, and ever since the Icelanders have ‘ remained Lutheran to a man,’ and it is almost unnecessary to add that the island is still a Danish possession. In the year 1800 the Aljhng was abolished, and for forty-three years Iceland was entirely under Danish government. In 1843 the Aljhng was reestablished, hut it was only a shadow of its former self—a body of representatives to whom was denied the right to legislate ! Two years later it was determined that the Aljhng for the future should hold its sittings at Reykjavik. It may be men- tioned here, that last year (1881) a spacious stone building was completed in which the Aljhng is for the future to deliberate, hitherto that body has assembled in a large room in the College (‘Latinuskoli’=Latin-school) at Reykjavik. In 1848 a constitution was proclaimed for Denmark, and the Icelanders petitioned that legislative powers should be restored to the Aljhng. For many years the Danish Government refused to grant this, but happily wiser counsel has prevailed and the King of Denmark, Christian IX., wishing to commemorate the millennial anniversary of the Norse colonisation of the island, signed a new constitution for Iceland on the 5th January 1873, which was to

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