himself every time, but dispensing with the engaged glass, and applying his mouth to that of the bottle!

Archdeacon Jon Jonson is introduced to us by Mr. Metcalfe, and proves to be a superior cleric. Although already a-bed when the Oxonian rapped at his door, he got up, with his whole household, provided a good supper, and supplied a downy couch for his English guest. The parish church lies four miles away, with an impassable bog between. So, when the Oxonian expressed a wish the next day to see it, the good pastor conducted him round by a long and devious path to this spot, which is interesting as having once been the seat of one of the chief monasteries in the island. Hardly a vestige of the latter remains; but the church is, as usual, constructed of wood, and roofed in with turf. It was restored in 1695. The altarpiece is of alabaster, illuminated with gold and colours, and represents, in three compartments, the Scourging, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection; with the angel Gabriel and the archangel Michael interposed. An adjacent portrait shows the lineaments of Bishop Gudbrand, the translator of the Bible, at the age of seventy. On a transverse beam are carved very ancient little wooden figures of Christ and the apostles. The whole is a choice specimen of an old Icelandic church; while the archdeacon is an equally choice specimen of the present Icelandic clergy. 'It gives one quite a pang,' exclaims the Oxonian, 'to take leave of these warm-hearted people, whom one will probably never see again in this world. Nor did I feel this the less, now that a chilling mist was rolling up from the sea; while beyond the river, on whose brink we stood, nothing but desolate rocks were to be seen.' But let us look at the hospitable archdeacon before we pass on. See him, then, mounted on his sturdy pony; a frieze cap tightly fixed upon his head; a belt confining the folds of his ample dreadnought round his spare figure; while over his two pair of trowsers and seal-skin boots are drawn an all-engrossing pair of stockings. Nor must his capacious saddle-bags be omitted, especially as they probably contain something beside sermons. Such is the archdeacon when on his travels.

The lot of the Icelandic clergy as respects temporal things would be thought hard, if compared with that of some other countries, but the reverse, if looked at with relation only

to the island. We gather from the notes of the Oxonian that a living of three hundred dollars per annum in money, besides a farm, commonly cultivated by the priest himself, is considered a fair provision. The fees are proportionately moderate; burial costing from one to two dollars, marriage the same, and baptism half a dollar. On a comparison of the temporals of Icelandic and English clergymen, Mr. Metcalfe would say that, as a body, the former are the better circumstanced. Though their income be small, their wants are few, their education is gratuitous, their farm supplies them with most of the necessaries of life, and they have horses in abundance for riding. Their parishioners do not expect from them much attention to dress, and pay little attention to it themselves. A clergyman with his £30 per annum, and his farm, in Iceland, is in reality better provided for than an English clergyman with no house and £100 per annum. A clerical Lazarus is a thing unknown in Iceland.

We add a portraiture of an Icelandic peasant. Sigard Palm is as smart as an Italian, with small, twinkling, black eyes, and an intelligent face. He opens a box, pulls out a German and Danish dictionary, a German volume on physical science, and shows that he is studying the language. An Icelandic psalter, one hundred years old, and a good Bible, are amongst his books. Swinging his body forwards and backwards, Palm overwhelms the Oxonian with inquiries about England. This swinging motion is usual, and is attributed to a habit formed in fulling cloth, every man here being his own fulling-mill. Palm rewards the respondent to his questions with a cup of coffee, for which he declines payAmongst his effects is seen a piece of obsidian, which doubtless he himself is using as an amulet against all sorts of evils, though he professes to laugh at such superstitions. Twenty-four virtues are assigned to this stone,-why, it is impossible to say. Palm is a good (rather too good) specimen of the island's peasantry.

Now an old lady shall sit for her portrait, as a counterpart to the foregoing. Ingilborg, with fair-complexioned cheeks, shining with motherly good humour, exhibits her ancient Icelandic costume to the English clergyman. To gratify his curiosity, she carefully puts it on, piece by piece. First comes the horn-like, nodding falldr, sixteen inches high, as white as

Costumes and Customs.

145

snow, fastened to her head by a silk kerchief which covers the hair. Then follows the petticoat of green brocade. The vest is fastened across her bosom by a silver chain, passing, like a stay-lace, through the eyelet-holes; the silver bodkin for threading it being made fast to the end of the chain. Now diving into a roomy chest, she brings up a velvet belt, studded with hemispherical silver buttons. Over all comes a very long black cloak, of the Noah's ark cut, which is adorned at its salient points by strips of black velvet. Thus antiquely arrayed, she hands to her visitor skier in a lordly dish.

Our last Icelandic interior is the house of the warm-hearted and hospitable Chamberlain Magnussen, Lord of Skard, and a worthy descendant of princely ancestors. The first interesting circumstance is, that Magnussen shows to his guest the signet ring which Ebenezer Henderson, the excellent missionary, and the author to whom we have previously alluded, presented to his father in 1815. The memory of Henderson is still fresh and respected in Iceland. He visited Iceland to disseminate the Bible Society's translation of the Holy Scriptures into Icelandic; and though this has been superseded by a newer version, the work and the man are reverently mentioned. His book on Iceland is still an authority for those parts of the island which he, first of Englishmen, explored; and we have always found it trustworthy. On some topics it is fuller of information than other and later books of travel. It is pleasant to find that the signet ring of the good man is treasured up with Magnussen's family relics. It may be added that the work of Henderson will afford the Christian reader an interest which the others are not adapted to yield. No one can acquaint himself with Iceland without lamenting that there are no book-hawking societies in a land where the people are so anxious to read, have so much time for reading during the long, dreary winter, and have so little native literature to satisfy their mental appetite. Here, of all places, a judicious selection and circulation of religious books would be most welcome, and probably productive of the greatest benefit.

ART. V.-The Province of Jurisprudence Determined.

Being the First Part of a Series of Lectures on Jurisprudence, or the Philosophy of Positive Law. Second Edition. By the late JOHN AUSTIN, Esq.

THERE are two things remarkable about this book,-that the second edition is posthumous, and that its editor is a lady. The author survived, by seven-and-twenty years of almost uninterrupted leisure, the publication, and by no small portion of that period the sale, of his first edition. He has left the task of preparing the second to his widow; and it seems difficult at first to say whether we wonder more at his strange neglect, or at the rare good fortune which has given to him, and to us, so faithful, zealous, and accomplished a substitute. Mrs. Austin has had no easy task. Rare, indeed, are the ladies whose mental qualities and training would fit them to exercise even that general supervision which the re-publishing of so profound a book demands. But Mrs. Austin's literary spirit, and affectionate sense of duty to her late husband, have led her nobly to attempt a republication such as he himself might not have been ashamed to acknowledge. Not content with making the corrections which Mr. Austin had actually indicated, she has searched his papers for the scattered memoranda in which he preserved the materials for his own long-projected but everdreaded revision; and, if we regret to miss the totally new work which so laborious an author would certainly have substituted for his first effort, we have at least his opinions upon the main topics of these lectures, brought down to the latest period of his thoughtful life.

It is a pity that the credit of this performance is in any degree marred by the tone in which Mrs. Austin has spoken of her husband's life and labours. We should be sorry, indeed, to deal harshly with the murmurs of those who have tasted the bitterness of long-protracted poverty,-still more to resent the complaints of a high-spirited woman, whose noble affection is worthy of all our admiration and respect; but, even if the world were a little unjust to Mr. Austin, surely his widow is somewhat unjust to the world. Professional success is not the

Mr. Austin's early Difficulties.

147

reward of merit, but the payment of wages. A certain kind of work is in demand; and neither coarser nor finer goods will command any price in the market. No doubt the world is ignorant, and incapable of appreciating the benefits of sound principle and lofty truth. It is a shop-keeper bent upon quick returns, and shy of investments which threaten a protracted locking-up of capital. It is the high praise of Mr. Austin's abilities, that his labour was of the most permanent and expensive kind. He spent a long life of such thought as few men can reach; and the tangible results lie in a small compass. He was always laying the very deepest foundations of civilization; but he had therefore to work underground, out of sight. The world pays the market-price, and no more. If a man will work for nothing, he does so. Mr. Austin was a man of genius; and genius is not generally paid for. His mind was ever intent, with a restless enthusiasm, upon the science which it seemed to be especially created to elucidate. Not only from generosity of nature, but also from the mere ardour of his temperament, he could not have refrained from the useful labours to which his life was devoted. Whenever there is an extra stimulus in the workman to work, the money value of his work is depreciated. The minister of religion pays for his own zeal out of his own pocket; and every earnest and eager teacher of abstract truth will find, like Mr. Austin, that the teaching of truth, however directly it may tend to increase the material wealth of the world, is not a lucrative profession. This latter cause of the poverty of some of the greatest benefactors of mankind is not likely to abate: the value of work will, probably, always be calculated on the principle of supply and demand. The former cause is already in course of gradual removal. Already we are fostering the growth of the physical sciences; and notions of the value of liberal education are spreading more widely among us. Mr. Austin himself, had he lived a few years later, might have found, in one of the readerships of our Inns of Court, a post of moderate emoluments and honourable duties, the very establishment of which is, perhaps, in no small degree, the fruit of his own labours. It was his misfortune to have to work at creating the demand. Meanwhile, he was treated as other men of his calibre have always been treated; he obtained all he could have-the honour and respect of all whose admiration