pressly stipulated they should retain their old laws and customs. With the rest of Norway it passed under the sovereignty of the Danish Crown to which it still remains subject. Its immunities were to a great degree lost in process of time; but a few years ago, in 1874, on the occasion of the millennial celebration, a new constitution was guaranteed to it by Christian IX. King of Denmark, which secured to the Althing the right to to make its own laws subject only to the Royal

assent.

The Althing is an elective assembly and election is very popular. We quote from an account of the Icelandic Constitution in "An American in Iceland" by S. Kneeland, Boston.

CHAPTER II.-THE CONSTITUTION OF THE ALTHING.

§ 14.-The Althing shall consist of 36 Deputies: 30 to be elected by the people, 6 appointed by the King, the number of the former may be altered by law. The Deputies shall be elected for six years unless the Althing be sooner dissolved by the King, the six appointed by the King, however, in case of dissolution, hold on to the end of the term of their appointment. All of the 36 must be Icelanders. If a Deputy dies or resigns, his place is filled by election; the new Deputy holds office only until the end of the term.

$15.-The Althing shall consist of two Chambers, the upper comprising 12, the lower 24 members; these numbers may be altered by law.

§ 16.-Those appointed by the King are ex officio members of the Upper House, the other six are elected by the entire body meeting in general session. If a seat becomes vacant in the Upper House, the Althing meets in general session to fill the vacancy, after the District shall have elected a new Deputy.

§ 17-All bondsmen (farmers) who cultivate a grass field and who pay taxes, shall have the right of franchise; special exemptions may, however, be granted by law from paying some particular tax without forfeit of franchise. All residents of towns who pay a municipal tax of 4 rix-dollars have the franchise; also men of the dry booth-that is men who have no cows, milkless men, referring especially to fishermen-who pay a tax of 6 dollars a year; public functionaries who are appointed either by royal writ or by local authority; and all who have passed an examination at the University or the Theological Seminary at Reykjavik, or other institutions provided by law, provided they are not so bound as to have the action of their will controlled by others. A voter must be twentyfive years old, have a good character, and must have resided in the district where he votes at least one year; he must be of sound mind and without restraint, he must not be in receipt of support from the poor-law fund, or having received it he must have paid it back, or been exempted from so doing by law.

§ 18.-Any one in the above five classes may become a Deputy by election to the Althing, provided he is not the subject of another Power, or in its service. He must, moreover, have resided the last five years of his life in lands subject to Denmark, and have completed his thirtieth year.

For purposes of local administration Iceland is divided into fjordungar or four parts, which are subdivided into twenty-two "sysler," districts, with nineteen "sysselmaend" or magistrates, each syssel being again subdivided into "hrapper' hrapper" or rapes, under "hrappstjori" or sheriffs. The new law gives women who are householders the right to vote for these magistrates. It is thus substantially a municipal and parochial franchise.

The following is the text of the Act. No. 13. Law of the 12th May, 1882.

LAW UPON THE RIGHT OF WOMEN TO VOTE.

We, Christian the Ninth, by God's grace, King of Denmark, the Wends, and the Goths, Duke of Slesvig, Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsk, Lauenborg, and Oldenborg

:

Do proclaim the Althing has admitted, and we by our consent have confirmed the following law:

Widows and other unmarried women who are householders, or in any other manner occupy an independent position, are invested with a vote for the election of the magistrates for the "sysler" and "hrapper" (districts and sub-districts into which Iceland is divided), town councillors, and at parochial meetings, if they are 25 years of age, and, moreover, have fulfilled all legal conditions for the exercise of the above rights. And that all concerned may obey this,

Given at Amalienborg, 12th May, 1882, under our royal hand and seal, CHRISTIAN R.

Another Act received the royal sanction at the same time, which, though of less importance, is conceived in a spirit of equality for men and women. The religion of Iceland is Lutheran, and the parish priest has hitherto had very despotic authority. The new law enacts that

every man or woman who is an independent house

holder, their children, and every other person who is confirmed and is 18 years old, may choose for themselves some other priest than their own parish priest. Only a parish priest may however be chosen." Thereafter follow all the details of confirmation, wedding and burial notices, fees, &c., which are of purely local interest; we need only observe that although this privilege is expressly extended to women, the masculine pronoun is alone made use of, which therefore as in English Acts, includes the feminine.

We may observe here that the ancient laws of Iceland were very favourable towards women. The ancient Germans, it is well-known, held women in very high esteem, and the Scandinavians were in no way behind them. Mallet in his "Northern Antiquities," say that the legal guardian of a maiden was in the first place her father; at his death her brother, then her mother; but if she had attained her majority she might marry without the consent of her legal guardian. "When a person had obtained the consent of the legal guardian of the maiden he wished to marry, a day was fixed for the betrothal. The betrother had then to take the hand of the guardian, and in the presence of competent witnesses, promise within a year and a day, to marry the ward, at the same time paying him a stipulated sum called the mundr, the guardian, on his part promising to make over, when the nuptials were celebrated, to his ward or to her betrother, or conjointly to both as the case might be, the stipulated heimanfylgje or marriage portion. If the marriage did not take place within the time prescribed, the parties were relieved from the contract, and if its non-fulfilment had been owing to the betrother he could not recover the mundr." The legal guardian generally gave the mundr to the bride as a present on the day of her marriage.

The Grágás or code of laws defines very particularly the right of women to property. "A married woman might dispose of her personal property, and a considerable portion of her real (landed) property as she thought proper. Her husband had in this respect no control over her actions, except it had been expressly stipulated at the betrothal in the presence of competent

witnesses, that the goods, chattels and estates of the husband and wife should be held conjointly, in which case the husband had the administration of the property, but the wife and her heirs, or next of kin, had a legal claim to one-third of it. When no such stipulation had been made it would appear that to a certain extent, a married woman had not the absolute disposal of her property, for we find it stated in the Grágás, sec. vi. 21., That a married woman cannot legally sell the half of her landed property, nor her godord, if she be in possession of one, nor any sailing vessel that may belong to her, without the advice of her legal guardian," which implies that she might dispose of one half of what would be termed in English law her real property, and all her personal property without restriction. When a divorce took place, the wife of course retained the property held in her own name, and if the divorce had been legally constituted by the decision of a competent tribunal, she might claim one-third of any property held conjointly by her and her husband. If the divorce was owing to the loose conduct of the wife, the husband might reclaim the mundr he had paid at the betrothal. * Divorce was easily obtained. "A wife had only to tell her husband that from that day they ceased to be man and wife, and the marriage was de facto, and in pagan times also de jure, dissolved. A woman who had any claim to joint property would of course prefer suing for a divorce before a competent tribunal. She might do this on the most frivolous pretexts, and even when Christianity became the established religion, a wife might sue for a divorce if her husband had secretly disposed of any part of her property, had attempted to take her out of the island against her will, or had been absent from home for the space of three years."

*

*

Instances might be indefinitely multiplied from the old Sagas of the power and authority which women enjoyed in Iceland, but we have said enough to show that their

*Equivalent to a presentation to a living. It was not legal for a woman to be a godi or sacerdotal magistrate, but if she inherited the office she could appoint a deputy. There are frequent instances, however, of their filling the office.

admission to an equality of rights is fully in accordance with Scandinavian tradition; and we may confidently hope that the present law will only be an instalment of absolute justice.

ART. III.-FRÖBEL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR PRIMARY INSTRUCTION.

MISS EMILY LORD is opening a training school for Kindergarten students next month, which offers great advantages to ladies who wish to become educators of children. There has been a long-felt demand for thoroughly trained Kindergarten teachers. Ever since Miss Lord opened her Kindergarten school at 9, Norland Place, Notting Hill, six years ago, she has constantly been asked for teachers whom she has trained, or to receive girls to train. Hitherto she has had no training school, and has sent students to Madame Michaelis, or to the Kindergarten College; but it has been found that many of the girls would prefer to be trained in their own neighbourhood, or to take some only of the courses of lectures.

Miss Lord is, therefore, building a hall for lectures, and a gymnasium. There will be lectures from men. and women of note, model lessons from teachers experienced in the every-day difficulties of dealing with little children, and an opportunity for practising how to teach in Miss Lord's Kindergarten and school, which has long numbered 120 children, and will be a most valuable practising school for students.

Ever since Miss Lord began her work in 1876, she has aimed not merely to keep children quiet during school hours, or to prepare them for the work of school in later years, but to fit them to be happy at home, and to show them how to learn. Fröbel is best known as the originator of the Kindergarten, which was a small expression of his comprehensive views and suggestive mind. His