Show ANCIENT legislation the collection of the laws of the icelandic republic which lasted from the latter part of the ninth century and to 1260 1260 is is commonly called gaas two complete vellum manuscripts of which are extant and about which a great deal has been written in german and all the scandinavian tongues but very little it if any in english one ot of these vellums dellums is in the royal library copenhagen denmark and was presented to frederick ill III king of denmark in the year 1656 by brynjolf bishop to the see of holt iceland it is of calfskin beautifully tanned tann d of white shining color written in bilu slightly ghaly phonographic atack letter handwriting it is a large vellum being inches in size and nearly two column pages according to the best authorities such as joo jon dr dr konrad mawer maurer ij J F G Sc legel L L D and 0 others it t was written some time about the middle of the thirteenth century being therefore no less than years old still the pages are white and shining hining and the letters all plain which shows there has been good ink in those lays days it is divided into fifteen parts and each part into several chapters part i ecclesiastical law begins thus it is the beginning of our law that all the people of this land shall be christiaa Christi Chris at s and believe in one god the Fat father herthe the son and the holy ghost 11 it treats on baptism funerals churches bishops priests festivals fasts and marriages that law was formed by bishop thorlaf Th at the instigation of the pope in rome whom he had visited bishop thorlaf was a grandson of snorri who was born in the year 1008 on fall rive rivea in the present state of massachusetts his parents were gundrid Gurd rid a widow ot of thorstein eirikson the brother of leif eirikson and thorfinn surnamed karlsefne part 11 II this treats of judicial bunc tion sand begins thus it is said in our law that we shall have four quarter courts one in each quarter of the land etc it treats on judgments sentences handling of cases diets and courts etc part ill III the military law begins thus it is said in our law that if two men meet on the road and one attacks I 1 the other the lass assailant ailant on the conviction thereof shall be exited exiled it treats on punishment for killing wounding or maiming persons it also has a chapter on personal liberty part IV law about truce formularies formu laries etc part parta V law regarding the authority invested in the president of the republic his duties etc part VI law about congress it begins thus congress shall meet every summer in the place where it now meets this section treats about congress its function and power etc part VII law about inheritance it begins thus A freeborn and legitimate son is a lawful heir to his father and mother this section treats of inheritance guardianship and probate matter part VIII law regarding the duty of maintain nce ance it commences thus it is pro provided that each and every man in our land shall provide for those of his relatives that cannot provider provide for themselves first of all shall every man provide for his own mother etc part IX the law treating of betrothals trot hals commences thus A son freeborn ire eborn legitimate heir and intelligent enough to manage his own inheritance sixteen years of age or older has a right to betroth his mother etc it treats of marriages the rights of women marriage covenants insurance special responsibilities bili ties part parta X the law regarding real estates begins thus it is provided that a man when sixteen years vears of age ge shall be regarded capable of managing his own estates it treats on how bow landed property can be reclaimed or dividing lines hay lands exchanging on estates irrigation pasturage fishing and hunting ship wrecks etc part XI the law regarding rents and interests begins thus no man shall charge higher interest than ten per cent on any kind of property etc part XII the law regarding the s searching for stolen property thieves robbers murderers etc begins thus every man shall have a right to keep his own property except he has given it or paid etc it treats on theft robbery pilfering false measure and weight gambling etc part XIII the law regarding municipal government paupers haupers pau pers indigent people etc from page to the end are to be found brief law paragraphs the most important being the following regarding ing gross insults finding and keeping of stray animals public bublic corralls vicious animals and tame bears then comes about arbitration the specific value of silver the value of pure silver beteg being fixed at ten to one ag against giust goldana gol dand blue silver thirty to one blue silver was ws undoubtedly a silver bullion mixed with ead there is an ordinance regulating the rights and eriv privileges illges of the kin king of norway and his subjects when ing in iceland and those of the Ic elanders in norway about the rightson rights right of inheritance by norwegian subjects to a heritage left in iceland and of such in norway belonging to Ic elanders collection of debts the proper plaintiff in cases of seduction fornication and other sexual transgressions then there is a sort of an amendment I 1 o the ecclesiastical law treating on funerals tithing infant baptism carrying arms in a church religious ordeals as carrying cany ing hot iron etc the salaries of priests church churches estates and several others looking over this index no one can fail to see that considering the age in in which the laws were enacted viz between the ninth and the thirteenth century the legislation was tolerably complete still there is is an important ordinance mentioned in the sagas that is left out of here viz it was the duty 0 of the peoples representatives in their respective districts district sto to the national congress to regulate the pi ices of foreign goods brought by foreigners in foreign ships goods brought by Ic elanders in their own ships was exempt from this the national congress consisted of forty eight representatives each one having two assistants or counselors who could frame and introduce bills and discuss any subject but only the forty eight representatives could vote the president who was elected by the representatives for the term of three years had bad the casting vote in a case of a tie new laws were read and discussed three years before the final passage there was a certain scroll of law called Haflidi Haf lidis ls scroll that served as a sort of constitution as it is provided for in a special section that laws passed s shall hall be in accord to that scroll JOHN THORGEIR SOK forty five miles of division canals besides we have commenced and contemplate to build in 1895 and 1896 two more reservoirs reservoirs we will enlarge the others and increase our irrigation capacity about acres by building fifty five miles more of main canals we have in the pa stand also calculate for the future to make our irrigation improvements by operation cooperation co with the expenditure of the capital that we are in possession of that is is labor we have to retrench apparently to the utmost in order to make ends meet and make an honest living and we do i by the fruits of our toil our experience is that we can not afford to bestow the fruits of our labor where it does not return an equivalent we have seen irrigation engineering executed in utah of a character that in our opinion no common farming as yet economically can sustain it is vain to engage i iu u costly engineering schemes amounting in expenditure to more than what they can profit and sink the farmer in destructive incumbrances more than he can ever extricate himself himself from there is often found amongst people not of the farming profession an irrational overestimation of what really even the best of farming can possibly remunerate for labor applied it is therefore in our estimation necessary that the practical farmer in our irrigation regions master that much of engineering gi that he may be a true judge of the economic limit of things belonging i to his industry nwe we have not as yet borrowed and do not calculate to borrow money where with to make irrigation improvements but we intend to execute our advancing measures by operating cooperating co as instituted instituted institute 5 by our illustrious pioneers and earn our improvements and possess them ourselves as we go along we will then unite labor and capital in its perfect sense there are of course many improvements in irrigation matters to be inaugurated when time money and labor are avil available lable if for instance we here could afford to build our main sluice works of rock and cemen tand our main second and third class division sluice gates of metal I 1 believe our system of water division would be much more perfect and satisfactory and as perfect as is had anywhere but to make such improvements rational farming arming intensity must correspond with the degree of expenditure we lor for instance calculate to use no more imported steel cul verts for the tapping of our reservoirs the only one we ever put in here cost us by its collapse it caused the break of our largest reser vior we made a substitute of red pine with heavy steel bands it was feet long and 36 inches in diameter outside 24 inches inside was put together on the spot it answers first rate and saved much money in being made mainly by labor of the company capital might be applied profitably to the farmer whenever it can be had at a price 3 per cent that will leave a margin to the farmer for 1 or the trouble of usi using neit it but we will warn enterprising parties against sanguine high flying ideas ol of astounding profits to be gained by undue and extravagant expenditures in hydraulic engineering it is hard toil and continued hard toil that makes profits in farming and on land unencumbered by mortgages and indebtedness that makes the prosperous farmer we wish the utah irrigation commission success in disseminating an influence for progressive measures amongst the people of our extensive irrigation re giop very respectfully yours CHRISTIAN A MADSEN |