JORGENSON, JURGEN, tbo form of name adopted in his English writings by JoROEN JoHOEYSEN, or J VRGENSEN, a Dane, who assumed and exercised for a time the dignity of Protector of Iceland. Jor genson, who was born at Copenhagen in 1779, belonged to n family of learned watch.makcre. His father, Jargon JiirgellSCII, was watch- and clockenaker to the court of Denmark; his elder brother, Urban (born 177t1, died 1830), was the author of n quarto volume in Danish on the measurement of time, published at Copenhagen in 1801; his nephew, Louis Urban (born in 1806, and still living), is the author of important works lu Danish, French, and German on the art of watchmaking, and also published in English a 'Specification of Chronometers, Thermometers, Watches, &e., made by Urban Jiirgensen and Sous' (Copoubagon, 8vo, 1837). Jorgen, who was probably not considered the hope of the family, was at the age of fourteen sent to Englaud, and bound apprentice on board a collier; he subsequently entered rho English navy, and is stated to have served as a midshipman. Iu the year 1800 lie returned to Copenhagen, and published in 1S07 a small work in Danish on the commerce of the English and Americans in the Pacific, to which he had performed a voyage in an English lie soon afterwarde set sail in command of a Danish privateer, the 'Admiral Juul,' to make prizes ou the English coast; but meeting emir Flausborough Head with two Englieli veetele, was obliged to strike, and was sent to London a prisoner of war, but left at large on his parole. At that time, in consequence of the war between England and Denmark, the situation of the inhabitants of Iceland, who mainly depended even for subsistence on the supplies from the mother country, was extremely pitiable and precarious. At the suggestion of the ambidextrous Jorgenson, a Mr. Phelps, a London merchant, freighted a vessel with barley-meal, potatoes, and salt, and a small proportion of rum, tobacco, sugar, and coffee, with a view of trading to the island, and obtaining in return a cargo of tallow, which he understood to he lying in the ports ready for exportation to Denmark. Jorgenson embarked as interpreter, and by leavlog England without permission broke his parole. In January 1809 the expedition arrived at Reikiavik, the capital of Iceland, but found that in spite of the necessities of the inhabitants, all trading with foreigners was pro! hibited by the Danish resident authorities on pain of death. The ship, the Clarence, was furnished with a letter of marque, and on this provocation commenced hostilities, which speedily induced the Danish authorities to modify their views, and consent to permit a trade which they could not openly hinder. They still however threw obstacles iu the way of traffic by threats in private to the Icelanders. Jorgenson went to Euglalad to communicate the state of affairs, and iu hie absence, Count Tramps, the governor of the island, who had been absent at Copenhagen during the earlier transactions, arrived at Iteikiavik on the 6th of June, and not long after concluded a formal convention with the captain of an English sloop of war, the Rover, that British subjects should be allowed a free trade in the island during the war, but should be subject at the same time to Danish laws. On the 31st of June another ship from England, the Margaret and Anne, made it appearance in Reikiavik harbour, with Mr. Phelps himself on board; and Jorgenson, who acted as his adviser. The English merchant must have been of a somewhat fiery disposition, for after waiting for two or three days iu vain for the promulgation of the convention between Count 'I'rampo and the Rover, he determined to put an end to the existing state of affairs by his own authority. On Sunday afternoon, the 26th, a party of twelve of the sailors from the Margaret and Anne landed, with the captain, and went to the governor's house, took Count Trampe prisoner, and conveyed him to the ship, without resistance from any one—the Icelandic congregations in the streets appearing singularly indifferent to the fate of their ruler. The next day, June 28th, appeared two proclamations issued by Jorgen Jorgenson, which must not a little have startled tho quiet burghers of Reiklavik. "All Danish authority ceases in Iceland," was the first clause of one ; "Iceland is free, and independent of Denmark," of the other. " Iceland has its own flag ; Iceland shall be at peace with all nations, and peace is to be established with Great Britain, which will protect it." In a third proclamation dated the 11th of July, further explanations were given. "It is declared," so ruus the document, "that we, Jorgen Jorgenson, have undertaken the government of the country with the name of protector, until a regular constitution is established, with full power to make war or conclude peace with foreign powers ; that the military have nominated me their commander by land and sea te preside over the whole military department of the country ; that the Icelandic flag shall be blue, with three white stockfish thereon, which flag we undertake to defend with our life and blood." The military force here spoken of consisted of eight men, Icelanders by birth, and some of them liberated from the prisons, at the head of whom Jorgenson exercised undisputed sway over an island of fifty thousand inhabitants, whoso ancestors had been remark able for their turbulent and warlike character. The ease with which the revolution was effected and maintained was probably owing in the main to a feeling of satisfaction on the part of the Icelanders at the change. The lower classes who, iu spite of their literary tastes scorn to make themselves acquainted with the Danish language, regarding it as inferior to their own, are said to have studied English with some assiduity during the protectorate of Jorgenson. The oppressive laws of the Danes with regard to commerce primed heavily on the poor. The upper classes were conciliated by Jorgenson's ejection from office of all but native Icelanders, to whom he, though himself a Dane, declared that office properly belonged. The clergy were courted by a promise of increase of salary, and at the annual meeting of the synod the bishop and most of the priests signed a document by which they gave in their adhesion to the new autho rities. Jorgenson's finaucial measures were the most objectionable part of his proceedings. He ordered a confiscation of Danish pro
perty, and went about the island with five of his military force, making eeizurea, which wear the appearanco of sheer robbery. With this exception he seems to have avoided any recourse to violence, although in his proclamations he sometimes talked of severe measures, which he was careful not to put In practice. The best account which we havo of his proceedings is that in the travels of Sir William Jackson Hooker, the present superintendent of Kew Gardens, who went to Iceland in the Margaret and Anne, and to his own personal observatioua of the courso of affairs had the advantage of adding the perusal of two manuscript narratives of the events, one by Count Tramps, the other by Jorgenson, with both of whom he was personally acquainted. In a short history of the tranaetiou iu Danish, published by Skulason, an Icelander, in 1832, the writer's attention is chiefly directed to the vindication of his countrymen from the charges of pusillanimity or disaffection to Denmark, for their making no resistance to the usurper ; and he alleges that the inhabitants of Iceland were ouly kept under by the sad certainty that, as their capital was built of wood and lay under the guns of the Margaret and Anne, it might in a few minutes be set on fire and destroyed, when the consequences of destitution and want of shelter in a climate such as that of Icelaud, would have been frightful to contemplate. That the inhabitants were in general not satisfied with the state of affairs was shown by their application to the captain of an English sloop of war, the Talbot, which unexpectedly made its appearance in Havnfiord, to control the proceedings which were going on at Reikinvik. This captain, the Honourable Alexander Jones, sailed for the capital, instituted an examination into the whole affair, heard the statements of Count Trampe, who was still a prisoner on board the Margaret and Anne, and on the 22nd of August restored the government into the hands of the Danish authorities. Ho at the same time sent both Tramps and Jorgenson to England, to make what statements they pleased to the authorities in Loudou. So ended tho most important political event in the annals of Iceland for several centuries ; "a revolution," says Hooker, "in which only twelve men were engaged, not a life was lost, not a drop of blood was shed, not a gun fired, nor a sabre unsheathed." Count Trampe on his arrival in England appealed to the Icelandic sympathies of Sir Joseph Banks, who had nearly forty years before travelled in the country; and an order in council was issued directing that during the war Out only Iceland, but the Feriie Islands and the parts of Greenland which had Danish settle ments should be unmolested by English cruisers, and the trade between them and the mother country should be left free—an excellent and humane measure, the spirit of which might have been imitated with advantage iu our recent Russian war. Jorgenson, who on his arrival in England was left at liberty to take up his quarters at his usual lodgings at the Spread Eagle in Gmcechurch Street, commenced his correspondence with the Admiralty without any allusion to the fact that he was a prisoner of war who had broken his parole ; but the circumstance soon oozed out, and he was in consequence arrested and confined in Tothill-Fields Prison, and soon after transferred to the hulks at Chatham. After a twelvemonth there he was allowed to reside at Reading, again on his parole, and in 1811 he put forth au English work on the state of Christianity in Otaheite. At the con elusion of the war he made a tour on the continent, the fruits of which were Travels through France and Germany iu the years 1815-17. By J. Jorgenson, Esq.,' London, 8vo, 1817. In this work, which is not deficient in vivacity and observation, it is curious that he enters into an elaborate eulogy of the English treatment of prisoners of war, which he maintains was always marked by an exces sive degree of lenity and kindness, even in the case of persons who, having broken their parole, were necessarily deprived of the indul gences granted to others. He mentions that he was led to make these observations by the false and malignant statements on the subject which he found in circulation in France, and he adduces uumerou.s facts in support of his views. Jorgenson appears to have taken up his residence in England on his return from Germany, and to have rapidly gone downwards, pursuing a course of dissipation which led to utter ruin. In May 1820 the former Protector of Iceland was tried at the Old Bailey Sessions for stealing articles from his lodgings in Warren-street, Fitzroy-square. He was convicted and sentenced to seven years' transportation. It is stated in the Sessions Papers that "the prisoner made an exceeding long and unconnected defence," and "complained of improper administration of justice in this country." The sentence was not carried out. After a confine ment which lasted till towards tho end of 1821 Jorgenson was libe rated on condition of leaving England. He failed to do so, and was again arrested on a charge of being unlawfully at large, when be pleaded guilty, and received sentence of death. This sentence was again com muted to transportation for life, but he still remained in Newgate acting as au assistant in the infirmary till October 1825, when he was sent off to New South Wales. Our impression is that he died not long after his arrival in the colony, but a search for a mention of the fact has proved unsucceesfuL- Soon after his departure from England appeared the last publication which bears his name, ' The Religion of Christ is the Religion of Nature. Written in the Con demned Cells of Newgate, by Jorgen Jorgenson, late Governor of Iceland' (London, 8vo, 1827). In this work he gives it to be under stood, without directly stating it, that he was a sincere Christian till his thirtieth year (the year, it may be remarked, of the Icelandic revolution), that his belief was then undermined by the perusal of Gibbon's Decline and Fall,' and that from that time he was lost to all sense of principle till his conversion in Nowgate. The book was reviewed with high commendation in the ' Gentleman's Magazine?