are of four sorts: the building or repairing of churches; the building of bridges; the making and keeping in order of high-roads; and the maintenance of the clergy.

No church can be erected at the public expense without an especial act of Tinwald. It is customary for such act to specify in what manner the necessary money is to be raised and each parish is obliged to bear its own burden. The repairing of a church is a less important matter, and its necessity or expediency is determined by a majority of the parishioners themselves, convened by the church-warden for that purpose. The money, requisite for defraying the expenses, is levied upon the inhabitants in proportion to their rentals.

The building of a bridge requires a previous act of Tinwald. The expense incurred is usually defrayed by an annual poll-tax of one penny upon all the inhabitants, continued till a sufficient sum is received. Part of the revenue thus raised was once intended and used for the purpose of rebuilding St. John's chapel.

The high-road fund, a most essential one, arises from a tax upon every retailer of ale or spirits; a tax upon lands and houses; a tax upon

dogs; and some few and very trifling fines, not worth mentioning here, but which will be particularized when I speak of crimes and their punishments.

Retailers of ale and spirits used to pay to this fund, the annual sum of 9s. 9d. besides 14d. to the Governor's clerk, 7d. to the Comptroller for the drawing out of each licence, and 9d. to the Keys for the reparation of their house, and other necessary expenses: but the whole sum of 12s. 6d. has been, since the year 1776, devoted to the fund which we now speak of. Their number being three hundred, or nearly so, they contribute about 1801.

The proprietor of each quarter-land was to furnish four men for one day or term, or compound for their labour; other lands and houses, in proportion to their original, or Lord's rent. The penalty of not complying with the notice of the parochial surveyor to send such labourers was one shilling for each man deficient. One cart with two horses and a driver, when required, were considered equal to four men. All the inhabitants of a parish, possessing land or houses, were obliged to contribute thus in rotation, none being liable to more than three turns or days'

work in the course of one year. This labour being now almost invariably commuted into sums of money, produces between 7001. and 800%. per annum.

Whoever has, keeps, or makes use of any greyhound, half-bred greyhound, pointer, spaniel, or other dog, used or fit for coursing, pointing, setting, or shooting, is obliged to pay six shillings annually for each for any hound, beagle, or other dog proper for hunting, or used for that purpose, three shillings: for all other dogs, sixpence. This tax produces from 60%. to 80%.

By these means is annually raised the sum of nearly 10007. for making and repairing highroads.

for

The officiating of clergymen, being a public benefit, should be paid for by the public. The application of tithes to any secular purpose, instance, the Lord's private purse, is a perversion of their use.

The first establishment of tithes for the benefit of the clergy under the Christian dispensation, was made by Charlemagne, in order to support this class of society, then falling to decay, and as some compensation for the losses which they had sustained under his grandfather,

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Charles Martel, who had seized upon all the church lands, forming, at that time, the greater part of the kingdom, and had distributed them among the soldiery. He divided the tithes into four parts, appropriating one to the bishop, another to maintaining the fabrick of the church, one to the poor, and the remaining one to the incumbent. On instituting a parochial clergy in England a similar plan was adopted. †

I have been unable to learn any thing of the early distribution of the tithes in Man. It appears, that the Lord had the greater part, the bishop a small part, perhaps dependant upon the Lord, and the inferior clergy a much smaller part. §. Gough, editor of Camden's Britannia,

"There was a bishop of the isle, called Episcopus Soderensis, when the jurisdiction of all the Hebrides belonged to him: whereas, now, he is but a bishop's shadow; for albeit that he bear the name of Bishop of Man, yet have the Earls of Derby, as it is supposed, the chief profit of the see (saving that they allow him a little for a flourish), notwithstanding that they be his patrons."-" The Bishop of Man has not wherewithal to maintain his countenance sufficiently." Hollinshed's Chronicles, fol. vol. i. p. 38 and 146.

"It was accustomed, that all instituted vicars of pension, having five marks stipend, should have four nobles, at least, in tithes." Spiritual laws and customs of the Isle of Man : A. D. 1577. Statute-book.

7

that the Lord's share of tithes accrued to

Bays,
him" either as lord or abbot."

In the reign of Charles the Second, under the episcopate of Barrow, a collection was made for purchasing of the Lord-proprietor, for the use of the clergy, and the establishment of a freeschool, one-third part of most of the impropriations; the Earl's lands at Bisphem in Lancashire being mortgaged for the payment.

The poor clergy have the annual sum of one hundred pounds, granted in the same reign, and payable out of the excise-revenue for ever. When all incomes for public services, with a few exceptions, rents of land, and all incomes of public companies, such as the new-river and insurance companies, were taxed in the year 1763, for that year only, with the sum of four shillings in the pound, this annuity was declared not to be included within the meaning of the act.

The general division of tithes is, at present, three-fold; one to the Bishop, one to the Lordproprietor, where not granted away, and the remaining one to the incumbent. The parishes of Braddon and Rushen are exceptions to this order, the Bishop having one-third, and the Lordproprietor two. The incumbents have also glebe