Since the sale, the legislature of England has assumed the entire power of enacting laws respecting the customs or port-dues of the island, and also of regulating or prohibiting any manufactures which might be liable to affect the revenue in the internal economy and laws it has not interfered. I do not mean to insinuate that the English legislature has acted improperly in such assumption. Public good is superior to individual justice; and if the public good required the acquisition of such power, it was the duty of the government to obtain it, either by consent or assumption. Plutarch carries this principle so far as to term the rape of the Sabines, since it was undertaken for the public good, a glorious exploit. When property is obtained by violence, an equivalent should be returned to the proprietor, as is done in the making of high-roads or canals, a practice which very much lessens the individual injustice; but the rights and customs of a people are inalienable by the governors, consequently, no compensation.could be made. To have given to their representatives seats in the British parliament, would have been a measure of apparent compensation. The original Manks govern

ment would then, of course, have been annihilated, instead of altered; and the people would have been much more discontented.

The King could purchase only what the Lord possessed but the Lord had no power, and he afterwards admitted it, to levy or increase a single tax upon the people: consequently the interference of the English government relative to revenue matters was nearly as great a stretch of power after the sale, as it would have been before it.

The chief civil officers are, the Governor and Lieutenant-governor, one of them being chancellor, ex officio: the two Deemsters or judges, one for the southern, the other for the northern division of the island, being necessarily natives: the Water-bailiff, the High-bailiffs, one in each of the four towns, being also natives; the Coroners, or sheriffs, one for each of the six sheadings: the Lockmen, or bailiffs, Coroners' officers; and the Constables.

The two first officers have been already spoken of: the second, being judges and justices of the peace, will be mentioned with the county which they preside in as will the water-bailiff

also.

The Coroner is the chief keeper of the peace, and is authorised and obliged to arrest any one who breaks it. He is also to take care that the Governor's arrests be put into execution. He has the impanelling of all juries, the care of executing the sentences of the courts of law; and some other civil duties to perform: but he does not in any instance act as judge. The bailiffs are his officers; and the constables are peace officers.*

* This and the succeeding Chapters of the Second Part are chiefly founded upon "The Statute Laws of the Isle of Man," a literal copy, with a very few exceptions, of the original Statute book, published at Douglas in 1797, now scarce; and upon information which I derived from Captain Quilliam of His Majesty's Navy, and Mr. Cosnahan, Members of the House of Keys.

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CHAPTER II.

On the Revenue.

As the purpose of a government is, or ought to be, to maintain order in society, to protect the inhabitants from domestic disturbance, or the invasion of a foreign foe; so ought the people to contribute, according to their means, to the support of such a government.

The revenue of a country is public property, and should be devoted exclusively to purposes of public benefit.

The laws of society, being founded upon general utility, have little to do with those of nature; and justice enters little into war. The modern laws of civilized nations are so much ameliorated, that the inhabitants of a conquered country retain their private property. Formerly their land and themselves were both seized by the invaders. We find Godred Crovan taking possession of the lands of Man and granting them to his soldiers on certain conditions. From this period, perhaps before, the possessors of the soil

were the Lord's tenants, paying him a rental; and are frequently so termed in the statutes. The rental had for so long a time remained unaltered that people thought, while they continued to pay them, that they had a right to the soil; and one of the lords, endeavouring in the seventeenth century to eject some of them, caused discontents which terminated in an act of settlement or compact between the Lord and his people in the year 1703, wherein the tenures are, on certain fines or rentals, confirmed to the possessors. Thus, though the seizing of lands by the conqueror was no better than a robbery, yet have long usage, and especially the above-mentioned agreement, secured to the Lord-proprietor, and his heirs, for ever, the right of a certain revenue, amounting to fourteen hundred pounds, Manks currency, for his and their individual use.

All money, either for public services not specified, or for the benefit of the Lord, his mane. rial rights, a few fees, fines, and prerogatives excepted, arose from a duty on imports and exports, the most just of taxes, whenever the public good requires them, and less felt by the people than any other. By whose authority it was levied we cannot tell, most probably by that of