He little dreaded his adversary's power, and hired a post-chaise to carry him the next morning to Castletown. A person who has power to confine another, has power also to release him. In the dusk of the evening he set his men upon the watch, and dismissed the action. The prison is close to the sea: the gate was thrown open, and out walked the drover, exulting in the confirmation of his liberty, and the success of his plans. Scarcely had the door shut after him, when he. was seized by the men in waiting, hurried to a boat, and thence put on board a vessel. The ship soon weighed anchor; but to what port he was carried, or what afterwards became of him I could never learn. 304 CHAPTER VIII. The Sale of the Island. In order to prevent the smuggling trade of the Isle of Man, which, in the beginning of the last century, began to prognosticate great evil to England, and perhaps for other reasons, it was the wish of the British government that the sovereignty of the island should be re-vested in the King. An act consequently passed the legislature in 1726, authorising the Earl of Derby to sell his royalty and revenue. Although many proposals were made to him, and his successor, they always made delays, unwilling to complete the sale; and the object of government remained incomplete till John Duke of Athol and his Duchess succeeded to the royalty. In the first and last year of their reign, and in the fifth of that of his present Majesty, A. D. 1765, the sovereignty was re-vested in th● King of England. The people were at first much alarmed at the consequent change of affairs, but experience has since taught the industrious part of them to consider it a great advantage to the country; the Duke however was ever afterwards much disliked on this account. A song, of which the following is a verse, was composed on the occasion, and is well remembered to this day: "For the babes unborn will rue the day, For there's ne'er an old wife that loves a dram, The sovereign formerly bore the title of King, and his consort is styled Queen in some of the statutes. This title was, about three centuries ago, abandoned by Thomas, Earl of Derby; and Lord of Man assumed in its room. The reason which he gave for so doing was, that he thought it an empty title, since the country could no longer maintain itself independent of other nations; and that he deemed it more honourable to be a great Lord than a petty King. The preamble of the Act of re-vestment recites the grant of Henry IV. and the confirmation of it by Act of Parliament of 7th James I. regulating the entail of the island, and the succession to it. It mentions the death of Charles, Earl of Derby, in 1735; and that the property was consequently vested in James, Duke of Athol, as heir general to James, Earl of Derby, who was beheaded in 1651; that James, Duke of Athol, conveyed it to trustees in a deed of feoffment executed on the 6th of April, 1756, to make an absolute sale of it after his death, with the consent of the then Lord-proprietor his heir; the money arising therefrom to be laid out in the purchase of lands in Scotland, to be entailed in the strictest manner according to the law of that kingdom on the heirs male of his body, with remainders, designed to prefer the line of the Murrays to the line of heirs from the seventh Earl of Derby, with an ultimate remainder, not to the heir general of James, seventh Earl of Derby, but to Duke James's heirs and assigns. It says, that James, Duke of Athol, died in 1764, and that his only child, Charlotte Murray, and her husband, then Duke of Athol, became entitled to the Isle of Man according to their estates and interests under the prescribed entails.* The treaty specifies that the Duke and Duchess shall receive 70,000l. to be laid out in estates of Scotland to be entailed for ever on their heirs *See Statutes at large, Vol. X. in purchase of their royalty, the revenues arising, or to be raised from the custom-duties and some other perquisites; themselves retaining the manerial rights, with many other advantages and emoluments. This sum was consequently paid into the Bank of England in the names of the Duke and Duchess of Athol, Sir Charles Frederick, and Edmond Hoskins, to be by them appropriated to the purpose above specified. Respecting the perquisites and emoluments, some misunderstanding had arisen; the English government having claimed more than the Duke by this treaty intended to give up; and the Duke and Duchess had the further grant of an annuity of 2,0001. upon their lives.* In the year 1781, the present Duke, son to the vender of his royalty, presented a petition to parliament, which stated, among other complaints, that many parts of the Act of the fifth year of George the Third required explanation and amendment, and that proper remedies or powers were omitted to be given by the said Act to the Duke and Duchess of Athol, their heirs or as signs, seneschals or stewards, and moors and *The date of this grant I know not, being unable to find any account of it in the statutes. |