[From Extracts from pre 1867 House of Key's Journal]

Constitutional Questions,

CHAPTER. II.

(b) IN DISPUTE BETWEEN THE KEYS AND THE FOURTH DUKE OF ATHOLL.

The third Duke of Atholl and his wife, who were rulers of the Island at the time of the Revestment, did not make any efforts to obtain redress of the grievances which they complained had been inflicted upon them by the Revesting Act. But their son, the fourth Duke, who succeeded them in 1774, immediately gave evidence of his uncompromising determination not to sacrifice the smallest fraction of what he considered to be his rights. The Keys, therefore, soon came into collision with him, and, with the friendly assistance of the Governor, thwarted him in various ways and considerably curtailed his privileges and influence by legislation ^(a).

One of their earliest complaints was with regard to the removal of the Manorial records from Castletown to Douglas. This was embodied in the following petition, in 1779, to lieutenant-Governor Dawson : —

" The Memorial of the House of Keys, the Representatives of the Commons of the said Isle, humbly sheweth —. That His Majesty’s subjects within the said Isle are seized of their hereditaments and premises as Customary Estates of Inheritance descendable from ancestor to heir, according to the laws and customs thereof. That upon the death of the ancestor or predecessor, the heir is admitted and entered tenant upon the Court Rolls. That each and every such proprietor may, by gift, grant, or assignment, alien such their possessions, which deeds of conveyance are to be approved and confirmed by the Lord (in his jurisdictional capacity), or by the Governor with the concurrence of the chief civil officers at the least, as the Statute Laws of the said Isle specially direct.

That the said Governor and civil officers and magistrates have held Circuit Courts for the several Sheadings of the said Isle in or about the months of May and October annually and granted their confirmations to such deeds and conveyances. And if, upon the usual proclamation thereof, any party offered objections against any such confirmation, the same were argued before the Court and judicially determined thereby. And the party, in all cases whatsoever, when having obtained such confirmation, then produced his deed to the said Sheading or copyhold Court, and being then entered tenant of the premises by virtue of the said deed, he afterwards recorded the same in the Courts of Common Law, Chancery or Exchequer, or retained the same in his own hands at his election.

There being no Law Statute or Ordinance within the said Isle controverting the Party’s property or right of possession of and in such his Title Deed. That after the passing of the Act of Settlement, in 1703, and the compositions made by virtue thereof or comprehended under the same, which Act our most gracious Sovereign, in the seventeenth year of his reign, at the instance of the Legislature within the said Isle, was pleased to re-enact, ratify, and confirm by his Royal sanction and authority, the same being the grand charter of the tenures of the said Isle in general, the landowners, out of their confidence in the Government and security the Castle and Garrison of Castle Rushen afforded, voluntarily brought in all their Title Deeds (which had been formerly confirmed and afterwards kept in their own possession, as aforesaid) to be there recorded and deposited in safe custody and preservation, and therefore, instead of the original, the grantees exhibited their copies of their said deeds to the said Sheading or Manor Courts, and there obtained their entry by virtue thereof. That the jurisdictions of the said Isle being vested in the Crown by an Act passed in the fifth year of His Majesty’s reign, your memorialists are informed that a partial separation was made of the Crown Records and such parts of the said public records as were thought Manorial, in the month of August, 1766, which separation or proceeding was made without the privity, knowledge, or consent of this House. Yet, notwithstanding such several and respective records remained in the care and custody of the Clerk of the Rolls (he being also Seneschal to His Grace the Lord of the Manor), and therefore and as such part of the Records as the said partial separation expressed to be Manorial were kept near the said garrison, properly attended to, and removed into the said Castle in time of danger, the necessity of the restoration of the said Records did not thereupon so readily occur. But, as neither the House of Keys or the proprietors of such Deeds or Records were any wise made parties or privy to the said transaction or separation, or bound thereby, they never meant to acquiesce with such innovation of their rights, and now they cannot be satisfied with any other mode of security for the preservation of their said Title Deeds, Compositions, and Records than the Repository of Records in Castle Rushen, under the protection of the Civil and Military Government of the said Isle, wherein the said Records were originally intrusted or could be secure.

That his Grace the Duke of Atholl, now judging it expedient to remove such of the Records as were, by the said separation, deemed manorial to Douglas, which is a town the most exposed to the Ravages and Insults of the enemy. In the discharge of our duty, and in the application of the Landowners on such alarming occasion to us their representatives, to assert their rights to the several and respective Title Deeds and Compositions, and to procure the same to be re-instated in the Crown or public Records, where only the people had, or now would entrust them for either security or convenience. We make this application unto your Honor for that purpose. Your Memorialists further show unto your Honor that the possession of the said Title Deeds and Compositions is a matter of the highest trust, value, and importance of any within this Isle, and too considerable a charge to be committed to any private hands. That copies of His Majesty’s Records are received as authentic evidences in any Court of Record and by and before any Magistrate of this Isle. But copies from any Seneschal are not admissible or legal evidences Therefore, upon any litigation, the subject (while the said deeds and compositions remain in the possession of the Lord of the Manor or his Seneschal) will be necessarily exposed to the unnecessary and illegal expenses of paying the Seneschal for producing the said original Records upon trial, which would render the same subject to detriment or accident, with many other injuries or inconveniences to the public. Your Memorialists, therefore, humbly pray that your Honor will be pleased to order the restoration of the said Title Deeds and Compositions into the public or Crown Repository of Records in Castle Rushen—there to remain under the protection of the civil and military Government of the said isle ; and also that the Clerk of the Rolls for the time being may be ordered to give out true also authentic Copies of the said Deeds, Compositions, and Records, in the same manner as hath been practised from the Act of Settlement unto the passing of the Vesting Act." .

A copy of this Memorial, with an explanatory letter, was sent to the Duke of Atholl by the Speaker. The Lieutenant-Governor, on receipt of it ordered the Clerk of the Rolls, " not to deliver up the possession or custody of the Composition Books and the original Title Deeds and other Records claimed by the Memorialists on behalf of themselves and the community," and he summoned the Clerk of the Rolls and the Deputy Seneschal, Robert Heywood, to appear before him. Robert Heywood did not appear, for "which contempt a presentment" was awarded against him, and when he came to a subsequent Court he alleged that he had had no instructions. The matter was shortly afterwards settled by a preemptory order from the Secretary of State to hand over the Records in question to the duke’s seneschal. Early in the following year (1780) the House resolved that there be an appeal from this order to the King in Council.

Irritated by their action in this, as in other cases, the duke brought a Bill into Parliament, the main objects of which were to restrain the alienation of lands without his consent ; to compel the deposits of all title-deeds with his seneschal, and to retransfer to himself certain services and rights of which he considered he had been unjustly deprived by the Crown. The Keys were informed of this by Lieutenant-Governor Dawson, and, in writing to thank him, they remarked that this Bill " is of the most alarming and dangerous tendency to this Isle, whilst, as it manifestly invades the right and authority of His Majesty, it at once strikes at the Laws, Liberties, and properties of the people, that they are justly filled with apprehension of the most intolerable tyranny and oppression", and they conclude with assuring the Governor that "their most vigorous endeavours shall be exerted to oppose the Bill".

With that object they passed a resolution declaiming against the steps intended to be taken by the duke "not only to encroach upon and invade the rights of the inhabitants, but also to annihilate the constitution of the said Isle by altering the ancient mode of forming one of the estates or branches of the Legislative Body thereof " ^(b), and they appointed a Committee, consisting of John Taubman, James Oates, W.Callow, John Cosnahan, and Daniel Callow, " to digest and form the proceedings necessary to support and preserve the laws and constitutions of this Isle and the rights and liberties of this community under the same against every attempt or invasion whatsoever." It was further resolved that " a sum of money not exceeding £2,000 be raised by the said Committee " by way of loan or otherwise, as occasion may require, for carrying on and making the same defence," and " that John Cosnahan, Esq., MHK., do forthwith proceed to London as the agent and commissioner in behalf of the House and the Isle, and to watch over and preserve the rights and interests of the said Isle in this critical state of affairs in Parliament and elsewhere by all proper means as to him may appear eligible and be by Counsel advised." John Taubman, James Oates, William Quayle, and William Cubbon were appointed as a Committee to correspond with him.

The Bill was reported against by the Attorney and Solicitor-General of England and by Sir W.Busk the Attorney-General of the Island, and was consequently withdrawn. We find the House passing a resolution that ‘ John Christian, of Ullrigg, Esq., one of the members of this House, be " desired to wait upon the Right Hon. Lord Loughborough (late his Majesty’s Attorney-General) with the thanks of this House for his particular attention to the affairs of the Isle of Mann upon a late important occasion. A similar vote was passed with reference to the ‘ Right Hon. James Wallace, Esq His Majesty’s Attorney-General."

Undaunted by this repulse, the duke again petitioned Parliament, asking for leave to introduce a Bill to amend the " Revesting Act," and he caused a petition to be got up in the Island in his favour.

The House complained to Lieut.-Governor Dawson about this petition, which, they said, had been sent to the duke " by a few men in this country possessed of some property," and then stated that the " tendency " of the petition " is to insult the existing Legislature, and to effect a revolution in the Legal Government and Constitution " of the Island. They furthermore stated that it is well-known that some of " the factious persons at the head of this petition have, as a principal motive for their conduct disappointment in not being elected members of the House of Keys," and that " the vilest practices have been made use of by them to seduce and delude the ignorant, illiterate mob, whose names and marks are the disgrace of their petition, and which were obtained to blank sheets of paper." They remarked that " it is stated in that absurd petition that the inhabitants of this country have laboured under intolerable oppression and difficulties since the Revestment, that the Keys take upon themselves the representation of the people, contrary to their voice and inclination, as if," said the House, an illiterate, lawless rabble of five or six hundred persons composed the people." The House denied that it met, as alleged, privately, for improper purposes," and it pointed out the absurdity of the petitioners’ objections to " the late law’s imposing the necessity of public labour for the making and completing of highways," to the Keys’ consenting to the " raising and forming a corps of Fencibles," and of their complaint that they had not been consulted about these matters. They then continued :" In the close of their absurd and disloyal petition it is prayed that the Keys may be dissolved and that his Grace will take the affairs of the Island into his consideration . . . your memorialists beg leave to observe that the proceedings of the petitioners are to the last degree disloyal, unconstitutional, and seditious, and are certainly calculated to answer some improper purposes." This is followed by a request that the following memorial be laid before His Majesty, "in order to obviate any inconvenience which might arise to this country from the aforesaid factious petition":

To the Honorable Richard Dawson, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle Mann, etc.

Your Memorialists at this time assembled beg leave to address your Honor with the sincerest professions of attachment and loyalty to His Majesty’s royal person and the Government of the said Isle, and to express their heartfelt sense of the blessings they enjoy under the benign administration of the best of Princes.

From high, very high, antiquity the Legislative body of the said Isle hath been composed of its King, the Governor with his Council, and the Keys, and since the auspicious era of 1765, when His Majesty became entire Sovereign of the said Isle, your memorialists, in conjunction with His Majesty and the Governor with his Council, have continued to enact wise and salutary laws for the interior good government thereof agreeable to the ancient and established constitution of the said Isle That in all real and many personal suits or actions at law within the said Isle the Keys are, by the Laws and Constitution thereof, the highest Court of Appeal within the same, and they also, with the Governor and Deemsters, compose the Court of General Gaol Delivery of the said Isle, and are, by their oaths, bound to give their Council to the Governor, explain the Law and give their best assistance to the Deemsters in all doubtful and difficult cases, from whence, the earliest times, they have been " styled ‘ Claves Legum Insulae,’ and, by " the Constitution, have ever been acknowledged the Guardians of the Public Rights of the said Isle: That it is well known that the House " of Keys hath ever consisted of men of the first abilities, landed property, and" consequence in the said Isle, and they have, therefore, been termed ‘Taxiaxi’ in the most ancient records thereof. That upon any vacancy arising in the said House by the death of a member, or from resignation in case of indisposition, or other just cause made known to and approved by the Governor, two proper persons are nominated by the House and returned to the Governor for his election of one of them to fill the vacant seat. And the person so elected by the Governor is immediately thereupon publicly sworn to maintain and support the Laws and Constitution of the said Isle, and duly to discharge the duty of a Key agreeably to the same, by means whereof the lights and liberties of the community are preserved and all the evils of a popular election avoided

That the House of Keys, as the Guardians of the Public Rights, have, according to their oaths, from time to time, as occasions required, withstood the attacks and encroachments of the Lords of the said Isle upon the Constitution and the rights and liberties of the inhabitants thereof with success, and to the great satisfaction and happiness of the community in general That his Grace, John, Duke of Atholl, in the last session of Parliament, brought in a Bill under pretence of settling and ascertaining certain rights in the said Isle between His Majesty and the said Duke of Atholl: That your memorialists, being justly alarmed at the evil tendency of the said Bill, as the same had for its main object the enabling the said Duke of Atholl and his Seneschals or Stewards to exercise certain pretended rights, powers, and authorities in the said Isle unknown to the Constitution destructive of the rights and liberties of the Inhabitants and subversive of the ancient and established Government thereof, gave an opposition to the said Bill by means whereof and of the attention of the Right Honorable the lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury the said Bill did not pass into a law: That your memorialists, finding that the said Duke of Atholl hath prepared the draught of a Bill to be brought into Parliament the next session for the same pretended purposes as the said former Bill, and without any material alteration so far as relates to the rights and liberties of the Inhabitants of the said Isle, took the earliest opportunity to signify their disapprobation thereof, and avowed their intention to oppose the same in Parliament: That in order to remove and defeat the opposition of your memorialists to the said last mentioned Bill a scheme hath been set on foot by the Agent or Agents of the said Duke of Atholl to dissolve and abolish the present House of Keys, and in order thereto the said Agent or Agents have, by every species of artifice, endeavoured to inflame the minds of the ignorant part of the inhabitants of the said Isle with ideas of hardships and oppressions suffered by them as well from all the Laws enacted in the said Isle since the sovereignty thereof became vested in His Majesty as from the Government thereof in general since that period, and, under color of remedying the said pretended grievances, a petition hath been prepared by the Agent of the said Duke of Atholl, addressed to the Commons of Great Britain, purporting to be the petition of the Clergy and Inhabitants of the said Isle, setting forth many falsities, complaining of intolerable grievances in general terms, and stating that the dissolution of the said House of Keys would be conducive to the happiness of the said Isle, and, therefore, praying that the present House of Keys may be dissolved and a Law passed by the Parliament of Great Britain to elect a new assembly in their place and stead:

That the purport of the said petition being manifestly destructive of the Constitution of the said Isle, and so ill- suited to the Laws thereof, and the nature of the tenure of the inhabitants, and in all respects so dangerous in its tendency, the same alarmed all the intelligent people and persons of property and consequence in the said Isle insomuch that none of them would subscribe the said petition, and it was with difficulty that any of the ignorant persons whose minds had, by the aforesaid means, been inflamed and ripened for a Revolution, could be prevailed on to sign the same, and no person had subscribed the said petition on whose knowledge they might or could have any dependance:

That the nomination to the Bishoprick of Sodor and Man, as well as the presentation to nearly all the Church livings " livings within the same appertain to the Lord of the Manor of the said Isle, and the Bishop is, from his dignity and situation, considered next in rank and consequence to the Governor thereof, and is, before his installation, obliged by Law to take an oath and that he will, to the utmost of his abilities, maintain and defend the Law and Constitution of the said Isle and His Majesty’s prerogative within the same:

That George, the present Lord Bishop of the said Diocese, was lately nominated to the said See by the Atholl Family, and in the month of July last, accompanied by the Agent or Steward of the said Duke, came to the said Isle in order to be installed, and, previous to such his Installation, took the Oath herein before mentioned to support and maintain the Laws and Constitution of the said Isle, and His Majesty’s prerogative within the same

That from the said Lord Bishop’s rank and consequence in the said Isle he was considered a proper person to give a sanction to the said Petition by his signature, in order to lead on the ignorant and deluded part of the inhabitants to sign the same ; and, accordingly, he, the said Lord Bishop, notwithstanding his said Oath, and before he had been many days in the said Isle or could possibly have obtained a knowledge of the Laws and Constitution thereof, or the good or evil arising therefrom, signed his name as a leading subscriber to the said petition

That the said Lord Bishop was not satisfied only with becoming a subscriber to the said petition, but also used every possible influence with his several clergy in the said Isle to induce them to subscribe the same, solemnly declaring that such of them as refused to sign the said petition were not to expect any promotion in the Church from the Lord of the Manor or the Bishop of Man:

That the Vicars General of the said Isle, who are of the Bishop’s nomination, are Magistrates of great trust and importance within the said Isle, and, in many instances, exercise a mixture of Spiritual and Temporal jurisdiction, and from such their offices have it in their power greatly to influence the minds of the ignorant part of the inhabitants: That the two persons who had filled the offices of Vicars General. in the said Isle at the time the said Lord Bishop succeeded to the said See, had been in the discharge of the said office for several years and were well versed in the Constitution. and Laws of the said Isle, and " had given great satisfaction to the public in general in their judicial determinations, but, being known to disapprove of the doctrine of subverting the Constitution under the said petition, were, in an unprecedented manner, forthwith dismissed or discharged from their said offices by His Lordship, without any impeachment whatsoever, or other cause assigned by the said Bishop save that previous to his installation he had been directed by the Atholl family so to do, and two other persons were immediately appointed Vicars General, who, there-upon, signed the said petition, along with his Lordship:

That public notice having been given by the said Agent or Steward at the several parish churches within the said Isle that the said Duke’s Manorial Courts were to be holden at particular places appointed for that purpose, the public were, in a particular manner, requested to give their attendance at such places, as matters of great importance for the benefit of the said Isle would be proposed by the said Agent or Steward at such Courts That in consequence thereof many of the lower class of people attended at the said Courts, where the said Agent caused houses of public entertainment to be opened for the reception and accommodation of subscribers to the said petition, and certain persons disaffected to the Government of the said Isle were employed to intermix with the populace and to inflame their minds with a detail of grievances and oppressions which it was pretended the said Isle sustained under the present Government. And also to hold forth to the said populace many advantages from a restoration of their older former trade and otherwise from the said Duke’s interference in the affairs of the said Isle in case they would sign a petition prepared by the said Agent and which the Bishop and Vicars General had signed for the dissolution of the Keys, which would produce a reformation in the whole system of Government within the said Isle:

That immediately upon the business of the said Court being closed on each of such days the public were called forth to appear before the said Agent or Steward, who, thereupon, rose and addressed himself, as in a public capacity, to the said populace, and in long and seditious harangues and declamations had the impudence to malign the present Government in the most. unbecoming terms, and repeatedly to assert that the Laws passed in the said Isle since His Majesty became invested with the sovereignty thereof were injurious and oppressive to the Community, and that the people of the said Isle sustained, under the present Government, numberless hardships which your memorialists are happy to observe never did really exist:

That when the minds of several of the populace had been thus inflamed with the impression of the pretended grievances aforesaid, the said petition, with the sanction of the said Bishop and Vicar Generals subscriptions thereto, was then produced and read to the said populace, and their signatures earnestly solicited thereto. Whereupon many of the most ignorant and lower class, upon the faith and credit of the assertions made by the said Steward, were prevailed on to sign the said petition, and your memorialists are well informed that the names of several others were added as subscribers thereon, who, in fact, never subscribed the same, and that afterwards many persons signed the said petition who never heard the same read: That, not resting satisfied with the unwarrantable proceedings afore mentioned to procure subscribers to the said petition, the said Steward, Agent, or Agents waited upon several private gentlemen at their respective houses, and holding forth the said delusive arguments, solicited their signatures thereto, and not succeeding by these means, had recourse to insinuations that the signing the said petition would confer an obligation on the said Duke, the same being his Grace’s favourite plan, and that a refusal to join therein would be considered as an opposition to the said Duke’s scheme of forwarding his interest in the said Isle, and would certainly not tend to the advantage of the persons so refusing, accompanied with other persuasions of a private consideration: That, in order to give the said seditious harangues the greater weight and influence, the said Steward or Agent hath also taken upon him to publish, or cause to be published, as well at the several parish Churches as at the said Courts, that the public were not to apply to His Majesty’s Deemster or Chief Justice within the said Isle, for certain loyal processes heretofore issued by him, but to the said Steward or his Deputy, who would in future issue the same:

That, although the presentations to the whole of the Church livings within the said Isle are in the gift of the said Duke and the Bishop, yet the signatures of a very small number, and those only of the inferior and junior clergy of little or no landed property, could be procured to the said petition, the Archdeacon and the rest of the principal clergy having laudably refused to sign the same, and that notwithstanding the lay subscribers to the said petition are also very inconsiderable, as well in number as property in comparison to the rest of the inhabitants of the said Isle, yet your memorialists perceive with concern, and it is, too, notorious to your Honor, that the inflammatory and other the seditious proceedings aforesaid involve in them consequences the most serious and alarming, as having already sown the seeds of sedition and discord throughout the said Isle, and greatly disturbed the peace and tranquility of His Majesty’s subjects within the same: That from your Honor’s frequent residence in the said Isle, and intercourse with the inhabitants thereof from the year 1765, and particularly since the happy period when the same became subject to your Honor’s equal, just, and mild administration, your Honor hath been well acquainted with the general disposition of all ranks of people therein, and cannot but have observed the greatest satisfaction to prevail throughout the same towards the present Government, and that the several inhabitants were, to a man, loyally attached to His Majesty’s person, and it is now equally notorious to your Honor that disaffection, sedition, and dissatisfaction have, of late, filled the minds of several of His Majesty’s subjects within the said Isle, and that the proceedings and judgments of the several Courts have, by means thereof, been frequently held in the greatest disrespect, evils which your memorialists fear cannot now be remedied without the utmost exertion of the united powers of the Constitution

That your memorialists submit it to your Honor that the said several proceedings, and the obtaining the signatures of the inhabitants of the said Isle to the said petition, are not only calculated eventually to injure the Constitutional rights of the Inhabitants, but also to weaken and cause a confusion and difficulty in the execution and exercise of His Majesty’s Government and interest in the said Isle In tender consideration of the premises your memorialists most humbly pray that your Honor may be pleased to lay this memorial before the King, and to assure His Majesty of the concurrence of your Memorialists in the exertion of every constitutional measure for the support and furtherance of His Majesty’s Government, and the securing the same as well to the public rights of the said Isle against every invasion whatever, and your Memorialists, from your Honor’s vigilance, known abilities, and knowledge of the Constitution, are persuaded that you will not omit to signify your abhorrence of the measures aforesaid, and the dangerous tendency the same evidently have to affect the rights and prerogatives of the Crown within the said Isle, as well as the rights of the Inhabitants thereof. That His Majesty’s Ministers may not be surprised under any special or delusive ideas to give countenance to such a measure in Parliament. October 20th, 1780."

A similar memorial, dated a month later, is found in the. Journals, but it concludes with a request to the Governor to transmit the letter to the Secretary of State, instead of to the King direct, which was, no doubt, considered irregular.

In March, 1781, the Governor wrote to the Keys on the subject of the dilapidated state of the public buildings in general, and of Castle Rushen in particular. The greater part of their reply, which follows, is directed of the misdeeds of their bugbear, the duke (c).

We had the honor of reading your Excellency's letter bearing date the 30th ult. and addressed to the Speaker and Committee of the House of Keys, representing the distressed condition in which Your Excellency found the Government of this Isle with respect to the Gaol, provision and maintenance for Felons, bad repair of the public offices, and particularly the ruinous condition of the room wherein is held the High Court of Chancery and desiring us to interpret the laws relative to those matters, or purpose such statutory measures as shall effectually remedy the defects.

In answer to your Excellency's letter, permit us, sir, to represent that upon a report coming to this Isle of a Bill having been brought into the British Parliament by His Grace the Duke of Atholl the last session, for the illeged Purpose of explaining and ascertaining certain rights between the Crown and his Grace, about blending and interweaving therein the rights and liberties of the people of this Isle, and, in fact, tending to materially affect the same by manifestly invading their tenures of inheritance, and by enabling his Grace and his stewards to exercise jurisdictions and authorities unknown to the Constitution of the Island, and subversive of its ancient and established form and principles of Government.

That, upon the report of so alarming of nature being afterwards verified, the House of Keys, however reluctant, were driven by necessity to oppose such dangerous innovations, and, in consequence of a petition to the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury, the Keys were heard by their counsel against such Bill before the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General of England, to whom the same had been referred for their report by their lordships, and to whose strict attention to the rights of the Crown and the privileges of the people; the same was prevented from passing into a Law.

This happy effect the House of Keys notwithstanding soon afterwards received intimation that His Grace had prepared the draft of another Bill to be brought this session into Parliament (and which they find hath since made its apearance and is now depending therein) for the same purposes as the former, and without any material alteration as relating the rights and liberties of the people, and also that a further attack was intended to be made to abolish the Constitution of this Isle by altering the ancient mode of forming one of the Estates or Branches of the Legislative Body thereof.

They, therefore, unanimously voted us : a Committee to guard against the impending attacks and maintain the rights and liberties of the people by taking all proper and effectual means to defend the same against this and all similar proceedings.

Charged and intrusted with this particular guardianship only do we at present act. We, therefore, humbly conceive ourselves as a Committee not vested with competent power and authority to enter upon the interpretation of the Laws, or to propose remedies, as required by your Excellency. Yet, in justice, we cannot help at present suggesting that if the Bill in question be passed into a Law, it appears to us, with great concern, very essentially to affect the provisions made for most of the objects mentioned in our Excellency's Letter, and we, being deeply impressed with a just sense that the several objects thereof loudly call for and demand the most explicit answer and serious attention, we beg leave to submit it, whether the Gentlemen of the House of Keys should not be required to assemble in order to consider and proceed upon matters of such evident and general concern.

With humble acknowledgments of your Excellency's manifest zeal and care for the rights, welfare, and prosperity of this Isle, we have the Honor to subscribe ourselves, with all truth and respect, sir, your Excellency's most obedient and most humble servants.

House of Keys, April 2nd 1781.

In this year the duke brought a second Bill into Parliament.

This Bill was opposed by Sir George Moore and John Cosnahan, on behalf of the Keys, in the House of Lords. They contended that the Island, not the Duke, ought to have the benefit of the surplus revenue, and that the Bill contained many provisions contrary to the Constitution of the Island and injurious to its inhabitants. It passed the Commons but reached the Lords at too late a period im the session for its full consideration. The duke seems to have been alarmed by the Opposition both in Parliament and in the Island, and so he withdrew it.

It would appear, however, that in 1782 he proposed to bring a third Bill: before, Parliament since, in that year, the Keys passed a resolution to the effect that Sir Wadsworth Busk, Attorney-General, do lay before this House his correspondence with the duke on the subject of the "Manks Bill, 1782, for the regulation of the Duke of Atholl's Manorial Courts within the Isle of Man".

However this may have been, the Bill in question did not come hefore Parliament. The next collision was in 1787, when the Keys descanted upon the duke's "unconstitutional interference" at great length.

To His Excellency Major-General Edward Smith, Governor-in-Chief, Captain General and Chancellor of His Majesty's Island of Mann, etc., etc., etc,

The memorial of the Keys, the Representatives of the People of the said Isle,

Humbly represents,—

That, deeply as your memorialists are impressed with a sense of the many blessings this Island has enjoyed under the benign administration of the best of princes since the auspicious era of his more immediate government over it, and gratefully as they perceive the uniform exertions on the part of your Excellency to promote the happiness and prosperity of the people under your care, it is with concern and reluctance your memorialists find themselves under the painful necessity of entreating your Excellency to lay before their Most Gracious Sovereign a grievance under which, it is too well known to your Excellency, they have for some time laboured, and which, if suffered to continue, must prove equally subversive of His Majesty's Government and the constitutional rights of his subjects within this Isle.

To you, sir, it is almost unnecessary to observe that the grievance alluded to, is the unconstitutional interference of His Grace the Duke of Atholl in the Legislature of this Isle and his unremitting perseverance to obstruct and defeat every measure attempted by the Legislature, however salutary or indispensibly requisite to the interior Police and Government: of which, from their local knowledge, they must naturally be supposed the most competent judges. That, as this grievance appears to have arisen from a misconception of His Grace's Rights and Interests in this Island, and an unfounded opinion that the Inhabitants at large are his Tenants to an extent and in a sense widely different from the fact, and that the Legislature hath no Right to pass Laws withous his consent, your memorialists, in order to obviate every prejudice which might arise from the adoption of so erroneous an idea, beg leave to call your Excelleney's attention to the true state of this Government, both before and after the period already mentioned.

The Island, which was formerly a distinct Kingdom, has, from time immemorial, had its own peculiar Laws and Legislature, consisting of its Sovereign, the Governor, Council, and Keys.

By an Act of the 5th of His present Majesty (commonly called the Vesting Act), the general wisdom and policy of which cannot be sufficiently commended, His Grace the late Duke of Atholl and Charlotte, his Duchess, then the Sovereign Lord and Lady of the Island, for a full and valuable consideration, and at a heavy expense to the publick, surrenders the sovereignty and jurisdictions, which, by that Act, became inalienably vested in the Crown. From that period its Legislature has been composed of His Majesty (instead of the Lord), the Governor, Council, and Keys, who have since concurred in enacting laws for the better reculation of its interior police and government. In this view of the situation and government of this Island your memorialists submit that there cannot possibly exist the most distant shadow of pretence for the Duke of Atholl's interference in, much less his assent to, the Passing of Acts of Legislation. His Grace being, by the Vesting Act reduced to the level of a subject on this Island, and, in respect to his landed property here, Inferior to many of your memorialists and others whom he so often distinguishes by the appellation of his Tenants; that Act having absolutely and unequivocally restored to His Majesty the entire Sovereignty, Regalities, and Jurisdictions in and over the Island, wisely removing that political evil of Imperium in Imperio: an evil long and Severely felt by the oppressed inhabitants of this Government and which only ceased at the memorable and gratefully to be acknowledged Revolution of 1765.

With respect to the Rights and Interest of the Duke of Atholl in this Island your Memorialists beg leave to observe that, by the Act before mentioned, the whole Island, Castle Peel, and Lordship of Man, and all Rights, Jurisdictions, and Interests in and over the same, and all its Dependencies holden under the several grants thereof, or under any other title whatsoever, are absolutely surrendered and vested in the Crown, reserving only to their proprietors, the late Duke and Duchess, their landed property, with all their Rights in and over the soil as Lords of the Manor, together with certain other lesser rights particularly enumerated in the Act.

It cannot be unknown to your Excellency that the landed property of His Grace consists of certain small and detailed parcels of land situate in different parts of the Island. The annual rent of the whole, according to the present advanced letting, not amounting to the sum of Two Hundred Pounds, Manks currency.

In regard to the rights of His Grace in and over the soil as Lord of the Manor, they consist of the quit rents and acknowledgements payable by certain of the landowners in respect of their tenures. But, as your memorialists have reason to believe that as well the quality of those tenures as to the extent to which His Grace is at all concerned in them has been generally misrepresented, it may, perhaps, be of consequence to place that subject in its true and proper light. The idea that all the proprietors of lands here hold of His Grace is well known to your Excellency to be a supposition not founded in fact. The whole Island contains five separate and distinct Manors or Baronies, namely, the Barony of Bangor and Sabal, belonging to the Crown ; the Barony of the Lord Bishop of Sodor and Mann; and that of St. Trinion's the property of John Quayle, Esq. The other two only appertain to the Duke; namely, the manor consisting of what is commonly called the Lord's lands, and the manor of the dissolved Monastery of Rushen. Notwithstanding, therefore, the idea so industriously propagated, that all the Landowners within the Island are tenants of the Duke, those only of the two last-mentioned manors pay any Rent or Acknowledgemont to His Grace. The Tenants of the three former (as to their land in those Baronies) are as unconnected with and independent of him as they are of any Lord of a Manor or Nobleman in Great Britain.

The Tenants within these five Manors or Baronies have, from time immemorial, held their Lands as Customary Estates of Inheritance descendible from ancestor to Heir, according to the Laws and Customs of the Island, upon payment of certain invariable Quit Rents and performance of certain services. These Tenures were recognised and ratified by Royal Charter or Letters Patent of the 7th James 1st, by which that Monarch expressly granted and confirmed to his people and subjects of the Isle of Mann all their Lands of Inheritance Free Tenements, and other Rights therein mentioned, with full power and authority to them and their Heirs to transfer, alien, grant, or demise the same without any other power intervening.

And, by the Act of Parliament which passed in the year following, for establishing and confirming the Isle and Lordship of Mann in the Derby Family (and under which His Grace now holds his Rights in the Island), the Estates, Tithes, Tenures, and Interests of the inhabitants are saved and reserved as fully and amply as if that Act had never been made. And although, in or about the year 1643, and during the troubles in England, several attempts was made by some of the ancestors of the present Duke, by means the most artful and insidious, to abolish and destroy those tenures within His Grace's two manors (attempts which your Memorialists would willingly hope may be ever held in such abhorrence to be renewed in these enlightened days of justice and liberty). Yet, by an Act of Tynwald made in the year 1703, commonly called the Act of Settlement, all disputes and differences between the then Lord and the Landholders within his two manors were finally settled and the ancient Tenures restored and confirmed though with the additional burthens of certain fines on descent and alienation, imposition from which the Landholders within the other three Baronies ever were and still continue to he, free, It in unnecessarry to remind your Excellency that the last mentioned Act of Tynwald, so lately as in the year 1777, received His Majesty's Royal confirmation. The services commonly called carriages performable by the Landholders within His Grace's Manor called the Lord's Lands are, by the ancient Laws of the Island, declared to be applicable to the building and repairing of the Lord's (then the Sovereign's) Forts and Houses, and are emphatically termed works for the honor and safety of the country; and the Lords or the Island, out of the Quit Rents and Services until the year 1765 (at the passing of the Vesting Act) maintained a civil and military Establishment and supported Court Houses, Gaols, and other public buildings, the principal of which were and still are within the Castles of Rushen and Peel, and by ancient records it appears that the Quit Rents of so much of the Manor, consisting of what is called the Lord's Land, as is situate within the Southern Division of the Island were appropriated and declared to belong to the Castle of Rushen, and those within the Northern Division to the Castle of Peel. That, although the Duke, as Lord of these two lastmentioned manors, is (under the reservations of the Vesting Act) in the full receipt of these Quit Rents, out of which the beforementioned buildings (with the aid of the carriages) formerly were and of right ought to be maintained, yet no provision having by that Act been made for these necessary and public objects, an omission much to be lamented and which your Memorialists are inclined to think would not have happened had this Island received any notice of the passing of that Act, or been so fortunate as to have had an agent in London.

Your Memorialists further beg leave to represent that His Grace having in the years 1780 and in 1781, brought two successive Bills into the British Parliament, where your Memorialists are not represented, which, under pretence of explaining or amending the Vesting Act and settling doubts arising thereon merely, between His Majesty and the Duke, not only infringed the prerogatives of the Crown, but very essentially invaded the Rights and Liberties of the Inhabitants — Bills whose principal object was to erect Courts and Jurisdictions for His Grace, unknown to the Constitution— Courts whose uncontrollable decrees were to proceed against parties that were never heard.— To imprison their persons and deprive them of their properties— Excluding the interference of His Majesty's Courts in all cases wherein the Duke, his Heirs, or Assigns might be concerned, be the proceedings ever so illegal and oppressive— Bills attempting to restrain the Landholders from alienating their properties (confirmed to them by the Laws of the Land and by Royal Charter, as already mentioned) without the especial licence of the Duke or his steward, who are left at liberty to grant or withhold the same — or exact what consideration they thought fit — compelling people to deposit all their original title deeds with His Grace's steward on pain of being void — appropriating the before mentioned services (applicable to the support of public works) to the private use and emolument of His Grace — Imposing unconstitutional burthens on the inhabitants, and without a compensation for the same; Investing His Grace with an unusual and exclusive property in the seaweed cast in upon the shores so necessary for the purposes of agriculture and manufacture — Restraining the inhabitants from erecting, even upon their own lands, any species of machine to be wrought by wind or water, without a licence from the Duke — Giving His Grace the prerogative of licensing, on his own terms, Fairs and Markets which by the Laws of the Land, are declared to be free and open — Annexing different ideas to the word 'game' from what the Laws and Constitution acknowlege — Authorising petty officers of the Duke to enter and search the houses of the inhabitants of whatever rank or description as well within his Own as the other Manors oe Baronies, and to take away and destroy their dogs, guns, and other property by force and without the benefit of a trial — Re-vesting in the Duke the Fund arising from what is called the Herring Custom and Bay Fisheries which appertained to the Sovereignity, and have been most graciously applied by Parliament to the repair and support of the Harbours, in which the people are very materially interested and concerned — Altering the component parts of the Legislature of the Island, of which the King is the Head, and restraining them from passing Laws without the interference of His Grace — To the general subversion of the Constitution and the introduction of a new mode of civil Government into the Island. Your Memorialists, justly alarmed at such dangerous and oppressive attempts, tending at once to lessen the value of their landed property, to discourage manufactures, agriculture, and commerce, to impose illegal burthens on them and their posterity, to reduce and abridge their Rights, Liberties, and Privileges, and, of course, to do the greatest of injuries to the Island at large, found it their indispensible duty to oppose, and accordingly, in their capacity as guardians of the rights of the people (and with the consent and approbation of the rest of the Legislature of the Island) did, at a considerable expense, oppose those arbitrary and oppressive Bills, each of which, from the strict attention of His Majesty's Law Officers and the vigilance of the House of Keys, was happily prevented from passing into a Law.

That, it having been found necessary, to raise money to defray the expense of so public and necessary a defence, and also to employ a standing Agent to attend in future the interest of this Island in the British Parliament (in the proceedings of which, since their more immediate connection with the Mother Country, the inhabitants are, and unavoidably must be, often interested and concerned), and the distressing and urgent necessity of some suitable and adequate provision being made for the several other objects before enumerated becoming every day more and more apparent and importunate. Your Memorialists are, however, conscious that, under all the circumstances already mentioned the burthen of many of these objects ought, in point of strict justice, to fall upon His Grace or, at least, ought not to be any further charge upon the inhabitants, yet, unwilling, on the one hand, to become an expense to His Majesty, through whose ever watchful attention to the security and happiness of his people the inhabitants of this Isle were, in the late time of danger amply supplied with the means of protection and still continue to enjoy many signal benefits in common with the rest of his subjects ; and desirous, on the other hand, as much as in them lay, to avoid every possible ground of contest or dispute with His Grace, they for the present consented to provide for the several exigencies before mentioned at the expense of the inhabitants at large, and, for that purpose did, on the 28rd day of April last, with the concurrence of the rest of the Legislature within this Island, pass an Act for the raising of Four Thousand Pounds British to be levied in the course of seven years by assessment upon all landed property throughout the Island — Upon Houses in the Towns above the annual value of Forty shillings — Upon coaches and other travelling carriages — Upon common brewers of malt liquor — Upon retailers of wines and spirituous liquors, and upon hawkers, pedlars, and travelling dealers — which Act, having been transmitted in order to receive His Majesty's Royal Assent, your Memorialists, from the liberality they flattered themselves they had discovered in making the provisions thereby proposed, and from the desire which appeared to actuate every branch of the Legislature here to form the Act upon the most equitable principles, and in the way least burthensome to the community, were encouraged to hope for His Majesty's favourable and gracious reception of such, their humble endeavours. But, it is with inexpressible concern and disappointment your Memorialists find that, notwithstanding the Duke is now in Possession of the rents out of which many of the before recited public objects have heretofore been provided for, that he is entitled to the goods and chattels of felons and that the expense of the public debts before mentioned was occasioned by the defence to which your Memorialists were unavoidably driven by his repeated and unprovoked attacks, yet His Grace, without any just grounds or reasonable pretence, but prompted by motives (already manifest in too many instances) to harass and depress this country by endless litigation and expense, and either directly or indirectly, to abolish its Legislation has thought proper to Interpose between His Majesty and His faithful subjects in the passing of their indispensible and salutary Act, and by a constant succession of trivial, vexatious, and ill-founded objections has hitherto found means to prevent its obtaining the Royal Assent — an opposition tending alike to the diminution of His Majesty's Government within this Island and to the forfeiture of the privileges and birth rights of the inhabitants as a free people.

That this unconstitutional interference and opposition does not arise from any peculiar hardship or injury the Act imposes upon the Duke will evidently appear when it is considered that the whole property of His Grace within this Island which is the only property he possesses liable to assessment under the present Act) cannot, at the highest, be rated as equal to three quarterlands, and cannot, therefore, at the rate of eight shillings the quarterland imposed by the Act, subject the Duke to the annual payment of twenty-four shillings Manx currency ; whilst the territorial property of the inhabitants at large will be equal at least to a thousand quarterlands — a circumstance which your Memorialists only mention to show how inconsiderably His Grace can be affected by the present assessment, although his supposed interest in the Island furnishes so much specious ground and pretence for interference and objection. It is true that the Duke's Quit Rents, fines, and other rights over the soil as Lord of the Manor, together with his impropriate tythes (after deducting the rent of one hundred and one pounds, fifteen shillings, and eleven pence, payable to the Crown by His Grace in respect of his holding in the Island) will nearly amount to the sum of Fourteen hundred pounds a year, yet it is well known to your Excellency that the Duke's right in that capacity can in no respest whatever be charged or affected by the present Act.

With respect to the assertion that His Grace ought not to be included in an assessment for defraying the expense of unauthorized proceedings against him, your Memorialists beg leave to call your Excellency's attention to the true state of those transactions, from which which it will, beyond contradiction, appear that the House of Keys never began any attack upon, nor any proceedings against, His Grace. They have uniformly acted upon the defensive alone. They only resisted when their liberties, their properties, and the Constitution itself, was attacked (by His Grace), and which, by their oaths and in their interest, they were bound to defend, and, in short, all that is dear to them, to their country, and to their latest posterity was invaded — a resistance in which your Memorialists have the consolation to reflect they have been abundantly justified by the Opinions and reports of the Law Officers of the Crown both in England and in this Isle (and to which they beg leave to refer your Excellency) as well as by the success which, in the event, attended their endeavours. It is equally notorious that the measures to which the Keys were reluctantly driven on that occasion had every sanction and authority that the resolves of a public and political assembly could confer. The sums expended in that national struggle and defence were subscribed and lent upon a note of credit sundry and successive resolves of the House of Keys, and upon the faith and confidence of an Act for the re-imbursement. The public have benefited by the expenditure, and your Memorialists submit it is but just and equitable that the public and not, individuals should bear the burthen. It consists, also, with your Excellency's knowledge, that those expenditures form no great part of the estimates on which the assessment is founded, and it may be worth observing that on occasions like the present where the necessity has been apparent, the assessment proposed by the Act will be found not unconstitutional nor unsupported by precedents. The minute details of the repeated encroachments attempted from the same source, as well against the Government as the people of this Isle, your Mamorialists would wish to avoid, lest it might prove offensive to the ear of your Majesty or appear to derogate from the respect that is due to His Grace's exalted Rank and Station, yet circumstances there are which you Memorialists would think themselves wanting in loyalty to their Sovereign and in justice to themselves and the public were they on this occasion to suppress. Other acts of interior legislation for the better regulation of His Majesty's Courts of law within this Island: the rendering more perfect the trial by jury, and also for reviving, in certain instances, the ancient office of Great Enquest or Grand Jury (matters wherein the Duke can have no justifiable pretence whatever for interference) are, in like manner, prevented from obtaining the Royal Assent. The assertions of His Grace's Agent in the Face of the High Court of Chancery of the Island, as well as on other occasions, that the Acts of Tynwald already passed with the assent of His Majesty are not obligatory — His Grace's more recent instructions in his commission to his Steward, lately entered among the public records of this Island, generally authorising and requiring him, among other things, to conduct himself in obedience to any Act of Tynwald that shall be hereafter made with His Grace's consent signified under his hand and seal, and not otherwise. The manner of the Duke's obtaining, and by his still withholding, the possession of one of the public Court Rooms, which had been surrendered to the Crown in consequence of the Vesting Act, and the taking down of His Majesty's arms affixed therein and placing their instead the crest and cypher of His Grace These, with many other circumstances which might be enumerated justly fill your Memorialists with the most alarming apprehensions and too much reason to fear that His Grace's attempts have not only in view the immediate injury and oppression of the Inhabitants, but ultimately tend to the resumption of the sovereignty from those hands in which the wisdom of Parliament, so happily for this Island, hath already placed it. It remains now only for your Memorialists to add that, if by the Acts submitted to His Majesty for the Royal Assent, no prerogative of the Crown is encroached upon, no private rights arbitrarily invaded, no part of the Insular Constitution infringed, your Memorialists are fully persuaded that no ill-founded or trivial objections, nor any personal prejudices, from whatever quarter they may originate, will be any longer suffered to obstruct or delay that indispensible relief which is now prayed for in behalf of Thirty thousand loyal people.

Wholly relying, therefore, on the truth, the justice, and equity of their case, and perfectly assured of His Majesty's Royal inclination to secure to the inhabitants the enjoyment of all their rights and privileges in their due and legal extent, and to promote their prosperity and happiness in common with that of his other subjects,

Your Memorialists humbly entreat your Excellency, out of your wonted attention to the complaints of the inhabitants, to lay their grievances at the foot of the throne, in the firm trust and confidence that these Acts, So indispensibly necessary, may receive the Royal Assent, and that a suffering but loyal people may, at length, experience, in the midst of unmerited distresses, that gracious protection from His Majesty which is equally extended to the most distant and inconsiderable part of his Dominions. And your Memorialists, in an especial manner, pray that all attempts to bar the Legislature from access to the thronw and to deprive His Majesty's faithful subjects of the lawful exercise of that invaluable privilege (which they have inherited trom their ancestors and wish to transmit inviolate to posterity), the right of legislating for themselves may meet with such discountenance as will prevent the painful necessity of such complaints in future and leave the Legislature of this Island at liberty, without being harassed with unusual contest and expense, to provide for the internal exigencies of a government with which they must ever be supposed to be the best acquainted and, in means of providing for tham, the most immediately interested and concerned.

June 30, 1787.

None of the legislation referred to received the Royal Assent, and indeed, there are no Acts in the Statute Book between 1777 and 1798.

In the same year the House passed a resolution "That it is more for the honour and advantage of the inhabitants of this Isle, to be, and to remain under the immediate government and protection of the Crown of Great Britain than under the Sovereignty of any subject whatever. Resolved, also, that this House do resist and oppose, to the utmost of their power, every attempt to bring about a change of the Sovereignty of this Isle."

In July the Duke visited the Island, and was interviewed by John Taubman, the Speaker, and a Committee of the House. They informed him, on behalf of the House, that "nothing could afford them higher satisfaction than an amicable arrangement of the disputes" between the Duke and the Island. According to their report to the House, the Duke replied "that he was indebted for the attention of the House and of Mr Speaker in conveying their sentiments. That the shortness of his stay in the Island prevented his going into a discussion of any particulars. But that after an interview which he soon expected with Mr. Pitt (Prime Minister) he would be enabled to communicate, and would accordingly inform their Speaker of whatever he might have occasion to propose or offer respecting the Island,

....

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Four years later the same Committee was ordered "to proceed to London and attend to the interests of the people of this Island in Parliament or otherwise, and to state the grievances under which this country hath labored and still labours . . . ."

In 1801, as the Duke still persisted in his, efforts to get compensation, this Committee was again sent to London, and the House resolved that "It is the unanimous sense of "this House that for his Grace to obtain the surplus of the Revenue would be incalculably injurious to the rights and interests of the people."

In 1803 the House, as will be seen from the following document, appointed three agents to remain in London for the purpose of protecting the interests of the people :-

To. all to whom these presents shall come We, whose names are hereunto subscribed and seals affixed, composing the House of Keys or Representative Body of His Majesty's Island of Man, send geeting.

Whereas it has happened that various and repeated attacks have been made from time to time in Parliament upon the Rights and Liberties of the People of this Island, whom we constitutionally represent, by the Most Noble John, Duke of Atholl, as Lord of the Manor of Man, which attacks have, under divine Providence, been uniformly and successfully resisted by us in our capacity aforesaid: And, whereas there is reason to believe that His Grace meditates a renewed attack or attacks in Parliament on the Rights and Liberties aforesaid, or the Revenues of, or arising from, the said Island. Now, Know ye, that the Keys aforesaid, constitutional Representatives of His Majesty's Subjects within the said Island, having most especial confidence in the zeal, talents, and integrity of John Christian Curwen, of Workington Hall, in the County of Cumberland, Esquire, and John Christian and Thomas Quayle, of London, Esquires, Have authorised, Deputed, Commissionated, and appointed, and by these Presents Do Authorize, Depute, Commissionate (sic), and Appoint the said John Christian Curwen, John Christian, and Thomas Quayle, or any two of them, our Agents or Commissioners from time to time, and at all times, for us and in our names, behalf, and stead, and for the Public good of the said Isle, to resist, oppose,, and withstand the attack or attacks aforesaid, and to maintain the Rights, Interests, and Liberties of His Majesty's aforesaid Subjects within this Isle, and to appoint and retain such solicitor or solicitors, Attorney or attornies, Clerk or Clerks in Parliament and Counsel learned in the Law as they, our Commissioners, or any two of them, may do in the Premises as fully and effectually and generally to act and all intents and purposes as we could or might act and do in our proper persons. Hereby ratifying and confirming all and whatsoever our said Commissioners, or any two of them, may lawfully do or cause to be done in and about the premises by virtue of these presents.

In witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names and affixed our seals the twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and three.

On the 26th of March, 1805, a petition from John, Duke of Atholl, was presented to the House of Commons, stating that the sum given to his family in 1765 as compensation for their sovereign rights was inadequate, and praying that provision might be made in a Bill now before Parliament for adding to this sum. There were also petitions from the House of Keys and from the inhabitants of the Island, praying to be heard by Counsel against any hereditary rent charge being laid on the revenue of this Isle in favour of his Grace the Duke of Atholl. All three petitions were referred to a Committee of the House of Commons, which reported that the Petitioner (the Duke) has fully established the allegations of his Petition, and that compensation should be granted to him. On the report of the Committee coming before the House, J. C. Curwen made a magnificent speech (e) in opposition to it, for which he received a vote of thanks from the House of Keys. The Duke, as is well known, obtained an additional revenue from the Island.

Between this date and 1821 there was no serious collision between the Duke and the Keys, but, on the 22nd of February in the latter year the Keys presented a memorial to Lieutenant-Governor Smelt for transmission to the Secretary of State, in which they declared that the Duke's "interests as a subject are often in opposition to those of the Crown and generally to those of the people of the Isle". These remarks greatly enraged the Duke, who, at a Tynwald Court held on the 21st of November in that year, stigmatised the memorial as being "false, libellous and unjustifiable", and being "made basely and in an underhand mode", and he is reported to have addressed the Keys as follows: "I call upon you, sirs, publicly in the face of the country, collectively or invidually, to bring forward the base and unworthy charge where it can be met with refutation. If such assertions could be true I should be unworthy of the high situation I hold. If they were false, what are you ?"

The Keys demanded a copy of these remarks which were said to have been written, but the Duke declined to give it, Tho Court then adjourned, but the Keys assembled and wrote to Lieutenant-Governor Smelt, asking him to "commit to writing as particular an account of his Grace's language to the Keys as may now be possible", he being "the only unbiassed witness of that language", as it was probable that the Duke "will be brought before the highest tribunal to account for it". The House seems to have adjourned sine die, and, as the Duke declined to call them together, they met on the 20th of March, without a summons, and sent a petition to ask the House of Commons "to extend an Act lately passed for enquiry into public charities for the promotion of education in the Isle of Man, and that the Commissioners, acting under the said Act, may be directed to visit the said Island to examine into and report on the said condition therein". They explained that they made this request because some of the educational funds "have been mismanaged and diverted from their original destinations", and they hinted, not obscurely, that this had been done by the Duke and his myrmidons. The Duke declined to recognise the petition, because he was "not aware of any meeting of the Legislature?" Tha Governor, however summoned the House at a later dates, and the petition was sent in due form. A letter was then received from the Secretary of State asking for particulars of these charities, and in sending them, the Keys asked that, "As the Atholl Family is particularly implicated in the mismanagement and misappropiation complained of, whatever inquiry may be instituted will be conducted by persons altogether unconnected with that noble House". Nothing seems to have come of this application.

On the 8th of July, 1822, there was another collision between the Duke and the Keys. At the Tynwald Court on this day, Mr Llewellyn, a member of the House, and its secretary, addressed the Duke, who stopped him, Saying that he could not allow any other Member than its Speaker to address him. Mr Llewellyn said he maintained his right to do so, when the Duke declared that it was "contrary to ancient custom and law". The Keys then retired and composed the following protest, which they handed to the Duke: "The Keys do solemnly protest against the doctrine this day advanced by the Governor-in-Chief, to wit: The prevention of any member of the Keys (other than the Speaker) delivering his sentiments upon any measure publicly discussed in the Court of Tynwald". In reply to this the Duke maintained that it was only in cases of legislative enactment that each member could, in his presence, deliver his sentiments individually; but in this instance (the question being the composition of the Highway Committee) it was consonant with ancient practice that the Speaker only should address him.

We hear nothing more of this extraordinary doctrine of the Duke's.

A year later, at a Tynwald Court held on the 2nd of July, in Castle Rushen, he, in congratulating the Keys on their choice of Col. Wilkes as their Speaker, expressed a hope that "the past be mutually buried in oblivion", and that "in future we may cordially and sincerely unite in our exertions for the welfare and happiness of this Island", and a regret "that anything should have occurred at a former meeting of the Legislature to excite painful sensations in any quarter". The Keys made no reply, but presented a memorial petitioning the "King in Council" against the dismissal of a Deemster "without any regular form of impeachment and without any trial", with a request that the Duke would forward it.

When speaking at the Tynwald at St. John's, three days later, the Duke referred to his speech at Castle Rushen, and regetted that his wish on that occasion, "that the recollection of any past occurrences might be buried in oblivion, should have been passed over in silence". He also stated that he intended to introduce Acts dealing with registration of conveyances of real property, with police, and with game, and to submit a draft of an intended memorial to the Lords of the Treasury, touching the application of the surplus revenue of the Island. He delivered a copy of this speech to the Speaker for the consideration of the Keys. They, thereupon, retired to the south transept of the chapel.

In the debate which ensued John Curwen Christian made a lengthy speech, in the course of which he remarked that: "tho frank, manly, and open manner in which regret is expressed for any expoessions which, on former occasions, might have wounded and hurt the feelings of any individual (that is, of the House of Keys) does infinite honour to his Excellency the Governor (i.e., the Duke) No one deplores tho circumstances which gave rise to this misunderstanding more than I do no one has more ardently desired that you should, as the Representative of the People of this Isle, receive a due and befitting apology". He then continued: "I ask no sacrifices of principle, no abatement of vigilance, if measures should hereafter be proposed to you, in the discharge of your trust, you should deem injurious, you are not less free and at liberty to do your duty. But an illustrious individual has offered us the palm of friendship, and I should disgrace myself did I not turn round and act with unanimity, instead of adopting a line of conduct that would palsy endeavours for the general welfare. His Excellency has left us no room to doubt his desire of oblivion for the past; he has professed the importance of a general union and hearty co-operation with the Keys, and has acknowledged the acquisition it would be to have their weight and influence in aid of the objects intended to be proposed for the advantage of the Island. One main and important objection to past insular measures has, with me, been the endeavour to lessen the importance of the Keys and to deprive them of their due weight and consequence in the Government. You have here an avowal that the strength of the insular goverment is its union. Here is a recognition of your influence in the scale of goverment: and upon this I found my conviction of the sincerity of his Excellency in seeking a reconciliation with you".

The Keys unanimously agreed to the following reply to the Duke's speech

May it please your Excellency,

I have received the directions of the House of Keys to express the great satifactions of the with which they have heard and considered your Excellency's speech this day addressed to the assembled branches of the Legislature. If the House have passed over in silence the wish expressed in your Excellenvy's speech of the 2nd inst, for the oblivion of some past occurrences, that silence arose, not from a disposition to undervalue the solid happiness of concord and union amongst the constituted authorities, but from an impression that your Excellency's intentions regarding the basis of that oblivion, now distinctly conveyed, were not then expressed in a manner sufficiently explicit.

All doubt regarding your Excellency's intention being now satisfactorily removed, the House of Keys receives, with unalloyed satisfaction, the expression of your Excellency's 'regret that anything should have occurred at a former meeting of the Legislature to excite painful sensations in any quarter', and your desire 'that we may mutually forget and forgive'. Reciprocating this desire with entire cordiality, all remembrance of these painful occurrences is, from this moment, erased from their minds.

Concurring in the important and unquestionable proposition that 'our union our strength', they trust that no effort on their part, consistent with a constitutional performance of their public duty, will be wanting to cement and confirm that union; and that nothing may hereafter occur to obstruct those mutual exertions for the public good recommended in your Excellency's speech.

The points enumerated by your Excellency for the future consideration of the Legislature are all of the highest importance ; and, if successfully accomplished, appear calculated to produce substantial benefits.

The House of Keys will be happy to proceed to the consideration and promotion of these objects at the earliest convenient period; and finally, the House of Keys has directed me to convey to our Excellency the same mutual wishes for your health and happiness, during your absence, that your Excellency has kindly been pleased to address to them

M. WILKES, Speaker.

On this reply being presented to him, the Duke declared his satisfaction with the results of the day, and said that, with the assistance of the Keys, he hoped to make the Island "one of the happiest parts of his Majesty's dominions", and he consented to present the memorial referred to the previous Tynwald to his Majesty in Council, "And thus", says the "Manks Advertiser ended the proceedings of this most auspicious day".

On the 9th of February, 1824, a Tynwald Court was held, when the Duke made a lengthy speech, in which he referred with regret to the rejection of the Registry Bill and Tithe Bill by the House, and gave them the replies of the Secretary of State to their petitions about their right to form part of the Court of General Gaol Delivery ^(f) and about the non-residence of the Attorney- General.

After the report of this speech in the Journal, we find the following :-

Minute of Transactions at the Tynwald Court, Douglas, 9th February, 1824.
His Excellency the Governor-in-Chief read his speech to the Court.

When the Keys were in the act of rising to separate on the Tynwald Court being dissolved

Speaker: Is it your Grace's pleasure to furnish the House with a copy of your speech ?

Governor : Certainly, and handed it.

Speaker: Is it your Grace's pleasure that we should proceed and take the speech into consideration ?

Governor : It is my sincere wish to do everything that is right and proper, so help me God. Might I ask if it is customary, when the King prorogues or dissolves the Parliament, that the Speaker asks the King leave to take his speech into consideration ?

Speaker : Probably not, but there are circumstances in this case which make it widely different. I am sure I speak the unanimous sentiment of the House when I say they are desirous of considering the speech because some parts of it propound doctrines which go to change and subvert the constitution of this Isle by order of a Secretary of State arrogating to himself powers which he does not lawfully possess.

Governor: I do not exactly know what you mean. If you have anything in writing to communicate or forward to the Secretary of State,I shall feel it my duty to forward it.

Speaker: It is precisely for that purpose we wish to meet regularly,

Governor: This Court is already dissolved, and I cannot admit of any further discussion,

Speaker: I beg your Excellency's pardon for anything that may appear like a tendency to discussion, which I am particularly desirous to avoid, but we cannot regularly deliberate or represent without being regularly convened.

Governor: Did you not make a representation without being regularly assembled ?

Speaker: I am not aware to what representation your Grace alludes.

Governor: The representation respecting the residence of the Attorney-General.

Speaker: I beg your Grace's pardon, that representation was signed when the House was regularly assembled.

Whereupon the Governor repeated : 'This Court is dissolved', and spoke to the Clerk of the Rolls, who said 'This Court is dissolved', and was likewise so dissolved by the Coroner repeating the same words.

The Members of the House of Keys having immediately agreed to retire for the purpose of considering, unofficially, the transactions of this day, and having taken the foregoing notes, desire to record their unanimous confirmation of what the Speaker then said on behalf of the House, and agree to sign the above notes as a correct state of the substance of what passed in the Tynwald Court.

Douglas, 9th February, 1824.

On the 2nd of March, in the same year, the Keys drew up a Petition to the House of Commons, in which they repeated their previous complaint about the Deemster, and also complained of the actions of the Duke in introducing the ecclesiastical members into the Council, in excluding the Deemsters from the Chancery Court, in protecting from punishment persons guilty of breaches of the peace, in denying the right of free debate in the Tynwald Court, and in turning the Keys out of the Court of General Gaol Delivery.

This petition was presented to the House of Commons in May, and the Speaker of the House of Keys, Col. Wilkes, and George Quayle, were sent to London to represent more fully the views of the House. Messrs Wilkes and Quayle, in writing to the Keys their information of the way in which they had carried out their mission, quoted from a speech made by Sir Robert Peel in the House of Commons, in which he admitted the impropriety of the Duke's conduct in pardoning the rioters (g) sentenced by Deemster Gawne, in "punishing the innoculators, who had violated no law", and in addressing intemperate language to the Keys. As regards this last charge, they reported that Sir R. Peel had pleaded the acceptance by the Keys of the Duke's apology, and that, as regards the other charges, he (Sir R. Peel) had declared that he had stated his "disapprobation in these heads to the Duke of Atholl". They further quote him as saying, with reference to the allegations of the Keys, that the Duke was "the most unfit person to be selected as Governor", that "he had only to say he found him there, and that if the thing were now to be done over again he was not prepared to say that he would himself recommend the selection, yet that no specific injustice had been substantiated".

They then concluded their letter as follows: "If no further consequences should result from the public appeal of the Keys to public opinion, we consider that this declared admission of a Minister in his place in Parliament to constitute, in itself, the attainment of the most important object of our pursuit. If we do not emancipate ourselves from this inauspicious Government we have, at least, obtained for our children a virtual pledge that it shall not be hereditary". They had, indeed, done more than this, since there can be very little doubt that it was this application which led the English Government to see that the Duke's rule in Man had become impossible and to take steps to put an end to it

Finally, early in 1825, the Keys passed a resolution that it was desirable that the remaining rights of the Duke in the Island should be purchased by the Crown, - 'Their Speaker (Wilkes) in writing with this resolution to the Secretary of the Treasury, complained that the Duke had designated himself as "Lord of Man" in Bills sent to tho House, and that he flew a flag upon which the armorial bearings of the former Lords of Man were combined with the Royal Union".

Shortly afterwards the Imperial Act ^(h) by which arbitrators were appointed to ascertain the value of the Duke's rights, was passed. This was fixed at £417,144, and the connexion of the Atholl family with the Island was severed.

The following correspondence contains the last mention of the Duke of Atholl and his claims :-

Whitehall, June 23rd, 1825.

Sir,

The Lords Commissioners of the Treasury having stated to Mr. Secretary Peel that, in carrying into effect the arrangements for purchasing the interests of the Duke of Atholl in the Isle of Man under the provisions of the Act recently passed they will be guided by the opinion of Mr. Peel with regard to those provisions which relate to the surrender of the rights reserved to his Grace's family under the Act of Re-vestment. (5. Geo. III.), and will give such instructions to the Arbitrator who may be appointed on the part of the Crown upon this subject as Mr. Peel may think proper to suggest ; I am directed by Mr. Bell to observe to you that as the powers of the Act were enlarged to theie present extent in consequence of the Petition presented by yourself and other members of the House of Keys in the Isle of Man to the House of Commons, on the 3rd of May, he has no doubt you must well have considered the matter, and he, therefore, desires that you will inform him what rights of the Duke of Atholl the Petitioners had it in their contemplation for the Crown to purchase, and also favour him with a statement of the ground on which their recommendation proceed

I have the honour to be, Sir, Your most obedient, etc., H. HOBHOUSE.

Col. Wilkes.

On the 27th June, 1825, the Speaker replied -

In comply with this desire [for information on the points mentioned] it may be convenient to premise that, by the Act 5th Geo. III., the Lordship of Man, together with the royalties, regalities, etc., is vested inalienably in the Crown, except etc. The true scope and interest of these exceptions is more intelligible to an unlearned reader in the words of the Duke and Duchess of Atholl quoted in the preamble than in the technicalities of the enacting clauses.

The exceptions are plainly confined under four distinct heads:
1st. Reserving only their landed property.
2nd. With all their Rights in and over the soil as Lords of the Manor.
3rd. The patronage of the Bishoprick and of the other ecclesiastical benefices.
4th. The honourable distinction of presenting two falcons at the Coronation.

With regard to the first of these, viz., the very small amount of landed property then possessed by the Atholl family in the Isle of Man, the Petitioners did not intend to offer any particular suggestion. They stated that the recommendation related chiefly to the manorial rights, the claims arising from which had been the source of forty-five years of annoyance to the Island, to Parliament, and to his Majesty's Government. The early and well-known project of invading the landed tenures, the report of the Commissioners of 1791, the Bills introduced into Parliament and most of them successfully resisted on behalf of the House of Keys, the successive applications and petitions of that House to his Majesty's Government and to Parliament, and the records of the Home Department from 1780 to the present time are presumed to furnish very sufficient grounds for this recommendation. It remains to explain the grounds on which the Petitioner recommended the purchase of the other reserved rights, Had the Manorial rights been construed by his Grace according to the meaning usually attached in England to the words 'rights in and over the soil as Lords of the Manor', no probable ground of material discussion would have existed. But some indefinite ideas of a Royal Lordship of the Manor seem to have been blended in his Grace's mind with all his manorial rights, real and imaginary, although by the express words of the Act, 5th Geo. III., the Lordship of Man, with all its royalties, was vested inalienably in the Crown, and the reservation was simply the Lordship of the Manor. To shew that this grave error has a real existence in his Grace's mind, and is not the creation of unfounded inference from individual cases, it may be sufficient to mention two well-known facts:
1st. Within the last two years his Grace sent to the Keys, as a branch of the Insular Legislature, a Bill or Bills in which he designates himself Lord of Man and of the Isles.
2nd. In the flag which is kept flying at is Grace's place of residence as Governor of the Island the armorial bearings of the former Lords of Man are combined with the Royal Union.

It is impossible to conjecture where such assumptions might end; and it is because experience has shown the inconvenience of claims which may be thus indefinitely extended (to the length indeed: of an opinion known to be possessed by his Grace that all Insular Acts passed since the Revestment are illegal and void) that the petitioners prayed for the purchase of all Rights of whatever description reserved to his Grace by the Act of 1765.

With regard to the 3rd head, the patronage of the Bishoprick, etc; Although no pecuniary reimbursement can be suggested, it is conceived that two advantages of a higher order would arise from its transference to the Crown.
1st. The increased dignity and respectability of the Established Church in the Isle of Man.
2nd. The members of his Majesty's Council in the Isle of Man would then be nominated by his Majesty, and not, as at present, by a subject.

On the 4th head what has been already submitted renders further observation unnecessary The inestimable benefit of his Majesty’s direct and individual protection is pre-eminently stated in the Petition, and, as I hope and believe, would be duly appreciated. The Petitioners have, by adverse circumstances and a conscientious sense of duty, been driven into a position which a slight aid from representation may easily have perverted into a spirit of opposition to his Majesty’s Government. . . . The obvious interest, and, as I believe, the earnest desire of the Petitioners indicate the favour, the protection, and the confidence of his Majesty’s Government as the objects of attainment most essential to the happiness and prosperity of the Island, and if they should be honored with that confidence I persuade myself that they will endeavour to deserve it.—I have, etc. , M WILKES."

8th July 1825.

Sir,—I hasten to correct an error which I have discovered in my letter addressed to you on the 27th of June. In the flag mentioned the armorial bearings of the former Lords of Man were not combined with the Royal Union, but were exhibited alone

M WILKES."

And so the long duel between the Duke and the Keys at last came to an end.

Footnotes

(a) For details see "History of the Isle of Man’ A. W. Moore), pp. 259, 30,

(b) See pp. 44-5.

(c)See chapter V. The portion of this letter relating to dilapidations is given in that chapter.

(e) He was a member both of the House of Commons and the House of Keys. See "Manx Worthies",pp. 73-6.

(f) See p. 12.

(g) See "History of the Isle of Man" (A. W. Moore p.556.

(h) 6 Geo IV., c. 34.