[Appendix A(42) 1792 Report of Commissioners of Inquiry]

N° 42.

To the Commissioners of Inquiry for the Isle of Man.

REASONS why the Attorney General declines entering into the Question, Whether certain Rights of the Crown herein-after mentioned. are or are not neccessary for the Prevention of illicit Traffic.

IT is alleged by the Duke of Atholl, that some rights, unnecessary to be vested in the Crown for the purpose of preventing illicit practices, have been so vested ; and the rights alluded to in this allegation His Grace states to be, the Herring Custom, the Salmon Fishings, Treasure Trove, goods called Flotsam, Jetsam. and Lingan, with the Isle and Castle of Peele.

The Attorney-General begs leave to refer the Commissioners to a Report, addressed to the late Lieutentant Governer left herewith,) wherein it is delivered as their opinion, that the sovereignty of the island is, by the act of 1765, in the most explicit terms, restored to the Crown ; and. that consequently all rights incident to the sovereignty (if not expressly reserved to the late Duke and Duchess of Atholl) are restored with it; that therefore the position, afferting the sovereinty, ports, and commerce of the isle, were no otherwise required to be revested in, the Crown than as they interfered with the royal revenue in that and the rest of the King's dominions, is in admissible; and further, that all such of the rights above enumerated as were noticed in the Report, that is, all of them, except the Isle and Castle of Peele, were on these grounds to be considered as fully settled in the Crown; which principles and reasoning have been confirmed by the Attorney and Solicitor General of England in two other Reports ; copies whereof are also left herewith. With regard to all the particulars included in the first-mentioned Report, the Attorney still retains the same opinion ; and has to add, that the Isle and Castle of Peele is not only as an appendage of sovereignty, but in express words, and by name, conveyed to His Majesty. All these rights having been thus transferred to the Crown, the Attorney General apprehends he cannot, consistently with the duty of his office, admit it to be material, whether they are or are not necessary for the restraint of smuggling : and conceiving he cannot enter into an examination of this point, without admitting it to be material, he thinks it incumbent on him to decline attending any such investigation. He should deem it a violation of his duty to engage in a question which has so manifest a tendency to bring in question rights of the Crown, that have been solemnly settled by the British Legislature. At the same time, being solicitous for the accomplishment of the general objects proposed by the inquiry, in which the Commissioners are employed; he continues ready and desirous to promote it, by contributing every aid that his official situation, means of knowledge, and state of health, will permit him to furnish.

28th September, 1791, WADSWORTH BUSK,

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