The Romance of Manx Common Law

By R. B. MOORE.

H.M. ATTORNEY-GENERAL.

The story of the evolution of the Manx Common (or Unwritten) Law, from the days of the ancient Breast Laws, is told in the following remarkably interesting paper by Mr R. B. Moore, H.M. Attorney-General, and read recently before the Ramsey Rotarians:-

MANX CUSTOMARY LAW.

When in the beginning of the fifteenth century the kingship of Mann with all the "royalties, regalities, franchises, liberties. seaports, and everything truly and properly belonging to the same," was granted by the English King to Sir John Stanley on the service of rendering two falcons on paying homage, and two falcons to all future kings of England on the date of their coronation, the new king became possessed of a kingdom which had for centuries been robbed, plundered, and decimated by successive generations of Danes. Norsemen. Scotch and Irish until the Island became in the words of Sir Spencer Walpole "a desolate waste," its inhabitants poverty stricken and lodged in miserable dwellings and its trade degenerated into piracy, its constitution so mangled, that even its foundations had almost disappeared, and its Legislature uncertain. Yet there existed a body of laws known to the common people, and regularly put into operation, which had a completeness and a scientific character as well as an appropriateness to the place and conditions of life which had survived the storm and stress of many years. What this code of laws was, whence it took its origin, and with what authority it was made is the subject of our consideration this evening

Our interest in the subject is to a large extent historic: but it must not be forgotten that in spite of the rapid changes and many developments especially during the last 100 years, this code of customary laws still remains the foundation of the laws by which we are now governed, and volumes of new Statutes have not succeeded in effacing the ancient common law of the Isle of Man which still governs our real estate, and controls the various relations between the members of this ancient kingdom.

The common law of England has been defined as "the unwritten law which derives "its authority from the recognition given by our law courts to principles, customs, and rules of conduct previously existing among the people, enshrined of old in the memory of legal practitioners and rulers in the "courts." This definition exactly covers the customary laws of the Isle of Man, and their ancient name of "breast laws" signifies that their record lay only in the breasts of the Deemsters and Keys and the freemen to whom they were delivered at the open-air courts or fairs of this Island.

The earliest attempt to reduce the breast laws into writing is said to have been made by Godred Crovan after his conquest of the Island in 1070. To our infinite regret, all trace of the record made by Godred Crovan has been lost. but when the first Sir John Stanley ascended the throne of Mann, to which, unlike Godred Crovan, he came as a stranger, he ordered the laws to he reduced to writing, and some steps in this direction were taken by Michael Blundell, but again, to our loss, the record has entirely disappeared. The necessity, however, of placing the breast laws into more permanent form remained, and shortly after the accession of the second Sir John Stanley in 1414. he visited the Island and ordered that

"all greate matters and high points that are in doubt ever as they fall. I will that my Lieutenant or any of the councell for the time being take the Deemsters to them with the advice of the elders of the land of Mann to deem the law truly to the parties as they will answer him thereof, and that all doubtful points be always registered upp and laid in my Treasurie. that it may be ready when such a chance falleth that one doome or judgment be not given at one time one way and another tyme contrary; alsoe that the Clearke of the Rolles write all things plaine with full letters, and the judgment thereof on parchment, that if any like cause come another tyme it may be found of record in the Treasurie of all manner of questions asked and given by the Deemsters and 24 Keyes that it may he of remembrance in the Treasurie."

During the succeeding 200 years the common law of such points as arose in controversy, or on which the Lord or his Lieutenant required knowledge from the Deemsters and Keys, is recorded in the records of the Island, and is now embodied in the first volume of Gill's Statutes.

That much of the breast law still remained unrecorded is evidenced by the Ordinances found in that volume under the years 1636 and '67. In the former of those years. James, Lord Strange, then Lord of the Island, ordered that

"Whereas the Lord is informed that the Deemsters of the Island do sometimes give Judgment by Lawes unknown to his Lordship, or any other of his Councell of that Island called Brest Lawes: His Honor therefore declareth his Pleasure and doth order and direct, that the said Deemsters do, upon notice of this his Honour's Order, sett down in writing, and certify to his Honour by the next passage after, which lawes these brest laws are, and of what use. in what cases they are requisite, and how far their power and the execution of them extende: and in particular to certify, whether the same be used in all cases, that is to say. Criminal for Punishment of Offenders, and Civil for Decission of Rights of Lands and Goodes. or in which of them, in what cases are any of them : whether by such Lawes finall definitive Sentences, Orders or Judgments are given, whereby the causes are absolutely and finally determined, or but interlocutorie Orders before the final Decree or Judgment. Whether judgments or Orders made by such Lawes be subject to any Appeale or higher Judgment, or do extend to Matters of any Value whatsoever, or be restrained to some certain Values: whether the same are to be pronounced in open Court, or may be done privately out of any Court or Session ; and whether by the Opinion of one Deemster alone, or with what Assistance; what Entree or Remembrances is made of such Orders or Judgment, and how it may appeare that the same is not repugnant to the known Lawes and Customes of the Island, or one Brest Lay contrary to another; and how the People may take notice thereof, to frame their Accompts and Contracts accordingly."

LORD DERBY'S ORDERS.

Notwithstanding the strictness of this ordinance no attempt appears to have been made to carry it into effect, and in 1667 Lord Derby, who had succeeded to the Crown, made the following Orders:— Having had information given me that by Reason of several Cross Statutes yet extant on Record and also of pretended Customs and Brest Laws, contrary sometimes to the Statutes in force, my People are much distracted in their Affairs, and made uncertain how to proceed in the Transaction of their meanest concernments, and are drawn unto unnecessary Charges of Coppys, and that lawsuits and Differences are multiplied, and their Dispatch hindered and prolonged :

These are to require my Comptroller, Deemsters, and all other my Officers which are best acquainted with the laws and State of my Island, together with the advice and assistance of the 24 Keyes, to make an exact enquiry and Search into the Statutes, that such as are found fit to be abrogated may forthwith be repealed and cancelled, and that the rest that are necessary for the Government of the Island, together with such Customes as are thought worthy to be translated into Laws, may be wrote fair into a Book, and made the Rule of Proceeding in all cases, that so no Liberty may be left to private Opinions, or gratifying Interests: but that the people may know their duty, and expect their Reward or Punishment according in their Conformity or Disobedience to the known Laws.

The same Course I require also to be taken with the Ecclesiastical Statutes by the Spiritual Officers, with the Advice and Assistance of such knowing Persons, both of the Clergy and Laity, as shall be thought fit to be joined with them by the Bishop of my Island : and because I look upon this as a great Expedient for the Preservation of the People's Peace and Quiet, or at least for shortening and composing Differences. I require that it be forthwith put in Execution."

Again the commands of the King were ignored until a sharper Order of 1726 purported to cancel all the old unwritten laws which were not reduced to writing and submitted for his approval, and particularly the Ecclesiastical laws then in force; this Order brought the Church sharply to heel and produced the canon of Ecclesiastical Laws, 86 in number, which to sense extent remain in force to this day.

The Keys presented a strongly worded and dignified remonstrance against this highhanded attempt to cancel the law, and told his Lordship that they presumed he had been induced to issue the Order on some mis-information relating to the nature and execution of the said laws, without duly considering the ill-consequences of dispensing with so great a body of national laws at pleasure. No reply having been received to this remonstrance, it was twice repeated in the succeeding year, and eventually a petition for redress was presented to His Majesty in Council. What happened under this petition is not recorded, but certain it is that the old laws remained largely unwritten and still effective and to this day; so important a matter, for instance, as the rules governing the heirship of property are embodied in the breast laws and in no written statute.

The efforts of the Stanleys, Atholls, and Derbys to have the common law reduced to writing were no doubt partly prompted by the laudable desire to have the laws "in certainty," but was also part of a policy adopted by them through the whole period of their government to crush the ancient rights of the Manx people and reduce them to practical serfdom.

I will have to refer more in detail to the conflict at a later stage, but at this point I may say that in the end the Manx people triumphed and secured the continuance of their great body of national laws.

I turn now to the first branch of our study : whence did this body of national laws arise, from what sources was it drawn, and with what authority was it made?

EARLY HISTORY OF THE ISLAND.

Before discussing these questions in detail, it is necessary that I should epitomise the early history of our Island, and divide it into its main groups.

Manx history falls into seven principal periods. There is first the pre-historic period when the Island was occupied by a little known race, a small dark people, probably Picts. rough savages who, according to the Roman writers, ate the bodies of their own dead. Little or nothing is known of their government. They were followed by the early Celts, who with their better weapons subdued or exterminated the earlier Population. The Celts were of the same branch as the Irish, and their mode of life and rules of government were much the same as those in operation until the English conquest throughout Ireland, apart from the districts colonised by the Danes or Norse.

There can be no doubt that the foundations of the common law of the Island are essentially Celtic, as was the language and nomenclature of both people and places.

In 795 came the first Scandinavian invasion, and from that date until 1079 we have a period of nearly 300 years during which the Norsemen used the Island as a place to be plundered, and as a jumping-off ground for their incessant conflicts between themselves and the neighbouring countries, without any particular desire of permanently establishing themselves as the governing power of the Island.

In 1070 Godred Crovan in the great battle of Skyhill. or Scaeafell, firmly conquered the Island, and began a period of definite and complete Norse government, which continued with slight variations for two centuries until 1266. From 1266 to 1405 the Sovereignty of the Island was a veritable shuttle cock, flung about between the Norse, Scotch and English Crowns, until its final acquisition by the English king and its grant to Sir John Stanley in 1405 as a feudal sovereignty of the English Crown, which it remained until these sovereign rights were re-purchased by the English government in 1765.

The three formative periods of Manx customary laws were, therefore.
The Celtic period to about 800.
The Quasi-Norse, or Gall-Gael carried down to about 1079, and
The Norse period from 1079 to 1266.

Each governing power had its inevitable influence in the shaping of those customary laws, but no succeeding dynasty attempted to blot out entirely the system in operation in preceding ages, but moulded and adapted it to the laws and forms of Government to which they were originally accustomed For instance, the Norsemen transformed the Breton Moot into their Althing or Thyrwalla. They found the land roughly divided into tribal divisions and they collected these divisions into districts, or ship sheadings each of which, according to A.W.Moore they made responsible for the provision of four fully manned warships. They made the head men of the tribes into the "goodes men," from which the oldest and wisest constituted its chosen men. or "Bench of goodes." They divided the Island into two portions, just as Iceland was divided into four, and each had its logman or speaker, also called the domr, or doomsnan, or in later years the deemster. They made the ancient fairs, where much of the trading was done, and where the freemen met together, into moots, and established the moot held on Midsummer Day as the principal moot, where the laws which had been decided by the law speaker and wisemen were declared to the people and assented to by them, one Moot Hill for the Northern district at Cronk Urleigh Michael, and the other for the Southern district at Baldwin. It is probable that in earlier day. there were Moot Hills in every parish.

With, the centralisation of the power of government in the hands of one person, the administration of law by the chief of the tribes was transferred to or absorbed by that person, and he, the King. Lord, Governor or Lieutenant became the one and only authority throughout the whole Island, except in minor matters, down to the middle of the 19th century.

TENURE OF REAL ESTATE.

Perhaps in nothing so much as in the nature of the tenure of real estate was the influence of successive dynasties more marked, and no subject has given rise to so long continued controversies with such far reaching results. The Celtic system, when the people began to settle down and became in a certain measure cultivators instead of merely huntsmen and fishermen, was that of the tribal possession, and as we would now say, ownership, of portions of land. It was ownership based on possession without the acknowledgement of any superior right, and was therefore in its nature "edal" as distinguished from the feudal tenure of most of Western Europe. So far as can be gathered from the Irish system, which remained in operation throughout a great part of that country to the 15th and 16th centuries, the land of the tribes was cultivated in accordance with the decision come to each Spring, and the rest was grazed in common. The produce of cultivation and the cattle probably remained until well into the first Norse period the common property of the tribe. Law was administered by the chief of the tribe, an office which was from earliest times hereditary, but in the selection of the individual chief some form of approval by the tribe appears to have been required. Any wrong done by any member of the tribe was the wrong of the whole tribe, and any wrong done to a member of the tribe was avenged by the whole tribe. Inter-tribal warfare was frequent, and robbery was considered the most honourable of all pursuits. It is probable that the tribal holdings ran from the sea towards the hills, or from the rivers to the hills, and that each embraced its portion of the shore or rivers.

In the course of time and with advancing civilisation and the increase of cultivated land, sub-divisions of the tribal land came unconsciously into existence with the private ownership of goods, but until the Stanley period there appears to have still remained the practice of enclosing lands to be cultivated during the summer months, and throwing the whole land open for grazing during the rest of the year. At any rate, in 1422 any remains of this system were finally abolished, for by the ordinance of that date it was decreed that every person was to enclose his farm land and "keep it severall all tymes of the year." It is probable that the system of ownership in common had given place to ownership in severalty throughout most of the Island many years before that date.

With the coming of the Vikings, and the establishment of a military Government, the Holders of the Island were required to contribute towards the support of the King and his forces, not only in the provision of ships and men, but in food, clothing and labour. That which had previously been done for the support of the Chief of the tribe was transferred to the Chief of the Island with some measure of regularity as to the extent of the supplies, but it was not until the conquest of Godred Crovan that any real attempt was made to change the rights of the owners into that of feudal tenants. After his famous victory he offered his Vikings the choice — either to give them the Island for settlement or give it them for plunder. True to their Viking character, most of those who had come from Norway and the Northern Isles chose the plunder, and they did their work as thoroughly as the poverty of the people and the wildness of the land made possible. To the rest of them who elected to settle in the Island, being mostly Norsemen from the Southern Isles, he gave the Southern half of the Island, driving the survivors of the inhabitants to the boggy and infertile north, but he made it a condition that no right of inheritance should attach to the grant. The people were to become the King's tenants at will, and he was to he the sole proprietor of the soil of the island

It may he presumed that Godred Crovan in right of his conquest was entitled to determine by what tenure his settled soldiers or the conquered inhabitants were to be allowed to live in the Island, but so violent a change was never acquiesced in except under the stress of dire necessity by the Manx people.

It is always a difficult thing to put back the hands of the clock, and the liberty of freeholders which had been theirs from time immemorial might be taken from them by the might of the conqueror, but he could never attain their free consent, and it is one of the wonders of history how through the succeeding six centuries, although crushed by overwhelming power, impoverished by greedy and tyrannical Lords, and with no weapon but that of stubborn, passive, resistance, the Manx people cherished in their hearts their old liberties which they were eventually, to a very large extent, to recover from the reluctant and high-handed Derbys.

THE TENURE OF THE STRAW.

In spite of the ordinance of Godred Crovan, property passed from father to son, or from father to next-of-kin, according to its nature. Property was bought and sold without restriction, and only the formal entry of the heirs before the Lord or his Lieutenant, or the transfer of ownership by the passing of a straw or tuft of earth in his presence, which soon became more or less a formality, and the rendering of the contributions and services to the support of the Lord and his soldiers, and the maintenance of the forts subsequently commuted by stages to money payments, remained until the Derbys' time to bear evidence of the change of system. From the method of giving open acknowledgement of a sale by passing a straw the tenure became popularly known as "the tenure of the straw."

With the arrival of the Stanleys, bringing with them the elaborate traditions and systems of English feudal tenure, then at its height, the nominal change brought about by Godred Crovan was attempted to be made a reality. No longer was the tenancy at will nominal. By every power at their disposal the Stanleys and their successors strove to assert their unqualified absolute ownership of the land of the Island : customary owners became tenants, the contribution to the support of the governments, rents; and the Lord claimed the absolute right of admitting to the property any person whom he chose. Whatever the form, the practice under the Stanleys, notwithstanding, remained much the same. The Lords and their Lieutenants were fortunately kept too busily occupied in curbing the growing and oppressive exactions of the Church, and at a later date of the monasteries, to interfere in practice with the doings of the common people. So long as the Lord's rents and fines were paid, so long as watch and ward kept, they were satisfied not to press their assumed rights. Under such a system, accentuated by the laws passed during the first 150 years of Stanley rule, progress was impossible. Commerce was restricted in every possible way, the rate of wages was kept to the lowest possible basis, and fishing was made practically compulsory, in order as the old Ordinance says "that so great a blessing as this poor Island receives from the herring fishing may enable the tenants the better and speedier to make payment of their rents and other impositions."

There could be no improvements in the buildings or cultivation of land where at any moment the improved property might be taken from the holder. In a word, according to the views of their rulers, the first and last function in life of the Manx people was to cultivate the land and toil in the deep sea in order that they might fill the coffers of the Lord.

Such a policy brought its own consequences. To a people with so little incentive in their own home, distant lands afforded a fascination, and emigration had to be stopped by stringent orders making it a grievous offence, both on the part of the person emigrating and of the owner of the boat in which he sailed. Farm servants were compelled to work by a system of yarding, under which the coroner had authority by his yard to tip any unemployed person and compel him to work for the statutory wages, preference in the selection of servants being given to the Governor, then Bishop, then Deemsters. Keys, and so on. To further bolster up the system, when land was abandoned the setting quest were made responsible for finding a new tenant for the Lord, and if they failed , or if the tenant entered by them was unable to pay the Lord's rent, the quest were made responsible for the default.

Repeated protests were made against the system and in favour of the old customary tenure of the straw, but were treated with contempt by the Lords.

There is in existence a letter from the Earl of Derby to his son in 1643, in which he tells how the people had stormed him with their grievances against the exactions of the Church and the loss of their freehold rights in the land, and how he had appointed a meeting at Peel Castle "where I expected some wrangling and met with it, but I had provided for my own safety, and if occasion arose to curb the rest. Many busy bodies speak Manks only, which some officiously said should be commanded to hold their peace, which I was unwilling to, for I came prepared to give them liberty of speech, knowing that by good experience those people were their own mother's children, loving to speak much, and should be dealt with like prattling women, or a barking cur at your horse's heel. Give them liberty to put themselves out of breath and they will be the sooner quiet, and will be more content if you deny them after much speaking than if you prevent."

Deny them he certainly did, and the Ordinance of 1582 declaring sales and alienation made without licence void, began to be strictly enforced.

In lieu of the vague tenancy at will, the Earl of Derby established a system of leases for 21 years or three lives, and browbeat the people in many cases in accepting such leases. A few of the largest land owners whose influence he desired, were continued under the tenure of the straw.

I should add that by Acts passed during last century all land was made available for debts, and became subject to the law of inheritance.

Intack lands in gross, cottages, etc., were prior to the Act of 1662, always regarded as chattels and passed to the next of kin. They were liable to be taken in execution for debts, and could be devised by will subject to the widow's dower. The widow's dower in purchased quarterlands and intacks of ease was an absolute half, not half for life and the same as of the personal estate. It is probable that the widow's half depended on her surviving her husband, but if this was originally the law the wives began to circumvent it, and even during their husbands' lives made wills of the dower half of his real and personal estate. "From whence," it is stated in the Act of 1777, "it often happened that a man in flourishing easy circumstances by the accident of his wife s death is utterly ruined', one half of his goods and effects being sold and distributed amongst strangers." This was too much even for submissive Manx husbands, and first by the Act of 1777 the wife's rights were restricted to making her will of her dower interest in favour of her children only, and by a subsequent Act in the next century her dower rights were confined to cases where she survived her husband.

A husband was entitled by courtesy to the income of his wife's real estate during their joint lives, and to the income of one half of her real estate after her death during the remainder of his life. A curious old law, which probably was of Norse if not Celtic origin, deprived the husband of all interest in his wife's property if she died within a year after marriage. The executors of a deceased owner, including a wife's holding by dower, were entitled in the Isle of Man to much fuller rights of emblements than in England. Emblement means the right to the crop in the ground at the time of death. The old cases have gone so far as to establish this right where any steps had been taken to prepare the ground for the crop, even though the crop had not then been sown.

On the question of the inheritance of real estate, it should be mentioned that by a very ancient law of the Island, set out in the customary laws of 1557. a child born before marriage was legitimated by the subsequent marriage of its parents within a year or two, or as the old declaration of law has it "that child begotten before marriage shall have his father's corbe and his farms according to the custom of this Island." Here again we find embodied in the old customary law that just principle of post natal legitimation which is only now in the 20th century being made the law of England.

The old declaration I have just quoted refers to 'corbes', and I ask your permission to divert from the main line of our consideration to examine for a moment this interesting word. The origin of the word is probably Norse. but the custom corresponded to an ancient Celtic rule. In the common law given by the Deemsters by the advice and councell of the 24 of the land, on the second day of December, A.D. 1419 we have this record:-

Henry M'Gawn, Wilhn. McQualtrough, with the rest of their Fellows, to make 24 do find that these ought to be Corbes partaining to a Man, as if his Father have a Pann, his son to have it, or els his best Pott, a Jack and a Sallett. Bowes and Arrows. Sword and Buckler, his best Board and best Stoole. his Coulter, and Rakentree, his best Cup if it be of Wood and bound with Silver and Gilt, his best Chest.

Corbes for a woman, the best Wheele and Cardes, Rakentree, a Sucke or els a Mank's Spade, the best Beade or Jet or Amber, the best Broach, the best Cross, the best Pott or Pann.

The development of weapons of war necessitated an amendment of the ancient description of corbes, and by a Act of 1748 a firelock was substituted "in place of the ancient weapons of war called Corbes mentioned in the declaration of 1419." Deemster Parr in his abstract devotes several pages to the customary law of corbes. pointing out that corbes went to the oldest sone or heir and the oldest daughter, the son having the choice where there were two articles of the same kind. No person could will the corbes from the heir, and a special summary remedy was provided by the Deemsters order for enabling the heir to recover the corbes from any person retaining them.

I propose now to turn to the judicial system in operation under the customary law of the Isle of Man. I have previously said that all judicial authority was centred in the Lord or his Lieutenant, and so remained until recent years. He alone constituted the Courts, but he had with him for the purpose of consultation his personal officers consisting of the clerk to keep the records or rolls. the controller, the Receiver General of his revenue, the Attorney General and for certain purposes the Deemsters and Keys. The Deemsters and Keys were there to advise him as to what the ancient law of the Island was. The Deemsters according to Bishop and Governor Meryck (1577), in the Isle of Man like the law speaker was in Iceland, were elected by the people, and even to this day the distinction between the Deemsters and the rest of the members of the Lord's Council is maintained They are separately named as a consenting party in the preface to all Acts of Tynwald, and they sign the Acts in a space apart to themselves. Their oath is also different from the other members, containing that quaint obligation

"without respect or favour, or friendship, love or gain, consanguinity or affinity, envy or malice, execute the laws of this Isle justly between the Lord and his people of this Isle, and betwixt party and party as indifferently as the herring-bone doth lie in the midst of the fish."

The Deemster received no salary from the Lord beyond a nominal sum, but be was entitled to send people called a "bonnack" at all Hallow Tide to receive certain customary fees from the tenants. If any refused the bonnaek the Deemsters fee they were to cut three ropes of his house over his door, whereby he might be known to refuse the Deemster's custom, and such person would not be granted the Deemster's token the next year. The Deemsters also received a small share of a felons goods and fees on granting his token. The token or summons of the Deemster consisted of a stone or which his initials were written handed to the coroner on the complaint of a suitor. The Deemsters held their own Courts in their houses, to deal with matters of debt, trespass, etc., between persons where the Lord's rights were not involved. The almost absolute power of the Lord, including his right to act as Judge in causes in which he was himself an interested party, would have been intolerable but for the existence of a most complete system of juries or quests which from the earliest days was in operation in the island. It is claimed by modern writers that civilisation owes its jury system not to the Franks and Normans as has been commonly stated, but to the Norsemen, and evidence is found in support of this in the early laws of the Danelands in England. But the most complete evidence in favour of this contention is the amazing jury system in the Isle of Man.

The earliest functions of the House of Keys, were in reality those of a jury, and they are referred to in very ancient documents as "The Chief Enquest." It has yet to be determined what the word Keys is derived from. That it is not the English word Key is admitted. It is suggested that it is an abbreviation of the Manx words "Kiare es feed" the four and twenty. But I suggest another origin, namely the word "Quest." The Irish word for a jury is Keehta. Until the year 1866 the House of Keys retained its judicial functions, and a litigant dissatisfied with the finding of a common law jury had the right to a re-trial before a larger jury called the Traverse Jury, with a final appeal from that jury to the House of Keys. In the Court of General Gaol Delivery, the House of Keys always sat until Bishop Wilson's trial along with the Deemsters as observers of the proceedings. The prisoner had the right to select from the 72 jurors summoned to form the panel, the twelve who were to try him, but woe be to the prisoner or to the jury selected if the latter acted perversely or gave a wrong verdict, for they then were liable to be punished by the Deemster and Keys for their wickedness. In addition to the Keys or Chief Enquest there were the following juries:

(1) The Setting Quest to provide the Lord's tenants and fix the rents for intacks.

(2) The Sheading Jury to try common law actions.

(3) The jury of indictment to find the charge on which a criminal should stand his trial.

(4) The Traverse Jury to review the proceedings of the smaller common law jury.

(5) The Jury of merchants to fix the price, at which imported goods might be sold.

(6) The Ale House jury to determine the number of suitable ale houses.

(7) The jury of apprentices.

(8) The Admiral of the Fleets jury to try matters that occurred at sea.

(9) The Water Bailiff's Jury.

(10) The Servants Jury to allot servants and see that they were properly fed.

(11) The Coroners Jury to enquire into the cause of violent death.

(12) The Jury of Slander to deal with this branch of law with a special provision that if a parson was a party to the proceedings half the jury was to consist of clergymen and half of laity.

(13) The Great Enquest whose numerous duties comprised to present millers who had not been sworn to deal justly with the public, and farmers who allowed their pigs to go unwrung.

(14) The trespass jury.

(15) The Leather Jury who had to pass tanned leather for sale.

(16) The Fodder Jury to see that no tenant kept more stock than he had land to feed them on.

(17) The Game Jury for the protection of the Lord's game.

(18) The Jury of Enquiry - in petty larceny to compel all suspected persons to swear their innocence.

(19) Jury of Matrons (whose unique functions do not lend themselves to public discussion.)

Some of these juries consisted of twelve, some of six and some of four person. In addition to these juries there were somewhat similar juries of Abbey tenants to deal with matters arising on the lands of the Abbey Barons.

I am not suggesting that all this classification of juries existed from time immemorial; several of them were constituted as their necessity arose, but the principle of jury trial is inherent in the Manx customary law, and probably its origin could be traced to the Celtic tribal system where each man's innocence stood or fell by the decision of his fellows in the tribe.

In a recent address given by Sir Ernest Wilde, Recorder of London, he enlarged on the English Jury system which existed at any rate in germ from 1271, and said he thought it was important that the machinery by which we had developed should be understood at a time when the grand jury system was being attacked because the jury was really the foundation of our liberties. "The jury was a safeguard which stood between the Government and the liberty of the subject."

Priceless as the jury system was to the Manx people as their sole protection against autocratic government, its advantages in the course of the years were affected by abuse, and the Commission appointed by the Imperial Government in 1791 in their report say :-

"Although the inhabitants of the Island thus seem to have been well aware of the advantages that might result from the institution of juries, and their trials were, in many cases, by that mode ; yet so little regard was paid to the due execution of their office, that the trial by jury was rendered almost useless; for, instead of being obliged to attend to the evidence in court, or before some of the superior officers in the Island, and give in their verdict immediately after the evidence had been heard, the juries not only took the evidence out of court, but adjourned as often, and to such places, as suited their several engagements. The meetings were frequently under hedges, but generally in alehouses, where they heard the witnesses' proofs, and altercations of the parties, and when they thought proper, delivered in their verdicts and the depositions, in the manner already stated."

At these meetings, the juries were supposed to be attended by the Coroner, and were, in fact, followed by the plaintiff and defendant, who were there to contest with each other which should entertain them the most liberally, till this practice was restrained by a positive Act.

The abuses of our ancient system lend to the changes of law embodied in a series of Acts after the revestment. The preface to this series of Acts of 1777 states "that many of the laws and customs of this Isle have been found not only to be defective, but in many instances impolitic and very inadequate to the purposes of good order and government. it being now thought expedient to repeal all obsolete and useless laws, which however properly adapted to more early ages are now become insufferible and oppressive and to constitute a new arrangement and connection of the most wholesome laws, retaining every part possible of the ancient constitution, and being made to bear the nearest resemblance to the system of English Jurisprudence, which is conceived may greatly conduce to the honour, welfare, and happiness of this Isle."

With the passing of the Acts of 1777 we have the beginning of the anglicisation of Manx law which has characterised modern days, and which is steadily reducing the fine originality and independence of Manx common law to a servile adaptation of the laws of England.

I desire now to turn to the last branch of my subject and to indicate briefly some of the quaint old laws affecting the general life of the Island and the relations of its people. It is in these laws that the uniqueness and originality of the Manx system is most evident. No historical origin can be given for them, and in many cases no similar provisions are found in the laws of other countries. They were home-made and met an emergency as it arose. Like Topsy it may be said ' that they 'growed.' I have more than a suspicion that many of these laws took their origin in the fact that some question arose before the Lord, his advisors, the Deemsters and Keys, and if no Breast Law was found covering the matter they decided what the law should be, just as the Althing of Iceland determined the Novellae. when any new question arose, and their decision was announced at the next Tynwald when the freemen acclaimed their assent by beating their swords on their shields. Once declared by the Deemsters it passed into the domain of Breast Laws and was remembered for application in future similar cases.

Our best record of these general laws and customs is preserved in Deemster Parr's Abstract, compiled by him in 1679 for the information of the new Earl of Derby who had lately inherited the Island. As a model of clear concise statement Parr's Abstract is unmatched.

In addition to being original I claim for the customary law of the Isle of Man that it was most appropriate and wise. There is the tribute of that greatest of English lawyers. Lord Coke, who, in deciding an appeal from the Island in referring to the wisdom and admirable adaptation of the laws to our constitution he said "that the Isle of Man hath such laws as are not to be found in any other place."

In referring to these old laws I do not propose in follow any particular order, but to take them more or less alphabetically as they appear in Parr's Abstract. I should call attention to two points in which the law of the Island differed in the Northern and Southern Districts, this being the only remains of the days when the districts made their own laws. The right of a widow in the North was larger than that of the South, the additional benefit being traditionally ascribed to the reward given to the women for their assistance in the battle between Otto and MacMarus. There is also a difference in the case of tenants holding over after the expiration of their tenancy. In the South of the Island the landlord had to bring a suit for possession before the 6th December and in the North before the 11th December, otherwise the tenant was allowed another year's tenancy.

THE LAW REGARDING BOUNDARIES.

An admirable illustration of the common sense of old Manx laws is the law regarding boundaries between farms and houses. In the Isle of Man a boundary fence or wall is erected half on the property of each owner, and each could compel the other to join in building a boundary wall of the statutory dimensions. Where one party desired to build above 5ft. 6in high he could do so placing half of the wall on his neighbour's land and making reasonable provision for flues, and the neighbour was entitled at any time afterwards to use the wall, or as much of it as he desired, on paying one-half of the cost of the portion he used above 5ft. 6ins. Tenants adjoining the Lord's land were, however, bound to bear the expense of erecting the boundary wall, but to do so they could use as much earth or ground on the Lord's side of the fence as they could get joining their heel to the fence and reaching with their spade holding their foot thereon.

When a tenant of the Abbeys gave up his holding he was entitled to take away the roof of his house and all doors and windows, but not so the Lord's tenants who must leave them for the benefit of the Lord.

The commencement of common law action followed the injunctions of the New Testament. Before proceeding the plaintiff must first acquaint the defendant that he intends to commence his action "to the end to induce the defendant to an agreement." If that failed the plaintiff was to attend the parish church where the defendant lived upon the Sunday next before the Sheading Court Day, and proclaim to his neighbours his intention to take proceedings, that his neighbours might if possible make peace between them, and if that failed the moar of the parish was to summon the defendant to appear at the Sheading Court. If the defendant did not appear the Deemster was to take the moar with two witnesses, "one standing on each shoulder of him" to swear that the defendant was lawfully summoned. If the defendant was not summoned but the plaintiff met him within the precincts of the Court and "take him by the arm and bring him before the Deemster and set a foot on his foot and take the law of him as effectually as if he was lawfully summoned." No proceedings might he taken against the moar of a parish during his year of office as his goods were to be reserved to the Lord in case he failed in his duty. Aliens were treated with peculiar hardships. Scotchman and Irishmen might not live in the Island without the Lord's permission and on swearing fealty to him and paying for the privilege, and any alien who had not made fealty to the Lord on his death, his goods passed to the Lord whether he made a will or not.

An Alien coming with merchandise for sale was given scant liberty. He had first to appear before the Lord who beat him down in the price of his goods as far as he could get him. Then he was passed on to the jury of merchants who continued the process of bargaining until bedrock was reached. At the prices so fixed he might sell his goods, the Lord. the Bishop and the Lord's officers having first choice. He might not go farther through the Island than to the next parish church without the Lord's licence, and having his goods weighed, measured, stamped and allowed.

There appear to have been no standard weights or measures until the Ordinance of 1429 directed that all firletts and quarts be all made after one, but ancient and weird named measures are in common use to this day: bolls for corn and potatoes ; daymouth for grass lands : meases for herrings, a kishen representing 2 gallons : and numerous others.

When sealed measure were first introduced a novel remedy was provided against the ale house keepers who supplied ale in unsealed cans. The Great Enquest or any other person might drink as much as they pleased of the liquor and pay nothing to the house for the same.

Bargains were made in earnest to the extent of 6d was paid, or in the case of an ox or cow if the buyer received a handful of hay or straw.

In early days wrongs were settled in the Viking way of duels, or the judgment of God, and vengeance for assault was taken by the relations of the injured party, which manner of requittal, as Parr says, was found to be a very insufferable thing, in any well governed commonwealth, wherefore it was decided by Tynwald in the year 1429 that such prowess should be put down and that such matter should be determined by God and the country, which meant, of course, by lawful trial. Accordingly, if any man suffered what was called a blood wipe, i.e. an assault drawing blood, he had to proceed with all haste to the moar and show him the blood, and the moar summoned the jury to the Church Cross, and the offender became liable to a penalty of 6d to the Lord, 6d to the Coroner, 6d to the Moar, and 4d to the porter of the Garrison.

It is an interesting sidelight of the law of those days that if any master upon his servant draw blood, or a ploughman upon his driver they are to be spared.

Beggars were not encouraged in olden days. The captain of a boat who landed one was compelled to take him back again. The servants' jury could send him to work, and if a coroner found a beggar wandering out of his own parish he was to whip him all the way back.

Under the heading of burglary, Deemster Parr states that in consequence of the change of tenure made by the Stanleys the inhabitants built no houses nor improved their holdings, and provided neither windows nor doors for their houses but laid bundles of briars across your hearth and therewith made up the door to defend them from the injury of the weather and the invasion of thieves. These defences were so weak that it was provided by law that whomsoever did presume to open a house without the knowledge of the owner and did not first speak unto and salute and ask leave for coming in that person should be accused as a felon, and it is added. "This law doth continue and is of use at this present, being the ancientest customary law of the Isle."

The Manx law contained careful provision for children. Originally the Norse practice obtained in which the child was the absolute property of its father until 14, and if the father so wished, he threw his child out to die which was usually done if a weakling. On attaining 14 or marrying the child became free.

A very ancient law provided that it any man made his will and did not leave 6d legacy to his unmarried children, or the value thereof, such children shared his estate with the other beneficiaries. This law has been annulled for many years, but in my own practice I have had country folk who instructed me to leave a legacy of 6d to all who lawfully claim it, not knowing that they were acting under a long gone customary law. Where the father of a child died, if there was only one child the father's kindred had the custody of the child and his goods until 14, unless the father otherwise ordered, and if there were two children the mother had the oldest and the father's kindred the other. It is commonly stated that testamentary guardians were unknown in the Island, but it is quite clear from Parr's abstract and the early Statutes that the father had a right to appoint guardians if his children up to 14; after 14 the children chose their own guardians.

THE HAND-SUIT.

In cases of stolen goods the Manx law provided summary proceedings for enquiry. Without the necessity of obtaining a search warrant, the party robbed made his complaint to the coroner and took his hand and led him to the place where he suspected the stolen goods were, and the coroner had power to search for the goods. This is the right referred to as hand-suit in the early statutes.

The criminal law in the Isle of Man, as in other countries, was brutally severe. Felons were punished by death, and it was a felony to steal goods to any value exceeding 6d. So severe a penalty resulted in juries taking extraordinary views of the value of stolen goods, and only absolute necessity compelled them to value the goods at more than that figure. There was, however, a merciful provision that if the felon threw himself on the mercy of the Lord, the Lord might spare his life but forfeit his goods. Most of the goods went to the Lord's Exchequer but the Deemster and Moar were entitled to a fee, and by a very ancient law in the goats belonging to a felon passed to the Queen of Mann by her prerogative.

A traitor not only included a person who conspired against the life of a King, but also his Lieutenant, and any person who resorted to arms within the precincts of the King's Court. The punishment of a traitor was to he drawn after wild horses, then to be hanged and quartered.

The Court of General Gaol Delivery where all serious crimes were tried was held from time immemorial in the open air, and for many centuries was held in the Gate-way of Castle Rushen. It was at such a Court that Illiam Dhoan was tried and condemned, but out of regard for his family the savage punishment of traitors was commuted to being shot on Hango Hill.

One very interesting punishment was in the case of a serious assault on an unmarried woman. The man committing it if found guilty was to he punished according to the choice of the offended lady, who was presented with a rope, a sword and a ring. If she chose the rope he was to be handed, it the sword his head was to be cut off. but if the ring he escaped with the punishment of having to marry her. Tradition says that there was only one case in which the woman selected anything but the ring, in that case she chose the rope and he was duly hanged, but she repented before the operation was over, ordered the soldiers to cut him down, as she was agreeable to marry him. When told of this the offender declined to get married, saying that he had been punished once and that was sufficient expiation for his crime.

Another illustration of a practical solution of everyday problems is provided by the old law governing servants. A servant who hired to two masters was bound to render to his first master his service, but the second master became entitled to receive his wages. If a servant fell sick his master was to keep him in his house for one month, and afterwards his friends were to take him away. In cases where the master absented himself purposely from his house on the notice-giving day. the servant could give notice to the chair the master usually sat in: and if the door of the master's room were locked the servant could in the presence of a witness give notice to the door. A servant's porridge had to be made with sufficient oatmeal that the stick would stand in the middle of the pot.

Witchcraft was, of course, a felony, and the horrible punishment of cruel death followed the verdict of guilty. The simplicity of Manx law in the enforcement of judgment had much to commend it. Under an execution and without any further warrant the coroner could seize all the defendant's real estate liable for debt, his personal estate, collect his debts, and completely administer the estate for the benefit if his creditor; without any of the involved proceedings to this day required by English law.

ECCLESIASTICAL LAWS.

No review of Manx common law would be complete without a reference to the Ecclesiastical law; at once so detailed, so powerful, and affording such evidence of the enormous power of the Church in the early Norse days and Middle ages. The canon of Ecclesiastical laws embodied in the 86 divisions which make up the declaration of the Vicars General in compliance with the order of the Earl of Derby, bore evidence of the thoroughness with which the Church enforced its rights and exercised its discipline. Great as was the power of the Church in England, it was greater still in the Isle of Man, and nothing but fear and superstition inherent in a Celtic people secured any attachment to religion. The power of the Church led it to acts of oppression and greed which rivalled, if they did not exceed, those of the Lord himself; and nothing but the fact that the down-trodden people could not possibly stand the exactions of both Church and State compelled the laity to limit the power of the Church. A list of the objects on which tithe was paid, namely, all corn, hay, lambs, calves, colts, geese, poultry, eggs, fish — whether caught on the coasts or at sea — wool, honey, butter, cheese, and other commodities, gives some idea of the grasp of the Church on the people, and the Vicars' rights were enforced to the extent that before administering the Holy Elements to a communicant he was first made to swear that he had rendered his dues in tithe to the Church.

An excellent illustration of the functions and power of the Church is afforded by the fact that down to the year 1884 all matters relating to the administration of the estates of deceased persons were under the control of the Ecclesiastical authorities. The two courts exercising concurrent jurisdiction were those of the Episcopal Registrar, appointed by the Bishop, and the Archdeacon's official, appointed by the Archdeacon.

I might cite two or three of the quaint immemorial practices of these courts. Creditors of a deceased's estate were to prove their claims within a year and a day after probate, such as had specialities or writings proved them in court, and such as had not upon the grave of the deceased, with lawful compurgators in ancient form, that is to say, lying on his back with the bill on his breast, and the compurgators on either side of him. It will be recalled by readers of French literature that the most solemn oath of a Frenchman is sworn on the grave of his mother. Both the French oath and the Manx custom are no doubt survivals of very ancient practices.

The Ecclesiastical Ordinances provide that if a desperate debt be bequeathed the executor shall not be liable. One is left to wonder at the expression, a desperate debt. It is also provided that where there is not so much in an estate as will pay all legacies after debts are paid, the legatees are to be paid "penny pound like." That final word "like" is used in the Manx dialect in quite a unique manner.

The ordinances also provided that where a legacy is left to any man to whom a debt also is due. he may have both unless the testator declared the legacy in consideration of the debt. This is very sane law and much simpler than the English law of satisfaction

Here are a few rules affecting sundry matters:—

1. Such as defame the dead to make penance and to ask the kindred forgiveness.

2. He that strikes a minister shall he excommunicated (ipso facto) and to do penance, and after satisfaction given to the law to receive absolution and to be received at the church style into the church by the minister reading before him the 51st Psalm.

3. He or she that call a man a dog shall wear a bridle at the market cross, or make 7 Sundays penance is several parish churches.

4. A common wanton be drawn after a boat in the sea during the ordinary's appointment. (Everyone will remember the historical occasion when Bishop Wilson enforced this law against a semi-imbecile).

5. That sick persons make their will before they receive the communion.

6. Where the next-of-kin refuse administration if there be any surplus that shall be disposed of for pious uses.

7. If any curse any officer, spiritual or temporal, he to wear the bridle for four market days at the several market towns for one hour in the height of the market : but whoso taketh the name of God in vain to be put in the stocks.

These are but samples of the quaint but, on the whole, common sense laws which governed a somewhat primitive people. The whole of the code of Ecclesiastical laws is worth studying, and they justify the remark of an eminent Ecclesiastical authority in England that nowhere was the Ecclesiastical power so strong or so thoroughly enforced.

In concluding our study of Manx Customary Law, although I have taken so long a time, there are innumerable points of interest which I have not even touched upon. I can only hope that our consideration may stimulate an interest in this most instructive portion of our history.