Peculiarities of Manx Laws. It is said of the arms of Man (three legs armored and spurred, joined at the thigh, and bent at the knee) that one leg spurns Ireland, another kicks at Scotland, and the third kneels to England. This insular atti tude toward their three neighbors would seem to be borne out in the following two old statutes. The first reads " that all Scots avoid the Land with the next vessel that goeth to Scotland, upon paine of forfeiture of their Goodes and their bodys to Prison." The other " that Irish women loytering and not working be commanded forth of the said Isle with as much convenient speed as may be." These statutes have not yet been re pealed. Prisoners were tried by a jury of twelve, the prisoner having the right to select the requisite number from the jurors impanelled. In old-time trials it was the custom of the bishop to sit with the judges, unless the sentence was to be death, when he withdrew from the court. In such a case, the deem sters demanded of the foreman of the jury, in the Manx language, Vodfir charree sole? (May the man of the chancel sit?) If the foreman replied that he might not, that was equivalent to a verdict of guilty, and sentence was pronounced as soon as the bishop had retired. In 1610 certain spiritual laws were made, or rather at that time committed to writing. Most of these related to offenses against morality. Waldron describes one of these laws as follows. " If any person be convict ed of uttering a scandalous report and can
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not make good the assertion, instead of being fined or imprisoned, they are sen tenced to stand in the Market Place on a sort of scaffold erected for that purpose, with their tongue in a noose of leather, which they call the bridle; and having been thus exposed to the view of the people for some time, on taking off this machine they are obliged to exclaim three times, ' Tongue, thou hast lied! '" Not less interesting than the preceding are some of the old garrison regulations. One of these ran, " Alsoe that noe soldier hould continually a Lemon within a mile of either of said Houses, upon paine of Forfeit ing his Fee." This latter is apt to prove rather puzzling at first, but if one can recall Chaucer's couplet, — Unto his lemmon, Dallia, he told That in his heres all his strengthe lay, the mystery will be solved. Among their modern statutes may be mentioned that concerning the recovery of debts, which limits the period to three years. The Sunday closing law is very strict in Man, for if anyone is found in the liquor seller's premises on the Sabbath, he is liable to a fine, even though no intoxicating drink has been called for or consumed. A law of 188 1 gave women the franchise, and they now vote at elections, when pos sessed of the requisite property qualification, which is the ownership of real estate of £4 per annum ratable value. There is also a tenancy qualification, to which however they were not at that time admitted.
