ISLE OF MAN. 701 



knowledge and civil importance -which, as a political body, she has 

 already acquired. The sleepy politicians of Europe are, however, 

 blind to the rapid and alarming development mental as well as phy- 

 sical of this adolescent giant, although possessing, even in a state of 

 puberty, the wiliness of a serpent, the patient watchfulness of a cat, 

 the ferocity of a wolf, and the enormous power and sinews of an 

 Asiatic elephant. That axiom of Napoleon which we have given in 

 a preceding number should be burnt into the walls of every great ca- 

 binet : " IN THIRTY YEARS EUROPE WILL EITHER BE REPUBLICAN 



OR COSSACK." 



ISLE OF MAN. 



Go where one may, it seems impossible to get away from London 

 associations and London names. Here I am, after a calm and de- 

 lightful passage, in Bond-street still Bond-street, Douglas, Isle of 

 Man ! To state that I was disappointed because I was not wrecked 

 and lost in the Irish sea, would be palpably absurd ; but I will own 

 that, after the enticing picture I had lately received of the " striving 

 waters " off the coast, I was slightly vexed that I should chance to 

 make the passage on a cloudless day a waveless sea and through 

 an all but breathless atmosphere. True, I had not fixed my heart 

 upon a mountain swell, or my happiness upon a hurricane ; but it did 

 strike me, and somewhat forcibly, that a little fresher breeze above 

 us, and a less calm sea beneath, would have added if one may ven- 

 ture to be covetous to the day's enjoyment. 



It seems that the isle was inhabited by the Britons long prior to 

 its conversion to Christianity by St. Patrick, in 440, To trace the 

 various changes it endured, and the many kings to whom it bowed, 

 might here be considered out of place ; suffice it then to say, that 

 after the conquest of the primitive inhabitants, it was alternately in 

 possession of the English, Scots, and Norwegians, until the reign of 

 Henry the Fourth, when it was seized from Henry Percy, Earl of 

 Northumberland, on his rebellion, and granted to Sir John Stanley, 

 to be held of the crown of Great Britain by liege homage, paying to 

 the king a cast of falcons at his coronation. In this family the island 

 remained, by regular descent, up to William Stanley, sixth Earl of 

 Derby, who obtained from James I. the title of " King of Man." 

 James, the tenth Earl, dying in 1753 without issue, the title became 

 vested in James Murray, second Duke of Athol, by whose descend- 

 ants the sovereignty has been sold to the British dominion. It 

 appears that the original arms of the island consisted of a ship in full 

 sail, and continued so until 1270, when the King of Scotland sent an 

 army to attack it, under the command of Alexander of Paisley and 

 John Comyn. Being victorious, he substituted the arms the island 

 now upholds those arms being three legs. 



The government was formerly exercised by a Council of Elders, 

 called Taxiasi, derived from Taxi, a. corruption of Taisgi, a guardian, 

 ami aecif. hereditary property. It now consists of a governor (in- 



