think fit to take by due course of law. All which is most humbly CHAP. submitted to your Majesty's royal wisdom. "ROB. RAYMOND, P. YORKE." What sort of interpretation the authorities in the island put on Lord Derby's injunctions, however he may in the letter have expressed himself, soon became very evident. The report of Raymond and Yorke bears date Aug. 2, and was approved in Council at Kensington, Aug. 7. After those five days of delay, unavoidable perhaps in the course of public business, but most seriously harmful to the wrongfully imprisoned, an order for the relief desired was made out, and dispatched to the Bishop and Vicars-General. But by some delay not accounted for, neither it nor the former order of July 19 reached them until Aug. 29. In the meantime the Bishop's memoranda are like those of a person left on a desert island, few and far between, such as he might gather from accidental intercourse with the servants of the prison. "Aug. 4, Archdeacon went for England." "Aug. 11, Mr. Sedden went for England." His accusers and judges at liberty to take counsel where they would against him, but himself debarred from help. "Aug. 22, Mrs. Heywood," the faithful attendant and soother of his household solitude, was "refused to come to me." She was his principal nurse, doubtless, in his occasional ailings, and must have heard that his health was suffering in that noisome confinement. One piece however of good news found its way into his prison. "Aug. 25, Thomas Stole (Braddon) ordered to be received into the peace of the Church:" of course upon a return made to the Bishop of satisfactory behaviour during his penance. He had noticed before the same sort of providential consolation. At last he writes,-" Aug. 28, Mr. Thorn returned from England with orders from King and Council." It does not appear who this Mr. Thorn was, but we find him after this associated with names better known as coming and going in the Bishop's behalf. Even after his landing, however, there was some delay. As the Bishop knew in some way that he was coming with a message to him, so no doubt did the Governor; and we are not told how, but it came to pass that XVI. XVI. CHAP. the royal order was not delivered in the prison until Aug. 29, the day after its arrival. The day after that a remarkable process occurred, which the Bishop's journal thus briefly notices :-"Mr. Stevenson, Mr. Curlet, and Mr. Thorn gave the Governor the orders of Council, which he flung away, &c. We also offered to deposit the fine. He abused T. Curlet abominably for bringing our letter." But the statements afterwards made and proved before the Privy Council, chiefly on affidavit by Anthony Halsal, are more minute, suggestive, and picturesque. I give them as they stand in the Council Register, omitting certain technical repetitions: "Your petitioners on the said 30th of August sent a person (Mr. William Thorne) to Alexander Horne the Governor's house, with the original orders and papers annexed and copies thereof; and the copies being offered to him by the said person, Mr. Horne refused to receive the copies unless the person that summoned him would give him the originals. And he telling the Governor that he could not do that, (for then he should have no authority to serve the other four officers,) but offering to compare and examine the originals and copies with the Governor, the Governor replied he would have none but an original. Whereupon, on the same day, your petitioners prevailed upon two other persons (two of the 24 Keys of the Island, J. Stevenson and Corlett, with Mr. Halsal as a witness) to wait upon the Governor with the originals and copies, and the copies were delivered into the Governor's hands at his house; and as soon as he had received the copies, the doors of the chamber were shut against the person who delivered the same, (Corlett.) However, the other, (Stevenson,) who was in the chamber with the Governor, opened your Majesty's original orders and shewed the Governor the seals, offering to compare the copies, which the Governor refused, and threw the copies down stairs, threatening the person who delivered him the copies, and ordering him to be gone. And the Governor's wife, Mrs. Jane Horne, not content with the said papers being thrown down stairs, came down and picked them up again, and threw them quite out of the house into the court-yard, calling after them, and asking why they left their papers behind them. And sometime afterwards the same day, Corlett, the person who had delivered the copies to the Governor, waiting upon him again with a very civil letter from your petitioners, offering according to your Majesty's order to pay down the fines; he, being enraged to see that your petitioners, by your Majesty's goodness, were to be discharged from their confinement, (which in a short XVI. time would have ended their lives,) was pleased to call the said CHAP. person villain, rogue, pitiful summoner, dog, and to give him other opprobrious language, telling him he deserved to be put in the dungeon for having served him (the Governor) with your Majesty's said orders. Which behaviour of the Governor your petitioners apprehend to be the more extraordinary in him, in regard by the said orders he particularly by name was required to take notice of your Majesty's pleasure, and govern himself accordingly; and moreover he is more immediately your Majesty's servant, being an officer in half-pay e." The Governor's principal victim on this occasion, Mr. Thomas Corlett, or Curlet, a member of the house of Keys, from whose deposition much of this statement is taken, adds, "Upon my asking the Governor what answer I was to return my Lord Bishop, he said, You may tell him that I called you a villain ;" and Anthony Halsal, the clergyman who had accompanied Corlett to the house, being in the next room, certifies that he overheard it all. Such was the vice-regal court in the Isle of Man, under the last Lord of the House of Derby. The four councillors very dutifully followed their superior's example. "When the Governor had the copies delivered into his hands, as aforesaid, two others of the officers required to answer, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Moor, were in his chamber." Afterwards, on being themselves severally served with copies, in like manner, they accepted them at first, but in about two hours, encouraged by the example of the Governor, "were pleased to declare that they had not been served at a proper time or place, nor by a proper officer, for that by the laws of the island they could not be served with the King's orders in the Lord's garrison; and threw away their respective copies from them." The next day, the 31st., the other Deemster, Mr. Mylrea, received his copy, and was told that the Summoner was ready with the original for comparison. The King's seal was shewed to him, but he too declared that if he might not have the original, he would take notice of no copy. That which was brought to him he threw away from him to the ground. Mr. Sedden was in England, so his dutifulness was not tried. The others, by their behaviour, do certainly appear to Stowell, Appendix, 373, 374. CHAP. warrant the petitioners' representation, that "on hearing of XVI. the orders, the Governor and officers conspired (to evade, if possible, the intent of your Majesty's orders) that each one insist, for himself, upon having the original orders under seal, and not accept of copies, though never so exactly verified from the originals in their presence." An unprecedented thing, as they thought for how could it be expected, considering the frequency of orders sent to courts to answer petitions, that each person should have an original sealed order for himself? And in this instance the King had especially directed that a copy should be sent to each of the five officers. The released. "The obedience," moreover, "of these five officers to the orders after they were served, was agreeable," says the Bishop in his second petition, " to their behaviour at the time of serving." "Your Majesty's order of the 7th of August approved your Attorney and Solicitor's report that your petitioners ought to be set at liberty on paying down the fines: nevertheless, after they had signified by letter to the Governor that they were ready to do so, and after he had been served with your Majesty's order, they were still kept twenty-four hours in prison." The pretence for this we are not informed of: however at last, on Aug. 31, completing the ninth week of their confinement, the Bishop's memorandum is, "Discharged out of prison." CHAPTER XVII. FROM THE BISHOP'S RELEASE TILL HIS VISIT TO ENGLAND THE following day brought indisputable tokens how entirely all that they had suffered was the doing of the few who formed the Government, the heart of the island being all the while with the prisoners. "Sept. 1. I and my VicarsGeneral returned home, accompanied by about 400 horse of the best of the island." Mr. Stowell describes the scene from contemporary evidence1: "The day of his release was a day of general jubilee throughout the island. Persons from all parts of the country assembled to pp. 177, 178. XVII. welcome their revered Pastor, once more restored to the light of CHA P. day. Never were there more sincere congratulations than were expressed on this occasion. Old and young, rich and poor, broke forth into acclamations of joy, and formed such a procession as had never before been witnessed. The populace wished to spread their clothes under the Bishop's feet when he came out of the Castle, which he not permitting, they scattered flowers along the path, anxious to testify their attachment in every possible way. A person who was confirmed by the Bishop, and who still retains the perfect use of his memory, though more than fourscore years of age, reports that he has often heard the following account of the procession from those who were present on the occasion. The road leading from Castletown to Bishop's Court, for more than three miles, was lined with farmers and others on their best steeds, and caparisoned in their best manner, joy beaming from every countenance, and pleasure sparkling in every eye. For want of musical instruments of a superior kind, the cavalcade had furnished themselves with flutes made of the elder-tree, on which they contrived to make a loud and merry noise, and with rude and simple notes express the raptures which they felt. As they approached the village of Kirk Michael, the inhabitants had prepared a bonfire, to testify their joy. These modes of evidencing the gladness of their hearts, though not very congenial to the feelings and sentiments of the Bishop, demonstrated the attachment of the honest rustics, and the extraordinary pleasure which they experienced at his release." It would be a mistake to imagine that all this congratulation and sympathy was due to Church feelings on the part of the Manxmen, or even to personal attachment and gratitude for the Bishop's services. Unquestionably in this, as in other critical moments of his career, there was a strong political element at work, identifying his cause with that of the islanders in general. Mr. Stevenson of Balladoole, whom we have seen so much mixed up with his troubles,— the two mutually befriending and befriended,-was also, both in the House of Keys and generally in the temporal affairs of the island, an unflinching champion of popular rights and liberties against real or supposed encroachment on the part of the Lord or his officers. There were indeed questions at issue between them great enough, had the field of action been large in proportion, to cause a whole series of revolu |