Show I THE KINGDOM OF MAN ISLAHDTHAT A BRITISH ISLAND THAT ENJOYS las PRIAILEGES OFHOME RULE The little kingdom in they Irish channel the Isle of Man J with a population of 52000 or 53000 en o YB the blessings or otherwise of home rule it has its house of keye composed ef twentyfour members i popularly elected without tho ballot I and its council composed of tho officials offic-ials of the Island Its history commenced com-menced at n very early period and was made up of facts and very much more of fiction The inhabitants have boen celebrated for a belief in witches ghosts and fairies and other superstitions which attracted the attention of Sir Walter Scott Is this to be accounted for by the fact that at the end of the last century books and booksellers were almost absent from the island Wood the tourist who wrote interesting descriptions de-scriptions of tours to various part of the kingdom visited tho Isle of Man I in 1808 when he found only one man who Bold books and he was by hade a bookbinder He tried to purchase a sheet of blotting paper but found that so superfluous and needless an article was not to be had But a newspaperjPte Hanks Mercury and Briscoes Douglas Advertiser was published in 1792 and had an existence exis-tence of fifteen years The island had the privilege or sending uewdppers through the post to any part of the kingdom free and the publishers had the further privilege priv-ilege of inserting advertisements without paying duty at the time when the English papers bad to pay ono shilling and sixpence to the government for each advertisement in addition to the newspaper stump which also was not required in the island This caused several pulica Lions to be printed in the islapc solely to save postage stamp and advertisement duty Had the government gov-ernment not icterferred and stopped the free circulation of Manx publica tifins through the post instead of five English journals being pripted ip the island there would have been fifty The Me f Man Times the largest circulated newspaper on the island to which the inhabitants are considerably Ii I consid-erably indebted for the liberties they i enjoy had an interesting incident in connection with its early existence in 1864 The house of keys composed of twentyfour members then a sell elected body issued B writ for the arrest ar-rest of Jas Brown the proprietor for f certain libelous and scandalous articles arti-cles i which he deemed a contempt of the keys and a breach of its privileges priv-ileges When brought before the Keys the members speedily found that they had caught a tartar Mr BrpWD not being allowed lobe heard by counsel had to defend hinjself which he did with positive gUBto and relish Mr Brown was sentenced to six months imprisonment in Castle Buelien to which he was immediately immedia-tely conveyed At the end of six weeks during which time he held a daily reception of his friends a writ of babes corpus was issued by the late Lord Chief Justice Cookbnrn which 60 frightened the keys thai they t begged Mr Brown to leave the prison Qn obtaining his liberty he immediately began an option for false imprisonment and after two years litigation was awarded i 518 19a 6d damages The law charges that the award cost each member of the keys 120 The Isle of man Times is now the most successful paper on the islandand its plant and machinery are of the most modern k d JIUU One advantage which the hooks l ers bad in the early part of the century cen-tury was being allowed a drawback of three halfpence apound upon all beaks and stationery brought to the islepd This was one of the advantages advan-tages OWIIPI by the English newspapers newspa-pers published in Douglas and most materially added U > the profits of the several publications For several years one of the Liverpool booksellers was Accustomed TO send io the island air his accumulated old unsalable books getting in many instances more than their value in the drawbacks draw-backs and then selling them by auction in the island But this priv ilege walt withdrawn the same time bat the circulation of insular newspapers news-papers was slopped I il 10te years booksellers have in cresml pn the island and several have published books pripted in the danr Iftguage the New Testament and Miltons Paradise Lost among ethers The Manx society exists for he preservation and reprinting of public works u |