A BLOODLESS REVOLUTION.

Otago Witness, Issue 801, 6 April 1867, Page 2

A BLOODLESS REVOLUTION.

(From the Daily Telegraph.)

The little Island of Man, situated in the Irish Sea, and within half a dozen hours' sail from that great commercial emporium, Liverpool, has just been the scene of a xevolution quite as remarkable for its effective character as for the bloodless and quiet manner in which it has been brought about. The Legislature of the miniature island — which is only 30 miles long by about nine broad, with a population of only fifty thousand souls — consists of two bodies. The upper, denominated the Council, comprises the two Deemsters, or judges, the Clerk of the ROII3, the Attor-ney-General, the Vicar- General, the Water- Bailiff, and the Bishop and Archdeacon of the diocese. This Council is presided over by the Lieutenant- Governor of the island. But it is with the lower branch of the Legislature, which revels in the quaint title of the House of Keys, that I have at present to deal. Thia curious assembly consists of 24 members, presided over by a Speaker, and is so ancient that its origin is completely lost in the mists of time. But the strangest feature in it is that, in these days of reform and the elective franchise, the House of Keys has maintained, up to the present period, its anomalous constitution as a sell -elect and .self-perpetuating body. The people of the

island— thanks to the exertions of one or two Liberal newspapers which it possesses, and thanks also to the presence amongst them of .an l)odyj of reformer^ have for' years protested against the de* grading position thes have been placed in, of being ruled by a body of men who were quite irresponsible to the public will. All the efforts of the reformers to remedy this strangle, state of things -were, however, fruitless; and probably the little island would have been afflicted with a self-elected Government for many years to come, had it not been for one or two trifling matters that brought the matter under the notice of the Government. 4t>Qut four or five yews ago, Mr Henry Brougham Loch, formerly private secretary to Sir George Grey, the late Home Secretary, was appointed LieutenantGovernor of the island. Mr Loch, it will probably be remembered, aecorapained Lord Elgin to China, and was one of those who, along with Mr Bowlby and others, were taken prisoners and subjected to great indignities by the Chinese. Mr Loch at once inaugurated his appointment to the governorship of Man by introducing many much- needed reforms to the administration of the island's affairs; and the reformers of the island, judging by their Governor's energetic and enlightened measures, anticipated, and rightly so, as it will be seen, that the much -desired change in the manner of appointing the Keys would shortly be brought about. That change was, however, accelerated by the tyrannical conduct of the House, in sentencing, and that too without any trial whatever, a a local journalist to six months 1 imprisonment in the old Danish fort of Castle Rushen, for his having dared to criticise in his paper certain legislative proceedings of the House. This arbitrary conduct was at the tim« very freely commented upon by the English press, and the unfortunate journalist obtained his release, after undergoing only six weeks' incarceration, by means of a writ of habeas corpus issued by the Queen's Bonch. fie subsequently brought an action for false imprisonment against the Keys, from whom he- -obtained heavy damages. To the great delight of the majority of the people of the island Governor Loch introduced, some months ago, into the insular L '<<latv- bill, th b" ~t of which - «

legislature, a Din, .c oujeet or wmcn wa^. to effect a complete change in the constitution of the House by importing the elective franchise into the island. The Keys and their tew friends stood aghast at this sweeping measure ; but, notwithstanding their determined opposition, the bill has passed through its various Btages, and has now besome the law of the island, having been " promulgated" last week.

The manner in which laws are promulgated here is so strange, and so unlike anything in England, that a short description of the ceremony may prove interesting to your reader.'. Well, then, all the consti-

tuted authorities assemble for Divine service in the church of St. John the Baptist, in the centre of the island, and at the termination of the service they form into procession, and march to a very ancient artificial mound called Tynwald Hill, said to have been constructed hundreds of years ago by the Scandinavians. From the top of this mound the Act is read in the English and Manx| languages, and then it becomes law. The Act just promulgated is termed the " House of Keys Election Act, 1866." It is very lengthy, containing no less than 138 provisions. It; declares that the present House shall be dissolved by proclamation of the governor within three months from this date, and provides that the twenty-four members shall be divided amongst the town and country districts of the island, giving Douglas — the largest town in the island, and where I write this —three members ; the towns of Ramsey, Peel, and Castletown, one member each ; and giving the remaining seventeen members to the country. The franchise in the towns is as low as L 8 net annual value ; and in the country the owners of property of LB, and the occupiers of any real estate of not less than Ll2 annual value, are entitled to vote. The Act also contains provisions in reference to bribery and corruption, and is altogether a most elaborate measure. On the occasion of its promulgation the Governor assured the Legislature that the change in the constitution of the House of Keys had not been the result of any feeling on the paTt of Her Majesty's Government that the members of the House had not ably, zealously, and conscientiously performed their duties, but " solely on the ground of the great principle that exists and is acted upon in all civilised nations, that the body that is entrusted with the power of taxation should be elected by those on whom the taxes are levied." The present as well as the late Government were desirous of expressing their sense of the past services of the House by advising Her Majesty to confer on its present speaker (Mr E. M. Gawne) the honor of knighthood. Mr Gawne had, however, declined the honor. The election of the new House will take place in a few weeks hence, and thus will be consumma'ed one of the most rexuarkable revolutions vet witnessed.