ance of the king.

I feel some diffidence in offering this opinion, but I can have none
whatever in saying what I think of Christian. My fellow Manxmen are
for the most part his ardent supporters. They affirm his innocence, and
protest that he was a martyr-hero, declaring that at least he met his
fate by asserting the rights of his countrymen. I shall not hesitate to
say that I read the facts another way. This is how I see the man:

First, he was a servant of the Derbys, honoured, empowered, entrusted
with the care of his mistress, the Countess, when his master, the Earl,
left the island to fight for the king. Second, eight days after his
master's fate, he rose in rebellion against his mistress and seized some
of the forts of defence. Third, he delivered the island to the army of
the Parliament, and continued to hold his office under it. Fourth, he
robbed the treasury of the island and fled from his new masters, the
Parliament. Fifth, when the new master fell he chopped round, became a
king's man once more, and returned to the island on the strength of the
general pardon. Sixth, when he was condemned to death he, who had held
office under the Parliament, protested that he had never been anything
but a faithful servant to the Derbys.

Such is Christian. _He_ a hero! No, but a poor, sorry, knock-kneed
time-server. A thing of rags and patches. A Manx Vicar of Bray. Let us
talk of him as little as we may, and boast of him not at all. Man and
Manxmen have no need ol him. No, thank God, we can tell of better men.
Let us turn his picture to the wall.

THE ATHOL DYNASTY

The last of the Stanleys of the Manx dynasty died childless in 1735, and
then the lordship of Man devolved by the female line on the second Duke
of Athol by right of his grandmother, who was a daughter of the great
Earl of Derby. There is little that is good to say of the Lords of the
House of Athol except that they sold the island. Almost the first, and
quite the best, thing they did on coming to Man, was to try to get out
of it. Let us make no disguise of the clear truth. The Manx Athols were
bad, and nearly everything about them was bad. Never was the condition
of the island so abject as during their day. Never were the poor so
poor. Never was the name of Manxman so deservedly a badge of disgrace.
The chief dishonour was that of the Athols. They kept a swashbuckler
court in their little Manx kingdom. Gentlemen of the type of Barry
Lyndon overran it. C