em off
to the churchyard, took up the stone from over his wife's grave, dug the
grave open and put in the cloth. Next day his one eye wept a good deal
while the officers of revenue made their fruitless search. "Aw well,
well, did they think because a man was poor he had no feelings?"
Afterwards he pretended to become a Methodist, and then he removed the
cloth from his wife's grave because he had doubts about how she could
rise in the resurrection with such a weight on her coffin. Poor old
Hommy, he came to a bad end. He spent his last days in jail in Castle
Rushen. A one-eyed mate of his told me he saw him there. Hommy was
unhappy. He said "Castle Rushen wasn't no place for a poor man when he
was gettin' anyways ould."

THE REVESTMENT

It is hardly a matter for much surprise that the British Government did
what it could to curb the smuggling that was rife in Man in the days of
the Athols. The bad work had begun in the days of the Derbys, when an
Act was passed which authorised the Earl of Derby to dispose of his
royalty and revenue in the island, and empowered the Lords of the
Treasury to treat with him for the sale of it. The Earl would not sell,
and when the Duke of Athol was asked to do so, he tried to put matters
off. But the evil had by this time grown so grievously that the British
Government threatened to strip the Duke without remuneration. Then he
agreed to accept L70,000 as compensation for the absolute surrender of
the island. He was also to have L2000 out of the Irish revenue, which,
as well as the English revenue, was to benefit by the suppression of the
clandestine trade. This was in exchange for some L6000 a year which
was the Duke's Manx revenue, much of it from duties and customs paid
in goods which were afterwards smuggled into England, Ireland, and
Scotland. So much for his Grace of Athol. Of course the Manx people got
nothing. The thief was punished, the receiver was enriched; it is the
way of the world.

In our history of Man, we call this sweet transaction, which occurred in
1765, "The Revestment," meaning the revesting of the island in the
crown of England. Our Manx people did not like it at all. I have heard a
rugged old song on the subject sung at Manx inns:

For the babes unborn shall rue the day
When the Isle of Man was sold away;
And there's ne'er an old wife that loves a dram
But she will lament for the Isle of Man.

Clearly drams became scarce when "the trade" w