as put down. But, indeed,
the Manx had the most strange fears and ludicrous sorrows. The one came
of their anxiety about the fate of their ancient Constitution, the other
came of their foolish generosity. They dreaded that the government of
the island would be merged into that of England, and they imagined that
because the Duke of Athol had been compelled to surrender, he had been
badly treated. Their patriotism was satisfied when the Duke of Athol was
made Governor-in-Chief under the English crown, for then it was clear
that they were to be left alone; but their sympathy was moved to see him
come back as servant who had once been lord. They had disliked the Duke
of Athol down to that hour, but they forgot their hatred in sight of his
humiliation, and when he landed in his new character, they received
him with acclamations. I am touched by the thought of my countrymen's
unselfish conduct in that hour; but I thank God I was not alive to
witness it.

I should have shrieked with laughter. The absurdity of the situation
passes the limits even of a farce. A certain Duke, who had received
L6000 a year, whereof a large part came of an immoral trade, had been
to London and sold his interest in it for L70,000, because if he had
not taken that, he would probably have got nothing. With thirteen
years' purchase of his insecure revenue in his pocket, and L2000 a year
promised, and his salary as Governor-in-Chief besides, he returns to the
island where half the people are impoverished by his sale of the island,
and nobody else has received a copper coin, and everybody is doomed to
pay back interest on what the Duke has received! What is the picture?
The Duke lands at the old jetty, and there his carriage is waiting to
take him to the house, where he and his have kept swashbuckler courts,
with troops of fine gentlemen debtors from London. The Manxmen forget
everything except that his dignity is reduced. They unyoke his horses,
get into his shafts, drag him through the streets, toss up their caps
and cry hurrah! hurrah! One seems to see the Duke sitting there with
his arms folded, and his head on his breast. He can't help laughing. The
thing is too ridiculous. Oh, if Swift had been there to see it, what a
scorching satire we should have had!

But the Athols soon spirited away their popularity. First they clamoured
for a further sum on account of the lost revenues, and they got it. Then
they tried to appropriate part of the income of t