When the crown came to Sir John Stanley he was in no hurry to put it on.
He paid no heed to his Manx subjects, and never saw his Manx kingdom. I
dare say he thought the gift horse was something of a white elephant. No
wonder if he did, for words could not exaggerate the wretched condition
of the island and its people. The houses of the poor were hovels built
of sod, with floors of clay, and sooty rafters of briar and straw and
dried gorse. The people were hardly better fed than their beasts.
So Stanley left the island alone. It will be interesting to mark how
different was the mood of his children, and his children's children. The
second Stanley went over to Man and did good work there. He promulgated
our laws, and had them written down for the first time--they had
hitherto been locked in the breasts of the deemsters in imitation of the
practice of the Druids. The line of the Stanleys lasted more than three
hundred years. Their rule was good for the island. They gave the tenants
security of tenure, and the landowners an act of settlement. They lifted
the material condition of our people, gave us the enjoyment of our
venerable laws, and ratified our patriarchal Constitution. Honour to the
Stanleys of the Manx dynasty! They have left a good mark on Man.