And now I come to the one incident in modern Manx history which shares,
with the three legs of Man and the Manx cat, the consciousness of
everybody who knows anything about our island and its people. This is
the incident of the betrayal of Man and the Stanleys to the Parliament
in the time of Cromwell. It was a stirring drama, and though the curtain
has long fallen on it, the dark stage is still haunted by the ghosts
of its characters. Chief among these was William Christian, the Manxman
called Iliam Dhoan, Brown William, a familiar name that seems to hint
of a fine type of man. You will find him in "Peveril of the Peak." He is
there mixed up with Edward Christian, a very different person, just as
Peel Castle is mixed up with Castle Rushen, consciously no doubt, and
with an eye to imaginative effects, for Scott had a brother in the Isle
of Man who could have kept him from error if fact had been of any great
consequence in the novelist's reckoning.
Christian was Receiver-General, a sort of Chancellor of the Exchequer,
for the great Earl of Derby. The Earl had faith in him, and put nearly
everything under his command that fell within the province of his
lordship. Then came the struggle with Rigby at Latham House, and the
imprisonment of the Earl's six children by Fairfax. The Manx were
against the Parliament, and subscribed £500, probably the best part of
the money in the island, in support of the king. Then the Earl of Derby
left the island with a body of volunteers, and in going away committed
his wife to the care of Christian. You know what happened to him. He
was taken prisoner in Lancashire, charged with bearing arms for Charles
Stuart and holding the Isle of Man against the Commons, condemned, and
executed at Bolton.
With the forfeiture of the Earl the lordship of the island was granted
by Parliament to Lord Fairfax. He sent an army to take possession, but
the Countess-Dowager still held the island. Christian commanded the Manx
militia. At this moment the Manx people showed signs of disaffection.
They suddenly remembered two grievances, one was a grievance of
land tenure, the other was that a troop of soldiers was kept at free
quarterage. I cannot but wish they had bethought them of both a little
earlier. They formed an association, and broke into rebellion against
the Countess-Dowager within eight days of the Earl's execution. Perhaps
they did not know of the Earl's death, for news travelled slowly over
sea in those days. But at least they knew of his absence. As a Manxman I
am not proud of them.
During these eight days Mr. Receiver-General had begun to trim his
sails. He had a lively wit, and saw which way things were going. Rumour
says he was at the root of the secret association. Be that as it may, he
carried the demands of the people to the Countess. She had no choice but
to yield. The troops were disbanded. It was a bad victory.
A fortnight before, when her husband lay under his death sentence, the
Countess had offered the island in exchange for his life. So now Mr.
Receiver-General used this act of love against her. He seized some of
the forts, saying the Countess was selling the island to the Parliament.
Then the army of the Parliament landed, and Christian straightway
delivered the island up to it, protesting that he had taken the forts
on its behalf. Some say the Countess was imprisoned in the vaults of the
Castle. Others say she had a free pass to England. So ended act one.
When the act-drop rose on act two, Mr. Receiver-General was in office
under the Parliament. From the place of Receiver-General he was promoted
to the place of Governor. He had then the money of the island under his
control, and he used it badly. Deficits were found in his accounts.
He fled to London, was arrested for a large debt, and clapped into the
Fleet. Then the Commonwealth fell, the Dowager Countess went upstairs
again, and Charles II. restored the son of the great Earl to the
lordship of Man. After that came the Act of Indemnity, a general pardon
for all who had taken part against the royal cause. Thereupon Christian
went back to the Isle of Man, was arrested on a charge of treason to
the Countess-Dowager of Derby, pleaded the royal act of general pardon
against all proceedings libelled against him, was tried by the House of
Keys, and condemned to death. So ended act two.
Christian had a nephew, Edward Christian, who was one of the two
deemsters. This man dissented from the voice of the court, and hastened
to London to petition the king. Charles is said to have heard his plea,
and to have sent an order to suspend sentence. Some say the order came
too late; some say the Governor had it early enough and ignored it.
At all events Christian was shot. He protested that he had never been
anything but a faithful servant to the Derbys, and made a brave end.
The place of his execution was Hango Hill, a bleak, bare stretch of
land with the broad sea Under it. The soldiers wished to bind Christian.
"Trouble not yourselves for me," he said, "for I that dare face death
in whatever shape he comes, will not start at your fire and bullets."
He pinned a piece of white paper on his breast, and said: "Hit this, and
you do your own work and mine." Then he stretched forth his arms as a
signal, was shot through the heart, and fell. Such was the end of Brown
William. He may have been a traitor, but he was no coward.
When the chief actor in the tragedy had fallen, King Charles appeared,
as Fortinbras appears in "Hamlet," to make a review and a reckoning, and
to take the spoils. He ordered the Governor, the remaining Deemsters,
and three of the Keys to be brought before him, pronounced the execution
of Christian to be a violation of his general pardon, and imposed severe
penalties of fine and imprisonment. "The rest" in this drama has not
been "silence." One long clamour has followed. Christian's guilt has
been questioned, the legality of his trial has been disputed, the
validity of Charles's censure of the judges has been denied. The case
is a mass of tangle, as every case must be that stands between the two
stools of the Royal cause and the Commonwealth. But I shall make bold to
summarise the truth in a very few words:
First, that Christian was untrue to the house of Derby is as clear as
noonday. If he had been their loyal servant he could never have taken
office under the Parliament.
Second, though untrue to the Countess-Dowager, Christian could not be
guilty of treason to her, because she had ceased to be the sovereign
when her husband was executed. Fairfax was then the Lord of Man, and
Christian was guilty of no treason to him.
Third, whether true or untrue to the Countess-Dowager, the act of pardon
had nothing on earth to do with Christian, who was not charged with
treason to King Charles, but to the Manx reigning family. The Isle of
Man was not a dominion of England, and if Charles's order had arrived
before Christian's execution, the Governor, Keys, and Deemster would
have been fully justified in shooting the man in defiance 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.