Chief Political Divisions and Towns.—The island is divided into six sheadings (so named from the Scandinavian skeða-Þing, or ship-district), called Glenfaba, Middle, Rushen, Garff, Ayre and Michael, each of which has its officer, the coroner, whose functions are similar to those of a sheriff; and there are seventeen parishes. For the towns see [Castletown], [Douglas], [Peel] and [Ramsey]. The principal villages are Ballasalla, Ballaugh, Foxdale, Laxey, Michael, Onchan, Port Erin and Port St Mary.
Communications.—There is communication by steamer with Liverpool, Glasgow, Greenock, Belfast, Silloth, Whitehaven, Belfast and Dublin throughout the year and, during the summer season, there are also steamers plying to Androssan, Heysham, Fleetwood and Blackpool. A daily mail was established in 1879. The internal communications are excellent. The roads are under the management of a board appointed by the Tynwald Court, a surveyor-general, and parochial surveyors. They are maintained by a system of licences on public-houses, carriages, carts and dogs, and a rate on real property. There are railways between Douglas, Ramsey, Peel, Castletown, Port Erin and Port St Mary, the line between Douglas and Ramsey being via St John’s and Michael. Electric tramways run from Douglas to Ramsey via Laxey, from Douglas to Port Soderick, and from Laxey to the summit of Snaefell.
Industries. (a) Agriculture.—The position of the Manx farmers, though they generally pay higher rents than their compeers in those countries do, is, except in the remote parts of the island, more favourable than that of the English or Scottish farmers. The best land is in the north and south. The farms are principally held on lease and small holdings have almost entirely disappeared. The cultivated area is about 93,000 acres, or 65% of the whole. The commons and uncultivated lands on the mountains are also utilized for pasturage. Oats occupy about three-fourths of the area under corn crops, barley about one-sixth. The amount of wheat and other corn crops is very trifling. Neither Manx wheat nor barley is as good on an average as English; but oats is, on the whole, fully equal to what is grown on the mainland. Turnips, which are an excellent crop, are largely exported, and the dry and sandy soil of the north of the island is very favourable for the growth of potatoes. The white and red clover and the common grasses grow luxuriantly, and the pasturage is, generally speaking, good. Some of the low-lying land, especially in the north, is much in need of systematic drainage. The livestock, largely in consequence of the premiums given by the insular government and the local agricultural society to bulls, heavy and light stallions and cart mares, now approximates very closely in quality to the stock in the north of England. Dairying, owing to the large number of summer visitors, is the most profitable department of agricultural industry. Apples, pears and wall fruit do not succeed very well, but the soil is favourable for the cultivation of strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants and vegetables. Both agricultural and market-garden produce are quite insufficient to supply the demand in the summer.
(b) Fishing.—The important place which the fishing industry anciently held in the social organization of the Isle of Man is quaintly reflected in the wording of the oath formerly taken by the deemsters, who promised to execute the laws between the sovereign and his subjects, and “betwixt party and party, as indifferently as the herring backbone doth lie in the midst of the fish.” The statutes and records abound in evidence of the great extent to which both the people and their rulers were dependent on the produce of the sea. The most numerous fish are herrings, cod, mackerel, ling, haddock, plaice, sole, fluke, turbot and brett. The industry is, however, in a decaying condition, especially the herring fishery, which, for reasons which have not been satisfactorily ascertained, fails periodically. The amount of fish caught, except herrings, is not sufficient to supply the local demand in the summer, though some of the fish named are exported during the rest of the year. About 250 vessels, aggregating 4260 tons, with crews numbering 4250, are employed in this industry. A fish hatchery has been established at Port Erin by the insular government.
(c) Mining.—There is no doubt that, in proportion to its area, the metalliferous wealth of the Isle of Man has been very considerable. Two of its mines, Laxey and Foxdale, have stood for a long series of years in the first rank in the British Islands for productiveness of zinc and silver lead respectively. These metals have constituted its principal riches, but copper pyrites and hematite iron have also been raised in marketable quantities, while only very small amounts of the ores of nickel and antimony have been found. The mines are rented from the Crown as lord of the manor. The value of the ore produced is about £40,000 annually. Other economic products are clay, granite, limestone, sandstone, slate (of an inferior quality) and salt, which has been discovered near the Point of Ayre.
(d) Textiles, &c.—Since labour has become scarcer and dearer textile industries have been declining, being unable to compete with larger and more completely organized manufactories elsewhere. The principal manufactured articles are woollen cloths and blankets, hemp ropes and cotton, and herring nets. A few fishing vessels are built, and brewing is a prosperous industry. But, apart from agriculture, the most important industry (for so it may be called) is that of the provision for summer visitors, nearly half a million of whom come to the island annually.
Commerce.—The chief exports are lead, zinc, turnips, ropes, cotton nets and salt. The imports consist chiefly of timber, provisions, livestock, poultry, flour, fruit, vegetables and eggs. In 1906 the tonnage of vessels (other than fishing or wind-bound vessels) cleared for traffic was 720,790. The number of vessels (other than fishing vessels) registered as belonging to the island in 1906 was 79.
Government.—The government of the island is vested in a lieutenant-governor, appointed by the Crown; in a Council, which is the upper branch of the legislature; in the House of Keys, which is the lower branch; and in the Tynwald Court. The Council and Keys sit separately as legislative bodies, but they sit in the Tynwald Court as distinct bodies with co-ordinate powers to transact executive business and to sign Bills. The Tynwald Court controls the surplus revenue, after the payment of the cost of government and of a fixed contribution of £10,000 to the imperial exchequer, subject to the supervision of the Treasury and the veto of the lieutenant-governor, and it appoints boards to manage the harbours, highways, education, local government, and lunatic and poor asylums. The Imperial government, after intimating its intention to Tynwald, fixes the rates of the customs duties, but Tynwald can by resolution “impose, abolish or vary” the customs duties subject to the approval of parliament or the Treasury, such change to take effect immediately and to continue for six months, and, if parliament be then sitting, to the end of the session, provided that the same be not in the meantime annulled by the passing of an act of parliament, or a Treasury minute. The approval of the sovereign of the United Kingdom in Council is essential to every legislative enactment. Acts of the imperial parliament do not affect the island except it be specially named in them. The lieutenant-governor, who is the representative of the sovereign, presides in the Council, in the Tynwald Court, in the High Court of Justice (Staff of Government division) and in the Court of General Gaol Delivery. He is the supreme executive authority, and he shares the control of the legislative and administrative functions, including the management of the revenue and the control of its surplus, with the Tynwald Court; he has also the power of veto as regards the disposal of surplus revenue and the nature of proposed harbour works, and his signature is necessary to the validity of all acts. It has been the practice for him to act as chancellor of the exchequer and to initiate all questions concerning the raising or expenditure of public funds. The Council consists of the lieutenant-governor, the lord-bishop of the diocese, the clerk of the rolls, the two deemsters, the attorney-general, the archdeacon (all of whom are appointed by the Crown) and the vicar-general, who is appointed by the bishop. No act of the governor and Council is valid unless it is the act of the governor and at least two members of the Council. The House of Keys (for origin of the name see [Key]) is one of the most ancient legislative assemblies in the world. It consists of twenty-four members, elected by male and female owners or occupiers of property. Each of the six sheadings elects three members; the towns of Castletown, Peel and Ramsey one each, and Douglas five. There is no property qualification required of the members, and the house sits for five years unless previously dissolved by the lieutenant-governor.
Law.—The High Court of Justice, of which the lieutenant-governor is president, contains three divisions: viz. the Chancery Division, in which the clerk of the rolls sits as judge, the Common Law Division, of which the deemsters are the judges, the Staff of Government Division, in which the governor and three judges sit together. The jurisdiction of the Chancery and Common Law Division is in the main similar to that of the corresponding divisions in the English Courts. The Staff of Government exercises appellate jurisdiction, similar to that of the Appeal Courts in England. The Common Law Courts for the southern division of the island are held at Douglas and Castletown alternately and those for the northern division at Ramsey, once in three months. Actions in these courts are heard by a deemster and a special or common jury. The Chancery Court sits once a fortnight at Douglas. The deemsters also have summary jurisdiction in matters of debt, actions for liquidated damages under £50, suits for possession of real or personal property, petitions for probate, &c. These courts, called Deemsters’ Courts, are held weekly, alternately at Douglas and Castletown, by the deemster for the southern division of the island, and at Ramsey and Peel by the deemster for the northern division. Criminal cases are heard by the magistrates or a high-bailiff and are (with the exception of minor cases which may be dealt with summarily) sent on by them for trial by a deemster and a jury of six, who hear the evidence and determine whether there is sufficient ground for sending the case for trial before the Court of General Gaol Delivery, thus discharging the functions of the Grand Jury in England. The Court of General Gaol Delivery is the Supreme Criminal Court and is presided over by the lieutenant-governor, who is assisted by the clerk of the rolls and the two deemsters. The high-bailiffs hold weekly courts in the four towns for the recovery of debts under forty shillings and for the trial of cases usually brought before a stipendiary magistrate in England. The magistrates (J.P.’s) also hold regular courts in the towns for the trial of breaches of the peace and minor offences. There is a coroner in each of the six sheadings. These officers are appointed annually by the lieutenant-governor and perform duties similar to those of a sheriff’s officer in England. Inquests of death are held by a high-bailiff and jury. The Manx Bar is distinct from that of England. Its members, called “Advocates,” combine the functions of barrister and solicitor. The laws relating to real property still retain much of their ancient peculiarity, but other branches of law have of late years by various acts of Tynwald been made practically identical with English law.
As regards real property the general tenure is a customary freehold devolving from each possessor to his next heir-at-law. The descent of land follows the same rules as the descent of the crown of England. The right of primogeniture extends to females in default of males in the direct line. The interest of a widow or widower, being the first wife or husband of a person deceased, is a life estate in one-half of the lands which have descended hereditarily, and is forfeited by a second marriage; a second husband or second wife is only entitled to a life interest in one-fourth, if there be issue of the first marriage. Of the land purchased by the husband the wife surviving him is entitled to a life interest in one moiety. By a statute of the year 1777 proprietors of land are empowered to grant leases for any term not exceeding twenty-one years in possession without the consent of the wife.