# Manx Primary Source Archive — Transcription

**Source image:** `20260219_143711.jpg`  
**Transcribed:** 2026-02-25 19:26  
**Method:** Automated (Claude Batch API — claude-opus-4-6)

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40

perform, was to animadvert on any default or
misconduct of the jury." This power, exercised
under the whole court's authority, bore some
analogy to the proceedings under a writ of at-
taint: it is now assigned as a reason for exclud-
ing them from the Court, altogether. In Eng-
land, in point of fact, in days long past, this
power was abused. Neither there, nor in the
Isle of Man, ought the Court ever to have pos-
sessed it. In neither, is it at this day exercised.
But in neither, is any statute necessary to take
away what is gone into complete disuse. Were
it possible to assign degrees to that, which in
both cases is utterly unnecessary, in the Isle of
Man a statute to extinguish that which is ex-
tinct, is even less necessary than in England.
Were it possible that the English proceeding by
attaint should be revived, a Jury impannelled,
and a charge given from the Judge, to some
verdict they must come. In the Isle of Man,
were a similar attempt made, the Keys would
probably come to such resolutions as would
preclude the Court from ever again calling on
them for the exercise of these obsolete functions.

But, even if this obnoxious power were now
in fact exercised, if it were abused, and if a spe-
cial enactment for its extinction were the fit
remedy (each of which suppositions is opposed
to the truth) yet that Parliament can properly