The Manx Parliament, whose origin is lost in the mists of remote antiquity, but whose establishment is usually ascribed to the Danish king Orry (Erik?), who settled in the island in the beginning of the tenth century, consists of the three “estates” of the island: 1st, the king, or superior lord; 2nd, the governor and council; 3rd, the twenty-four representatives of the island (“Keys, or Taxiaxi”). The upper house, or council, consists of the bishop, two superior judges (“deemsters”), and six other of the highest officers in the island. The representatives in “the house of Keys” fill up vacancies themselves, and hold their seats for life, without being in any way responsible to the people for their votes. This aristocratic mode of election reminds one of the time of the Norwegian conquest, when the Norwegians made themselves lords over the natives. The _Thing_, or Tynwald Court, which can be assembled by the governor at any time whatever, possesses, according to old Scandinavian custom, both the judicial and the legislative power. The house of Keys is the first, and the Council the second court of appeal for certain causes, after they have been tried by the inferior courts in the island. The Council can reject proposals for laws brought in by the house of Keys, and the king again can reject the united proposals of both houses. On the other hand, what all the three estates have agreed on becomes a law (“a Tynwald act”); but it is not in force until it has been proclaimed from Tynwald Hill. This hill, which stands in the midst of a valley on the west coast of the island, close to the northern side of the town of Peel, is said to have been originally raised with earth taken from all the seventeen parishes in the island. It forms four terraces, or steps, the lowest of which is eight feet broad, the next six feet, the third four feet, and the topmost six feet. There are three feet between every step, or terrace, and the circumference of the hill is about 240 feet. It is covered with green sward. (See Cumming. “The Isle of Man.” London, 1848.) Once a year, on St. John the Baptist’s Day, the governor of Man, attended by a military escort, sets out from Castle Town, and, together with the Tynwald Court, attends divine service in St. John’s Chapel, situated a few hundred paces from the hill. After the service, the whole court repairs in solemn procession to the hill, whence all the laws that have been passed in the course of the year are proclaimed in English and Manx. The procession then returns to the chapel, where the laws are signed and sealed. Amongst all the Scandinavian Thing-hills, or Thing-walls (“Þingavellir”) that can be traced in the old Danish part of England, in the Norwegian part of Scotland, as well as in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands, and which also formerly existed in Iceland, Norway, and throughout the North, Tynwald in Man is the only one still in use.