[RAyMoND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 203 
The sentiments expressed in the extract which follows are not very 
complimentary to the Loyalists:—‘ We have beheld with transports of 
joy the hand of the Lord stretched out in defense of American freedom 
against the hostile attacks of Britain and the sons of slavery and dregs of 
the human species in America.” 
The constitution, among other things, provided that no man could 
hold office who was not a regular member of some Christian Society, 
and such enormities should never be permitted as stage plays, horse- 
racing, cock-fighting, balls and assemblies, prophane swearing and 
cursing, Sabbath-breaking, drunkenness, nocturnal revelling, cards, 
dice and all other games whatsoever commonly called games of chance 
(lotteries ordered by the Legislature to raise money for public uses 
excepted.) One of the radical provisions of the Constitution was that 
practising lawyers and attorneys should not be eligible for any office of 
profit or trust in the State. Tavern keepers were also excluded. 
The first question that naturally arises upon reading this extra- 
ordinary production is, where was New Ireland? Could McNutt and his 
associates have contemplated the establishment of a commonwealth 
within the present State of Maine, where he claimed to have been offered 
lands? Was he hopeful that the disloyal spirit manifested by the New 
England settlers in Maugerville—a township he had been instrumental 
in establishing on the River St. John—would enable him to establish his 
Commonwealth of New Ireland in that quarter?!. Or was his pamphlet 
merely a political squib, outlining in the literary spirit an academic 
scheme of government? These are questions that perhaps will never be 
satisfactorily answered. 
The reference card in the Boston Public Library states that “New 
Ireland” was a term at one time applied to Nova Scotia, but there is 
seemingly no authority for the statement, unless it be that the British 
ministry early in 1784, discussed the propriety of so designating that 
part of the original Province of Nova Scotia which eventually became 
the Province of New Brunswick. 
Dr. A. W. H. Eaton observes in this connection, “McNutt would 
undoubtedly have been glad to have transformed Nova Scotia into such 
a republic as he outlines in his pamphlet. But Nova Scotia was a 
British province with a well established civil government responsible to 
Great Britain, and while he may have hoped that by some means the 
province would be wrested from the British, there was as yet no sign 
in that quarter of a democratic New Ireland, and we must regard his 
1 McNutt had a grant of 100,000 acres oi land où the River St. Joann and a 
further reservation of 1,100,000 acres was made to him on that river on July 2, 1765. 
See Murdoch’s History of Nova Scotia, Vol. II., p. 456. 
