[RAYMOND] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 205 
feeble tenure. The plan was, in effect, to set off from the jurisdiction 
of Massachusetts that part of Maine that lies between the rivers Saco 
and St. Croix and to erect it into a province to be colonized by Loyalists 
and to be called “New Ireland.” 
This proposal could not but prove irritating to Alexander McNutt, 
whose ideas were so diametrically opposed to those of Mr. Knox. The 
Colonel was quite capable of issuing as a counterblast just such a 
production as we have in his pamphlet. McNutt was an out and out 
Republican; Knox a dyed in the wool Tory. The design of the scheme, 
proposed by Knox, was “to combat the prevailing disposition of the 
people to republicanism.” It provided that there should be at the outset 
no elective assembly, the government to consist of a council, the 
members of which were to be named by the Crown and to be distin- 
guished by titles or emoluments, or both, and to remain in office during 
his Majesty’s pleasure. ‘As a further security to aristocratic power 
the lands were to be granted in large tracts, so that there might be 
great landlords and a tenantry.”’ The established church to be the 
Church of England. | 
The constitution of the proposed province was approved by the 
British Cabinet in August, 1780, but objections to some of the provisions 
were raised by Wedderburne the attorney-general. This caused delay 
and eventually the treaty of 1783 awarded the territory to the United 
States. 
In the month of March, 1784, Lord Sidney and the English cabinet 
decided to set off all that part of Nova Scotia to the north of the Bay 
of Fundy as a new province to be called New Ireland; but the name 
was changed to New Brunswick a few weeks later as a compliment to 
the reigning House of Brunswick.? 
We shall now turn our attention more chou to Alexander 
MeNutt and those of his name who played a not unimportant part in 
the colonization of Nova Scotia. 
The indefatigable researches of Dr. Eaton have brought to light 
many additional particulars respecting McNutt’s life in New England. 
From Virginia to Nova Scotia in those days was a far ery; but the 
Dinwiddie papers show that the governors of Virginia and Nova Scotia 
were in frequent communication. They consulted with one another as 
to their operations against the French, and it will be remembered that 

1So named in order to harmonize with New England to the westward and 
Nova Scotia, or New Scotland, to the eastward. 
2 Had the English cabinet adhered to its first proposal of calling the province 
New Ireland, it is very probable that the character of the population might have 
been greatly altered by Irish immigration. The Irish people who in the “forties”’ 
flocked in thousands to the shores of America, would in many instances have been 
attracted by the name of New Ireland and have made it their destination. 
