HIS LIFE AND WORK 



of these Scotch Covenanters left their ravaged 

 country and set out in a fleet of little vessels for 

 the north of Ireland. Here they settled in the 

 barren and boggy province of Ulster, and presto ! 

 in the course of two generations Ulster became 

 the most prosperous, moral, and intelligent sec- 

 tion of the British empire. Its people were, 

 beyond a doubt, the best educated masses of 

 that period, either in Great Britain or anywhere 

 else. They were the most skilful of farmers. 

 They wove woollen cloth and the finest of linen. 

 They built schools and churches and factories. 

 But in 1698, the English Parliament, jealous of 

 such progressiveness, passed laws against their 

 manufacturing, and Ulster was overrun, as 

 Scotland had been, with the police and the 

 soldiery of England. 



The Scotch-Irish fought, of course, even 

 against such odds. They had never learned 

 how to submit. But as the devastation of Ulster 

 continued, they resolved to do as their great- 

 grandfathers had done, emigrate to a new 

 country. They had heard good reports of Amer- 

 ica, through several of their leaders who had 



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