cts of land
belonging to companies and individuals, which are not forfeited,
will be purchased and the whole distributed in farms of 200 acres
to every settler. These distributions and appointments are to be
in the management and recommendaton of a respectable Board of
Refugees [Loyalists] which is now forming under the auspices of
Government in this city [New York]."

[109] Lorenso Sabine in his Loyalists of the American Revolution
credits William Knox, of Georgia, with proposing the formation
of the eastern part of Maine into the Province of "New
Ireland," with Thomas Oliver for governor and Daniel Leonard
as chief-justice.

It is a curious fact that a little after the close of the Revolutionary
war an attempt was made of a very different character to erect this
territory into the "Free and Independent State of New Ireland." A
constitution and frame of government were prepared by a committee for
the consideration of a convention of delegates. In the preamble of their
report the Loyalists are termed "the Sons of Slavery and Dregs of the
human species in America." The committee evidently entered upon their
work of constitution making with great gusto as will appear from the
following:

"Agreeable to the trust reposed in us by the good People of New
Ireland, We, anticipating the glorious morning of American
Freedom, which will shortly shine upon them with a lustre superior
to any other spot on the terraqueous Globe, after consluting with
the sagest Politicians of the Age, and carefully examining the
several frames of Government already erected in this new Empire,
and particularly all the advantages which Divine Revelation
affords; have drawn up the following Frame of Government for New
Ireland, which, from the knowledge we have of the dispositions of
our Constituents we have ground to believe will be very acceptable
to them, and calculated to render them and their posterity the
happiest People on the earth."

Among the provisions of the Constitution were several that may be
mentioned for their oddity. Not only were all tavern keepers debarred
from holding office "lest spirituous liquors should influence the
choice," but the legal fraternity were viewed with suspicion and it
was ordained that "Practising Lawyers or Attornies shall not be
eligible for any office of profit or trust in the State whilst they
continue such."

In order still further t