jmcquown wrote:
> Heh, the "crime" was disagreeing about religious beliefs. My stock didn't
> happen to agree with swearing an oath to the C of E rather than holding out
> for Presbyterian.
>
Well of course a lot of the convicts transported to Australia were
Irishmen whose crimes were rebellion of various kinds against the
government, not to mention the Tolpuddle Martyrs who were early trade
unionists and classic political prisoners. The Scots who came to this
country were almost all free settlers, many of them refugees from the
highland clearances. The Scots generally prospered rather better than
the Irish, who had the added disadvantage of being Roman Catholics, a
social handicap which has only disappeared during my lifetime. Whenever
I hear people talking drivel about moslems I just remember the same sort
of things being said about the micks when I was a child and think the
more things change, the more they stay the same.

Christine
>