nglish
settlers in Nova Scotia, the government of that province recalled the
raids of the Abenakis and French Canadians, and believed with some
reason there was to be the same condition of things in the peninsula.
The war between the French and English had never really ceased in
America, and it was well known that the hollow truce in Europe would be
broken at any moment; and in the presence of the great danger that
threatened the English colonies, they had some ground for fearing the
presence of a large body of people who claimed to be neutrals in a
country which was England's by conquest and treaty, and where they
could and did enjoy an {235} amount of political and religious liberty
which no Protestant enjoyed in Catholic Europe. Then came the defeat
of Braddock in the Ohio country, and the knowledge that France was
preparing for a determined effort to strengthen and even increase her
dominions in America.

It was under these circumstances that Governor Lawrence of Nova
Scotia--a determined and harsh military man--no doubt at the
instigation of Shirley and the authorities of New England, determined
to secure the peace and safety of the province by the most cruel of all
possible measures, the expulsion of the whole body of French Acadians.
It must be admitted, however, that all the circumstances, when reviewed
in these later times, do not seem sufficient to justify the stern
action of the men who took the leading part in this sad tragedy. The
responsibility must mainly rest on Governor Lawrence, and not on the
imperial government, who never formally authorised the expatriation.
Be that as it may, the Acadians were driven from their settlements, and
the noble qualities of Lawrence, Monckton, and Winslow, who carried out
the measures of expulsion, will be always obscured in the minds of that
great majority of people who think only of the deed and its
consequences, and are influenced by the dictates of the heart. It is a
matter for deep regret that the men who represented England in those
days had not run a risk on the side of humanity, rather than have
driven thousands of men, women, and children from their pleasant homes
by the sides of the beautiful bays and rivers {236} of Nova Scotia, and
scattered them far and wide among the English colonies, where their
treatment was rarely generous. Even those who reached Quebec were
coldly received and were grudgingly supplied with miserable food.
Poetry and sentiment have n