lso to the Bishop of Quebec, who enjoined the Acadians to
demand of the English certain concessions, the chief of which were that
the priests should exercise their functions without being required to
ask leave of the Governor, and that the inhabitants should not be called
upon for military service of any kind. The Bishop added that the
provisions of the treaty of Utrecht were insufficient, and that others
ought to be exacted.[264] The oral declaration of the English
authorities, that for the present the Acadians should not be required to
bear arms, was not thought enough. They, or rather their prompters,
demanded a written pledge.

[Footnote 264: _L'Eveque de Quebec a Le Loutre, Nov_. 1754, in _Public
Documents of Nova Scotia_, 240.]

The refusal to take the oath without reservation was not confined to the
emigrants. Those who remained in the peninsula equally refused it,
though most of them were born and had always lived under the British
flag. Far from pledging themselves to complete allegiance, they showed
continual signs of hostility. In May three pretended French deserters
were detected among them inciting them to take arms against the
English.[265]

[Footnote 265: _Ibid_., 242.]

On the capture of Beausejour the British authorities found themselves in
a position of great difficulty. The New England troops were enlisted for
the year only, and could not be kept in Acadia. It was likely that the
French would make a strong effort to recover the province, sure as they
were of support from the great body of its people. The presence of this
disaffected population was for the French commanders a continual
inducement to invasion; and Lawrence was not strong enough to cope at
once with attack from without and insurrection from within.

Shirley had held for some time that there was no safety for Acadia but
in ridding it of the Acadians. He had lately proposed that the lands of
the district of Chignecto, abandoned by their emigrant owners, should be
given to English settlers, who would act as a check and a counterpoise
to the neighboring French population. This advice had not been acted
upon. Nevertheless Shirley and his brother Governor of Nova Scotia were
kindred spirits, and inclined to similar measures. Colonel Charles
Lawrence had not the good-nature and conciliatory temper which marked
his predecessors, Cornwallis and Hopson. His energetic will was not apt
to relent under the softer sentiments, and the behavior of