202 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
they hold that the context shows that it was ceded as a dependency 
of Nova Scotia, and that such a form of specifying the chief places 
in ceded territory was not unusual in treaties and that there can be 
no doubt on the point if the sense of the Treaty as a whole be con- 
sidered. ; 
Finally they examine a memoir of the Sieur Durand presented 
to the Court of Great Britain, June 7th, 1749. They state that no 
proofs are adduced that Acadia is confined to the Peninsula, and in 
refutation of his maps cited to confine Acadia to the Peninsula, they 
cite Delisle of 1700 and 1708, Bellin of 1744 and d’Anville of 1746 
as extending it to the mainland. They also contend that these maps 
sustain its extension (to the St. Lawrence, though they admit the un- 
satisfactory nature of such evidence in comparison with documentary 
proofs. Other points of jlesser importance in the Sieur Durand’s 
Memorial are answered, and finally the commissioners close their mem- 
orial by stating that having justified their contention as to the limits 
of Acadia,— “it is equally incumbent on the Commissioners of the 
Court of France, particularly to set forth the Limits which the Court 
of France 'would assign as the true Limits of Acadia or Nova Scotia, 
and to produce their Proofs in Support of them.” 
The reply of the French Commissioners is dated October 4th, 1751, 
and occupies 149 quarto pages of the memorials. It begins with a gen- 
eral introduction, followed by 20 chapters and a summary. They begin 
by maintaining that England’s sole right to Acadia within its ancient 
limits rests upon the Treaty of Utrecht, the important articles of which 
they cite in full in Latin and in French. This treaty, they hold, was 
clearly designed to give to the people of New England the best fishing 
grounds, but was not intended to allow of the invasion of Canada nor to 
close its entrance to France ; the court of England has not until lately 
made such great pretensions, which suggest that some plan must be 
forming in England to prepare to invade Canada at the first favourable 
opportunity, as would be most easy if all one bank of the St. Lawrence 
were to pass to England. The Treaties of Saint Germain and Breda, 
cited by the English as evidence of the extent of Acadia, since they do 
not cede, but restore, Acadia to France, have nothing to do with the 
present discussion, which is concerned. only with the Acadia ceded by 
the Treaty of Utrecht. The pretenses of the English commissioners 
that the country they claim was part of the ancient domain of their 
country, and that the French had confirmed their concessions are 
groundless, for the French possessed the country before the English, 
and England did not cede Acadia to the French by the earlier treaties 
as the English claim, but simply restored it. 

1 J have not been able to find this memorial. 
