ON CAPE BRETON. 



329 



By the census of l.ssi the French iiopiilation of Cape Breton was given at 12,42G souls, distributed as follows : 



Invbknbss. 



Marguerite (Margaree) Harbour 1,039 



Clieticauip 2,350 



Young's Bridge and other places scattered at 



the North 240 



o,6oô 



Caie Breton. 



Sydney, Ball's Creulc, Lingan, Manadieu, Bou- 

 lardetie, Catalogue and East Bay (Louis- 

 bourg claimed only nine persons of French 

 descent), in all 1,330 



Richmond. 



Petit Degrat 1,026 



D'Escousse 1,261 



L'Ardoise 1,501 



Aricliat and AVest Arichat 1,844 



688 



»14 



180 



4 



River Bourgeois 



River Inhabitants (Rivière des Habitants).... 



St. Fetor's 



Other places 



VicrroRiA. 

 Inganiche 



Bay North and Bay of St, Lawrence. - 



7,348 



107 

 4 



It seems as if Sir. Ramean's estimates were considerably beyond the mark. For instance, the figures he 

 gives for 1S59 — 13,700— are contradicted by the census of 1801, which distributes the Acadian population as follows : 



Richmond 5,733 



Inverness 2,104 



Cape Breton 302 



8,199 



No statistics are given for Victoria county, but thoy would not probaldy add more than 100 to the whole num- 

 ber. It is impossible to believe that there could have been ^uch a decrease in two years as a comparison of the 

 figures for 1859 and 1801 would indicate. The French Acadians of Cape Breton then only emigrated year by year 

 in small immbers. Probably the census of 1801 was not very accurately taken. Indeed the report itself admits 

 tliat the enumerators found many persons unwilling to give information, " professing to believe that the object of 

 taking the census was for the purpose of imposing taxation." The Acadians were probably among this nundjer. 

 A iieople who aro in a minority, and form a .separate isolated class in a community, are likely to look with sus- 

 picion on an enumeration of thoir numbers and property. Few of them in tlio.se days were well informed and edu- 

 cated. But making every allowance for the imperfections of the census returns they do not fully explain the large 

 discrepancies between 13,700 and 8,299. Indeed, making an allowance for a natural increase of 2 por cent, a year 

 based on the census, which showed an average increase of 20 per cent, in ten years over the whole province — and, 

 in fact, in Richmond it was 22 per cent. — we have a still greater differeni'e between the two sets of figures. Con- 

 sequently we have no doubt thai Mr. Rameau has greatly oxaggeratod the numbers, and contriljutcd to create the 

 wrong impression that the race in Cape Breton is decreasing in a large proportion from enngration and other 

 causes. A much higher authority in such matters, Mr. Taché, long connected with the department of agriculture 

 of Canada as deputy minister, and a tittcnilcur of some note, has given us some interesting statistics relating to 

 the Acadian French of Cape Breton in the introduction to the census reports for 1871. He gives a table from 

 which we learn that there were in Cape Breton : 



In 1749., 1,000 Acadian French. 



17.55 3,000 before and after the expulsion of the 



Acadians from Nova Scotia. 



1750. 



1758. 

 1703. 

 1765. 

 1771. 



2,500 

 700 after taking of Louisbourg. 

 780 

 800 

 920 



1871 10,864 



Accordingly since 1758 the Acadians have increased from 700 to probably 15,000 souls at the present time, 

 supposing the rate of increase to have been the same during the decade ending in 1891, as it was in the decades of 

 1S61-1S71, and 1871-1881. For many years there has been a small migration of French Aca<lians from Cape 

 Breton, especially among young women who have gone to the United States for employment, but the rate, I think, 

 will be found small compared with the emigration of the English-speaking peoples from the island. For other 

 refereiices to the French population of Cape Breton see Pichon's Mémoires ; Haliburton's History ; Taché, " Projet 



Sec. IL 1891. 42. 



