[RAYMOND] NOVA SCOTIA UNDER ENGLISH RULE 61 
with Brittish subjects in the Spring, before which time these Inhabi- 
tants do not think of removing.” 
The hopes of the governor were doomed to disappointment. The 
problem that gave so much trouble thirty-five years later might prob- 
ably have been solved had the Lords of Trade followed the policy 
he had indicated. They took no action, and it was not until the © 
lapse of forty years that any serious effort was made to people the 
province with English-speaking inhabitants. 
Mascarene urges that the Acadians must take the Oath of Allegiance or 
be removed from the Country. 
Paul Mascarene at this time drew up a report on the state of Nova 
Scotia, which was endorsed by the Governor and Council and sent to 
the Lords of Trade for their consideration. Mascarene very pointedly 
expressed the opinion that if Great Britain expected to reap any per- 
manent benefit from the acquisition of Nova Scotia, there should 
be no further delay in promoting its settlement with people whose 
loyalty was undoubted. He accordingly recommended “that the 
French inhabitants should not be tolerated any longer in their non- 
allegiance, but might have the.test put to them without granting 
them any further delay, for which,” he says, “it is requisite a sufficient 
force be allowed to make them comply with the terms prescribed them, 
which force ought to be at least six hundred men, to be divided to the 
several parts already inhabited by the French and Indians, and might 
be at the same time a cover to the British Inhabitants who would come 
to settle in the room of the French.” For the encouragement of new 
settlers Mascarene proposed that they be given free transportation, 
free grants of land and some of the cattle confiscated from those of the 
French who should choose to withdraw from their lands rather than 
take the oath of allegiance.! 
With the small force at his command Governor Philipps was puzzled 
how to deal with the problem that confronted him. He informed the 
Lords of Trade that the Acadians seemed determined not to swear 
allegiance and yet to have no expectation of removal, for they went on 
with their tillage and building as if they had no thought of leaving the 
country. “It is likely they flatter themselves,” he adds, “that the 
King’s affaires here will allways continue in the same feeble state. I am 
certain that nothing but a demonstration will convince them to the con- 
trary?) 
Seven years had now elapsed since the signing of the treaty of 


1 Nova Scotia Published Archives, p. 43. 
? Nova Scotia Published Archives, p. 51. 
