[RAYMOND] NOVA SCOTIA UNDER ENGLISH RULE 71 
debauchery. This province is your country; you and your fathers have 
cultivated it; naturally you ought yourselves to enjoy the fruits of your 
labour. Such was the desire of the King our master. You know that 
we have followed his orders. You know that we have done everything 
to secure to you not only the occupation of your lands, but the owner- 
ship of them for all time. We have given you also every possible assur- 
ance of the enjoyment of your religion, and the free and public exercise 
of the Roman Catholic faith. When we arrived here we expected that 
nothing would give you so much pleasure, as the determination of His 
Majesty to settle this province. Certainly nothing more advantageous 
to you could take place. You possess the only cultivated lands in the 
province; they produce grain and nourish cattle sufficient for the whole 
colony. It is you that would have had all the advantages for a long 
time. In short we flattered ourselves that we would make you the hap- 
piest people in the world. We are sorry to find in our government 
persons whom it is impossible to please, and upon whom our declara- 
tions have produced nothing but discontent, jealousies and murmurings. 
We must not complain of all the inhabitants; we know very well that 
there are ill-disposed, interested and mischievous persons among you 
who corrupt the others. Your inexperience and your ignorance of the 
affairs of government, and your habit of following the counsels of those 
who have not your real interests at heart make it an easy matter to 
seduce you.” 
The motives that inspired Cornwallis thus to address the Acadians 
we need not go far to seek. Their presence was of substantial benefit 
to the province.‘ To drive them from their lands would have been 
bad policy since they would have gone to Isle Royale and have greatly 
added to the strength of the French in that quarter. Better to have 
them remain as “neutrals” than that they should join themselves to 
the French in their strongholds. Cornwallis quite appreciated the fact 
that the infant colony could hardly do without them, as they furnished 
cattle, grain, firewood and general supplies to both Halifax and Anna- 
polis Royal. 
The assertion has frequently been made, by writers who have 
participated in the controversy respecting the Acadian Expulsion, 
that if the Acadians had not been hindered by the English governors 
they would, on more than one occasion, have voluntarily retired from 
the peninsula; and the inference drawn is that they remained on their 

! Hopson, who succeeded Cornwallis, wrote to the Lords of Trade in 1752: 
“Mr. Cornwallis can inform your Lordships how usefull and necessary these people 
are to us, how impossible it is to do without them, or to replace them even if we 
had other settlers to put in their places.” [Canadian Archives for 1905, part III 
p- 56.] 
