[RayMonD] PRE-LOYALIST SETTLEMENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA 35 
retards the peopling of the colony and filling it with hardy and industri- 
ous settlers, and as this is the chief object in view no time ought to be 
lost in attaining it. In case the Plan prescribed by your Instructions 
for the granting of Lands is not adapted to the situation and circum- 
stances of those Lands, either with respect to the quantity to be granted 
to each person or the terms of cultivation, and other terms should be 
desired, we expect that as soon as you have received any proposition 
on this subject from the neighboring Governments, or have digested 
any scheme yourself which appears to be practicable, you will acquaint 
us with it that no time may be lost in laying it before his Majesty that 
immediate measures may be taken effectually to settle and people the 
Province and fill it with industrious Inhabitants.” 
The continuance of war with France and the hostility of the Indians 
and Acadians interfered with any immediate attempt at colonization, 
and it was felt that while Louisbourg remained in possession of the 
French little could be done to induce the farmers of New England to 
leave the homes, where they lived in perfect security, and settle in a 
situation where they would be in constant peril. Lawrence showed his 
desire to do all that was possible to further the designs of the Lords 
of Trade. In a letter of the 9th November, 1757, he informed them 
that from his knowledge of Chignecto and the Bay of Fundy in general 
he was assured that at least 20,000 families might be commodiously 
settled in the districts of Chignecto, Cobequid, Pisiquid, Minas and 
Annapolis, and that if peace were restored substantial and useful 
farmers would flock there from every part of the American continent.’ 
The anxiety manifested by the Governor and the Lords of Trade 
at this juncture was very natural. The expulsion of the Acadians from 
the territory which they and their forefathers had possessed for nearly 
a century and a half left Nova Scotia with a European population 
practically confined to the town of Halifax and the German settlement 
of Lunenburg. The disadvantage of this condition of things appears 
very clearly in the long and earnest correspondence of Governor Law- 
rence with the Lords of Trade concerning a legislative assembly for the 
province. The expedient adopted in 1758 of electing sixteen out of a 
House of twenty-two members, from the province at large was simply 
the result of a scarcity of constituencies. In their desire to establish 
a system of representative government before the arrival of the set- 
tlers to be governed, the Lords of Trade were more far-sighted than 
Lawrence who viewed the plan with disfavor. It does not appear that 
the quasi-military rule of Governor and Council at Halifax under Corn- 
wallis and his successors was essentially harsh or inequitable; but it was 
not a form of government likely to attract the people of New England. 
! Murdoch’s History of Nova Scotia, Vol. II, p. 331. 
