36 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
Lawrence’s voice of invitation became potential only when he was able 
to give definite assurance that the settlers would find in the new 
colony political institutions similar to their own? 
The year 1758 was destined to witness not only the organization 
of the first legislative assembly within the confines of what is now the 
Canadian Dominion, but also to see the initiation of a well considered 
policy for the settlement of the province. 
An interesting letter was written to Governor Lawrence on the 7th 
of February by the Lords of Trade, in which we readily discern the 
guiding hand of the Earl of Halifax. The following extracts will give 
an idea of its tenor and importance :— 
“Tt has given us great pleasure to find that the People of New 
England, whom you mentioned in a former letter to be desirous of 
forming a settlement in Nova Scotia, have not laid aside their intention 
of carrying their plan into execution when a proper opportunity offers. 
The expedition against Louisbourg not having taken place last year 
was certainly a good reason for their not prosecuting their plan then, 
but we hope the same reason may not exist this year, we shall also 
hope to hear that their proposition will be again revived, and that it 
will not want any encouragement which may be derived to it from the 
success of his Majesty’s arms in America. 
“We have already said so much to you upon this important point 
of settling the vacated Lands, and you seem to be so fully sensible 
of the great advantages which would follow from it that it is not neces- 
sary for us to say much further upon it at present. Nothing which 
can tend to accelerating so desirable an object ought to be left untried, 
and it is with this view that we would refer it to your consideration 
whether it might not be of some service, not only in keeping up the 
Inclination which the New England people seem at present to have 
for obtaining settlements in Nova Scotia, but also in exciting the like | 
inclination in other parts of America, if a full Description of those 
Lands and of the advantages arising from their peculiar nature and 
situation was to be published and dispersed in the several Colonies in 
the nature of an advertisement signed by you and containing a declara- 
tion that you are ready to receive any proposals which may be made 
to you for the settling the same, in order that such proposals may be 
transmitted to his Majesty for his approbation and direction.”’ 
The settlement of a large portion of the most fertile land in Nova 
Scotia within a period of but four or five years after the capture of 
Louisbourg, must be considered an event of great importance. As a 
movement of population from west to east it was a reversal of the usual 
order. 
In recent years the New England immigration has not infrequently 
been confounded with the coming of the Loyalists, which it preceded 
* Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, Vol. VII, p. 63. 
