416 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



And, in spite of all the hard things that have been said of Governor 

 Lawrence and his advisers, there is no good reason to doubt that 

 they honestly believed that the policy which they adopted was the 

 only one that would ensure British supremacy in Acadia. 



As for the poor Acadians, what people was ever placed in a more 

 difficult and unhappy position ? In their simplicity they were at a 

 loss to know what to do. They hesitated, temporized, and in trying to 

 please two masters were involved in a common ruin. That they would 

 have been wiser in their own interests to have assumed a different 

 attitude is easily said, but in view of what they were and the situation 

 in which they found themselves, the line of conduct that they followed 

 was a very natural one. 



The controversy concerning the Acadian Expulsion is, even now, 

 so largely influenced by racial and religious instincts that opinions 

 the most divergent continue to be held. Everything depends upon 

 the view-point. A mass of documentary evidence is available, much 

 of it will be found in the Dominion Archives at Ottawa, but unfor- 

 tunately the records are somewhat diverse and even contradictory. 

 As a consequence any student, who enters upon his investigations 

 with the design of bolstering up an opinion already formed, will have 

 no great difficulty in finding what he is looking for, but surely this is 

 not the way to study history. 



These observations have been called forth by a recent examination 

 of the statements made concerning the Acadians, who lived on the 

 River Saint John in 1783, by the Abbé Casgrain, a former president 

 of this Society. This gifted writer in his well-known book, "Un 

 Pèlerinage au pays d'Evangéline," has made certain charges against 

 the Loyalists and the provincial authorities which it will be the 

 purpose of this paper to discuss. The Abbé doubtless believed them 

 to be true; but it will be shown that, in several instances, he was badly 

 informed. As a consequence the incidents narrated are distorted, or 

 greatly exaggerated, and calculated to excite prejudice where none 

 should exist. The passages that will shortly be quoted from his book 

 are unfair to the Loyalists as a body, and unjust to Carleton and his 

 Council, whose solicitude for the welfare of the Acadians will 

 abundantly appear. 



A short account of the first governor of New Brunswick will be 

 in order before we proceed further. 



Thomas Carleton was born in Ireland in 1735, the youngest son 

 of Christopher Carleton of Newry, County Down. He joined the 

 20th regiment of foot as a volunteer in 1753, was commissioned ensign 

 in 1755 and promoted lieutenant and adjutant the same year. Al- 



