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JULY

3, 1667 --England. The English Non-conformist preacher, George Hughes, dies today. He is one of the most popular preachers in Devon and is the leading Presbyterian minister in the country. He has been confined for the past nine months on the island of St. Nicholas. His friends have gained his release by giving security amounting to two thousand pounds, and a promise Mr. Hughes will not henceforth live within twenty miles of Plymouth. But it is too late, for the preacher has already contracted the incurable “dropsy and scurvy.”
 

3, 1755 --Nova Scotia. It has already been determined the French inhabitants of Acadia should be carried away into captivity to other parts of the British dominions. “They possess the best and largest tract of land in the province,” the Lieutenant Governor has asserted; “if they refuse the oaths, it would be much better that they were away.”
      France has asked they might have time to remove from the peninsula with their effects, leaving their lands to the English, but the British minister has claimed them useful subjects and has refused them liberty of transmigration.
     The inhabitants of Minas have pleaded with the British officers for the restitution of their boats and guns, promising fidelity, if they could but retain their liberties; and declaring that not the lack of arms, but their conscience should engage them not to revolt. Today the lieutenant Governor replies, “The memorial is highly arrogant, insidious and insulting.”
     “You want your canoes for carrying provisions to the enemy;” and yet further did the people protest: that they knew of no enemy left in the vicinity. “Guns are no part of your goods,” responds the Lieutenant Governor. “ ...And by the laws of England all Roman Catholics are restrained from having arms and are subject to penalties if arms are found in their houses. It is not the language of British subjects to talk of terms with the Crown, or capitulate about their fidelity and allegiance. What excuse can you make for your presumption in treating this government with such indignity as to expound to them the nature of fidelity? Manifest your obedience by immediately taking the Oaths of Allegiance in the common form before the council.”
      The deputies have replied they will do as the generality of the inhabitants should determine, and are encouraged to leave for home to consult their people. Tomorrow, seeing their homes threatened, the people will offer to swear allegiance unconditionally; but they will be told that by a clause in a British statute, people who have once refused the oaths cannot be afterwards permitted to take them. They are to be considered Popish recusants and as such will be imprisoned.
     The chief justice, Belcher, on whose opinion hung the fate of so many hundreds of innocent people, insists these French inhabitants be looked upon as confirmed “rebels” who without exception have become “recusants.” Besides, their villages still number eight thousand people while the English no more than three thousand. They stand in the way of “the progress of the settlement.” And, “by their non-compliance with the conditions of the Treaty of Utrecht, they have forfeited their possessions to the Crown.” After the departure “of the fleet and troops, the province would not be in a condition to drive them out.” “Such a juncture as the present might never occur;’ so he has advised “against receiving any of the French inhabitants to take the oath,” and for the removal of “all” of them from the province.
     Letters will arrive leaving no doubt the shores of the Bay of Fundy are entirely in the possession of the British. At a council at which vice-Admiral Boscawen and Rear-Admiral Mostyn are present by invitation, it will be unanimously determined to send the French inhabitants out of the province. To prevent their attempting to return and molest the settlers that will inhabit their lands, it will be agreed upon as most proper to distribute them amongst the several colonies on the continent.



 

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