Acadie/Tome III/19
No. II.
Sir,
We are extremely obliged to you for your favor of the 30th July last and for your assiduity in our affairs.
We can assure you, sir, that we were almost without hopes of being considered as English subjects. The haughty and disdainful behavior of Governor Lawrence to all our remonstrances, though tendered with the utmost submission, gave us much reason to think he was countenanced at Home by those we had all the reason in the world heretofore to think were the patrons and principal supporters of this infant settlement, and specially when it was publicly declared by Governor Lawrence’s creatures, that those gentlemen in office here, who had ever been solicitous to forward and promote the settlement and who had in every point behaved with honesty and integrity, specially the Judges of the courts of justice and some of the Council, would soon be displaced. They are the only men who have been the means of keeping the settlers from deserting in a body and supported the rights and liberties of the people.
Your letter has revived the hopes of the inhabitants, and it has been great comfort to them to find an Englishman in England who has their unhappy state and condition at heart and commiserates their bondage under oppression and tyranny.
We are sensible of the difficulties in England and the unsettled state of the Board of Trade which may retard our affairs ; but, we are not without hopes, through your care and assiduity, that we shall meet with success in having an Assembly soon ordered to be established here ; and we cannot help expressing our extreme satisfaction to find that it was the Lords of Trade’s most earnest intention to have an Assembly instantly settled, as we are very sure it is of all things in the world the most necessary step to strengthen and establish this settlement and invite settlers to come and settle among us.
We cannot but express our most hearty sorrow that our good Lord Halifax has, at this critical juncture, resigned his place at the board. We are all to a man perfectly assured of that good Lord’s sincere attachment to the welfare of the colonies, and look upon him truly as the father of this colony. We are fully persuaded that he will use his utmost endeavors to remove from us our oppressor and the oppressor of all his good purposes ; a person unknown to him and recommended by persons on whom we relied and whom we are sure were not acquainted with his bad heart and mischievous intentions, one of whom is General Hopson, who has had sufficient reason to alter his opinion. The other is General Cornwallis, who is too much a friend to this people if he could be convinced of the ill-treatment and unjust oppression this tyrant Governor has been guilty of ever to countenance or support him.
These are all the friends Governor Lawrence has in England, for, on this side of the water, he has none, either of the inhabitants or gentlemen of the army who hold him in the utmost contempt, except those formerly mentioned to you, his agents in oppression. Perhaps you will be more surprised to hear how this governor who sometime ago was only a painter’s apprentice in London should have advanced himself to such heights. We are obliged to confess that he has a good address, a great deal of low cunning, is a most consummate flatterer, has words full of the warmest expressions of an upright intention to perform much good, though never intended, and with much art solicitously courts all strangers whom he thinks can be of any service to him. By these and such arts has he risen to be what he is, and, elated with the success, is outrageously bent upon the destruction of every one that does not concur in his measures.
We beg leave to make this remark which we desire you will read at the end of twelve months, that if he be not removed Nova Scotia will be lost to the Crown of Great Britain, and the rest of the colonies be endangered of sharing the same fate, which ought to be the utmost concern of every Englishman to prevent.
And, in order that you may in some measure understand the importance of this, he has prevailed with Lord Loudun to represent in England the necessity of placing this Colony under a military government, and of suspending the charters and laws of the other colonies, the consequence of which, we apprehend, would be a struggle in the colonies for liberty, and a consequence too fatal to name. And while the contentions subsist there, the French will penetrate in this Province : indeed they have no feasible conquest left them but this colony, and, if the others are deprived of their liberties, it is difficult to say what the effect will be, but the worst is to be feared.
We could say many things which nearly concern us about the affairs in this part of the world, but we are confident you will hear of them from better hands, for they must become public.
We cannot but express our most sincere acknowledgment of gratitude and thanks to the Right Honorable Mr. Pitt, that great patron of liberty, for the condescension he has shown in taking notice of our affairs ; and, so far as reasonable and just, we doubt not of his concurrence and assistance to procure us redress.
In answer to your remarks, that the quorum of sixteen is too large for the proposed number of twenty-two deputies for the whole Assembly, it is also our opinion, but it was the resolve of Council.
Our desire of having all placemen excluded from the Assembly, was owing to the circumstances of the colony under our present Governor. The voters are almost dependants, the officers are wholly so, it would therefore be the Governor’s Assembly and not the people’s. Laws would be made according to his pleasure, and no grievance would be redressed. But if a Governor who has the welfare of the colony and the interest of the people, was appointed, this would be an immaterial point.
The reason why triennial Assemblies was proposed, was intended only for the first Assembly, in order to settle the colony under an English Assembly ; otherwise, foreigners, being the most numerous, and the time when they will be naturalized by a seven-years’ residence near approaching, the future Assemblies might be mostly composed of foreigners, which might be dangerous to this frontier settlement.
As to the article of Judges, a good Governor will avail more for the advancement of justice, and then a good judge would be under no concern least he be displaced.
Another of the Governor’s acts, is to misrepresent and abuse all below him. He has publicly called his Council a pack of scoundrels, the merchants a parcel of villains and bankrupts, and has represented in England the whole as a people discontended and rebellious. We have authority of his saying and declaring this from his own mouth in the presence of many officers both of the army and navy. It is posible, sir, that people can be easy under such a Governor ? We dare appeal to our two former Governors for our behavior under their administration, whose conduct to us was the very reverse of Governor Lawrence.
Believe us, sir, we are not captious. We are not that turbulent people we have been represented ; our interest obliges us to be otherwise ; we desire nothing inconsistent with the prerogatives of the Crown ; we desire none other than the liberties enjoyed by the other colonies, which His Majesty has graciously been leased to promise by his Royal proclamation.
Our distresses have arisen from the malevolent disposition of Governor Lawrence and his creatures. Were they removed and a Governor of humanity appointed, one acquainted with the constitution of Englishmen and an Assembly settled, you would soon have the leasure of hearing of the increase and success of this settlement, for we are well assured that 500 families would remove from Massachusetts and settle immediately here, as we know the offer has been made to Governor Lawrence and rejected upon their requiring an Assembly to be first established, in order that they might have proper laws for their regulation and security of their property.
As for evidence of people leaving the colony for want of an Assembly (those that are already gone), it would take time to collect them as they are dispersed in the colonies ; and though one hundred more families are upon the point of removing, they are extremely fearful of being denied passes if they should be found to have given such evidence, for you must know that Governor Lawrence obliges every master of a vessel to enter into bond, under a penalty of fifty pounds forfeiture, for every person they carry away without licence obtained under his hand ; and, this is done without the least shadow of law or order of Council ; nor can any inhabitant go three miles from town without a certificate from a justice of the peace, so that Halifax is really a prison to all intents and purposes.
As for what you mention of the depositions not coming under the seal of the Province, we beg leave to inform you that it has never been allowed to be fixed to any papers but their own, instead whereof Governor Lawrence fixes his private seal, and must see all the evidence or his secretary ; therefore, to such kind of evidence it would be impossible to procure that, and, for want of the Province seal, many have suffered in their lawsuits in the neighboring colonies, or at the expense of sending witnesses where their suits have been depending, which are some among the many rights we are debarred of.
But we hope before this time many complaints have reached the ear of the Minister, and that it will shortly evidently appear, if it is not already manifest, that whilst Governor Lawrence has the least influence in American affairs, so long will ruin and confusion attend them. This truth, General Shirley in England, and Lord Charles Hay when he goes there, will, we are informed, make evident to demonstration, for it is generally believed, that, whatever specious crime may be alleged against Lord Charles Hay, his confinement was solely due to Governor Lawrence’s insinuations to Lord Loudun, upon a private disgust to that Lord for examining too freely into the expenses of batteries, etc., etc., and speaking too contemptibly of what had been done for the mighty sums expended in Nova Scotia.
We had not touched upon those matters, but as we think Providence more immediately seems to concern itself in discovering the villainous arts of the authors of our calamities, and hope will direct its measures in pouring vengeance on the man whose sole aim seems to have to blast the good intentions of his country and to make all subordinates to him miserable.
It is with pleasure we hear that the accounts of Nova Scotia will be strictly enquired into, as we are very sure, if they were sifted to the bottom, it will be found that not less than ten thousand pounds, of rum, molasses (of which there was not less than 30,000 gallons, which alone was worth £3,000), beef, pork, etc., etc., provisions and much merchandize for the supply of the Indians and French inhabitants were taken in Fort Beauséjour, neither distributed as a reward to the captors nor accounted for, except some small quantity of beef and pork sold to the Commissary Mr. Saul on Mr. Baker’s supply, which was extremely bad and decayed, and certified by Governor Lawrence as provisions sent by Governor Shirley.
That the Transports were kept near three months after the French Neutrals were ready for embarcation at an immense expense, and the New England troops kept six months after their service was over, and this for two special reasons : one to oblige them to enlist into the regulars, and the other to defeat General Shirley in raising a sufficient number of troops necessary for the summer’s campaign. By which means Oswego was lost, and the expedition to Crown Point rendered abortive. We appeal to General Shirley for the truth of this.
That the cattle, etc., etc., of the Acadians were converted to private uses, of which we know 3,600 hogs and near 1,000 head of cattle were killed and packed at Pigiguit alone and sent by water to other places ; and what at other forts is yet a secret, all unaccounted for to the amount of a very large sum ; and he and his Commissary are now under great perplexity, and contriving to cover this iniquitous fraud.
That 30,000 £ has been laid out on batteries not worth thirty pence for the defence of this place in the judgment of every person acquainted therewith.
It is possible he may produce vouchers to cover all his frauds, for, if the true ones should fall short, he has those under him who have been used to such kind of work and can readily supply the deficiency. But, if a Governor was sent out with orders to enquire into these, or at least to take depositions, we are very sure the whole will be clearly made to appear.
- ↑ British Museum. — Brown MSS. — Papers relating to Nova Scotia, 1748-1757. — Add. MSS, Vol. 19072. In 4 to fol. 43, No. 33.
At the top of this letter, A. B. Grosart of London, the owner of Brown’s Manuscript, has added with his own hand :
« A long letter (sixteen closely written pages) addressed to some one in England by the Colonists concerning the state of the Province.
« This is a high-toned and most vigorous letter : and lays bars with most withering scorn the character of Governor Lawrence. It reminds one of the complaints of the elder Puritans in the days of Charles…
« This MS. most important.