The government was military, not civil, for the Acadians being Roman Catholics were, by the laws of England, incapable of voting; but at least one official regretted that they could not be given representation. They were gov erned by their deputies, the eancientests and most reputable men of each parish, chosen every year on or about 11 October. These were responsible for the good behavior of their districts and for the execution of orders trans mitted by the governor-in-council. Philipps, colonel of the 20th regiment, was governor for almost this entire period. He visited the prov ince twice, but resided mainly in London, while lieutenant-governors, chiefly regimental officers, Armstrong, Cosby, Mascarene, administered the colony. The governor was supreme; but to assist him, he had a small council, whose functions were advisory and executive. These officials did their best to advance British in terests, giving the litigious Acadians justice in their endless disputes, and making wise sug gestions for the improvement of the colony, which must have been doomed to gather dust in the Duke of Newcastle's closet of unopened dispatches.
On the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession (see SUCCESSION WARS) the men of Massachusetts rose and by splendid audacity struck down the stronghold of French power, Louisburg; but that vlorious adventure be long.s to the annals of New England rather than of Nova Scotia. In the summer of 1744, gallant old Mascarene sustained two hot sieges in his ramshackle fort of Annapolis Royal; the first force was led by young Belleisle and other Acadians; the second, by Du Vivier, a descend ant of Charles de la Tour. In 1746, Ramezay encamped against him, awaiting D'Anville's ar mada, but did not fight. The same winter, he surprised Noble's force at Grand Pre, and killed, wounded or took prisoner nearly 200 men.
When the war ended by the Treaty of Aix la-Chapelle in 1748, Cape Breton was restored to France, and Louisburg, the Dunkirk of America, resumed its old attitude of menace to the very life of the English colonies. Then at last sluggish England moved to save the key to her possessions over-sea. Nova Scotia was to have an effective garrison to counter-check Louisburg. In June 1749 a fleet of 13 trans ports, bearing some 3,000 colonists, and escorted by the sloop-of-war, Sphinx, reached the great three-fold harbor of Chebucto, long known for its excellence to French and English mariners. The leader of the expedition was Col. Edward Cornwallis, twin brother of the gay archbishop of Canterbury, and uncle of the Lord Cornwal, lis, who surrendered at Yorktown. He had seen service at Fontenoy and Preston Pans, and although his military reputation was afterward clouded by his share in the Rochefort and Mi norca fiascos, he did his work as a city-builder well. The new military post, Halifax (q.v.), was quickly laid out, the land cleared, the population organized into a militia and a rough line of stockade and block-house run around the streets of tents and log-huts. In spite of the character of the settlers, trade-fallen soldiers and sailors, and the plague that carried them off in hundreds; in spite of Indian massacres, opposition from local smugglers, extortions of Boston merchants, discouragements from the. home government, Cornwallis made Halifax a place on the map of the world. The founding of Halifax brought about the second capture of Louisburg, leaving the way free for Quebec and the downfall of the French power in America. Emigrants from Old and New Eng land flocked to the new city. In 1750 and again in 1752, some hundreds of settlers came from the Palatinate. After a brief stay in Halifax,
they were transferred to the island-studded bay of the La Hive, the old headquarters of de Razilly, where they have grown into a race of hardy fishermen, whose town, Lunenburg, is the Gloucester of Canada.
In 1752, Cornwallis returned to England crippled by rheumatism, but his successors, Hopson and Lawrence, built strongly on the foundation he had laid. Their great problem was the growth of French power in the fortress of Louisburg and in the Acadian population. Under English rule, the habitants were far hap pier than under their old masters. The nominal government at Annapolis Royal had been powerless for good or evil. Its authority did not extend beyond a cannon-shot from the walls of Fort Anne. It was precisely under English rule that the Acadians increased and multiplied and, beginning to press upon the means of sub sistence, spread outward, round the Bay of Fundy, to the marsh-lands on the further shore. Their law-suits were nearly always over dis puted lands, or boundaries. In 1755, they numbered about 10,000 persons. England and France were then mustering all their forces for the coming struggle known to history as the Seven Years' War. No one could foretell that it would be final or which country would win. England seemed to be at the lowest ebb of fortune and spirit. Brown's lugubrious Esti mate predicted her immediate downfall. France seemed strong in the New World; she had hemmed the disunited English colonies in with a chain of posts from the mouth of the Mississippi to Louisburg. She had never ceased to regret the loss of Acadie or to plan for its recovery. The province was the pivot of the whole situation in the east. In these circumstances, the presence of the alien French population in it constituted a grave danger. The claim has been set up that they were neutrals; they had this idea themselves; but this strange notion was simply due to the im potence of the British government. They were no more neutrals than the people of Alsace and Lorraine were after their transfer to Germany in 1871. They were British subjects by con quest, by treaty, by the formal taking of an oath of allegiance and by the common law of nations, but they refused to consider themselves as such. They might be French subjects again by another war, or the return of the Pretender. Whether they left the province or remained in it was not a matter of indifference. If they stayed, they afforded a shield to hostile opera tions; if they were free to they would strengthen and feed the garrison of Louis burg. In this dilemma, the old proposal of Shirley's was renewed, their deportation. In the autumn of 1755, after Braddock's defeat gave the signal for war, this was done. The idea originated in New England and was car ried out by New England men, acting under the orders of Governor Lawrence. At Grand Pre, Pisiquid, Chignecto and Annapolis Royal, the men were called together and made prison ers, and placed on board the transports; their families followed them. The embarkation con sumed long weeks. Finally the ships sailed and distributed the unhappy people among the At lantic colonies. In all, some 7,000 persons were in this way removed from the province. Opin ions differ as to the measure. The French theory is the natural brutality of the English; one writer finds his reason for it in the greed of Lawrence to seize on the belongings of the poor peasantry. The general English view is that it was a war measure, cruel as all war is, but imperative for self-preservation; and this theory has the support of Parkman.