them : They did so, and did no more ; and every Member of both Houses of Assembly can bear Witness, I have never used the least Endeavour to induce them to accede to it. If it is bad, as some are pleas'd to represent it, Must not every Man say, They who have suffered it to lie thus long, are the very Men who have betrayed their Trust, and the Interest of the Colony?
Real want of Merit occasions these Men's Endeavour to rise upon the Ruin of their Neighbour s Reputation. But can the Faults of my Neigh bour, make me fit for an Office? And can the valuable Privileges of this Colony be safe in those Hands, where every Thing else seems to be neglected, but what will serve their private Purposes? As I am a Candidate for an Office, I sincerely desire all Men may put their Country's Interest in the first Place, and give their Votes only where they think 'tis most safe ; and assure themselves, such a Conduct will perfectly please the Colony's, and their Friend,
Stephen Hopkins.
Stephen Hopkins, A True Representation of the Plan formed at Albany, in 1754, for Uniting all the British Northern Colonies (Rhode Island Historical Tracts, No. 9, Providence, 1880), 40-46 passim.
126. Deportation of the Acadians (1755)
Winslow was a Massachusetts officer, to whom was assigned the painful duty of removing the resident French population of Nova Scotia at the beginning of the war. The question of the necessity of this removal has been much disputed; Park-man thinks it was inevitable. — Bibliography : Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, V, 452; Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe, I, 234; Channing and Hart, Guide, §131.
August 30th.
LAST Evening Capt. Murray Arived and Brought with him the afore resights Commissions & Instructions & Letters and with whome I Consulted Methods for removing the whole Inhabitants of the Villages of Grand Pre, Mines, Rivers Cannard, Habbertong and Gaspereau, and agreed that it would be Most Convenient to Sight all the Male Inhabitants of sd Villages to assemble at the Church in this Place on the 5th of September next to hear the King's Orders, and that at the Same time Capt. Murray to Collect the Inhabitants of Piziquid, and Villages adjatent to Forte Edward for
