The British muttered threats
that subjects of their King who would not fight for him had no
right to protection under British law. Even then feeling was so
high that there was talk of driving the Acadians from their farms
and setting them adrift; and these poor people trembled for their
own fate when the British victors at Louisbourg in 1745 removed
the French population to France. Assurances came from the British
government, however, that there was no thought of molesting the
Acadians.
With the order "As you were" the dominant thought of the Treaty
of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748, the highly organized and efficient
champions of French policy took every step to ensure that in the
next struggle the interests of France should prevail. Peace had
no sooner been signed than Versailles was working in Nova Scotia
on the old policy. The French priests taught that eternal
perdition awaited the Catholic Acadians who should accept the
demands of the heretic English. The Indians continued their
savage threats. Blood is thicker than water and no doubt the
natural sympathies of the Acadians were with the French.
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