Those who could
have restored them to a normal condition of healthy
citizenship saw fit to keep them in disquietude, holding
over their heads the tomahawk of the Indian. England and
France were nominally at peace. But each nation was only
waiting for a favourable moment to strike a decisive
blow, not merely for Acadia or any part of it, but for
the mastery of the North American continent. With this
object ever in the background, France, through her agents,
strove to make the Acadians a thorn in Great Britain's
side, while England hesitated to allow them to pass over
to the ranks of her enemies. At the same time she was
anxious that they should, by some visible sign, acknowledge
her sovereignty. But to become a British subject it was
necessary to take the oath of allegiance. Most of the
Acadians had refused to take this oath without reservations.
Great Britain should then have allowed them to depart or
should have deported them. She had done neither. On the
contrary, she had tried to keep them, had made concessions
to them to remain, and had closed her eyes to violations
of the law, until many of them had been, by various means,
acknowledged as British subjects.
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