' The
Council warned them of the consequences of their refusal;
and they were allowed until the following Monday to
decide. Their final answer was polite, but obdurate:
Inasmuch as a report is in circulation among us, the
French inhabitants of this province, that His Excellency
the Governor demands of us an oath of obedience
conformable, in some manner, to that of natural subjects
of His Majesty King George the Second, and as, in
consequence, we are morally certain that several of
our inhabitants are detained and put to inconvenience
at Halifax for that object; if the above are his
intentions with respect to us, we all take the liberty
of representing to His Excellency, and to all the
inhabitants, that we and our fathers, having taken an
oath of fidelity, which has been approved of several
times in the name of the King, and under the privileges
of which we have lived faithful and obedient, and
protected by His Majesty the King of Great Britain,
according to the letters and proclamation of His
Excellency Governor Shirley, dated 16th of September
1746, and 21st of October 1747, we will never prove
so fickle as to take an oath which changes, ever so
little, the conditions and the privileges obtained
for us by our sovereign and our fathers in the past.
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