It is no part of this narrative to sit in judgment or to
debate whether the forcible expatriation of the Acadians
was a necessary measure or a justifiable act of war.
However this may be, it is important to fix the
responsibility for a deed so painful in its execution
and so momentous in its consequences.
The Council at Halifax had no power to enact laws. Its
action was limited to the authority vested in the governor
by his commission and his instructions. And, as Lawrence
had as yet neither commission nor instructions, [Footnote:
He had not yet been appointed governor. Hopson had wished
to resign in the summer of 1754; but the Lords of Trade,
who held him in high esteem, had refused to accept his
resignation, and Lawrence had been made merely
lieutenant-governor, though with the full salary of a
governor.] he asked the chief justice, Jonathan Belcher,
to prepare an opinion, as he desired to be fortified with
legal authority for the drastic act on which he had
determined.
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