' [Footnote: Public Archives,
Canada. Nova Scotia E, vol. ii. Instructions to Governors.]
Hopson had tendered the oath to the Acadians. The oath
had been refused by them. Their refusal had been reported
to the government; and there the matter rested.
In another paragraph of the opinion the chief justice
asserted that 'persons are declared recusants if they
refuse on a summons to take the oath at the sessions,
and can never after such refusal be permitted to take
them.' This, no doubt, was the law. But the king had
ignored the law, and had commanded his representatives
in Nova Scotia to tender the oath again to a people who,
upon several occasions, had refused to take it. It was
not reasonable, therefore, to suppose, as the chief
justice did, that the king would be displeased at the
performance of an act which he had expressly commanded.
We have seen that, in the spring of 1754, when Lawrence
had intimated to the government that a number of the
Acadians who had gone over to the enemy were now anxious
to return to their lands, which he would not permit until
they had taken an oath without reserve, he was advised
not to 'create a diffidence in their minds which might
induce them to quit the province.
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