For a century
and a half they have lived in peace, cultivating their
salt-marsh lands and fresh-water meadows, preserving the
simple manners, customs, and language of their ancestors.
They form a community apart, a hermit community. But they
are useful citizens, good farmers, hardy fishermen and
sailors.
Both in Canada and in the United States are to be found
many Acadians occupying exalted positions. The chief
justice of the Supreme Court of Louisiana, Joseph A.
Breaux, is of Acadian descent. In Canada the Rt Rev.
Edward Le Blanc, bishop of Acadia, the Hon. P. E. Le
Blanc, lieutenant-governor of the province of Quebec,
and the Hon. Pascal Poirier, senator, are Acadians, as
are many other prominent men. And Isabella Labarre, who
married Jean Foret, of Beaubassin, was one of the maternal
ancestors of Sir Wilfrid Laurier.
Save in the Maritime Provinces, it is not possible to
count the offspring of the original French settlers of
Acadia who came out from France in the seventeenth century.
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