38 The French in Prince Edward Island 
     
    
   
   
    
     all that is necessary to induce these people to remove 
     
     to Ile Royale, otherwise they will incur the just re- 
     
     sentment of the King.’ 
     
    

    
     From the foregoing narrative it is clear that the 
     
     ties which bound the Acadians to their homes were 
     
     even stronger than their love for France or their 
     
     fear of England in spite of the fact that the latter 
     
     was fed by every species of diplomacy known to 
     
     either missionary or official. It is also clear that the 
     
     tragedy of the Acadian deportation could have been 
     
     averted if the French had faced the facts as they 
     
     were and allowed these innocent settlers to become 
     
     British subjects as their kindred did after the Peace 
     
     of Paris in 1763. When Lawrence deported the 
     
     much-multiplied Acadian population of 1755 he was 
     
     but following in the footsteps of the French, who had 
     
     set a cruel example at Beaubassin in 1750, and at- 
     
     tempting to solve a difficult problem of assimilation 
     
     by taking the Acadians beyond the reach of alien 
     
     influences in the hope of merging them in the New 
     
     England colonies. For forty years the English had 
     
     been studying their lesson and when they had learned 
     
     it they outdid their tutors in trying to make subjects 
     
     out of “neutrals’—a term unknown to political 
     
     science. 
     
    

    
     But while this reflection is now a platitude it was 
     
     not so obvious to the French in 1717. Baulked in 
     
     regard to Ile Royale, they listened to the Comte de 
     
     St. Pierre who offered to plant a settlement in Isle 
     
     Saint Jean in 1719; and once again they hoped to 
     
    
   
   
    
     9B, Vol. 39.