EXTRACT

"25th April, 1757.

"Sir — ...When I was at Pennsylvania I found that the French Neutrals there had been very mutinons and had threatened to leave the women and children and go over to join the French in the back country; they sent me a Mémorial in French setting forth their grievances. I returned it and said I could receive no Mémorial from King's subjects but in English, on which they had a gênerai meeting at which they determined they would give no Mémorial

but in French, and as I am informed they came to the resolution from looking on themselves entirely as French subjects.

' ' Captain Cotterell, who is Secretary for the Province of Nova Scotia and is in this Country for the recovery of his health, found among those Neutrals one who had been a Spie of Colonel Cornwallis and afterwards of Govemor Lawrence, who he tells me had behaved well both in giving accounts of what those people were doing and in bringing them intelligence of the situation and strength of the French forts and in particular of Beauséjour; by this man I learut that there were five principal leading men among them who stir up ail the disturbance thèse people niake in Pennsylvania and who persuade them to go and join the enemy and who prevent them from submitting to any régulation made in the country, and to show their children to put out to work.

On finding this to be the case, I thought it necessary for me to prevent as far as I possibly could, such a junction to the enemy; on which I secured those five ring leaders and put them on board Captain Talkingham 's ship, the Sutherland, in order to his carrying them to England, to be disposed of as his Ma jesty 's servants shall think proper ; but I must inf orm you that if they are turned loose they will direetly return and continue to raise ail the disturbance in their power, therefore it appears to nie that the safest way of keeping them would be to employ them as sailors on board ships of war. LOUDOUN.

The Right Hon.

William Pitt.

(Indorsed) "E. July 6th."

It is quite possible that the men thus exiled — and of their fate there is no trace — may hâve been the leaders, the speakers, the writers for the exiles; for after they went away, there appears no recorded remonstrance or pétition from the others. They wasted away in uneomplaining misery — pensioners on charity. They are rarely referred to in public documents.

On the 9th of February, 1761, a committee of inquiry on the subject was appointed by the Assembly, and on the 26th they reported as foUows:

' ' We, the committee appointed to examine into the state of the French Neutrals, and to report our opinion of the best method of lessening their expense to this province, hâve, in pursuance of the said appointment, made inquiry, and thereupon do report —

' ' That the late extraordinary expenses charged by the overseers of the I^oor, hâve been occasioned by the gênerai sickness which prevailed amongst them, in conimon with other inhabitants, during the last fa 11 and part of the winter; this, added to the ordinary expense of supporting the indigent widows, orphans, aged and decrepid persons, has greatly enlarged the accounts of this year. They hâve likewise a number of children, who, by the late aets of Assembly, ought to hâve been bound out to services, but their parents hâve always

opposed the exécution of thèse laws, on account of their religion ; many of thèse children, when in health, require no assistance from the public; but in time of sickness, from the poverty of their parents, beeome objeets of charity, and must perish wihout it,

' ' Your Committee called together a number of their chief men, and acquainted them with the dissatisfaction of the House on finding the publie expense so mueh increased by their opposition to those laws, which were framed with a compassionate regard to them, and tending immediately to their ease and benefit, and assured them that, unless they could propose a method more agréable to themselves for lightening the public burden, their children would be taken from them, and placed in suieh familles as could maintain them, and some effectuai method taken to prevent the ill effects of idleness in their young people.

"They answered with appearance of great concern, that they were very sorry to find themselves so expensive to the good people of this Province; reminded us of the late gênerai sickness as the principal cause of it, which they hoped might not happen again during their continuance hère; that in expectation of lessening this expense, and of obtaining some restitution for the loss of their estâtes, they had petitioned the Court of Great Britain, and humbly remonstrated to his Majesty the state of their peculiar sufferings, and as the Governor had been so kind as to transmit and recommend their and pétition and remonstrance, they doubted not but the King would be so gracions to grant a part of their country, sufficient for their familles to resettle on, where they flatter themselves they shall enjoy more health, and be free from the appréhensions of their children being edueated in families whose religions sentiments are so différent from theirs, In the mean time they pray the indulgence of the government in suffering them to retain their children, as they find, by expérience, that those few who are in Protestant families soon beeome estranged and alienated from their parents; and, though anxious to return to Nova Scotia, they beg to be sent to old Frnce, or any where, rather than part with their children; and they promise to excite and encourage ail their young people, to be industrious in acquiring a competency for their own and their parents subsistence, that they may not give occasion for complaints hereafter. How far they may succeed in this, or their application to the Crown, is very uncertain. We are of opinion that nothing short of putting inexécution the law, which directs the Overseers of the Poor to bind out their children, will so effectally lessen this expense, unless the Governor, with the concurrence of the Commander-in-Chief of the King 's forces, shall think fit to comply with their request and transport them out of the Province.

" Nevertheless, your Committee being moved with compassion for thèse unhappy people, do recommend them to the considération of the House, as we hope that no great inconvenience can arise from the continuance of the publie charity towards them for a few months longer and think it just to observe,

that there are aniongst them number of industrious laboring men who hâve been, during the late scarcity of laborers, of great service in the neighborhood of this city.

"Submitted to the House." (Vote p. 143).

I find out one other minute, and that tells a sad taie. I qnote it in the simple words in which it appears on the Journal of Assenibly. It is on the 4th of January, 1766:

"A pétition from John Hill, of the city of Philadelphia, joiner, was presented to the House and read, settling forth that the petitioner has been employed from time to time to make coffins for the Freneh Neutrals who hâve died in and about this city, and has had his aecounts regularly allowed and paid by the Government, till lately; that he is now informed by the gentlemen commissioners, who used to pay him, that they hâve no public money in their handa for the payment of sueh debts; that he has made sixteen coffins since his last settlement (as will appear from the aceount) without any countermand of his former orders; he therefore prays the House to make such provision for his materials and labor in the premises as to them shall seem meet. Ordered to lie on the table." — Votes 465.

With this coffin maker's mémorial, so far as I hâve been able to trace it, ends the authentic history of the Freneh Neutrals in Pennsylvania. Ail the rest is tradition, and with tradition, that fruitful source of error, I hâve nothing to do. Mr. Watson, in his Annals, tell us that for a long time the remnant of the Neutrals occupied a row of frame huts on the north side of Fine street, between Fifth and Sixth, on property owned either by Mr. Powell or Mr. Emlen, and those ruined houses, known as the Neutral Huts, are remembered distinctly by persons now living. What at last became of thèse poor créatures, it is not easy to aseertain from évidence. Their very names hâve perished. I hâve diligently searched the earliest extant Directories, and cannot find any one of the name that are known to us as belonging to them.

One other fact, proved by the officiai records, is that which I hâve already alluded to, that from November, 1755, till the Révolution, when ruder cares occupied the attention of our Pennsylvania legislators, there appears to hâve been expended for the support of the exiles, by public authority alone, aside from private benefaction — always bountiful in Philadelphia — no less a sum than £7,500, eurrency, or about 20,000 dollars.

In this retrospect of a sad chapter of local history, I find nothing to wound the proper pride, or excite the blush of Pennsylvania, and no where a trace of truth to justify the wanton aspersion on. our famé, the Pennsylvania sold, or wished to sell, or thought of selling thèse, or any other human beings into slavery. The only color for it cornes in the shape of a very slight tradition embalmed in Mr. Vaux 's Life of Benezet. It is this: "Such was Benezet's care of the Neutrals, that it produced a jealousy in the mind of one of the oldest men among them of a very novel and curions description, which was

eommunicated to a friend of Benezet, to whom he said: "It is impossible that ail this kindness can be disiuterested ; Mr. Benezet must certainly intend to recompense himself by treaeherously selling us. ' ' When their patron and protector," adds Mr. Vaux, "was informed of this ungrateful suspicion, it was so far from producing an émotion of anger or indignation, that he lifted up his hands and laughed immoderately. " (P. 88.) Pointless as this gossiping anecdote is, the aspersion on our charaeter rests on no other foundation. I hâve tracked the humble story of the Acadian exiles through authentic and oiRcial proofs, with little or no aid from contemporary correspondence, though much may exist that I hâve not had access to. There is no allusion to the Neutrals in the Shippen papers, or in that far more interesting and valuable collection ■ — the Hamilton MS. ; and Dr. Franklin, who wrote letters and pamphlets on almost every subject, and who was in Philadelphia when the Neutrals came and for months afterwards, is silent about them. I hâve no doubt, however, that my vindication rests upon truth.

And closing this little essay, written rapidly, and at such short intervais as I hâve been able to snateh from daily drudgery, I cannot but recall the moral with which I began, made more pointed by the reflection the sad history suggests, that no kindness, no charity, no compassion can heal entirely the wound which religions persécution inflicts on the heart of man — no sympathy, slow or active, can full to rest resentments which a sensé of such wrong excites. Thèse poor Catholic fugitives died in their faith. They hugged it to their wasted broken, and the stain of their agony rests upon the English name. It is made bosoms more closely, because they were persecuted and exiles. They died heart immortal, as I hâve said, in poetry of the English language — for Evangeline will live long after the feeble, perseeuting statesmen of George the Second'» reign are forgotten. Let those (and there seems a sort of centenary cycle in matters of this kind) who would persécute or proscribe for opinions' sake, and limit by political exclusion the right to worship God in the form which he who worships choses — who would, if let alone, join in the hunt of exile of those who, like the Acadians, cherish the faith of their childhood and their ancestors, let them read this story and beware of the sure rétribution of history.

Shovdd the opportunity occur, and what is far more uncertain, the inclination continue, I hope of some future day to read a paper, as desultory as this, on the next visit of the French to Philadelphia, when twenty-five years later they came hère triumphant, our welcome auxiliaries; when French noblemen and French priests were about the streets and, when perhaps, as we may hope, they walked across the Potters' Field, which I remember, to Pine and Sixth streets, to look at the moulderings remains of the Neutrals buts or trace out the Neutral graves.