[This volume is said to have been drawn up by Charles Townshend (Bancroft, original ed., iv. 100), and is fuller than the corresponding work previously issued in Paris under the title, Mémoires des Commissaires du Roi et de Ceux de sa Majesté Britannique sur les Possessions et les droits respectifs des deux Couronnes en Amerique. 4 vols. 4to. Paris, 1755. Another edition of this last appeared the next year in 8 vols. 12mo, and again in three thick but small volumes at Copenhagen in 1755 (Carter-Brown Catalogue, vol. iii. no. 1074, etc.). The English edition above named contains the English case (both in English and French), signed W. Shirley and W. Mildmay, and dated at Paris, Sept. 21, 1750; and the French, signed by La Galissonière and De Silhouette, and dated the same day. Then follows the English memorial of Jan. 11, 1751, with the French reply (Oct. 4, 1751), and the English rejoinder (Jan. 23, 1753). In these papers the maps cited and examined are the English maps of Purchas, Berry, Morden, Thornton, Halley, Popple, and Salmon, the Dutch maps of De Laet and Visscher, and the French maps of Lescarbot, Champlain, Hennepin, De Lisle, Bellin and Danville, De Fer (1705) and Gendreville (1719). The rest of the volume is made of “Pièces Justificatives” brought forward by each side. There were maps accompanying these respective editions, setting forth the limits as claimed by the two sides, and marking by lines and shadings the extent of the successive patents of jurisdiction which follow down the region’s history. Jefferys and Le Rouge were the engravers on the opposing sides. John Green was the writer of the Explanation accompanying the Jefferys map. There was another edition in English of the case, printed at the Hague in 1756, under the title, All the Memorials of Great Britain and France since the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The contemporary literature of the controversy is extensive, and it all goes over the historical evidence in a way to throw much light, when separated from partisanship, on the history of Acadia. It may be said to have begun with a work mentioned by Obadiah Rich, A Geographical History of Nova Scotia, London, 1749 (Sabin, Dictionary of Books Relating to America, vol. xiii. no. 56,135), of which a French translation was published also in London (Carter-Brown Catalogue, vol. iii. no. 1,064), and a German one the next year.
Jefferys printed in 1754, The Conduct of the French with regard to Nova Scotia, from its First Settlement to the Present Time; and this appeared in a French version in London (Conduite des François) in the same year, with notes said to be written by Butel-Dumont.
The next year, Dr. William Clarke, of Boston, also reviewed the historical claims from the discovery of Cabot, in his Observations ... with regard to the [French] Encroachments, Boston, 1755,—a tract also reprinted in London. There may be likewise noted Pidansat de Mairobert’s Discussion summaire sur les anciennes limites de l’Acadie, printed at Basel, 1755 (Carter-Brown Catalogue, vol. iii. no. 1,035); Moreau’s Mémoire, Paris, 1756; and Jefferys’ Remarks on the French Memorials, London, 1756. The last has two maps, setting forth respectively the French and English ideas and claims of the various occupancies and settlements under grant and charter; the French map is reduced from the original of the commissioners, and it may also be found in the Atlas Ameriquain published at this time. At a later period, when the identity of De Monts’ St. Croix became an international question, the folio Correspondence relating to the Boundary between the British Possessions in North America and the United States of America, under the Treaty of 1783, was presented to Parliament July, 1840, and included an historical examination of the question, with maps and drafts from Lescarbot’s, Delisle’s, and Coronelli’s maps. Cf. in this connection Nathan Hale’s review of the history in the North American Review, vol. xxvi. In Shea’s edition of Charlevoix, i. 248, there is a note on the various limits assigned by early writers to Acadia.—Ed.
[427] Sir William Alexander and American Colonization. Including three Royal Charters; a Tract on Colonization; a Patent of the County of Canada and of Long Island; and the Roll of the Knights-Baronets of New Scotland. With Annotations and a Memoir. By the Rev. Edmund F. Slafter, A.M. Boston: Published by the Prince Society. 1873. 4to. pp. vii and 283.
[Mr. Slafter devotes a section of his monograph to the bibliography of his subject. Alexander’s tract, Encouragement to Colonies, which was printed in London in 1624 (some copies in 1625), and of which the unsold copies were reissued in 1630 as The Mapp and Description of New England, is printed entire by Slafter. The book is rare. Stevens, Nuggets, no. 59, prices it at £21; cf. Sabin’s Dictionary, nos. 739, 740. The map which accompanied both editions is given by Slafter, and in part in Vol. III. of the present work, and has been reproduced elsewhere, as Slafter (p. 124) explains. Hazard, Collections, i. 134, 206, prints some of the documentary evidence, and the British Museum Catalogue of Manuscripts shows that the Egerton Manuscripts, 2,395, fol. 20-26, also touch the subject. In further elucidation, see Thomas C. Banks, Statement of the Case of Alexander Earl of Stirling, London, 1832, and his Baronia Anglia Concentrata, 1844, and the various expositions of the claims to the earldom in the several works referred to by Slafter, p. 115; and also Rogers, Memorials of the Earls of Stirling and House of Alexander, i. chaps. iv. and v. Mr. Slafter subsequently enlarged his statement regarding the Copper Coinage of the Earl of Stirling, and issued it as a tract with this title in 1874. Mr. C. W. Tuttle reviewed Mr. Slafter’s labors in N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg., 1874, p. 106.—Ed.]
[428] A Geographical View of the District of Maine, with Particular Reference to its Internal Resources, including the History of Acadia, Penobscot River and Bay; with Statistical Tables showing the Comparative Progress of Maine with each State in the Union, a List of the Towns, their Incorporation, Census, Polls, Valuation, Counties, and Distances from Boston. By Joseph Whipple. Bangor: Printed by Peter Edes. 1816. 8vo. pp. 102.
[429] An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, in two Volumes. Illustrated by a Map of the Province and Several Engravings. By Thomas C. Haliburton, Esq., Barrister-at-Law, and Member of the House of Assembly of Nova Scotia. Halifax: Printed and published by Joseph Howe. 1829. 8vo. pp. 340 and viii, 433 and iii.
[430] [Hannay, however, who followed Murdoch, freely acknowledges the great value of Winthrop, in that “without his aid it would have been impossible to give an accurate statement of the singular story of La Tour.”—Ed.]
[431] A History of Nova Scotia, or Acadie. By Beamish Murdoch, Esq., Q.C. Halifax, N. S.: James Barnes. 1865-1867. 3 vols. 8vo. pp. xv and 543, xiv and 624, xxiii and 613.