deliberations of the Lancaster town meeting, as in those of the
Continental Congress, broad views of National Independence based upon
civil and religions liberty, finally prevailed over sectional prejudice
and intolerance. The loyalist pastor was a far better republican than
his radical inquisitors.

* * * * *

[Since the paper upon Lancaster and the Acadiens was published in The
Bay State Monthly for April, I have been favored with the perusal of
Captain Abijah Willard's "Orderly Book," through the courtesy of its
possessor, Robert Willard, M.D., of Boston, who found it among the
historical collections of his father, Joseph Willard, Esq. The volume
contains, besides other interesting matter, a concise diary of
experiences during the military expedition of 1755 in Nova Scotia; from
which it appears that the Lancaster company was prominently engaged in
the capture of Forts Lawrence and Beau Séjour. Captain Willard, though
not at Grand Pré, was placed in command of a detachment which carried
desolation through the villages to the westward of the Bay of Minas; and
the diary affords evidence that this warfare against the defenceless
peasantry was revolting to that gallant officer; and that, while
obedient to his positive orders, he tempered the cruelty of military
necessity with his own humanity.

The full names of his subalterns, not given in the list from General
Winslow's Journal, are found to be

"Joshua Willard, _Lieutenant_,
Moses Haskell, "
Caleb Willard, _Ensign_."