After the evacuation of Louisburg the population received a considerable accession; a number of the English inhabitants came with Governor Hobson and became settlers, and many from New England were daily arriving, and upwards of 1000 more from the old provinces had expressed themselves desirous of joining the Settlement before winter. The Governor therefore gave orders to all vessels in the Government service to give them a free passage. The New England people soon formed the basis of the resident population, and are the ancestors of many of the present inhabitants. They were better settlers than the old discharged soldiers and sailors who came on the fleet; most of whom died or left the country during the first three or four years, leaving, however, the most industrious and respectable among them as permanent settlers. Many settlers and traders came out for the purpose of making money; these people infested the Settlement in great numbers, and gave Mr. Cornwallis and his successors much trouble and annoyance, in demoralizing the people by the illicit sale of bad liquors, and in other ways retarding the progress of the country. A proposition was made about this time by a French merchant from the West Indies to Governor Cornwallis to bring to Halifax some Protestant families from Martinique with their effects, if he would give them protection and grant them lands, and the Governor was furnished with a list of their names, with what each of them was worth, which approached in all nearly £50,000. This gentleman proceeded to Louisburg to obtain for them a passport, and proposed to have his people on before winter; but it does not appear as far as any information on the subject can be gathered from the public records that any of these French Protestants ever arrived. The Government found it necessary to check the indiscriminate sale of spirituous liquors by a license duty. On the 28th August an ordinance passed for that purpose, and all such licensed houses were to be closed at 9 p. m. under penalty. On the 31st August the Governor and Council for the first time sat as a Court of Law. This was named the General Court, all authority--legislative, executive and judicial--being vested in the Board. They met on this day for the trial of Abram Goodside, the Boatswain's mate of the Beaufort, who stabbed and wounded two men. A grand jury was summoned who found a bill of indictment; he was tried and found guilty by a petit jury, and hanged under the Governor's warrant on 2nd September, 1749. On 31st August, another Court was held for the trial of one Peter Cartal, for murder. The Acadian Deputies having returned from the country, they were called before the Governor and Council on September 6th, when they presented a letter signed by 1000 inhabitants claiming to take only a qualified Oath of Allegiance.