CHAPTER XIII.

THOMAS CHANDLER HALIBURTON.

BY F. BLAke Crofton.

Birth and Parentage of Haliburton-His Education-Called to the Bar-In the Nova Scotia House of Assembly-Censured by the Assembly-Succeeds his Father as Judge-His Windsor Home-Takes up his Residence in England-Receives the Degree of D.C.L. from Oxford University-Represents Launceston in the Imperial House of Commons-Not a Brilliant Parliamentarian-His Literary Work-His Influence on Longfellow's picture of the Acadian Expulsion-Contributes to "Fraser's Magazine "-Haliburton a Lover of Fun -Conservative in his Ideas and Instincts-Yearns for a Fuller Imperial Citizenship for the Colonies "Sam Slick" a Brilliant Piece of Humor-Artemus Ward Terms Haliburton the Founder of the American School of Humor-General Summing up of his Achievements.

TH

HOMAS Chandler Haliburton, until recently the most noted writer born in British North America, was the son of William Hersey Otis Haliburton, Chief Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, as his office was ponderously styled, and of Lucy, daughter of Major Alexander Grant, one of Wolfe's officers. He was born in Windsor, N. S., on the 17th of December, 1796. He was educated in his native town at the Grammar School, and subsequently at King's College, graduating (B. A.) in 1815. In 1820 he was called to the Bar, and practised his profession for some years in Annapolis, which he represented in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1826 to 1829. One of the most notable incidents of his career in the Provincial Legislature was his warm, eloquent and successful pleading in 1827 for the abolition of the test oath, containing a declaration against transubstantiation which debarred devout Catholics from holding public office. His persistent efforts to obtain a grant for Pictou Academy, which was more than once voted by the House of Assembly and thrown out by the Council, led to his characterizing the latter body in a newspaper as "twelve dignified, deep-read, pensioned old ladies, but filled with prejudices and whims like all other antiquated spinsters." For this the Council demanded

an apology from the House, which was at first refused; but, on the Council's more peremptorily repeating its demand, the House passed a resolution of censure, which is thus recorded in its journals, April 4, 1827:

"Thomas C. Haliburton, Esq., one of the members for the County of Annapolis, being called upon and having admitted that he did in this House speak the words complained of by His Majesty's Council, and afterwards published the same:

"Resolved, therefore, unanimously: That the House do consider the conduct of the said Thomas C. Haliburton on that occasion as highly reprehensible, and that Mr. Speaker do pass the censure of this House upon the said Thomas C. Haliburton by publicly reprimanding him therefore at the Bar of this House."

Haliburton duly appeared at the Bar and received the reprimand. But he felt the snub so much, or thought the back-down of the House so disheartening, that he finally abandoned his efforts on behalf of the Pictou Academy and by so doing provoked much bitter criticism, which has not ended with his life. This apparent desertion of a cause which he had so vigorously championed was doubtless one of the reasons which led the government to resist his claim for a pension, until, some years after his retirement from the Bench, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council decided in his favor. In 1829 he succeeded to his father's judgeship and soon after removed to Windsor, N. S., where he occupied a pretty villa named "Clifton," whose grounds adjoined those of King's College. In 1841 he was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court. He retired from the Bench in 1856 and took up his residence in England, intending to devote himself exclusively to literature. The University of Oxford gave him the honorary degree of D. C. L. in 1858, and he was elected a member of the Athenæum Club.

From 1859 to 1865 he represented Launceston in the Imperial House of Commons. In Parliament Haliburton acted as the representative rather of British North America than of his English constituency, and he several times combated the then disposition of many statesmen to get rid of the Colonies. But he did not make the mark in the House which the admirers of his

writings expected. The truth is that, even in his prime, his ordinary speeches were little above the average, though parts of his set orations were powerful and impressive in the extreme. But none of his best speeches were made in the House of Commons. In 1859, when he was elected for Launceston, he was over sixty-two years old-an age at which most eminent men, having regard to their reputation only, would be wise to rest upon their laurels. And Haliburton had been too self-indulgent a liver to be exceptionally vigorous at the beginning of his old age. Besides, by this time, his success had probably made him too self-complacent to think it needful to give much thought or labor to his speeches. His tendency to wander from the subject had increased. Commenting on a speech of his made in Committee of Ways and Means, April 25, 1861, Mr. Bernal Osborne observed that he had "touched upon nearly every topic except the issue which is immediately under our consideration. The honorable and learned gentleman is a man famous for his literary ability," continued Mr. Osborne, “and as the author of works of fiction which are universally read; but I must say that, after the exhibition which he has made to-night, he had, in my opinion, better undertake another edition of The Rambler."

Haliburton's last years were spent in Gordon House, Isleworth, a beautiful and historic villa on the Thames, a mile or two from Richmond. There he died on the 27th of August, 1865, and was buried in the neighboring churchyard.*

The four books by Haliburton which narrate the sayings and doings of the celebrated Samuel Slick, of Slickville, are, in their chronological order: The Clockmaker, The Attaché, Wise Saws, and Nature and Human Nature. Two others, The Letter Bag of the Great Western and The Bubbles of Canada, are expressly attributed to Mr. Slick as their author, as may be gathered from the last letter in the former and from the dedication of the latter work; and

• Haliburton married (1)Louisa, daughter of Captain Neville, late 19th Light Drageons, and (2)Sarah Harriet, daughter of W. M. Owen, Esq. (of Woodhouse, Shropshire), and widow of E. H. Williams, Esq. (of Eaton Mascott, Shrewsbury). He left no issue by his second wife. His children, besides two or three who died young, ere Robert Grant Haliburton, Q.C., the litterateur; Sir Arthur L., created Lord Haliburton of Windsor, N. S for some years Permanent Under-Secretary for War; Susan, married to the late Judge Weldon of New Brunswick; Augusta, married to a cousin; Laura, married to William Cunard; Emma, married to Reverend Bainbridge Smith; Amelia, married to Very Reverend Edwin Gilpin, Dean of Nova Scotia.

publishers have placed the name of Sam Slick on the covers of The Old Judge, The Season Ticket, American Humor, and Americans at Home.

The first series of The Clockmaker, which appeared first in the Nova Scotian in 1835 and 1836, was published in book form in Halifax and London in 1837. The second series was issued in 1838; the third in 1840. In most later editions the three series make one volume. The cute dodges of the Clockmaker in pushing his trade are said to have been reminiscences of suits tried by Haliburton, and brought by an itinerant vendor of clocks for the payment of notes given him for his time pieces. In the first chapter of The Attaché its ostensible writer speaks of The Clockmaker as an accidental hit, a success which he did not purpose to imperil by experimenting in other literary lines. "When Sam Slick," he says, "ceases to speak, I shall cease to write." But Haliburton's self-confidence grew with his fame, and he failed to keep this modest resolution. The Attaché, the two series of which appeared respectively in 1843 and 1844, was probably suggested by Dickens' American Notes, which had been published early in 1842. After deprecating Slick's lively indignation at the latter book, "The Squire" observes, in The Attaché : "If the English have been amused by the sketches their tourists have drawn of the Yankees, perhaps the Americans may laugh at our sketches of the English." The sub-title of this book, "Sam Slick in England," has been made the only title. in some editions. This last remark may be made also of Wise Saws and Modern Instances, which has been given to the public, at least once, under its second title of "Sam Slick in Search of a Wife." The first edition of Wise Saws was published in London in 1853, and its continuation, Nature and Human Nature, which followed in 1855, concluded the record of the sayings and doings of the redoubtable Sam Slick.

Haliburton's first work was his Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia, published in Halifax in 1829, for which he received a vote of thanks from the House of Assembly. There is now no doubt that the author's History tinctured Longfellow's picture of the Acadian expulsion. "The poet," says his brother and biographer, "read such books as were obtainable; Haliburton, for instance, with his quotations from the Abbé Raynal." But ma, not the publication of Haliburton's History have been a link in the

chain of incidents that led to the inception of Evangeline?

The tale of the separated Acadian lovers, it is well known, was told to Longfellow by Hawthorne, who had heard it from his friend, the Rev. H. L. Conolly, at one time Rector of a church in South Boston. "The incident had been related to him by a parishioner of his, Mrs. Haliburton," writes the Rev. Samuel Longfellow. This lady was Mrs. George Haliburton, an aunt by marriage of the author. Is it not likely that her attention was first drawn to the Acadians by the touching description of their virtues and their woes in the History written by her nephew? Pathetic separations of kinsfolk are dwelt upon in Haliburton's chapter on the expulsion, particularly in the "humble petition" from the Acadian exiles in Pennsylvania.

Our author's second historical work was The Bubbles of Canada, a series of letters on the Imperial Colonial policy, published in 1837, while his third and last was Rule and Misrule of the English in America, which appeared in 1851. The Letter-Bag of the Great Western, or Life in a Steamer, first published in 1839, is a collection of letters supposed to be written by various passengers from England to America in the famous steamship of that name. These letters contain, not only comments upon life at sea, but the writers' reflections on the country they are leaving, or the country they are going to a plan which enables the author to present us with some lively studies in his favorite subject, human nature.

In 1846 and 1847 Haliburton contributed to Frazer's Magazine a series of papers, which in 1849 were collected in the book entitled The Old Judge, or Life in a Colony. This work depicts various phases of life in Acadia in the earlier part of this century. As in the "Sam Slick" series, the plot is a mere thread on which to string facts, jests and opinions. The Old Judge's opinions, by the way, seem to march pretty closely with Haliburton's own. Traits of American Humor and Americans at Home (also published under the title of Yankee Stories) are merely collections of tales, mirthful or marvellous, edited by Haliburton, but culled from American books and periodicals.

His latest work was The Season Ticket, a series of miscellaneous notes made and conversations reported by Mr. Shegog, the holder of a season ticket