HALIBURTON, Thomas Chandler, author, born in Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1797; died in Isleworth, England, 27 August, 1865. He was admitted to the bar in 1820, and afterward elected a member of the house of assembly. In 1829 he was appointed chief justice of the court of common pleas, and in 1840 became a judge of the supreme court. Two years later he resigned that office and removed to England, where he afterward resided. In 1859 he was returned to parliament for Launceston as a Conservative, holding the seat until the dissolution in July, 1865. Owing to infirm health, he did not offer himself for re-election. In 1858 he received the degree of D. C. L. from the University of Oxford. In 1835 he wrote a series of newspaper sketches satirizing the New England character, which were subsequently collected and published under the title of "The Clockmaker, or the Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville" (1837). These were followed by a second series, which appeared in 1838, and a third in 1840. Of Judge Haliburton's success in portraying the typical New Englander, President Cornelius C. Feton says: "We can distinguish the real from the counterfeit Yankee at the first sound of the voice, and by the turn of a single sentence; and we have no hesitation in declaring that Sam Slick is not what he pretends to be; that there is no organic life in him; that he is an impostor, an impossibility, a nonentity." On the other hand, the "London Athenaeum" asserts that "he [Sam Slick] deserves to be entered on our list of friends, containing the names of Tristram Shandy, the shepherd of the 'Noctes Ambrosianae, ' and other rhapsodical discourses on time and change, who, besides the delights of their discourse, possess also the charm of individuality." He afterward wrote "The Attache, or Sam Slick in England" (1843; 2d series, 2 vols., 1844; new ed., 4 vols., 1846), in which British society is amusingly depicted. Judge Haliburton is also the author of "An Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia" (1828-'39); "Bubbles of Canada," "The Old Judge, or Life in a Colony," and "Letter Bag of the Great Western" (1839); "Rule and Misrule of the English in America" (2 vols., 1851); "Yankee Stories" and "Traits of American Humor" (3 vols., 1852); "Nature and Human Nature" (1855-'8); "Letters to Lord Durham," and "Wise Saws and Modern instances." He also edited several works, including one on the "Settlement of New England."

--BEGIN-Sir Peter Halkett

HALKETT, Sir Peter, bart., soldier, of Pitfirrane, Fifeshire, Scotland; died near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 9 July, 1755. He was the son of Sir Peter Wedder-burn, of Gosport, who assumed his wife's name. The son entered the army, and represented Dunfermline in parliament in 1734. In 1745 he was lieutenant-colonel of Lee's regiment (the 44th) at the battle of Preston-Pans, was taken prisoner by the troops of the Pretender, and released on parole. Subsequently he was one of the five officers who, in February, 1746, refused to rejoin their regiment on the command of the Duke of Cumberland, and the threat that in the event of non-compliance their commissions would be forfeited. Their reply, "that his royal highness was master of their commissions, but not of their honor," was approved by the government, and Sir Peter embarked for America in command of his regiment in 1754. He was killed, with his youngest son, James, in the battle of the Monongahela, when Braddock was defeated.--His nephew, John, author, born in London, England, in 1768; died in Brighton, England, in November, 1852, was appointed governor of the Bahamas, 5 December, 1801, and of Tobago, 27 October, 1803. From 1814 till 1819 he was chairman of the board of commissioners of West India accounts. In 1821 or 1822 he visited the United States, and on his return to England (1823) published " Historical Notes respecting the Indians of North America." He was also the author of a "Statement," respecting the attempt of his uncle, the Earl of Selkirk, to form a settlement on the Red river, regarding which there are many contradictory accounts (London, 1817).