Haliburton, THOMAS CHANDLER

Haliburton, THOMAS CHANDLER, colonial judge and author, was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1796, was called to the bar in 1820, and became a member of the House of Assembly. He was raised to the bench as chief-justice of the common pleas in 1829, and in 1842 became judge of the supreme court. In 1856 he retired from the bench, and took up his residence in England. In 1858 he received the degree of D.C.L. from the university of Oxford, and in 1859 entered parliament as Conservative member for Launceston. He is best known as the author of Sam Slick, the name of a Yankee clockmaker and pedlar, a sort of American Sam Weller, whose quaint drollery, unsophisticated wit, knowledge of human nature, and aptitude in the use of what he calls 'soft sawder' have given him a fair chance of immortality. The series of newspaper sketches in which this character had first been introduced was published in 1837 as The Clockmaker, or Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick of Slickville; two later series followed in 1838 and 1840, and The Attaché, or Sam Slick in England, in 1843. Haliburton's other works include A Historical and Statistical Account of Nova Scotia; Bubbles of Canada; The Old Judge, or Life in a Colony; Letter-bag of the Great Western; Yankee Stories, and Traits of American Humour; Nature and Human Nature; Rule and Misrule of the English in America; and Wise Saws and Modern Instances. He died at Isleworth, 27th August 1865.