68 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Cromwells from whom lie was descended— whose sound sense, love of 

 freedimi, adht-ivnce to principle, and solidity of argument were 

 characteristic of men of the Hampden school of parliamentary debate. 

 Under ordinary conditions he was a ])leasant companion, but at other 

 times when his mind was overburdened or ill-health oppressed him, he 

 became, according to his friends, "as mootly and irascible as Oliver him- 

 self.'" No man in the legislature evoked more interest or confidence. 

 Mr. Howe, of whom he was always a pei-sonal friend, found him his 

 most useful and even jiowerful ally in the stern tight for liberal govern- 

 ment. Like S. G. W. Archibald, and Howe himself, as well as many other 

 able public men of those days, Huntington was self-taught, but no one 

 had a larger store of general knowledge or better understood the social 

 and political conditions of the people. 



A notable tigure in Halifax when 1 tirst made the acquaintance of 

 Nova Scotians, eminent in law, politics and divinity, was the venerable 

 Chief Justice who had sat on the provincial bench for the remarkably 

 long term of tift3'-three years, during twenty-seven of which he had been 

 chief judge. He was the son of a loj'alist. Dr. Halliburton, who came 

 from Ehode Island to Ilalifiix in 1782, and succeeded Chief Justice 

 Blowers, also a distinguished loyalist, who had sat on the bench for thirty- 

 five years. Sir Brenton received the honour of knighthood in 1859, and 

 was probably the first acting judge of the province to obtain this royal 

 recognition.- lie was deeply versed in the principles of English law and 

 equity and in his prime was noted for his acute analytical power. He 

 was dignified and urbane in deportment and gifted with a facile pen. 

 He was a strong advocate of imperial unity and wrote an able pamphlet 



•See note to Howe's " Speeches and Public Letters," vol. I., p. 209. 



-Chief .Justice Strauf^e (1791-17!K)) was knighted in 1797, but he went to England 

 in 179<) and ai)pear8 to iiave resigned his seat on the Nova Scotia bench before he re- 

 ceived tlie honour and was appointed recorder in Bombay. If this be so, Chief 

 Justice Halliburton was the first Nova Scotian judge who was made a l^night. A 

 nunibcr of native Nova Scotians have been enrolled among the Knights Bachelor, 

 or placed on the list of the orders of merit like tlie Bath, and St. Michael and 

 St. George, which take precedence of the former. Admiral Belcher, a grandson of 

 the first chief justice, was a K.C.B. Admiral Provo Wallis, who took command 

 of tlie "Shannon " when Captain Broke was disabled in the famous fight with the 

 "Chesapeake," was made a G. C.B. Sir William Robert Wolseley Winnittt, son of 

 Sheriir Winniett, of Annajwlis - the oldest family of English origin resident in Nova 

 Scotia— and a governor of British colonies in Africa, was a Knight Bachelor. Governor 

 Darling of Victoria, also born in Annapolis, was a K.C.B. Chief Justice Cochrane of 

 Gibraltar was a Knight Bachelor. Sir Samuel Cunard was a baronet, and his 

 grandson, Sir Bache, now bears the title and lives in England. Sir Edward Kenny 

 was a Knight Bachelor. Williams of Kars wasaCî.C.IÎ. and a Baronet before his 

 death. Inglis of Lucknow was a K.C.B. Sir Charles Tupper is a (irand Cross of St. 

 Michael and St. Cieorge as well as a Baronet. SirT. Dickson Archibald, a son of Judge 

 S. G. W. Archibald, master of the rolls, and a justice of the court of king's bench in 

 England, was made a Knight Bachelor in 1H7H. Another eminent son, Sir P^dward M. 

 Archibald, consul-general of England in New York, was a K.C.M.G. The late Chief 



