male line of the Savile family ending in the person of Sir George Savile, 8th baronet, in 1784. Henry Savile, British envoy at Versailles, who died unmarried in 1687, was a younger brother of the first marquess. Halifax has been generally supposed to have been the father of the illegitimate Henry Carey, the poet, but this is doubtful.
See Life and Letters of Sir George Savile, 1st Marquis of Halifax (2 vols., 1898), by Miss H. C. Foxcroft, who has collected and made excellent use of all the material available at that date, including hitherto unexplored Savile MSS., at Devonshire House, in the Spencer Archives, in the Longleat and other collections, and who has edited the works of Halifax and printed a memorandum of conversations with King William of 1688–1690, left in MS. by Halifax. Macaulay, in his History of England, misjudged Halifax on some points, but nevertheless understood and did justice to the greatness of his statesmanship, and pronounced on him a well-merited and eloquent eulogy (iv. 545). Contemporary characters of Halifax which must be accepted with caution are Burnet’s in the History of His Own Times (ed. 1833, vol. i. pp. 491-493, and iv. 268), that by the author of “Savilianal,” identified as William Mompesson, and “Sacellum Apollinare,” a panegyric in verse by Elkanah Settle (1695). (P. C. Y.)
HALIFAX, a city and port of entry, capital of the province of
Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated in 44° 59′ N. and 63° 35′ W.,
on the south-east coast of the province, on a fortified hill, 225 ft.
in height, which slopes down to the waters of Chebucto Bay,
now known as Halifax Harbour. The harbour, which is open all
the year, is about 6 m. long by 1 m. in width, and has excellent
anchorage in all parts; to the north a narrow passage connects
it with Bedford Basin, 6 m. in length by 4 m., and deep enough
for the largest men-of-war. At the harbour mouth lies McNab’s
Island, thus forming two entrances; the eastern passage is
only employed by small vessels, though in 1862 the Confederate
cruiser, “Tallahassee,” slipped through by night, and escaped
the northern vessels which were watching off the western
entrance. The population in 1901 was 40,832.
The town was originally built of wood, plastered or stuccoed, but though the wooden houses largely remain, the public buildings are of stone. Inferior in natural strength to Quebec alone, the city and its approaches have been fortified till it has become the strongest position in Canada, and one of the strongest in the British Empire. Till 1906 it was garrisoned by British troops, but in that year, with Esquimalt, on the Pacific coast, it was taken over by the Canadian government, an operation necessitating a large increase in the Canadian permanent military force. At the same time, the royal dockyard, containing a dry-dock 610 ft. in length, and the residences in connexion, were also taken over for the use of the department of marine and fisheries. Till 1905 Halifax was the summer station of the British North American squadron. In that year, in consequence of a redistribution of the fleet, the permanent North American squadron was withdrawn; but Halifax is still visited periodically by powerful squadrons of cruisers.
Though, owing to the growth of Sydney and other outports, it no longer monopolizes the foreign trade of the province, Halifax is still a thriving town, and has the largest export trade of the Dominion in fish and fish products, the export of fish alone, in 1904, amounting to over three-fifths that of the entire Dominion. Lumber (chiefly spruce deals) and agricultural products (especially apples) are also exported in large quantities. The chief imports are manufactures from Great Britain and the United States, and sugar, molasses, rum and fruit from the West Indies. Its industrial establishments include foundries, sugar refineries, manufactures of furniture and other articles of wood, a skate factory and rope and cordage works, the produce of which are all exported. It is the Atlantic terminus of the Intercolonial, Canadian Pacific and several provincial railways, and the chief winter port of Canada, numerous steamship lines connecting it with Great Britain, Europe, the West Indies and the United States. The public gardens, covering 14 acres, and Point Pleasant Park, left to a great extent in its natural state, are extremely beautiful. Behind the city is an arm of the sea (known as the North-West Arm), 5 m. in length and 1 m. in breadth, with high, well-wooded shores, and covered in summer with canoes and sailing craft. The educational institutions include a ladies’ college, several convents, a Presbyterian theological college and Dalhousie University, with faculties of arts, law, medicine and science. Established by charter in 1818 by the earl of Dalhousie, then lieutenant governor, and reorganized in 1863, it has since become much the most important seat of learning in the maritime provinces. Other prominent buildings are Government House, the provincial parliament and library, and the Roman Catholic cathedral. St Paul’s church (Anglican) dates from 1750, and though not striking architecturally, is interesting from the memorial tablets and the graves of celebrated Nova Scotians which it contains. The city is the seat of the Anglican bishop of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and of the Roman Catholic bishop of Halifax.
Founded in 1749 by the Hon. Edward Cornwallis as a rival to the French town of Louisburg in Cape Breton, it was named after the 2nd earl of Halifax, president of the board of trade and plantations. In the following year it superseded Annapolis as capital of the province. Its privateers played a prominent part in the war of 1812–15 with the United States, and during the American Civil War it was a favourite base of operations for Confederate blockade-runners. The federation of the North American provinces in 1867 lessened its relative importance, but its merchants have gradually adapted themselves to the altered conditions.
HALIFAX, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough
in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 194 m. N.N.W. from
London and 7 m. S.W. from Bradford, on the Great Northern
and the Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1891), 97,714;
(1901) 104,936. It lies in a bare hilly district on and above the
small river Hebble near its junction with the Calder. Its appearance
is in the main modern, though a few picturesque old houses
remain. The North Bridge, a fine iron structure, spans the
valley, giving connexion between the opposite higher parts of
the town. The principal public building is the town hall,
completed in 1863 after the designs of Sir Charles Barry; it is
a handsome Palladian building with a tower. Of churches the
most noteworthy is that of St John the Baptist, the parish church,
a Perpendicular building with lofty western tower. Two earlier
churches are traceable on this side, the first perhaps pre-Norman,
the second of the Early English period. The old woodwork is
fine, part being Perpendicular, but the greater portion dates
from 1621. All Souls’ church was built in 1859 from the designs
of Sir Gilbert Scott, of whose work it is a good example, at the
expense of Mr Edward Akroyd. The style is early Decorated,
and a rich ornamentation is carried out in Italian marble,
serpentine and alabaster. A graceful tower and spire 236 ft.
high rise at the north-west angle. The Square chapel, erected
by the Congregationalists in 1857, is a striking cruciform building
with a tower and elaborate crocketed spire. Both the central
library and museum and the Akroyd museum and art gallery
occupy buildings which were formerly residences, the one of
Sir Francis Crossley (1817–1872) and the other of Mr Edward
Akroyd. Among charitable institutions the principal is the
handsome royal infirmary, a Renaissance building. The Heath
grammar school was founded in 1585 under royal charter for
instruction in classical languages. It possesses close scholarships
at Oxford and Cambridge universities. The Waterhouse charity
school occupies a handsome set of buildings forming three sides
of a quadrangle, erected in 1855. The Crossley almshouses were
erected and endowed by Sir Francis and Mr Joseph Crossley,
who also endowed the Crossley orphan home and school.
Technical schools are maintained by the corporation. Among
other public buildings may be noted the Piece-Hall, erected
in 1799 for the lodgment and sale of piece goods, now used as a
market, a great quadrangular structure occupying more than
two acres; the bonding warehouse, court-house, and mechanics’
institute. There are six parks, of which the People’s Park of
1212 acres, presented by Sir Francis Crossley in 1858, is laid out
in ornate style from designs by Sir Joseph Paxton.
Halifax ranks with Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield as a seat of the woollen and worsted manufacture. The manufacture of carpets is a large industry, one establishment employing some
