Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 07.pdf/533

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The Green Bag.

guage, and uniting in the same religion. It was a sight worthy the admiration of men and the approbation of God. Look at their worthy pastor, the Abbe Segogne : see him at sunrise with his little flock around him, returning thanks to the giver of all good things; follow him to the bed of sickness — see him pouring the balm of consolation into the wounds of the afflicted; into his field where he was setting an example of industry to his people; into his closet, where he was instructing the innocence of youth; into his chapel, and you would see the savage, rushing from the wilderness with all his wild and ungovernable passions upon him, stand ing subdued and awed in the presence of the holy man! You would hear the Abbe tell the savage to discern God in the stillness and solitude of the forest — in the roar of the cata ract — in the order and splendor of the plane tary system — and in the diurnal change of night and day. That savage forgets not to thank his God that the white man has taught him the light of revelation in the dialect of the Indian. "After giving a detailed account of the expulsion of the French Acadians in 1755, Mr. Haliburton said that he did not ask for the removal of the restrictions as a favor; he would not accept it from their commis- eration : he demanded it from their justice. Every man who lays his hand on the New Testament, and says that is his book of faith, whether he be Catholic or Protestant, Churchman or Dissenter, Baptist or Metho dist, however much we may differ in doc trinal points, he is my brother and. I embrace him. We all travel by different roads to the same God. In that path which I pur sue, should I meet a Catholic, I salute him; I journey with him; and when we shall arrive at the flammantia limina mundi — when that time shall come, as come it must; when the tongue that now speaks shall moulder and decay — when the lungs that now breathe the genial air of heaven shall refuse me their office — when these earthly

vestments shall sink into the bosom of their mother earth, and be ready to mingle with the clods of the valley, I will, with that Cath olic, take a longing, lingering, retrospective view. I will kneel with him; and instead of saying, in the words of the presumptuous Pharisee, " Thank God I am not like that papist," I will pray that, as kindred, we may be equally forgiven: that as brothers we may be both received." That Mr. Haliburton would have been a permanent success as a politician, had he not adopted another career, cannot well be doubted. He had great aptitude for polit ical affairs and enjoyed a large degree of popularity. But in 1829, he accepted the position of Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for the midland division of Nova Scotia, and withdrew from the larger field for which his talents and education so well fitted him for useful service. He held the office of Chief Justice until the abolition of the court. His duties as judge of an in ferior court were not such as called for any great legal abilities; and they were light enough to afford him sufficient leisure for the composition of some of his more fa mous works. When the Court of Common Pleas was abolished in 1841, Judge Halibur ton was made a puisne judge of the Su preme Court, and held the latter position until 1856, when he resigned and removed to England. As Judge of the Supreme Court his du ties required him to preside on circuit throughout the Province and to sit with his brother judges at Halifax on the hearing of appeals and such other business as properly came before the Court in banco in the first instance. It is no injustice to the memory of this celebrated man to say that his work as a judge was not enduring. There are no great decisions of his to which we can point as land-marks in the development of our law. Nevertheless he did his work well, and was a long way off from failure. Bright, cultivated and versatile, he could not be