The old judge: Or, Life in a colony

by Thomas Chandler Haliburton

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358 pages, Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1978

About the author

Thomas Chandler Haliburton (December 17, 1796 – August 27, 1865) was a politician, judge, and author who lived in the British Colony of Nova Scotia. He was the first international best-selling author from what is now Canada and played a significant role in the history of Nova Scotia prior to its entry into Confederation

Reviews

[Rosie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a largely unappreciated master work of allegory, and it is probably Haliburton's greatest work if you like reading between the lines. It has a less than stellar reputation as being merely an anecdotal and disjointed account of events and characters in Nova Scotia mixed with political and social commentary, but it is much more than that. The book is high in symbolism. You will find in it a chapter that is one of the earliest references to a search for treasure in Chester Bay (Mahone Bay) that concerns the mystery of Oak Island. The original page numbering for this book exploits a Pythagorean scheme. The character names given are anagrams. The book is a large puzzle. Chapter titles are cryptic and can be solved from outside of the book's references. It's a real delight if you love dissecting a book.

[Vanessa Winn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across Haliburton indirectly, as the Chairman of the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Co. (Nanaimo). Never having been to BC, he was born and educated in colonial Nova Scotia, where he became a judge and an author. I was surprised to learn he was once (rather ironically) known as the "Father of American humour", and enjoyed popularity similar to Dickens, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Old Judge (1849) is his only book set in Nova Scotia without his most famous character, the Yankee clockmaker Sam Slick. Told by a travelling English narrator, the stories are a colourful collection of the characters he meets along the way, accompanied by a lawyer, and on occasion the old judge of the title. Many of the sketches are related by different varieties of Mr. Blue Nose, a native Nova Scotian, particularly one descending from the New England states. As such, I found "The Schoolmaster" and "Judge Beler's Ghost" eerily reminiscent of Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

While I prefer Dickens' humour, and the narrative of a novel to a series of sketches, Haliburton's satire depicts equally eccentric characters and a vivid portrayal of "Life in a Colony". Haliburton retired to England, from where he invested in Vancouver Island, a connection oddly continued in death by being buried in the same graveyard as explorer Captain George Vancouver.