He was a man of strong conservative in stincts, utterly opposed to hasty and head long change, but quite sensible of the neces sity for reform where abuses existed. Al though he was not one of the so-called re formers of his day, he nevertheless advoca ted measures of reform along safe and con servative lines, which conferred a great boon upon his countrymen. His prudence is well illustrated by his first speech in the As sembly—that on the customs bill. The cus toms imposts were collected at the time by the Imperial authorities, who paid the sala ries of the officers. The right of the colo ny to wholly control the customs was as serted somewhat defiantly by some members of the Assembly. This procedure Mr. Haliburton opposed, and he advocated instead the appointment of a committee to present an address to His Majesty asking in moderate and courteous but not less effective language the adjustment of the customs difficulty in the manner desired by the colonists. Bea mish Murdoch, Q. C, who was himself a member of the Assembly at the time, gives the following description of Mr. Haliburton as a speaker : — "As an orator, his attitude and manner were extremely impressive, earnest and dignified; and although the strong propen sity of his mind to wit and humor was often apparent, it seldom detracted from the seri ousness of his language when the subject under discussion was important. Although he sometimes exhibited more hauteur in his tone than was agreeable, yet his wit was us ually kind and playful He was not remarkable for readiness of reply in de bate; but when he had time to prepare his ideas and language, he was almost always sure to make an impression on his hearers." In the session of 1827, an occasion arose which gave Mr. Haliburton an opportunity to display his splendid powers of declama tion. A petition from the Roman Catholics of the Province was presented to the Assem bly on the 1 2th of February, praying for the
removal of the test oaths. A fortnight later the petition was taken into consider ation, and a resolution in accordance with the prayer of the petition was submitted. The resolution was moved by Mr. Richard John Uniacke in a speech of singular beauty and strength, and was seconded by Mr. Haliburton. Mr. Murdoch speaks of this speech as the finest piece of declamation he had ever listened to; and it is said that the celebrated Joseph Howe, himself the great est of Canadian orators, while detailed to report the speech, was so captivated that he had to lay down his pen. No verbatim re port of this speech has been preserved, but the following extract from a synopsis of it is taken from a contemporary record, and will convey some idea of the effort : — "In considering this question he should set out with stating that every man had a right to participate in the civil government of that country of which he was a member, without the imposition of any test oath, un less such restriction was necessary to the safety of that government; and if that was conceded, it would follow that these tests should be removed from the Catholics un less their necessity could be proved in re spect of that body. He stated that the religion which they profess was called Cath olic because it was at one time the universal religion of the Christian world, and that the bishop of Rome, from being the spiritual head of it, was called Pope, which signified father. Then, after tracing the origin and history of the temporal power to the time of Henry VIII, he said that in subsequent times it had been thought necessary to im pose test oaths, lest the Catholics, who were the most numerous body, might restore the ancient order of things, and particularly as there was danger of a Catholic succession; but when the Stuart race became extinct, the test oaths should have been buried with the last of that unfortunate family. What ever might be the effect of emancipa tion in Great Britain, here there was not the
