Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/59

 from Haliburton's works were brought out under the following titles, which were invented by American publishers: ‘Yankee Stories and Yankee Letters,’ 1852; ‘Yankee Yarns;’ ‘Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, Esq., together with his Opinion on Matrimony;’ and ‘Sam Slick in search of a Wife.’



HALIDAY, ALEXANDER HENRY, M.D. (1728?–1802), physician and politician, son of [q. v.], the nonsubscribing divine, was born at Belfast about 1728. He was educated at Glasgow as a physician, and practised with great repute at Belfast, where for nearly half a century he was one of the most influential of public men. On 23 Dec. 1770 Belfast was invaded by some twelve hundred insurgents belonging to the society known as ‘Hearts of Steel,’ who marched from Templepatrick, co. Antrim, to rescue one David Douglas, imprisoned on a charge of maiming cattle. The ‘Hearts of Steel’ were animated by agrarian discontent, and their immediate grievance was that Belfast capitalists had purchased leases from the Marquis of Donegall over the tenants' heads. Haliday's prompt interposition between the rioters and the authorities saved the town from destruction by fire. His house in Castle Street was the headquarters of, earl of Charlemont [q. v.], on his annual visits to Belfast from 1782 in connection with the volunteer conventions. His correspondence with Charlemont (of which some specimens are given in Benn) lasted till the earl's death, and is full of information on the politics of the north of Ireland, enlivened by strokes of humour. He died at Belfast on 28 April 1802. ‘Three nights before he died,’ writes Mrs. Mattear to [q. v.], ‘Bruce and I played cards with him, and the very night that was his last he played out the rubber. “Now,” said he, “the game is finished, and the last act near a close.”’ He was buried in the Clifton Street cemetery, then newly laid out. His will leaves to his wife (an Edmonstone of Red Hall) ‘a legacy of 100l. by way of atonement for the many unmerciful scolds I have thrown away upon her at the whist table,’ also ‘the sum of 500l. in gratitude for her never having given on any other occasion from her early youth till this hour any just cause to rebuke or complain of her,’ and ‘a further sum of 100l.’ for her goodness in amusing him with ‘a game of picket’ when his eyesight had decayed. His fine library, rich in classics, was sold after his death; part of it is now the property of the First Presbyterian Church, Belfast. Haliday wrote, but did not publish, a tragedy, submitted to Charlemont, and many satirical verses. His grandson and namesake published anonymously a volume of original hymns, Belfast, 1844, 16mo.



HALIDAY, CHARLES (1789–1866), antiquary, born in 1789, was son of William Halliday or Haliday, an apothecary in Dublin, and younger brother of [q.v.] He passed some of his early years in London, and about 1812 began business in Dublin as a merchant. He took an active part in the attempts to ameliorate the condition of the poor, especially during the cholera at Dublin in 1832. He was in 1833 elected a member of the corporation for improving the harbour of Dublin and superintending the lighthouses on the Irish coasts, and to the affairs of this body his attention was mainly devoted through life. Haliday acquired considerable wealth, erected a costly villa near Dublin, and formed a large collection of books and tracts. He filled for many years the posts of consul for Greece, secretary of the chamber of commerce, Dublin, and director of the Bank of Ireland. His public services to the commercial community of Dublin were acknowledged by presentations of addresses and plate on two occasions. He died at Monkstown, near Dublin, 14 Sept. 1866. In 1847 Haliday was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy, to which body a large portion of the books and tracts collected by him were presented by his widow, and a catalogue of them has been completed by the writer of the present notice. A portrait of Haliday is preserved with his collection at the Royal Irish Academy.

Haliday was author of the following pamphlets:
 * 1) ‘An Inquiry into the Influence of the Excessive Use of Spirituous Liquors in producing Crime, Disease, and Poverty in Ireland’ (anon.), Dublin, 1830.
 * 2) ‘The Necessity of combining a Law of Settlement with Local Assessment in the proposed Bill for the Relief of the Poor of Ireland’ (anon.), Dublin, 1838.
 * 3) ‘A Letter to the Commissioners of Landlord and Tenant Inquiry on