tions and high prospects, some demur was made by her relatives to her marriage with a younger brother ; but the mutual affection of the pair at last reconciled all parties to the measure. At the end of the year, the Melville Castle was at Portsmouth ready for an Indian voyage, in company with a large fleet of Indiamen lying at the same port, and Haldane, having parted with his wife at London, had already joined his vessel, when delays occurred that prevented its sailing till some months afterwards. While the fleet was thus lying at anchor, a mutiny broke out in the Button, which grew to such a height that the chief officers were obliged in terror to abandon the ship; and the crew, arming themselves with what weapons came to hand, threatened to sink every boat that came alongside to board them, or at the worst to blow up the ship, or carry it into a French port. In this state of wild uproar, Captain Haldane threw himself into one of the boats of the Melville Castle, and approached the Dutton, amidst the cries of "Keep off, or we'll sink you!" Undeterred by these threats, he boarded the hostile deck, cutlass in hand, relieved the remaining officers, who were about to be overpowered on the quarter-deck, and by his prompt decided measures so appalled the mutineers, that they were soon brought to a surrender. But while this was going on upon deck, a noise was heard below, and on learning the cause, he rushed to the powder magazine, which two men were about to enter, with a shovel-full of live coals, after having wrenched off the doors, swearing that they would blow the ship to heaven or hell, no matter which. He clapped a pistol to the breast of the most forward, and compelled him to stand; and ordered the crew to put the two offenders instantly in irons, which was done almost as rapidly as it had been commanded. The daring demeanour and prompt decision of the young captain of the Melville Castle so completely quelled the ship's company, and recalled their habits of obedience, that the chief mutineers submitted, and order was restored.
By this time Haldane had acquired a high character in his profession. His skill as a sailor, and his excellent qualities as an officer, had endeared him to seamen and passengers alike; his courage in trying emergencies had been well proved; while the political influence by which he was supported, not only through his friends at home, but in India, where his wife's uncle, Sir Ralph Abercromby, was commander-in-chief of the British army, insured him the speedy attainment both of rank and fortune. Such a consummation was also expected of him as a duty, both on the part of his wife's relatives and his own, who saw no reason why he should sink, with all his prospects and attainments, into the rank of an obscure bonnet laird, or idle country gentleman. And yet he had even already resolved to abandon the sea, and all its alluring advantages! The cause of this is to be traced to his early religious education, which had more or less clung to him in his after-career, so that in all he had undergone and enjoyed, as well as all that he hoped or feared, he had felt the contention of two hostile elements within him he had been a man divided against himself. With an earnest longing that the spiritual should prevail, so that he might be renewed and sanctified, he felt withal as if such an end could not be attained in his present pursuits and occupations. But as this constituted the great turning-point of his life, it is right that we should hear his own account, which he has given in his manuscript memoranda in the following words: "Some circumstances which took place tended, before I left the sea, to render me more circumspect; yet was my heart still unchanged. I lived on board ship nearly four months at Portsmouth, and having much spare time, and being always
