The Press.
London, England, 1855-01-27 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

" said that his great-grandfather was a gentle-
" man and had wasted an estate." All the
flourish, therefore, concerning the name of
Montgomery, and its occurrence in " the early
records of the peerage," might very well have
been omitted. But this is an example of the
manner in which the book is made up. Be-
cause Montgomery's father was a Moravian
minister the history of the Moravian Church
is given, and because he resided some time in
the West Indies, the origin and progress of the
mission in that part of the world is related.
By a similar process of expansion the life of
any being in the world might be made to fill a
thousand volumes as easily as one.
As to the style of these joint biographers
one example will suffice. In describing the
childish days of young Montgomery, it is

said :
The inventive powers of the young bard were ever in
active operation ; and, imagining himself adequate to pro-
duce something superior to merely lyrical compositions,
he plumed his wings for a higher flight, and, hovering in
delight over poetic ground, he at length perceived a subject
which forcibly struck him, seized upon it with the aviuity
with which the descending eagle rushes on her prey, and
bore it away to the solitude of his study. What occupied
his mind and his pen in this instance was a mock-heroic
poem, in imitation of Homer's " Frogs and Mice."
This is the very style of " the tuneful
Tubb " in Little Pedlington. It is vain to
expect ordinary sense from a person who
could write such prose-run-mad as this. It
is true that we do not often meet with such
fine passages, but the whole volumes are
unfavourably distinguished by lack of dis-
cretion ; and the pomp 0113 manner in which
trivial events are often mentioned is ridiculous.
Thus it is related that when Montgomery
was in London, in his nineteenth year, he
never entered a theatre, and actually did not
visit the British Museum. But it is added :
There was one striking spectacle, with which the resi-
dents of the metropolis are unhappily but too familiar,
which he did go to see, a great fire. The Albion flour-
mills, near lllackfriara-bridge, were burnt down on the Ist
of March,l79l,—Montgomery witnessed the conflagration.
This incident is told with as much emphasis
as though it formed an epoch in the life of the
poet, and led to important results, though the
subject is never alluded to again. Every scrap
of information that can be collected relative to
Montgomery's early days is related with the
same particularity. Thus it is stated that
when he went to church at Wath he sat in the
next pew to that occupied by " the late
" Thomas Tuke, Esq., his two sisters, and a
" relative, Miss Wainwright." And then fol-
lows a record of one of the poet's youthful

irregularities :
Nancy Wainwright was one of our Wath beauties, who,
I am afraid, says Montgomery, I sometimes looked at in
church more than was proper.
Discarding all the irrelevant matter cob
lected by these most diligent of all biographers,
the incidents of Montgomery's life, to the
period when the second volume closes, in his
forty-first year, are few and simple. His father,
as we have said, was a Moravian minister of
humble origin, and it was while he was in the
pastoral charge of a small congregation of the
United Brethren at Irvine, a seaport in Ayr
shire, that James Montgomery was born, on
the 4th November, 1771. It is shown in this
book, that had his father and mother not
removed from Ireland when they did he
would have been born in that island, and this
demonstration is followed by the profound
reflection that "on such apparently slight
" accidents does a man sometimes become
" identified with his native country ! " The
authors evidently consider that there was
something peculiarly providential in the poet
being born in Scotland, though the event
seems to have been in no way more connected
with his subsequent life and fortunes than
his witnessing the destruction of the Albion
Hour-mills, or his casting admiring glances
towards Nancy Wainwright at church.
When Montgomery was six years old, he
was taken to the Moravian settlement, Ful-
neck, near Leeds, to be educated, and this
incident is, of course, recorded with due
emphasis :
They arrived Oct. 18, 1777, a day and month memorable
as those on which, as Montgomery used to say, his English
life commenced, and on which, seventeen years afterwards,
he was arrested as a libeller !
The details given of the educational method
of this Moravian institution are curious. The

SATURDAY,

boy was instructed in Latin, Greek, German,
and French, and also in history, geography,
and music. But the course was too extensive
for his years, or not adapted to his taste, as
he does not appear to have made much pro-
gress in languages. Very early he conceived
a taste for poetry :
On being interrogated on the subject, " The master,"
said he, " took several of the children out one day, and
read' Blair's Grave' to them behind a hedge. My mull:
lion was strongly arrested, and a few lines made a powerful
impression upon my mind. I said to myself, 'lf ever 1
become a poet, I will write something like this.'"
A clumsy attempt is made in parts of these
volumes to reproduce the style of Boswell,
by giving the conversation between the poet
and his biographers. The plan would be un-
objectionable if the matter related were of
more importance. We subjoin a specimen :
Holland: " What particular part of Blair's poem im•
pressed you most? " Montgomery : " The Grave-Digger."
Everett : "Is is not remarkable that au author so de-
servedly popular should have written so little?" Mont-
gomery: There are two or three other pieces of his
composition, but of a very inferior character. His 'Grave'
is powerful, somewhat rough." Holland: " Were there
any other authors who can be said at that time to have
inspired you with a love of poety ? " Montgomery : " The
next poem which I heard read—for 1 was not permitted to
read it myself—was Blackmore's Prince Arthur' : this
far surpassed anything I had either heard or imagined;
it was real to me some time after I had heard the Grave,'
and had even attempted the composition of hymns.
There was a rumbling majesty in the lines, which cora•
pletely captivated my mind, and confirmed the resolution
produced by Blair : I resolved I would be a Blackmore."
Everett: " Sir Richard interested you, then, I suppose,
merely for his novelty? " Montgomery, pleasantly : You
may say what you will against Sir Richard, but he was a
great man."
Blair's " Grave " must have made the more
impression on him from his state at the time,
for he wrote nearly twenty years afterwards :
At school, even when I was driven like a coal ass
through the Latin and Greek grammars, I was distin-
gutshed for nothing but indolence and melancholy, brought
upon me by a raging and lingering fever, with which I was
suddenly seized one fine summer day, as I lay under a
hedge with my companions listening to our master whilst
he read us some animated passages from Itlair's poem on
the " Grave."

The boys at Fulneck seem to have been
encouraged to write verses, and Montgomery,
we learn, had by his tenth year filled a small
volume with his rhymes. The specimen given
here shows only an imitative faculty, as verses
like these would never have naturally suggested
themselves to the mind of so young a boy :
NIGHT SCENE FROM AN ODE TO SOLITUDE.
Let me wander slow, and rove,
Through the solitary grove ;
Universal silence reigns
Save where Philomel complains,
And the turtle for the fate
Of his lately murdered mate.
But the imaginative character of the poet was
shown by his lying awake at night to complete
verses. "'this wakefulness," he said, "became
" a habit which in after life never wholly for
sook me."
In 1783 (Montgomery being then only twelve
years of age) his parents sailed to engage in the
West Indian Mission, and he never saw them
more. They suffered greatly during a dreadful
hurricane in Tobago, in 1790, and in October
of that year his mother died. "God is truly
" present here," said a minister who watched
by her bedside, as she tranquilly expired with-
out the least pain. Her partner did not long
survive her. "He fell happily asleep," accord-
ing to one of the brethren, in June, 1791, and
a grove of tamarind trees now marks his grave
in the island of Barbadoes.
The young poet was intended by the brethren
for a teacher in their school, but he could not
be prevailed on to use proper diligence in his
studies. " The fact is," as Montgomery him-
self once told Mr. Holland in plain terms, " I
" was turned out of the school at Fulneck on
" account of alleged indolence." The brethren
then resolved to place him to a trade, and he
was entered in the shop of a retail baker at
Mirfield, where he was subsequently appre
ticed. But, after a short experience of this
way of life, he determined on quitting it, and
when in his sixteenth year ran away from his
master with a single change of linen and three
and sixpence in his pocket. His conscienti-
ousness was shown by his leaving his best suit
behind him. He walked southward, and on
the second evening of his journey reached
Wentworth, where he heard that a youth was

iimmonv

JANUARY 27,1855.

wanted in a " general store" in the neighbour-
ing village of Wath. The owner agreed to
engage him if the consent of his late master
could he obtained, and Montgomery accordingly
wrote to him. There must, in spite of his
alleged indolence at school, have been some-
thing extremely engaging in the boy, as his
master and the Moravian brethren regarded
him with great kindness. His letter was laid
before the brethren, and his master was corn
missioned to go and see him, and, if possible,
bring him back. Montgomery said:—

lie came to me in person at Rotherham, where I waited
for an answer. I was so affected by his appearance that I
ran to meet him in the inn•yard; and he was so over-
whelmed at the sight of me that we clasped each other's arms
on horseback, and remained weeping, without speaking a
word, for some time, to the great amusement of many,
very many spectators. It required all my resolution to
resist bie entreaties and persuasions to return, but I at
length overcame; and when he left me the next day he
gave a very handsome written character, and also called
himself on my future employer to recommend me to him.
lie also supplied me with money, and sent my clothes and
other things which 1 had left behind.

It was not in Montgomery's nature to remain
long in the general shop at Wath, though most
kindly treated. He employed his leisure time
iu composition, sent a volume of MS. poetry to
a publisher in London, and after a twelve-
month's sojourn at Wath left it to seek, as so
many adventurous youths have done before and
since, his fortune in London. To this point
his career resembles in many respects that of
the poet Crabbe, though he was not lucky
enough to meet with an Edmund Burke to
befriend him. In London he was not fortunate.
The publishers to whom he applied, regarded
his MSS. with prudent suspicion, and, after
some months of struggle and disappointment,
he returned "in the heavy coach" to Wath,
where, occupied with the business of the
" general store," he remained till he reached
his majority.
Soon after this he read in the Sheffield
Register that a clerk was wanted in the office
of the proprietor. Mr. Gales was an auc-
tioneer, bookseller, and printer, and had
started a newspaper as a profitable adjunct to
his business. The rise of journalism in this
country suggests a curious chapter in our
annals. At first pursued for trading pur-
poses alone, it then acquired political impor-
tance, and has now risen to the dignity of a
" fourth estate." Montgomery applied for the
vacancy, was accepted, and was thenceforth a
member of a newspaper establishment. Mr.
Gales knew his value, and pointed him out as
an admirable paragraph writer.
At this time the French revolution and con-
sequent war stronly agitated the public mind.
The circulation of the Register, assisted by
occasional contributions from Montgomery's
pen, advanced ; but unfortunately it took an
extreme democratic tone. Tumultuous meet-
ings were held on Castle-hill : Gales was mixed
up with the incautious proceedings of the
agitators, and, to escape the aroused vigilance
of Government, deemed it advisable to drop
his Register, and go into hiding. Montgomery
instantly started the Iris, and with this paper
the fortunes of his life became afterwards in-
separably associated.
This paper was regarded with suspicion.
Montgomery made no secret of his democratic
principles, and braved prosecution. As a
consequence, legal proceedings were twice
taken against him in the stormy period of
1794-5 ; but, though he was on each occasion
sentenced to imprisonment, there was little
personal animosity manifested against him,
and his prosecutors and judges afterwards
became his friends. The paper improved as it
assumed more of a poetical character, and the
literary ability occasionally displayed in it
saved it from being considered as a purely
democratic organ.
Fortunately for Montgomery, the manage-
ment of a newspaper at that time was light in
comparison with the labour which it now de-
mands. He was never personally active. His
means were narrow. His income from the
newspaper, added to that from his printing
business, was small. But he found time to
furnish contributions—principally poetical
criticisms—to the Eclectic Review, and also to
prepare some poems for the press. In 1806,
being then in his thirty-fifth year, he pub-
lished his poems of " The Grave " and " The
Common Lot," which established his claim, in