Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 20.djvu/397

 eight months he became the company's Canadian superintendent, and directed the execution of his plans for the settlement of its lands. He threw himself into his task with great energy and success. One of his first labours was to found the town of Guelph in what is now the province of Ontario. In 1872 the township contained a population of fifty thousand. The company, however, did not obtain an immediate profit; its stock fell; Galt quarrelled with the lieutenant-governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland, and was at last superseded.

Bitterly disappointed, Galt returned in 1829 to England, and had to meet heavy claims. He was unable to pay 80l. due to Dr. Valpy, a ‘friend’ of long standing, for the education of his sons. According to Gillies (iii. 60–1), he was not only arrested, but suffered a long detention which contributed to the subsequent breakdown of his health. He was now entirely dependent on his pen for the support of himself and his family, and, still sanguine, he calculated that he could make 1,000l. a year by it. His first work after his return was ‘Lawrie Todd, or the Settlers in the Woods’ (1830, reissued in 1831 as No. 21 of ‘Standard Novels’), which contains some graphic sketches of settler life in America. In the same year appeared ‘Southennan’ and a ‘Life of Lord Byron’ (issued as No. 1 of G. R. Gleig's ‘National Library’), which, though valueless, went through four editions, and was translated into French and German. It involved Galt in a controversy with Hobhouse. For a few months in 1830, at the instance of Lockhart and John Murray, Galt edited the tory evening newspaper the ‘Courier.’ In 1831 Galt went to live at Barnes Cottage, Old Brompton, where he was visited by the Countess of Blessington (see, ii. 110–11). In the same year appeared his readable compilation ‘The Lives of the Players’ (reprinted in 1886), and a novel, ‘Bogle Corbet, or the Emigrants.’ Among the periodicals to which he contributed was the recently founded ‘Fraser's Magazine.’ Carlyle, who met him at a dinner party given by its proprietor, says in his journal (21 Jan. 1832): ‘Galt looks old, is deafish, has the air of a sedate Greenock burgher; mouth indicating sly humour and self-satisfaction; the eyes, old and without lashes, gave me a sort of wae interest for him. He wears spectacles, and is hard of hearing; a very large man, and eats and drinks with a certain west-country gusto and research. Said little, but that little peaceable, clear, and gutmüthig. Wish to see him again.’ In a letter of the following February Carlyle speaks of him as ‘a broad gawsie Greenock man, old-growing, loveable with pity.’ In 1832 appeared (1) ‘The Member,’ a satire on borough-mongering and political jobbery; (2) ‘The Radical;’ and (3) ‘Stanley Buxton, or the Schoolfellows,’ a novel. In this year he had the first of a long series of attacks ‘analogous to paralysis.’ It destroyed his hopes of an active connection with the British North American Land Company, of which a board of directors had been appointed with himself for its provisional secretary.

In 1833 Galt issued a volume of ‘Poems,’ ‘Stories of the Study,’ 2 vols., a novel, ‘Eben Erskine,’ and supplied the letterpress for the first and only instalment of ‘Ouranologos, or the Celestial Volume,’ in which the effects of line-engraving were to be combined with those of mezzotint, John Martin designing and engraving for it ‘The Eve of the Deluge.’ In the same year appeared his ‘Autobiography,’ remarkable for the absence of querulousness and for self-complacency. This was followed in 1834 by his ‘Literary Life and Miscellanies,’ 3 vols. The volumes were dedicated by permission to William IV, who sent him 200l. Mrs. Thomson (ii. 115) speaks of one donation to him of 50l. from the Literary Fund. His three sons had now received appointments in Canada, where one of them, the present Sir Alexander Galt, rose to be finance minister of the Dominion. Galt, poor and paralysed, found, towards the close of 1834, a home at Greenock with an affectionate sister. He bore his sufferings with great fortitude and cheerfulness. In 1836 he edited, with an introduction, ‘Forty Years' Residence in America exemplified in the Life of Grant Thorburn [the original Lawrie Todd], Seedsman, New York, written by himself;’ in 1839 appeared vols. iii. and iv. of ‘Lady Charlotte Bury's Diary, illustrative of the Times of George IV,’ with his preface and an appendix of personal reminiscences. He died at Greenock 11 April 1839, and was buried in the family grave. ‘The Demon of Destiny, and Other Poems,’ was edited posthumously by his friend Harriett Pigott, and privately printed in 1840. In Blackwood's ‘Standard Novels’ (vols. i. ii. iv. vi.) are reprints of his best fictions, ‘The Annals of the Parish,’ ‘The Ayrshire Legatees,’ ‘Sir Andrew Wylie,’ ‘The Entail,’ with some of his minor pieces. He printed at the end of the ‘Autobiography’ a list of his writings, not including his numerous contributions to periodicals. It is reproduced, with insignificant additions, at the end of the volume of ‘Poems.’ In not a single case has he given the date of publication.