Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/324

 taking Satan by surprise and lopping off one of his wings. The Moravians for a time clipped Montgomery's own wings by placing him with a baker; but the employment proved intolerable, and in 1787 Montgomery ran away with three and sixpence in his pocket and a bundle of verses, which proved more valuable than might have been expected, for a poem, written out fairly and presented to Earl Fitzwilliam, brought him a guinea. He was, nevertheless, soon obliged to apply for a character to his old instructors and to his master, who treated him with much kindness, and he obtained a situation in a general store in the little town of Wath. After a year he quitted this and made his way with his manuscripts to London, but, finding no encouragement from the publishers, returned to Wath, and remained there till April 1792, when, by answering an advertisement in the 'Sheffield Register,' he obtained a situation as clerk and bookkeeper in the office of that newspaper. This change brought Montgomery into intellectual society; his literary talent began to be appreciated; he gradually became an extensive contributor to the paper; and an unexpected circumstance opened up the path to independence. This was the prosecution and flight of Mr. Gales, the proprietor and editor of the 'Register,' and an ardent reformer, on account of a letter found on the person of Thomas Hardy on his apprehension, and attributed to Gales, who was in fact cognisant of its having been sent, though he was not the actual writer. Gales escaped to America; money to carry on the paper was found by a wealthy townsman named Naylor, and Montgomery became the working editor of the journal, which endeavoured to disarm the hostility of the government by changing its title to the 'Sheffield Iris,' and adopting a more moderate line in politics. In 1795 Naylor retired from the paper on account of his marriage, and it became the property of Montgomery, who also entered into business as a general printer. Within a few years he was enabled to pay off the purchase-money of the journal, and to obtain a highly respectable competence. Before this was achieved, however, he had to bear the brunt of two prosecutions for libel, each of which resulted in his conviction and imprisonment for a term in York Castle, though neither could affix the least stigma to his character. The first prosecution (January 1795) was on account of a ballad in commemoration of the Fall of the Bastille, a few copies of which had been sold to a travelling hawker; it had been printed by Montgomery's predecessor, and had in fact no reference to the events of the day. It was subsequently shown by official correspondence that the prosecution was instituted as a means of intimidating the Sheffield political clubs. The second prosecution (January 1796) Montgomery undoubtedly brought upon himself by statements respecting the behaviour of a magistrate, Colonel Athorpe, in dispersing a riotous assemblage, which could not be fully justified, although the explanations he was ready to have offered would probably have been accepted but for the embittered state of political feeling at the time. After his release in July he published the 'Prison Amusements' which had enlivened his confinement, and in 1798 a volume of essays entitled 'The Whisperer,' under the pseudonym of 'Gabriel Silvertongue.' He subsequently destroyed every copy he could lay his hands on; while a novel, in four volumes, completed during his second imprisonment, was destroyed in manuscript.

For some time the 'Iris' was the only newspaper in Sheffield; but beyond the ability to produce fairly creditable articles from week to week, Montgomery was entirely devoid of the journalistic faculties which would have enabled him to take advantage of his position. Other newspapers arose to fill the place which his might have occupied, and in 1825 the journal passed into other hands. During the greater part of this period he had given more attention to poetry than to journalism. 'The Ocean' (1805) attracted little attention, but 'The Wanderer of Switzerland' (1806), founded upon the French conquest of Switzerland, took the public ear at once, probably on account of the subject, and from the merit of some of the miscellaneous pieces accompanying it, especially the really fine and still popular lyric, 'The Grave.' The principal poem is as a whole very feeble, though a happy thought or vigorous expression may be found here and there. The volume nevertheless speedily went through three editions, and its sale was not materially checked by a caustic review from the pen of Jeffrey (Edinb. Rev. January 1807), which indeed gained Montgomery many friends. He himself became a reviewer, taking an important part in the newly established 'Eclectic Review,' in which he afterwards declared that he had noticed every contemporary of note except Byron. His criticism evinces little insight; he is a tolerably safe guide where no guidance is needed, but is slow, though by no means through unwillingness to appreciate the merits of contemporaries. A more thoroughly impartial critic never wrote. The success of 'The Wanderer' brought him in 1807 a commission from