to mention any of his relations, gave a list of names less known to fame:

Holland-Did you ever know any of your relations of that name? [Montgomerie.] Montgomery-No; our relations were the Spences, the M'Mullins, and the Blackleys.

It is really too bad that one than whom,' Mr. Holland tells us, there did not exist an individual of any "celebrity " who was less of a tuft-hunter, or who so really recognised and habitually acted upon a well-known dictum, that CHRISTIAN is the highest style of man,'* should be made ridiculous by his biographers' snobbish attempt to claim kindred for him with a noble family.

The poet's father was a Moravian preacher; accordingly, we are favoured with a history of the Moravians, their doctrines, and persecutions. The most remarkable circumstance about this primitive people is their odd manner of contracting marriages. It is decided by lot what brother' shall marry such a 'sister' and this system has been submitted to for several centuries.+ Montgomery told a story as to a certain Mr. Hutton, a great man among the Moravians:

6

George III. was fond of him; and on one occasion the King, who liked a joke, said, in his dry way, Mr. Hutton, I am told that you Moravians do not select your wives, but leave it to your ministers to choose for you-is it so ?' 'Yes, please your Majesty; marriages amongst the Brethren are contracted, as your Majesty will perceive, after the fashion of royalty.'

* Preface to vol. vii. p. 8. The typographical peculiarities are Mr. Holland's. + Vol. i. p. 22.

K

The specimens which are preserved of Montgomery's bon mots are such, that it is clear that had Sydney Smith ever come in contact with him, that distinguished wit would have met his match. We give some witticisms, culled with care :—

As Montgomery never wore any trinket, jewel, or personal ornament of that kind, we were amused one day by his exhibiting on his finger a galvanic ring (such as were then common, being made of a rim of zinc and copper), archly remarking,‘that as it had been placed there by a lady, he dared not remove it !'

June 4, 1822. Mr. Everett accompanied Montgomery on an excursion to Mansfield. The Hope coach left Sheffield at halfpast seven in the morning-an early hour for the poet. He was however ready to the minute; and watching the guard place a large watch in its receptacle, ‘There,' says he,' is his time, locked up like a turnspit dog in a wheel, to run its round, and do its work!”

Then, for an example of wit and presence of mind conjoined:

Mr. Robert Montgomery, from Woolwich, while walking out with the poet, came suddenly upon a field of flax in full flowerbeautifully blue. Brother, what sort of corn is that?' inquired the stranger. Such corn as your shirt is made of! PROMPT reply.

On one occasion, Mr. Holland

was the

was accosted by a gentleman, sotto voce, with the startling enquiry, ‘Do you know that Mr. Montgomery is married?' 'Certainly not,' was the reply; 'why do you put such a question ?' 'Because,' said the gentleman, there is a letter in existence which I am told proves the fact.' That letter is before us: it begins thus—' My dear friend—In a gloomy humour, I wrote the preceding trifle a few days ago. You will learn from it a secret, which I have hitherto withheld even from you and ail my friends in Sheffield, namely that I am married!'

To cut short Mr. Holland's story, the trifle was a copy of very poor verses, in which Montgomery mentions that he was married to the Muse. In such brilliant and novel jeux-d'esprit did the worthy man indulge.

Our readers would not forgive us, if we failed to record the following remarkable incident :

Coming into Mr. Holland's room one day, it was evident that something had tickled the poet's fancy. On being asked how he was:-Montgomery— Wait till I have recovered my breath, and I will tell you. You have noticed the immense piles of stones which your friend, William Lee, the surveyor of highways,has laid up yonder for paving the streets ? '—Holland—‘Yes, sir.'— Montgomery-Well, I was coming along, in a most melancholy mood, when the sight of these stones, in connexion with a sudden fancy, so amused me, that I think the incident has really done me good. I thought that when our surveyor dies, the epitaph originally made for Sir John Vanbrugh would, with the alteration of a single word, be exactly suitable for the worthy Sheffielder :— Lie heavy on him earth, for Lee

Laid many a heavy load on thee! '

Montgomery, notwithstanding this pleasant sally on the name of Mr. Lee, was as ready as any one to admit the value of the public services of one through whose official superintendence Sheffield might fairly claim to be regarded as one of the best paved, as well as the best drained, towns in the kingdom.

We can recal a parallel instance of wit to Mr. Montgomery's jokes, from the writings of Mr. Dickens. Mr. Peter Magnus said to Mr. Pickwick, 'You observe the initials of my name; P.M.-Post Meridiem? In familiar notes to intimate acquaintances, I occasionally sign my name " Afternoon." It amuses them, Mr. Pickwick.' Mr. Pickwick, we are told, bowed;

and rather envied the facility with which Mr. Magnus's friends could be amused.

Of the value of Mr. Montgomery's critical opinion we are enabled to judge by the following incident. Speaking of some preacher of whom we never heard before, he said:

There was, among other striking passages in his prayer, one very fine sentiment. God save the king, let not his greatness perish with him in the dust, but let him be great before thee!' That is of the very essence of the sublime!

If this be of the very essence of the sublime,' so, we presume, must be the following passage, from a leading article written by Montgomery in his newspaper, after Napoleon's death:

He is dead; Buonaparte is dead; and we promised to furnish his epitaph. It shall be brief; it shall be the only epitaph worthy of him,

'BUONAPARTE,'

his name, as it is written in his mother tongue, and unclipt by French flippancy.

Although it is evident from the biography, passim, that the people of Sheffield, including Montgomery, had an idea that their town was in all respects superior to any other of modern times, it is pleasing to observe that the poet's mind was comparatively free from provincial prejudices. We find the following important passage in a speech delivered by him at the founding of the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Society, to a report of which Messrs. Holland and Everett give eleven pages of their book:

Sir, I have never pretended, nor could I be guilty of such sophistry and falsehood as to insinuate that Sheffield can boast of poets, historians, and philosophers to rival those of Greece and

Rome!!!

Modest and candid old gentleman! Still he had his faults, for what says Mr. Holland ?

Posterity will no doubt be a little surprised, should I ever take it by the button, and say, 'Mr. Montgomery was a smoker!'

And he had a bad habit of throwing his letters violently about :

Montgomery called on Mr. Holland, and placing in his hand an envelope; See,' said he, there is a genuine autograph of Wordsworth. That is such a letter as one feels pleasure in receiving not like these, neither of which are worth a farthing, in any way;' at the same time casting the two impertinents violently upon the floor, as we have seen him do with similar epistles in other instances.

:

The fact is important, still the anecdote is incomplete. It was wrong in Mr. Holland to leave us in suspense as to whether Montgomery left the impertinents' lying upon his floor, or before leaving picked them up and re-pocketed them.

Notwithstanding the enormous length of this biography, there is a total absence in it of anything like clearness and completeness of presentment of the life, character, and daily habits of the man. Whoever desires to have a vivid picture of the individual Montgomery, must piece it together for himself, from detached hints and imperfect statements gathered up here and there in unexpected nooks of the huge mass