Liberty and the British Lion, he now recognized the frontispiece of an extinct
periodical conducted by his predecessor; and on inquiring in the printing-office,
he found that the ballads had been put in type surreptitiously by one of Mr.
Gales' apprentices, for the use of his companions, and that the ballad vender
had lately, for old acquaintance sake, been furnished by the foreman with a
quantity for sale. On learning these particulars, Montgomery allowed the poor
fellow to obtain what he wanted. Eighteenpence worth of the ballads was
accordingly worked off, and paid for. In two months afterwards Montgomery
was arrested, on a magistrate's warrant, for publishing a certain seditious libel
respecting the war then waging between his majesty and the French government, entitled, "A Patriotic Song, by a Clergyman of Belfast," which song had,
in fact, been composed in 1792, a year before the war with France commenced,
and referred solely to the invasion of France by the armies of Austria and
Prussia. It was enough that the song had been printed by Montgomery, and
vended by a ballad-monger, who went about crying "Straws to sell!" and giving away the ballad into the bargain. A constable purchased a straw, obtained
the ballad to boot, and took the ballad-seller into custody. Upon the evidence
of the constable and the ballad-monger, Montgomery was found guilty of the
publication, by a jury, at Doncaster sessions, January 22, 1795; and the sentence of the court was three months' imprisonment in the castle of York, and. a
fine of 20. Forty-four years afterwards, in 1839, Mr. Montgomery received a
packet, containing several of the original documents connected with his trial.
Amongst these was a letter from the Duke of Portland, then the home-secretary,
to a local magistrate, approving of the steps taken against the song seller and the publisher. The "compliments" of the attorney-general, Sir John Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon, were, according to instructions from Mr. White,, solicitor to the treasury, to accompany the brief to three counsel named, and the Sheffield solicitor's bill of costs was indorsed Rex v. Montgomery. "Thus
(says the poet) I learned that I had actually suffered, not to say enjoyed,
the honour of a State prosecution." A fragment of the original draft of the
brief was also received, stating that "this prosecution is carried on chiefly with
a view of putting a stop to the meetings of the associated clubs in Sheffield;
and it is hoped that, if we are fortunate enough to succeed in convicting the
prisoner, it will go a great way towards curbing the insolence they have uniformly manifested." The second offence for which Mr. Montgomery was tried
and imprisoned, was the printing, in his paper, of a paragraph reflecting hardly
upon the conduct of a magistrate in quelling a riot at Sheffield in 1795. The
trial took place at Doncaster sessions in 1796, a verdict was given against the
defendant, and he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment in York Castle,
to pay a fine of thirty pounds to the king, and to give security to keep the peace
for two years. Mr. Montgomery never complained of this trial and sentence;
and he records, in the introduction to his "Prison Amusements," that the
magistrate whom he had offended, took the opportunity, a few years afterwards,
of showing him both kindness and confidence in an affair of business, and that
his conduct evinced that his mind was as much discharged of hostile feeling
towards his editorial opponent, "as, I trust (says the latter), mine was of resentment against him." In the same spirit, the poet in his valedictory address
in 1825, said "I can now add that all the persons who were actively concerned in the prosecutions against me in 1794 and 1795 are dead, and without exception
they died in peace with me. I believe I am quite correct in saying, that from
Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 9.djvu/208
472
JAMES MONTGOMERY.
