the printer Bowyer to write a poem on the abolition of the slave trade, to be published along with other poems on the subject in a handsome illustrated volume. The subject was well adapted to Montgomery's powers, appealing at once to the philanthropic enthusiasm in which his strength lay, and to his own touching associations with the West Indies. His poem entitled 'The West Indies' accordingly appeared in Bowyer's illustrated publication in 1809. It is a great improvement on 'The Wanderer,' and, although rather rhetoric than poetry, is in general well conceived and well expressed, and skilful as well as sincere in its appeals to public sentiment. On its first appearance in Bowyer's volume it proved a failure, but when published separately (London, 1810, 12mo) it obtained great popularity. 'The World before the Flood' (1812), also in heroic verse, is a more ambitious attempt, and displays more poetic fire and spirit than any of Montgomery's previous performances; nor is it so deficient in human interest as might have been expected in an epic on the wars of the giants and the patriarchs. The descriptive passages frequently possess great merit, which is even exceeded in Montgomery's next considerable effort, 'Greenland' (1819), a poem founded on the Moravian missions to Greenland. Montgomery's last important poem, 'The Pelican Island' (1826), also contains very fine descriptive passages, but with more preaching has less human interest than 'Greenland,' and is marred by being written in blank verse, of which the author was by no means a master. A considerable part of his reputation with the public at large rests upon his numerous hymns, which were collected in 1853. The finest were those written in his earlier years, including 'Go to dark Gethsemane,' 'Songs of praise the Angels sang,' and 'For ever with the Lord.' Over a hundred of his other hymns are still in use (Julian, Dict. of Hymnology, p. 764).
After retiring from the 'Iris,' Montgomery continued to reside at Sheffield, where he had come to be accounted a local hero, and grew more and more in the respect of his fellow-townsmen by his exemplary life and activity in furthering every good work, whether philanthropic or religious. In 1830 and 1831 he delivered lectures on poetry at the Royal Institution, which were published in 1833. They are, perhaps, of all his writings those which it is easiest to praise unreservedly, the opinions being almost invariably just, and conveyed with a force and sometimes even a poetry of diction which nothing in his previous criticisms had seemed to promise. In 1831 he also compiled from the original documents the journals of D. Tyerman and G. Bennet, who had been deputed by the London Missionary Society to visit their stations in the South Sea Islands, China, and India. In 1835 he received a pension of 150l. on the recommendation of Sir Robert Peel, and about the same time contributed fairly adequate accounts of Dante, Ariosto, and Tasso to Lardner's 'Cabinet Cyclopædia.' The remainder of his life was devoted to religious and philanthropic undertakings. He died rather suddenly on 30 April 1854. He was honoured by a public funeral, and a monument designed by John Bell was erected over his grave in the Sheffield cemetery. He was unmarried.
Montgomery was emphatically a good man; greatness, whether intellectual or poetical, cannot be claimed for him. He had sound plain sense; his conversation, judging from the copious specimens recorded by his biographers, was instructive and entertaining, but neither brilliant nor profound; his letters, though expressive of his admirable character, are in general grievously verbose. As a poet he is only eminent in descriptive passages, for which he is usually indebted to books rather than his own observation of nature. There are some indications of creative power in 'The World before the Flood,' and the character of Javan is well drawn; but, as Mrs. Hofland remarked, he drew from himself. The minor pieces which have obtained a wide circulation usually deserve it, but they are buried in his works among masses of commonplace which should never have been printed. He is largely indebted for his fame to the approbation of religious circles, better judges of his sentiments than of his poetry: this has, on the other hand, occasioned unreasonable prejudice against him in other quarters. On the whole he may be characterised as something less than a genius and something more than a mediocrity.
The best portraits of Montgomery are those respectively painted by the sculptor Chantrey in 1805, and by John Jackson in 1827. A full-length by Barber is in the Sheffield Literary and Philosophical Institute.
The first collective edition of Montgomery's poems, edited by himself, appeared in four volumes, London, 1841, 8vo. This passed through several editions, the most recent being that of 1881. His poems form volumes in the 'Lansdowne Poets,' the 'Chandos Poets,' and the 'Chandos Classics,'
