unguarded expression, to identify it, and the name of its author, with the Anti-Corn-Law movement, which at that time agitated every section of society. The following is the passage and comment in question:—

"Since the year 1837 there has been manifestly a most disastrous turn in trade and manufactures here, not the consequence of a sudden shock from violent and temporary derangement, traceable to obvious causes, severe and heavy for a while, as on former occasions, from which, if slowly, yet surely, amendment followed; but a progressive decay, like the fatal and insidious symptoms of consumption in the human frame, tending towards inevitable destruction. The oldest inhabitant of Sheffield cannot remember a crisis of calamity so general, and apparently so hopeless as that which has come upon us.'

Depressed as the energies of commerce undoubtedly were at the time when the foregoing passage was written, the language was nevertheless not only unnecessarily strong, but perhaps out of place in the report of a charitable society. Our beloved friend certainly in this instance allowed a morbid apprehension to usurp the place of his better judgment. Well might the editor of the newspaper say :

"Had such an opinion been expressed at an Anti-CornLaw meeting, it would have been sneered at by the Tories as a gross exaggeration. But surely they will have some respect for this declaration of Mr. Montgomery, uttered not at random, but deliberately written, read, and published. Let Mr. Montgomery's language be compared with Mr. Elliott's long-derided predictions, and how exactly do they correspond. The Corn-Law Rhymer sang of coming woes, and strove in vain to procure a remedy; and now Mr. Montgomery declares, that our sufferings arise not from any sudden shock or temporary derangement, but that 'it is a progressive decay, like the fatal, insidious symptoms of con

LETTER TO MR. LEACH.

123

sumption, threatening inevitable dissolution.' Then are we still to be refused the free air and exercise that will restore our health?"*

James Montgomery to John Leach.

"MY DEAR FRIEND,

66

Sheffield, 3rd October, 1842.

"When I wrote on Saturday, I did not expect to write to you so soon again; for though I feared as much, at least as I hoped, when I ventured to send you information of my purpose to accompany brother Peter Latrobe on his Irish missionary tour, yet, as I have just told him in a letter by this post, I resisted the fear and cherished the hope that I might accomplish it. 'It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps,' nor have I for a moment from the beginning of this business wished or attempted to choose mine. I have earnestly sought divine direction to go or to stay, to suffer or to do whatever the Lord or the Lord's people might require of me. But though in an hour of comparative relief from the protracted misery of a lingering disease, I summoned courage to tell him that I hoped to be ready to set out at the appointed time, I am again thrown down. Yesterday evening a severe access of the complaint seized me, and this morning I feel myself so reduced and exhausted (with the prospect moreover of further seizures), that I am compelled to give up all hope of visiting Ireland on this, or indeed any other, missionary occasions. For more than two years past I have declined every invitation from what quarter soever, except two for our brethren, in company with our friend and brother P. Latrobe, viz., a short one to Manchester in 1840, and a long one to Scotland last year. The truth is, my bodily strength, mental energy, and especially failing memory, being in course of irrevocable decline, I could not render such service, feeble as it has ever been, as I was wont formerly with gladness to render to the great, the universal cause of evangelising the heathen world

* "Sheffield Independent," Oct. 8. 1842.

by missionaries of every Christian denomination, who preach 'Christ crucified' at home or abroad. Henceforth my labours, if I am allowed time to continue them a little longer, must be less in public than they have been hitherto; but, by the grace of God, I trust that what I can do, shall be done with a perfect heart, and a willing mind. I am so nervously affected that I can scarce write legibly; my thoughts and words find it hard to run abreast, and therefore a little stumbling and crossing you will compassionately excuse. I have desired brother Latrobe to add something to the collection of our Irish brethren and sisters on this occasion, as one of you, one in spirit, one in faith, hope, and charity,if we be but one in Christ, for the last is all and in all. To be one of you in this blessed sense is my heart's desire and prayer; and, in return, I say, 'Brethren, pray for me!' I lament the trouble and derangement of your plans, arising out of this miscarriage, but I have not willingly offended. "Your obliged friend and brother,

"JAMES MONTGOMERY." ""

Holland: "This, Sir, is a volume of Coleridge's Table Talk;' you will perceive he is of your opinion with reference to omission and alteration in poetical selections:

"I once thought of making a collection to be called "The Poetical Filter," upon the principle of simply omitting from the old pieces of lyric poetry which we have, those parts in which the whim or the bad taste of the author, or the fashion of his age, prevailed over his genius. You would be surprised at the number of exquisite wholes which might be made by this simple operation; and perhaps by the insertion of a single line, or half a line, out of poems which are now utterly disregarded, on account of some odd or incongruous passages in them.

Montgomery: "Yes, and he is quite right; a large volume of very delightful reading might by that means be selected from our old poets, whose works contain

occasional blemishes of sentiment or expression, which the most trifling alteration or excision might remove; but which, suffered to remain, even in an extract, become troublesome eyesores to good taste, if nothing worse. Holland: "Coleridge is of your opinion too, it seems, on another point :

"After all you can say, I still think the chronological order the best for arranging a poet's works; all your divisions are in particular instances inadequate, and they destroy the interest which arises from watching the progress, maturity, and even the decay of genius.'

Montgomery: "That method is of most importance when the author is an egotist,-if his works contain much of himself. Wordsworth has adopted the principle in the recent collection of his poems. By the way, I dreamt of Wordsworth last night. I fancied it was the Bible Society meeting, and he was in the chair. Several persons spoke, but I had not ventured to say anything till the audience appeared about to break up, when I rose to propose a vote of thanks to the chairman, and spoke, as I thought, with great freedom and pleasure, indulging in a strain of warm eulogy: indeed, I recollected something of the drift of my observations when I awoke." Holland: "Did you ever hear Wordsworth speak at such a meeting?" Montgomery: "I never either heard or saw him on such an occasion. A lady told me she once went a considerable distance in the expectation of hearing him speak. She could just perceive his head among others on the platform, and when his turn came to second a resolution, he did it literally in five words." Holland: "It seems curious you should just now dream of Wordsworth 1; perhaps you had been thinking or reading about him." Montgomery: "Not I, indeed; my thoughts during the

day had been harassed by a widely different subject, so that even such a dream was a relief to my mind. As for reading, I have just gone through Bolingbroke's 'Letters on History,' a book you would not think of reading, I suppose?" Holland: "Not at present; and yet I have just been reading Cooke's Life of him. I should almost as soon have expected to have heard of you, at this time of day, reading the works of Channing as those of Bolingbroke, as I presume you read the latter chiefly for the sake of the style." Montgomery: "I did; though I felt also a renewal of that interest in several of the subjects which strongly excited me when young. As for Dr. Channing, the distance between him and Bolingbroke, in the matter of style, is as great as that between England and America,-an Atlantic separates them!"