'Works' he edited, in 16 vols. 8vo, between 1825 and 1837. His qualifications for the task were by no means of the highest order. His knowledge of the history of philosophy was far too slight and superficial to enable him to form a just appreciation of Bacon's contribution to scientific method, while he exhausted the resources of special pleading in the attempt to rehabilitate his character as a man. His perverse ingenuity provoked the trenchant censures of Macaulay's celebrated 'Essay' originally published in the 'Edinburgh Review' for July 1837. In 1841 Montagu began the publication of a series of 'Letters to the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay upon the Review of the Life of Lord Bacon.' Only the first, however, dealing with Bacon's conduct in Peacham's case, seems to have appeared. His reputation suffered unduly by Macaulay's strictures, for with all its faults his edition, by its approximate completeness, was of indubitable value, although it was practically superseded by Mr. Spedding's labours in 1860 and following years. He was assisted in it by Francis Wrangham [q.v.] and William Page Wood, afterwards Lord Hatherley [q. v.], who were responsible for the translations of the Latin treatises.
Montagu also published a volume of 'Essays,' chiefly reprints, with 'An Outline of a Course of Lectures upon the Conduct of the Understanding,' London, 1824, 8vo; 'Thoughts on Laughter,' London, 1830, 12mo : 'Thoughts of Divines and Philosophers,' London, 1832, 24mo (a volume of selections) ; 'Lectures delivered at the Mechanics' Institution upon the connexion between Knowledge and Happiness,' London, 1832, 8vo ; ' Essays and Selections,' London, 1837, 8vo ; and Thoughts on the Conduct of the Understanding, a fragment of a magnum opus which he had on hand for thirty years, printed for private circulation, probably in 1847, 8vo. He was a member of the Athenaeum Club, and his town house, 25 Bedford Square, was for many years a centre of reunion for London literary society. He was one of the most attentive listeners to Coleridge's monologues at Highgate. He died at Boulogne-sur-Mer on 27 Nov. 1851.
Montagu married thrice : (1) On 4 Sept. 1790, Caroline Matilda Want of Brampton, Huntingdonshire; (2) at Glasgow, in 1801, Laura, eldest daughter of Sir William Beaumaris Rush of Roydon, Suffolk, and Wimbledon, Surrey ; (3) the widow of Thomas Skepper, lawyer, of York. He had by his first wife a son Edward, mentioned in Wordsworth's lines 'To my Sister' and 'Anecdotes for Fathers' (see Poems referring to the Period of Childhood, No. xii. ; and Poems of Sentiment and Reflection, No. v.) By his second wife he had three sons ; and two sons and a daughter by his third wife. All his children but two (his daughter and one of his sons by his third wife) died in his lifetime, and none now survive. His third wife, whose maiden name was Benson, was the daughter of a wine merchant of York, and in her youth had known Burns (cf. his complimentary letter to her dated Dumfries, 21 March 1793, in his Correspondence}. She was a fine woman, and in her middle age fascinated Edward Irving, who gave her the sobriquet of ' the noble lady.' Carlyle, introduced to her by Irving in 1824, corresponded with her in a somewhat stilted and adulatory style, and during the earlier years of his residence in London was a frequent visitor at 25 Bedford Square. His pride was wounded by an offer of a clerkship at 200l. a year which her husband made him in 1837, and he vented his spleen in his 'Reminiscences.' His portrait of 'the noble lady' is, however, by no means unfavourable. His early letters to her were printed for private circulation by her daughter by her first husband, Mrs. Procter, soon after the publication of the 'Reminiscences' [see Proctor, Bryan Waller].
A portrait of Montagu by Opie was lent by Bryan Waller Procter ('Barry Cornwall') to the third Loan Exhibition (No. 183).
Besides the works above mentioned, and a long series of pamphlets denouncing the punishment of death (1811-30), and two on the emancipation of the Jews (1833-4), Montagu published : 'Enquiries and Observations respecting the University Library,' Cambridge, 1805, 8vo ; 'Selections from the Works of Taylor, Hooker, Hall, and Lord Bacon, with an Analysis of the Advancement of Learning,' London, 1805, 8vo ; 'An Examination of some Observations upon a passage in Dr. Paley's Moral Philosophy on the Punishment of Death,' London, 1810, 8vo ; 'Some Enquiries into the Effects of Fermented Liquors,' London, 1814, 8vo ; 'Some Thoughts upon Liberty, and the Rights of English men,' London, 1819, 8vo ; 'The Private Tutor, or Thoughts upon the Love of Excelling and the Love of Excellence,' London, 1820, 8vo ; 'A Letter to the Right Hon. Charles, Lord Cottenham, Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, on the Separation of the Judicial and Political Functions of the Lord Chancellor,' London, 1836, 8vo ; 'Knowledge, Error, Prejudice, and Reform,' London, 1836, 8vo ; 'Rules for the Construction of Statutes, Deeds, and Wills,' London, 1836, 8vo ; 'Adam in Paradise, or a View of Man in his first State,' London, 1837, 16mo (a reprint of
