Napier: 'There is a wretched poetaster of the name of Robert Montgomery, who has written some volumes of detestable verses on religious subjects, which by mere puffing in magazines and newspapers have had an immense sale, and some of which are now in their 11th or 12th editions. ... I really think we ought to try what effect satire will have upon this nuisance, and I doubt whether we can ever find a better opportunity' (Napier, Corresp.. 80). The classic castigation which has perpetuated the memory of its victim followed in the 'Edinburgh Review' for April 1830. Though its severity was, doubtless, well intentioned, the article is conspicuous neither for good taste nor fairness. It would now, as Mr. W. E. Norris writes, 'be as disagreeable to witness such an onslaught as to see a man throw a glass of wine in his neighbour's face' (Adrian Vidal, 1890, p. 306). Montgomery made a contemptuous rejoinder. 'The reviewer,' he concludes, 'is, we believe, still alive, and from time to time employs himself in making mouths at distinguished men. Most heartily do we wish him a nobler office than that of being the hired assassin of a bigoted review.' He seems to have for some time meditated a libel action (cf. Trevelyan, Life of Macaulay, 1889, pp. 538, 599). The immediate sale of the poems was by no means arrested.
'The Omnipresence of the Deity' progressed steadily to its twenty-eighth edition in 1858, and 'Satan' traversed eight editions between the appearance of the article and 1842. Selections from his poems, including 'The Omnipresence,' 'Woman,' 'Satan,' and a number of minor pieces, were published in 3 vols. Glasgow, 1839. The work had a large sale, and a chorus of praise went up from the provincial press. Two collective editions in 6 vols. appeared in 1840 and 1841 respectively. A fourth edition, in one large 8vo volume, appeared in 1853, with a doctrinal and analytical index by the Rev. J. Twycross.
Encouraged by the advice and assistance of Bowles and Sharon Turner, Montgomery had meanwhile matriculated from Lincoln College, Oxford, on 18 Feb. 1830, 'aged 22,' graduating B.A. in fourth-class honours in 1833, and M.A. in 1838. In 1831 appeared 'Oxford,' a poem, which seems to have elicited much ridicule at Oxford, but not elsewhere (3rd edit. 1843) ; in 1832 'The Messiah, in six Books' (8th edit. 1842), dedicated to Queen Adelaide, who acknowledged the compliment by presenting the author with a medal, and in 1833 'Woman, the Angel of Life, and other Poems' (5th edit, 1841).
On 3 May 1835 Montgomery was ordained at St. Asaph, and for the next year served a curacy at Whittington, Shropshire, which he left amid universal regret in 1836 for the charge of the episcopal church of St. Jude in Glasgow. He proved a successful preacher, and wrote copiously on theological subjects. In October 1843 he became minister of Percy Chapel, in the parish of St. Pancras in London, and retained this charge until his death at Brighton in December 1855. In 1843 he had married Rachel, youngest daughter of A. Mackenzie of Bursiedon, Hampshire, and left one child.
With an unfortunate facility in florid versification Montgomery combined no genuinely poetic gift. Macaulay, in trying to anticipate the office of time, only succeeded in rescuing him from the oblivion to which he was properly destined. His style of preaching is said to have resembled that of his poetical effusions. His manners, in spite of his vanity, are said to have been engaging ; he was generous, and his congregations were much attached to him. He did a great deal to promote the welfare of the Brompton Consumption Hospital, and devoted much of his later life to similar causes.
Portraits by Hobday, Macnee, and C. Grant were engraved by Thomson, Finden, and T. Romney respectively.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886; Annual Register, 1855, p. 322 ; Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. vols. i. ii. passim; Fraser's Magazine, i. 95, 721 (two capital articles, humorous, and quite as conclusive as the famous essay of Macaulay), and iv. 672 (with portrait) ; Blackwood, xxiii. 751, xxvi. 242, xxxi. 592 (a burlesque on 'Satan'); London Monthly Review, 1831 to 1833, passim; Athenaeum, 1832 p. 348, 1833 p. 772 ; Westminster Review, xii. 355 ; Southey's Correspondence with Caroline Bowles, ed. Dowden, passim ; Southey's Life and Correspondence, passim ; S. C. Hall's Retrospect of a Long Life, 1883, ii. 191-2; Allibone's Diet, of English Lit. (containing lists of his minor works and references to a number of American Reviews) ; Gent. Mag. 1856, i. 312 (with full bibliography); British Museum Catalogue.]
MONTGOMERY, Sir ROBERT (1809–1887), Indian administrator, born in 1809, was son of Samuel Law Montgomery, rector of Lower Moville, co. Donegal. He was educated at Foyle College, Londonderry, and at Wraxall Hall School, North Wiltshire, and was appointed to the Bengal civil service in 1827. After filling various subordinate posts in the North- West Provinces, among others in 1838 that of magistrate and collector at Allahabad, he was, on the recommendation of Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence [q. v.], his old friend and schoolfellow, transferred by
