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verses to the newspapers, and, when they were copied from one to another, it was a sure sign they had succeeded. He then communicated them, as they were copied from the papers, to the Poetical Register; the Reviews selected them for praise; and thus, when he published them in a collected form, he did nothing more than claim, in his own character, the praise which had been bestowed upon him under a fictitious name. Try the newspapers; send what you think one of your best short poems to the Courier or Globe. If it is inserted, send others, with any imaginary signature. If they please nobody, and nobody notices them with praise, nobody will with censure, and you will escape all criticism. If, on the contrary, they attract attention, the editor will be glad to pay you for more—and they still remain your property, to be collected and reprinted in whatever manner you may think best hereafter."

CHAPTER IX.

THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPS — LOTTERIES — VISIT TO LONDON-SLAVE-TRADE 66 "THE WEST INDIES". THE WORLD BEFORE THE FLOOD". VISIT FROM HIS BROTHER ROBERT HART'S-HEAD THE POET'S HOME — PARKEN'S MATRIMONIAL ADVICE — CRITICISMS THEY AND ROSCOE.

LETTERS FROM SOU

IF the author and the editor had his trials, they are tempered and more easily borne by seeking out and sympathizing with those who carried heavier burdens than his

own.

The sufferings of a species of child labor, chimneysweeping, hardly known to the children of the present day, except perhaps through a stray old copy of "London Cries," are enlisting the humane exertions of Montgomery and Mr. Roberts.

London was already bestirring herself against the inhu manities of this villainous trade, "which," says one, cannot be taught without cruelty, learnt without suffering, or practised without peril to the lives and limbs of the numberless poor children engaged in it.”

In the summer of 1807, an association was formed in Sheffield for bettering their condition, and for devising more suitable machines for chimney-cleaning, than the "bones and muscles of infants."

An exponent of this interest appeared in the shape of a

dinner given on Easter Monday to these children, which, annually repeated, served to keep alive in the public mind the sympathy already awakened in their behalf.

It was a favorite anniversary of the poet, who never failed to aid in furnishing the table from his pockets, and, if possible, with his presence; while the Iris perseveringly did its part to bring the odium of public sentiment against this apprenticeship, with reference to its entire extinction by an act of Parliament.

Another craft, also, began to arrest the serious attention of Montgomery, whose gainfulness to himself does not seem to have closed his eyes to its moral vitiations.

On establishing the Iris, in 1794, at the old stand of the Register, the young editor became the natural inheritor of its time-honored customs. One of these was the sale of lottery tickets; his sheet, of course, in common with all other papers of the realm, inserting lottery advertisements. This sale was continued at the Hart's-head for several years; and a £20,000 prize having once been drawn through this office, it acquired the unenviable notoriety of "the lucky office," which brought an extraordinary patronage to its doors.

'Familiarity with some kinds of sin deadens the consciousness of it; but this was not my case in reference to the state lottery," says the clear-sighted editor; "it was familiarity with it which convinced me that I was dealing in deceptive wares. I was occasionally surprised at the different kinds of money brought to me by persons of the humbler class-hoarded guineas, old crowns, half-crowns, and fine impressions of smaller silver coins, at a time when bank-paper, Spanish dollars, and tokens of inferior standard, issued by private individuals and companies, formed a kind of mob-currency throughout the realm. These were ven

tured for the sake of luck,' in many instances by poor women, who had inherited them from their parents, received them as birth or wedding-day gifts, saved them for their children's thrift-pots, or laid them up against a rainy day or sickness. With these they came to buy hope, and I sold them disappointment! It was this thought, passing through my mind like a flash of lightning, and leaving an indelible impression there, which decided a longmeditated, but often procrastinated purpose; and I said to myself at length, 'I will give up this traffic of delusion.' I did so, and from that moment never sold another share."

In 1809, Montgomery paid a visit to London, where for the first time, after a correspondence of two years, he met Parken. Lucy Aikin and her father invited him to the hospitalities of Stoke Newington, and Mrs. Barbauld, dwelling on the same green, came to bid him welcome.

At Woolwich, eight miles east of London, down the Thames, his younger brother Robert lived, a flourishing grocer, with wife and children. Here, also, Dr. Olinthus Gregory resided, the intimate friend of Robert Hall, best known in this country through his "Evidences of Christianity." Montgomery was invited to his house, and a cordial regard, with an occasional correspondence, seems to have sprung up between them.

To Merton, a village in Surrey, seven miles south-west of the metropolis, he accompanied Parken, on a visit to Basil Montague, whose wife was an early friend. Here, in a pleasant gathering of congenial spirits, he met the famous Dr. Parr, some of whose habits one had need be very much his friend, indeed, to pardon and to bear with :-smoking, for instance, in the drawing-room; for no sooner was he seated in the elegant apartment than his pipe was

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139

brought, and fair hands were in requisition with tobacco and fire. As the smoke curled around the canonicals of the Doctor, "and is Dr. Parr," pertinently mused Montgomery to himself, "really so great a man, that it is immaterial whoever else be annoyed, so that his comfort is secured? Or is he so little a man, that he cannot, even under such circumstances as these, forego the usual indulgence of his fondness for smoking?"

Coleridge, now residing at Grasmere, was about issuing the "Friend," the first number of which appeared in June, 1809, and he thus bespeaks the interest of Montgomery:

"DEAR SIR,

"In desiring a small packet of these prospectuses to be sent to you from Leeds, I have presumed less on myself than on our common friend, Mrs. Montague; but, believe me, by more than by either I have been encouraged by my love and admiration of your works, and my unfeigned affectionate esteem of what I have been so often and so eloquently told by Mrs. M. of your life and character. Conscious how very glad I should be to serve you in anything, I apply with less discomfort to you in behalf of my own concerns. What I wish is simply to have the prospectuses placed and disposed among such places and persons as may bring the work to the notice of those whose moral and intellectual habits may render them desirous to become subscribers. I know your avocations, and dare not therefore ask you for an occasional contribution. I have received promises of support from some respectable writers, and, for my own part, am prepared to play off my whole power of acquirements, such as they are, in this work, as from the main pipe of the fountain.

"If choice or chance should lead

you this

way, you will