GALT,
a surname, meaning, in Gaelic, a stranger or travelled person.
GALT, JOHN,
an eminent novelist and prolific miscellaneous writer, was born at
Irvine in Ayrshire, May 2, 1779. He was the eldest son of a person
engaged in mercantile pursuits, and his parents ranked among the native
gentry. In the excellent schools of his native town he received the
first rudiments of his education. In his eleventh year the family
removed to Greenock, where he pursued his studies at the public school,
under Mr. Colin Lamont; and being addicted to reading, his inborn
passion for literature found ample gratification in the stores of a
public library to which he had access. Having a mechanical turn, with a
taste for music, he attempted the construction of a small pianoforte or
hurdy-gurdy, as well as of an Æolian harp. In these early years he
composed some pieces of music, one or two of which became popular. He
also conceived the idea of several local improvements of importance,
some of which were afterwards carried out.
In his boyhood
his health was delicate, and, like his great contemporary Sir Walter
Scott, he was considered a dull scholar. His strength and energy of
character, however, increased with his years, and in due time he was
placed in the counting-room of Messrs, James Miller and Co., with the
view of learning the mercantile profession. He continued in their
employment for several years; but having, in 1804, resented an insult
from a mercantile correspondent in a manner which rendered his situation
in Greenock very disagreeable, he was induced to remove to London, where
he embarked in trade in partnership with a Mr. M.Lachlan, but the
connexion ultimately proving unfortunate, was in the course of two or
three years dissolved, when he entered at Lincoln’s Inn, but eventually
abandoned the law. In 1809, on account of his health, he embarked for
the Mediterranean. At Gibraltar he made the acquaintance of Lord Byron
and Mr. Hobhouse, (created in 1851 Lord Broughton,) in whose company he
sailed to Sicily, whence he proceeded to Malta and Greece. At Tripolizza
he conceived a scheme for forming a mercantile establishment in the
Levant to counteract the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon. After
touching at Smyrna, he returned to Malta, where, to his surprise, he
found that a plan similar to his had already been suggested to a
commercial company there by one of their partners resident in Vienna. He
now proceeded to inspect the coast of the Grecian Archipelago, and to
ascertain the safest route to the borders of Hungary; and after
satisfying himself of the practicability of introducing goods into the
Continent by this circuitous channel, he returned home in August 1811.
He made several applications to Government on the subject of his scheme,
but these were little attended to, and he never derived any benefit from
the project, which was soon afterwards acted upon by others to their
great advantage. The result of his observations he communicated to the
public in 1812, under the title of ‘Voyages and Travels in the years
1809, 1810, and 1811,’ which was his first avowed work, and contained
much new and interesting information relative to the countries he had
visited. He had previously published, about the end of 1804, a Gothic
poem, without his name, entitled ‘The Battle of Largs,’ which he
subsequently endeavoured to suppress.
Having been
appointed by Mr. Kirkman Finlay of Glasgow, joint superintendent of a
branch of his business established at Gibraltar, he went for a short
time to that place, where, however, his health suffered, and the
victories of the duke of Wellington in the Peninsula having seriously
checked the success of his mercantile operations, he resigned his
situation, and returned home for medical advice. Shortly after his
arrival in London he married Elizabeth, only daughter of Dr. Alexander
Tilloch, one of the proprietors and editor of the Star evening
newspaper, and editor of the Philosophical Magazine; by whom he had a
family.
Mr. Galt’s
next work, published about the same time as his Travels, was the ‘Life
and Administration of Cardinal Wolsey;’ and then followed in rapid
succession – ‘Reflections on Political and Commercial Subjects,’ 8vo,
1812; ‘Four Tragedies,’ 1812; ‘Letters from the Levant,’ 8vo, 1813; ‘The
Life and Studies of Benjamin West,’ 8vo, 1816; ‘The Majola, a Tale,’ 2
vols., 1816, which contains his peculiar opinions on fatality, founded
on an idea that many of the events of life depend upon instinct, and not
upon reason or accident; ‘Pictures from English, Scotch, and Irish
History,’ 2 vols, 12mo; ‘The Wandering Jew:’ ‘Modern Travels in Asia;’
‘The Crusade;’ ‘The Earthquake,’ 3 vols., and a number of minor
biographies and plays, most of the latter appearing in a periodical work
called at first the Rejected Theatre, and afterwards the New British
Theatre. Among other schemes of utility which about this time engaged
Mr. Galt’s attention was the establishment of the National Caledonian
Asylum, which owed its existence mainly to his exertions. In the year
1820 he contributed a series of articles, styled the ‘Ayrshire
Legatees,’ to Blackwood’s Magazine; these were afterwards collected into
a separate volume, which, from its admirable delineation of Scottish
life and character, became very popular, and established his name at
once as second only to that of the author of Waverley. Soon after
appeared ‘The Annals of the Parish,’ intended by the author as a kind of
Scottish Vicar of Wakefield, and it certainly possesses much of the
household humour and pathos of that admired work. About this period Mr.
Galt resided at Eskgrove House, near Musselburgh, having removed to
Scotland chiefly with a view to the education of his children. He next
published ‘The Provost,’ in one vol., which was considered by the author
his best novel; ‘The Steam Boat,’ 1 vol.; ‘Sir Andrew Wylie,’ 3 vols.;
‘The Entail,’ 3 vols.; and ‘The Gathering in the West,’ which last
related to the flocking of the West country people to Edinburgh at the
period of George the Fourth’s visit. The peculiarities of national
character, the quaintness of phrase and dialogue, the knowledge of life,
and the ‘pawky’ humour displayed in these works, rendered them unusually
attractive, and they were in consequence eagerly perused by the public.
A series of historical romances, in 3 vols. each, comprising ‘Ringan
Gilhaize,’ ‘The Spaewife,’ and ‘Rothelan,’ were published by Oliver and
Boyd, Edinburgh, but these were considered inferior to his other novels.
In 1824 he was
appointed acting manager and superintendent of the Canada Company, for
establishing emigrants and selling the crown lands in Upper Canada, a
situation which required his almost constant residence in that country,
and appears to have yielded him a salary of £1,000 a-year. Unfortunately
he soon got involved in disputes with the Government, having encountered
opposition to his plans from the governor, Sir Peregrine Maitland; and
his conduct being unfairly represented to the Directors at home, in 1827
he sent in his resignation to the chairman. He had in the meantime
founded, amidst many difficulties, the now flourishing town of Guelph,
on the spot where he had hewed down the first tree in that till then
uncultivated wilderness. Another town in the neighbourhood of Guelph was
named Galt, after himself, by his friend the Hon. William Dixon. He
returned to Lo9ndon in 1830, just previous to the breaking up of the
Canada Company, who seem to have treated him in a very harsh manner. At
a subsequent period he endeavoured, but without success, to form a New
Brunswick Company; and, besides various other schemes, he entertained a
project for making Glasgow a sea-port, by deepening the Clyde, and
erecting a dam, with a lock at Bowling Bay. This, which was a favourite
crotchet of his, he said was the legacy he left to Glasgow, in gratitude
for the many good offices done to him by the inhabitants of that city.
His portrait is subjoined.
[portrait of John Galt]
After his return to England he again had recourse to his pen for
support, and was for a short time editor of the Courier newspaper. Among
the principal of his works after this period may be particularly noticed
– ‘Lawrie Todd, a Tale,’ 3 vols., 1830, in which Mr. Galt gives the
fruits of his own experience in America as agent for the Canada Company;
‘Southennan, a Tale,’ in 3 vols., 1830, which embodied an antiquarian
description of Scottish manners in the reign of Queen Mary; ‘The Lives
of the Players,’ 2 vols, written for the National Library; ‘The Life of
Lord Byron,’ for the same series; “Bogle Corbet, or the Emigrants,’ 3
vols., 1831, intended as a guidebook to Canada; ‘Stanley Buxton, or the
School-fellows,’ 3 vols., 1832; ‘Eben Erskine,’ 3 vols.’ ‘The Stolen
Child,’ 1833; ‘Apotheosis of Sir Walter Scott;’ ‘The Member’ and ‘The
Radical,’ political tales, in one volume each.
In July 1832 Mr. Galt was struck with paralysis, and was removed to
Greenock, to reside among his relations. Although deprived of the use of
his limbs, and latterly unable to hold a pen, his mental powers retained
their vigour amid the decay of his physical energies. His memory, it is
true, was so far impaired that, some time previous to his death, he
required to finish any writing he attempted at one sitting, as he felt
himself at a loss, on returning to the subject, to recall the train of
his ideas, yet his mind was as active, and his imagination as lively as
ever; and the glee with which he either recounted or listened to any
humorous anecdote, showed that his keen sense of the ludicrous,
displayed to such advantage in his novels, had lost none of its
acuteness. In 1833 he published his ‘Autobiography,’ in 2 vols.’; and in
1834, his ‘Literary Life and Miscellanies,’ 3 vols. He also contributed
a variety of minor tales and sketches to the magazines and annuals.
Among his latest productions was a tale called ‘The Bedral,’ which was
not inferior to his Provost Pawkie; and ‘The Demon of Destiny, and other
Poems,’ privately printed at Greenock in 1839. His name appears as
editor on the third and fourth volumes of ‘The Diary Illustrative of the
Times of George IV.,’ a work which created considerable outcry on the
publication of the first and second volumes in 1838. Mr. Galt wrote in
all sixty volumes, and it would be difficult to furnish a complete list
of his works. In a list which he himself made he forgot an epic poem,
and he afterwards jocularly remarked that he should be remembered as one
who had published an epic poem, and forgot that he had sone so.
About ten days before his death he was visited by another paralytic
shock, being the fourteenth in succession. This deprived him at first of
the use of his speech, although he afterwards had power to articulate
indistinctly broken sentences. He was, however, quite sensible, and
indicated, by unequivocal signs, that he understood what was said to
him. He died April 11, 1839, leaving a widow and two sons. In person he
was uncommonly tall, and his form was muscular and powerful. He had
moved, during the greater part of his life, in the best circles of
society; and as his manners were frank and agreeable, he was ever a most
intelligent and pleasant companion. His feelings during the monotonous
latter years of his changeful life, which were varied only by his
sufferings, he expressed in the pathetic lines given in his
Autobiography, beginning –
“Helpless, forgotten, sad, and lame,
On one lone seat the livelong day,
I muse of youth, and dreams of fame,
And hopes and wishes all away.”
