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GALT, JOHN.—This popular
novelist and multifarious writer was born at Irvine, in Ayrshire, on the 2d
of May, 1779, and was the son of a sea-captain, who was employed in the West
India trade. The stay of young Galt in a district with which he afterwards
made the world so well acquainted, was not long-continued, as his parents
removed to Greenock when he was eleven years old. In this town of commercial
bustle and enterprise, his education was soon finished, as he was destined
to follow the occupation of a merchant; and by way of acquiring a proper
knowledge of his future profession, he was, in the first instance, employed
as a clerk in the custom-house of Greenock, and afterwards in a
counting-house in the same town. This was unfavourable training for that
life of authorship which he followed with such ardour in after periods; but
his diligence and persevereance in self-education during the hours of
leisure, not only formed the groundwork, but the incitement of his future
literary undertakings. His first attempts, as is usual with young aspirants,
were in poetry; and one of these, a tragedy, founded on the history of Mary
Queen of Scots, he sent to Constable for publication, but had the MS.
returned unread. He was consoled, however, for this disappointment by having
his smaller lucubrations occasionally published in the "Greenock
Advertiser," and one or two of the Scottish magazines. He thus saw himself
in print, and the consequences it is easy to divine—his enthusiasm would
expand into full-grown authorship. Undismayed by the rejection of his
tragedy, Galt next attempted an epic, the title of which, was "The Battle of
Largs." It was written in octo-syllabic rhyme, and he prided himself not a
little on the fact, that in this matter at least he had preceded Sir Walter
Scott. This poem, written in five cantos, was enabled partly to struggle
into light in consequence of detached portions of it having been published
in the "Scots Magazine" for 1803 and 1804. It is as well that the world was
not troubled with it in toto, as the following invocation to Lok,
which is in "Ereles’ vein," will sufficiently testify:—
"The hideous storm that dozing lay,
Thick blanketed in clouds all day,
Behind sulphureous Hecla, we
Roused to this wrecking wrath for thee,
And sent him raging round the world,
High in a thund’ring chariot hurl’d;
Whose steeds, exulting with their load,
As the grim fiend they drag abroad,
Whisk with their tails the turrets down
Of many a temple, tower, and town."
Or take the following
description of Erie, one of the Norse Eumenides, in which the sudden
alternations of rising and sinking can scarcely be paralleled even by Sir
Richard Blackmore:--
"Her looks sulphureous glow—
Her furnace-eyes, that burn’d below
A dismal forehead, glaring wide,
Like caves by night in Hecla’s side,
And what her fangs for staff did grasp,
‘Twas fired iron—Hell’s hatchway’s hasp.
* * * * * *
At length she stood,
And scowling o’er the weltering flood,
That louder rag’d, she stretch’d her hand,
Clutching the red Tartarean brand
Aloft, and, as the black clouds sunder’d,
Dared the high heavens till they thunder’d."
It was in London that this
poetical attempt was made. He had gone to the metropolis in 1803 or 1804,
and there, a few months of leisure at his first entrance, had encouraged
those desperate conceptions in Runic mythology, which he extended through
five mortal cantos. It was not, however, by writing epics that he could
support himself in London. He therefore commenced business in good earnest,
and entered into partnership with a young countryman of his own: but they
soon disagreed; their affairs were unsuccessful, and in about three years
the concern became bankrupt. This combination of poetry and business was not
sufficient for the versatile mind of Galt; other subjects of study occupied
his attention, among which were astrology, alchemy, history, and political
economy. Was it wonderful then that his name, before it figured in
authorship, should have found a place in the bankrupt list?
After this mercantile
disaster Galt tried to re-establish himself in business along with a
brother; but this attempt also proved abortive. Sick of merchandise, and
impatient to try something else, he resolved to devote himself to the
profession of law; and for this purpose entered himself at Lincoln’s Inn. He
was soon overtaken by a nervous indisposition, that unfitted him for the dry
studies of "Coke upon Littleton;" and, by way of solace, until the malady
should pass away, he sat down to write a book. The subject was ready to his
hand; for, in a walk with some friends through the colleges of Oxford in
1805, he had felt indignant that Cardinal Wolsey, the founder of Christ
Church College, should have been allowed to bequeath such a boon without a
fitting commemoration from its learned disciples; and since better might not
be, he had resolved, alien though he was, at some time or other to repair
the deficiency. That season had now arrived; and accordingly, about the
beginning of 1809, he commenced a life of Cardinal Wolsey, and finished it
in a very few months. The short time that he took for the necessary reading
and research, as well as writing, which such a subject required, will give
an adequate conception of the natural impetuosity of his intellect. But with
this haste and hurry there was curiously combined the grave methodical
arrangement of the counting-house: he transcribed upon one part of his
writing-paper the historical facts extracted from Cavendish, Fiddes, and
Hume, and wove round them, upon the margin and between the interstices, his
own remarks and deductions, until a gay party-coloured web was the result;
after which he systematized the whole into a continuous narrative. "I was
desirous," he says of it, "to produce a work that would deserve some
attention." This work, which he afterwards improved and extended, was not
published till three years afterwards. As his health did not improve, he now
resolved to try the effects of travel before being called to the English
bar; and in 1809 he left England for a tour, which extended over three
years. The result of this long journey was two separate works at his return.
The first was entitled, "Voyages and Travels in the years 1809, 1810, and
1811, containing Statistical, Commercial, and Miscellaneous Observations on
Gibraltar, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, and Turkey;" and the second, "Letters
from the Levant, containing Views of the State of Society, Manners,
Opinions, and Commerce in Greece and several of the principal Islands of the
Archipelago."
These were not the only works
which Galt published on his return to England. His poetical inspiration
still haunted him, but so much sobered down, that during his tour he had
been employing himself in writing dramas on the plan of Alfieri, where the
simplicity of the plot and fewness of the characters were to be compensated
by the full force of nature and poetic excellence. This was certainly a
great sacrifice in one whose imagination so revelled in plot, and was so
fertile in incident. The volume, which was published in 1812, contained the
tragedies of Maddalen, Agamemnon, Lady Macbeth, Antonia, and Clytemnestra;
and as only 250 copies were printed, the work being published on his own
account, it had little chance of undergoing the test of public opinion. Even
as it was, however, it was roughly handled in the Quarterly Review, by an
ironical criticism, in which Galt was elevated to the rank of a second
Shakspeare. Soon after his return, he married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr.
Tilloch, editor of the "Philosophical Magazine," and proprietor of the
"Star," a newspaper on which Galt had been for some time employed. In the
same year, also (1812), so prolific in his publishing adventures, he sent
through the press his "Reflections on Political and Commercial Subjects."
Having now abandoned all
thoughts of devoting himself to the bar, Galt was compelled to have recourse
to authorship, until something more stable should occur. He therefore wrote
in the "Monthly Magazine," and other periodicals of the day. He also
projected, with Mr. Colburn the publisher, a periodical which, under the
title of the "New British Theatre," should publish the best of those
dramatic productions which the managers of the great play-houses had
rejected. It was hoped that in this way deserving talent would be rescued
from oblivion; and "many a gem of purest ray serene" be made to glitter in
the eye of a delighted world, instead of being trampled among the dust of
the green-room. It was a most benevolent and hopeful speculation, of which
Galt, the proposer, was appointed editor. But little did he anticipate the
flood-gates of mud which such a proposal opened. There was an instant jail
delivery of manuscript plays, enough to have converted the country into a
literary Botany Bay or Alsatia; and Galt, amidst the heap of dramatic
matter, under which he was well-nigh smothered, was obliged to confess at
last that the managers of theatres were not such reckless or unjust
rejectors as they had been called. The work at its commencement was
successful, but soon afterwards fell off, although the plan was improved by
the admission of plays that had been written but not presented. Before it
expired, Galt possessed and availed himself of the opportunity of inserting
some of his own dramatic productions, among which was the tragedy of "The
Witness," afterwards performed in several towns with altered titles. After
this, his career for some years was one of active business, combined with
authorship. During his travels he had conceived the idea of importing
British goods through Turkey, in spite of the continental blockade by which
Napoleon endeavoured to exclude our commerce; and upon this plan he employed
himself diligently for some time both in England and Scotland. But the
conception appeared too bold and hazardous to those traders who were invited
to the risk; and his efforts ended in disappointment. Another occupation
with which he was commissioned, was to superintend a bill through the House
of Commons, intrusted to him by the Union Canal Company. As enough of
leisure was afforded him in London during the suspense of this bill, he
wrote the "Life and Studies of Benjamin West." He also wrote a romance, of
which the hero was the Wandering Jew. Of this work two considerable editions
were sold, although it had never been reviewed. This neglect the author, who
affectionately clung to the remembrance of his Wandering Jew to the last,
regarded with some surprise. "How the work," he says, "should have been so
long unnoticed, while others which treat of the same subject have attracted
considerable attention, I cannot say; but this I know, that many of my own
far inferior productions, in originality and beauty, have been much
applauded, and yet I doubt if they have sold so well." We suspect that few
of our readers have been among the purchasers of this wonderful myth, or
have even heard its name till now.
Amidst all the toil and
struggle of these literary attempts, John Galt had not yet discovered where
his strength lay. History, biography, travels, epic and dramatic poetry,
romance—he had tried them all, but attained success in none. His
over-boiling imagination and erratic fancy were too much even for fiction,
whether in prose or verse; and when he attempted sober narrative, his love
of originality was ever leading him into some startling paradox, which the
facts of history were unable to make good. The eccentricity of his political
opinions had also given not a little offence to the still predominant party;
for although a Tory in theory, he seemed a very Radical in practice, and had
more than once run a muck against the powers that be, when he found them
stopping up his way. On this account he had also brought down upon his head,
the ire of the Quarterly Review, whose censure was enough to blight the
popularity of an author among Tory readers, and throw him out upon neutral
ground. Thus, up to 1820, his attempts were a series of literary blunders,
and his production of that year, "The Earthquake," a stern, sombre novel, in
three volumes, which has shared the fate of his other productions written
before this period, should, in ordinary circumstances, have been his last
attempt in authorship. But in his long search in the dark he had hit upon
the right vein at last. It was not in the wild and wonderful that he was to
excel, but in the homely, the humorous, and the caustic. "The hero’s harp,
the lover’s lute," with which he had tried to enchant the world, but to no
purpose, were to be exchanged for the vulgar bagpipe and stock-and-horn. His
first attempt in this way was the "Ayrshire Legatees"—a work which
originated in mere accident. One of his enjoyments was to "show the lions"
to such strangers as were introduced to him in London; and of these, as
might be expected, were many original characters from the far north, whose
sensations among the wonders of the great metropolis were a rich feast to
his keen observant eye and quick sense of the ludicrous. It soon occurred to
him that these peculiarities might be embodied in particular personages, and
illustrated by correspondent adventures. The whole materials were before him
like those of a rich landscape, and only needed artistic selection and
combination to form a very choice picture. Upon this idea he set to work,
and without any formal plot for his story, scene after scene grew upon his
hand as it was needed, until the "Ayrshire Legatees" was the result. It was
in this way that "Humphrey Clinker" was produced—the best of all Smollett’s
productions. As fast as the chapters of Galt’s new attempt were written,
they were published in Blackwood’s Magazine of 1820 and 1821, and their
appearance excited universal attention, while they continued to rise in
popularity to the last; so that, when finished, they were published
separately, and eagerly devoured by the novel-reading public. It was a style
of writing which had been so long disused, as to have all the charms of
originality, while the truthfulness of the different characters was such as
to impart to fiction all the charms of reality. Galt found that he had
succeeded at last, and followed up his success with the "Annals of the
Parish," which was published in 1821. This work, however, although so late
in its appearance, was, properly speaking, the first of Galt’s Scottish
novels, as it had been written in 1813, but laid aside, until the success of
the "Ayrshire Legatees" encouraged him to commit it to the press. In this
work, also, he had not troubled himself about the construction of a regular
plot, and, like its predecessor, it was all the better for the omission.
Long before he commenced the "Annals," his ambition had been to "write a
book that would be for Scotland what the ‘Vicar of Wakefield’ is for
England;" and this was the result.
He certainly could not have adopted a better model.
No one can imagine that the
pen of Galt, so indefatigable when success was against it, would now relapse
into idleness. In the "Annals of the Parish" he had exhibited the progress
of improvement in a rural district of the west of Scotland; he was now
desirous of describing the same progress in a town. Such was the origin of
the "Provost," which was published in 1822. He had now learned the true
secret of novel-writing, as is evident from the following statement:—"In the
composition of the ‘Provost’ I followed the same rule of art which seemed to
me so proper in the ‘Annals of the Parish,’ namely, to bring impressions on
the memory harmoniously together; indeed, I have adhered to the principle in
all my subsequent compositions, and sometimes I fancy that the propriety of
doing so may be justified by nature. I think no ingenuity can make an
entirely new thing. Man can only imagine the old together; join legs, and
arms, and wings as he may, only the forms of previously-created things can
be imitated. The whole figure may be outré, and unlike anything in
the heavens, or the earth, or the waters under the earth; but the imitations
of the human hand in the details will ever be evident. . . . In my youth I
wrote a poem called the ‘Legend of St. Anthony,’ which I undertook with the
intention of depicting comical phantasms; but I had not proceeded far till I
was induced to change my mind, by observing that my most extravagant fancies
were only things of curious patchwork, and that the same defect might be
discerned in all those things in which the ‘creative’ power of genius was
said to be more indisputable. . . . I therefore give up all pretension to
belonging to that class who deal in the wild and wonderful; my wish is, to
be estimated by the truth of whatever I try to represent."
The next work of Galt was the
"Steam-boat," a novel, published originally in Blackwood, in which he wished
to give such an account of the coronation of George IV. as an "abortive
bailie" from Scotland might be likely to do. This was followed by "Sir
Andrew Wyllie," in which he wished to exhibit the rise and progress of an
humble Scotchman in London. In this tale, however, he gave way to his
literary besetting sin, a fault of which he was afterwards fully conscious;
and he says of it very justly, "The incidents are by far too romantic and
uncommon to my own taste, and are only redeemed from their extravagance by
the natural portraiture of the characters."
But, indeed, either accurate
conception or finished execution could scarcely be expected from Galt in his
writings at this period, when we remember that the three last-mentioned
works, viz., the "Provost," the "Steam-boat," and "Sir Andrew Wyllie," were
all published in 1822. In the following year he produced his "Gathering of
the West," which was also published in the first instance in Blackwood’s
Magazine. The subject was the visit of George IV. to Scotland—an event that
appeared in so many ludicrous aspects to the mirthful satirical mind of
Galt, that he could not repress his profane chuckling at this great
avatar, even when he endeavoured to look the most composed. He therefore
says of the "Gathering," and its kindred work, the
"Steam-boat"—"Notwithstanding the deference for magnates and magnificence
under which these works were written, the original sin may be detected here
and there peeping out, insomuch that those who consider Toryism as
consisting of the enjoyment of at least pensions, must be dreadfully shocked
to think even a moderate politician of any sort could be so far left to
himself as to speak so irreverently of things which concerned the affairs of
empires and burgh towns."
We have already alluded to
Galt’s exuberance in the productions of 1822; but that of the following year
was still more excessive, so that it might well be said of him, vires
acquirit eundo. Thus the "Entail," "Ringan Gilhaize," and the "Spaewife"—each
a three-volumed novel—were published during this year of portentous
abundance. The first of these novels was founded upon an incident related by
the Lord Provost of Glasgow to Galt. It was in this way that he was
accustomed to make the most of everything that he had heard or witnessed, by
either laying it down as the groundwork of a tale, or introducing it as an
amusing episode; and in this faculty of adaptation lay much of the
excellence of his popular works. Thus his vigorous and picturesque
description of the northern coast of Scotland, in the "Entail," was expanded
from an interesting account of the locality given to him by a daughter of
Sir John Sinclair; while many of the grotesque events and humorous jokes
with which his other tales abound, had long previously enlivened the
firesides of the peasantry. In him, however, it was no small merit that he
should have introduced them so happily, and told them so well. As a proof of
the acceptability of his last-mentioned work, Galt tells us, in his
"Literary Life and Miscellanies," that Sir Walter Scott had read it thrice,
and Lord Byron as often. Of "Ringan Gilhaize," he also tells us that it
received the unique and distinguished honour of being recommended from the
pulpit by one of the ministers of Aberdeen. This tale, in which the
narrator, a persecuted Covenanter, relates the history of his grandfather,
gives a sketch of the rise and progress of the Reformation in Scotland, from
the days of Knox and Murray to the close of the reign of the Stuarts; and
for the purpose of collecting materials, and preserving the accuracy of the
narrative, Galt went to Rinsory-house to gather traditions, and collected
several relics of the battle of Killiecrankie. The cause which incited him
to write such a work was indignation at the popularity of "Old Mortality,"
in which the Covenanters were held up to ridicule; and he was animated with
a chivalrous zeal to vindicate the character of these heroic but
much-vilified sufferers in the cause of conscience and religion. But
unfortunately Ringan Gilhaize was no match for Balfour of Burley. In this
tale Galt very rashly abandoned his own field of broad reality and plain
every-day life, for one where nothing but history and imagination could aid
him; and therefore it exhibited a marked deficiency both in execution and
popular interest. It was still worse, however, with the "Spaewife," where he
went back from the Covenanting periods, with which the Scottish public can
still sympathize, to the fifteenth century of Scottish history, about which
they know little and care still less; and with all his attempts at the
sublime, which often swelled into the turgid, he could not interest his
readers one jot in the Duke of Albany and his worthless brood, or even in
James I., our heroic ministrel king. It was certainly an over-ambitious
attempt, and as such it failed. At this period the empire of historical
romance belonged to Sir Walter Scott, and to him alone, without peer or
rival. But that such an attempt was the opening of a safety-valve, and that
the work would have exploded in some fashion or other, is manifest, from the
following statement of the author:—"The fate of James I. of Scotland early
seemed to me possessed of many dramatic capabilities; and in the dream of my
youth, to illustrate by tales, ballads, and dramas, the ancient history of
my country, it obtained such a portion of my attention, that I have actually
made a play on the subject. In riper life, many years after, I wrote the
novel; and my knowledge of the age in which the transactions lie, enabled me
to complete the story in such a manner that, merely as an antiquarian essay,
it merits consideration." To the "Spaewife" succeeded "Rothelan." This also
is a historical novel or romance; and not content with going back so far as
to the reign of Edward III., Galt transferred the scene to England, where
his great forte as a Scottish novelist had to be utterly laid aside;
and "Rothelan" was a failure. Among the manifold aims of the author’s
ambition, that of being a good musical composer happened to be one; and in "Rothelan,"
Galt had not only written two songs, but also set them to music. But it
unfortunately happened that the printer was smitten with the same ambition,
and not liking the tunes, he substituted two of his own, which were printed
in the work. "At the time," says Galt, "I was staying with a friend, and a
copy of the book was left for me in the morning. On going down stairs I
found it in the library, where we usually breakfasted; and as pleased at the
sight as a hen with her egg, of which she cannot keckle enough to the world
about, I lifted the volumes, and turned to the tunes. Courteous reader,
sympathize! Instead of my fine airs, with an original inflection, that had
been much admired by a competent judge, I beheld two that surely had been
purchased at the easy charge of a halfpenny a-piece from a street piper! I
looked aghast, and almost fainted. There was a grand piano in the
drawing-room. I rushed, book in hand, upstairs in a whirlwind. It was of no
use—the piano too was a particeps criminis, and would only pronounce
the Highland coronachs which stand in the publication even to this day; and
the worst of it was, my friend, instead of taking out his handkerchief and
condoling becomingly, only gave vent to ‘unextinguishable laughter,’ and
paid no attention to my pathetic appeals at the figure I must cut, being
really no deacon among musicians, at the thought of having two such horrid
frights affiliated to me."
A change once more occurred
in the life of Galt, in which the active laborious author was to be
transformed into the equally active and enterprising man of business.
Besides being reckoned only inferior to Sir Walter Scott as a delineator of
Scottish character and manners, his reputation stood high as one well
acquainted with the principles and practice of commerce; and on this account
the inhabitants of Canada commissioned him as their agent to prosecute their
claims on the home government for the losses they had sustained during the
occupation of the province by the army of the United States. During the
negotiations which occurred in consequence, a proposal to sell Crown lands
in Upper Canada for the indemnification of the sufferers was made by Mr.
Galt, and adopted by government, and a Canada Company was incorporated in
1826, to purchase land and colonize it. During the previous year he had been
employed in valuing the lands that were to be exposed to sale, after which
he had returned to England; but in the autumn of 1826 he went back to
Canada, where he was employed by the company as their superintendent. His
able and active management soon secured the confidence of his constituents;
new settlements were founded, a village was called by his name, and the
township of Guelph was his entire creation. But unfortunately Galt’s
activity was not balanced by an equal amount of prudence, and in the ardour
of his proceedings he managed to involve himself in quarrels with the
colonial government, and with Sir Peregrine Maitland, who was at its head.
Such is too often the folly and the fate of those who go forth as the
reformers of our colonies; they enter their new sphere of action with their
heads filled with Magna Charta and the rights of British citizenship,
forgetful all the while of the distance of these colonies from the parent
seat of government, and the necessity of a more stringent rule than would be
tolerated in London or Edinburgh. This seems to have been the error of Galt;
and in consequence of the complaints that were sent home against him, he was
superseded by the directors of the company. But, whether in the bustle of
action or the chagrin of disappointment, his pen could not lie idle; and
during this period he produced the "Omen," a tale that was favourably
reviewed in Blackwood’s Magazine by Sir Walter Scott, and the "Last of the
Lairds," a novel which he meant to be the continuation of a class that has
the "Annals of the Parish" for its commencement. For the encouragement of
the drama in Quebec he also wrote a farce, entitled "Visitors; or, a Trip to
Quebec," which was acted with great success by an amateur company. Another,
which he wrote for New York, to propitiate the Americans, who had taken
offence at his "Visitors," was entitled "An Aunt in Virginia," and was
afterwards published in Blackwood’s Magazine, with the scene transferred
from New York to London. He intended to write a third for his own town of
Guelph, where his dwelling-house was to be converted into a theatre, and the
drama introduced into this infant settlement; but his design was suspended
by more urgent demands, and the necessity of his speedy return to England.
This event occurred in 1829,
after he had been two years and a half in America. On his return, without a
situation, and almost penniless, Galt’s creditors became urgent, and he was
obliged, in consequence, to avail himself of the Insolvent Debtors’ Act. The
world was now to be commenced anew; but the elasticity of youth and the
ardour of hope were exhausted, and Galt, now at the age of fifty, had
already done more than most men have achieved at that period. And yet he
must continue an author, no longer, however, from choice, but necessity; for
of all that he had possessed, nothing but his pen remained. And bravely he
girded himself for the task, and published in succession "Lawrie Todd," "Southennan,"
and the "Life of Lord Byron." They were written with his wonted rapidity,
being produced in 1829 and 1830; but the spirit that formerly animated him
had become languid, so that these works, excellent though they are, will not
stand comparison with his former novels that so highly interested the
Scottish public. While he was occupied with the "Life of Lord Byron," a
caustic production, in which his lordship meets with somewhat rough
entertainment, Galt accepted the editorship of the "Courier," a newspaper of
high Tory principles. But however well-adapted in many ways for such an
office, it is easy to guess that he could not continue long to hold it, and
that the same independence of spirit which wrecked him in Canada, would mar
him as the Corypheus of any political party whatever in the journalism of
London. "The only kind of scruple that I felt," he says, "if such it may be
called, was in thinking the politics of the journal a little too ardent for
the spirit of the times; and in consequence, my first object was to render
them more suitable to what I apprehended was the wholesome state of opinion,
preparatory to introducing occasionally more of disquisition into the
articles. . . . Accordingly,
without manifesting particular solicitude to make myself remarkable, I began
by attempting gradually to alleviate the ultra-toryism of the paper, by
explanations of more liberality than the sentiments of any party." By such
an honest procedure either the newspaper or the editor must go down; and
Galt thus continues his narrative: "I had not been long installed as editor
till I perceived that the business would not suit me. In point of emolument
it was convenient; but, as I have elsewhere shown, money matters have ever
been perhaps too slightly regarded by me, and my resignation, though it
partook of that promptitude of enunciation which all my decisions have
uniformly manifested, was, however, the result of very solemn reflection. To
men who have juster notions of the value of money than I have ever
entertained—not from persuasion, but from habit, if not constitutional
carelessness—my resignation in such a crisis of fortune will not be easily
comprehensible; but to those who think, as the old song sings, that there
are things ‘which gold can never buy,’ no further explanation can be
necessary."
About the same period Galt,
while thus busied with literature, attempted to form a new American Land
Company, but was unsuccessful; and to aggravate his misfortunes, two attacks
of paralysis warned him that his day of enterprise had ended—that he was now
chained to the oar. He retired to his native country, there to await his
time, so doubly uncertain; and to close his eyes, when his hour came, amidst
the scenery and society which he had loved so well. Yet he still continued
to linger on from year to year, although repeated shocks of the malady
inflicted at each visitation the "bitterness of death;" and while his memory
was impaired and his mind enfeebled, he was still obliged to toil for the
support of a life that seemed scarcely worth having. And yet he could still
be happy, for his was that healthful state of feeling that looked habitually
upon the bright side of things, and could find itself occupation as long as
a single faculty remained in exercise. With an amanuensis, or a chance
friend to transcribe from his dictation, he continued to pour forth volume
after volume, "to wrench life from famine," as he mournfully expressed it;
and although these productions could scarcely bear comparison with those of
his happier years, they still retained the impress of his former vivacity
and inventiveness, as well as much of his vigorous talent and reach of
thought. In this way he produced, among other publications, the
"Autobiography of John Galt," in two volumes 8vo, and the "Literary Life and
Miscellanies of John Galt," in three volumes 12mo, from which the materials
of the foregoing sketch have been mainly derived. At length, after the
fourteenth stroke of paralysis, he died at Greenock, on the 11th of April,
1839.
The works of Galt were very
numerous, comprising about fifty volumes of novels, and more than a score of
dramas, independently of his biographical and miscellaneous works. Of these,
however, only a tithe of his tales will continue to be read and valued, not
only for their intrinsic excellence, but as the transcripts of a state of
society that is rapidly passing away. In this department the name of John
Galt will be perpetuated as a national remembrance, and his descriptions be
prized when the living reality has departed.
Download the book
John Galt by R. K. Gordon to learn more about him
No mere literary man
The neglected work of John Galt by Andrew Hook, August 2017 in the Scottish
Review
'The International Companion
to John Galt', edited by Gerard Carruthers and Colin Kidd (Scottish
Literature International)
John Galt is a bit of a problem. Born in Irvine in 1779 and buried in
Greenock in 1839, he is roughly contemporary with Robert Burns, Walter Scott
and James Hogg, but unlike these familiar figures, his reputation today is
virtually non-existent. I've asked around among my well-informed friends and
the name Galt usually fails to register. Even colleagues interested in
Scottish literature struggle to remember anything he has written except
perhaps 'Annals of the Parish'.
Yet in his own day Galt's reputation was well-established. His literary
output was enormous. He produced work in almost every known literary kind:
poetry, novels, short stories, drama, history, biography, autobiography,
travel books, essays and children's books. A complete edition of his work
would involve almost 50 titles – and individual works often involve three
separate volumes. Unsurprisingly, despite the successful completion of the
Edinburgh edition of the 'Waverley' novels, the ongoing Stirling edition of
the works of James Hogg, and the new OUP edition of Burns, there is no
proposal to produce a complete edition of the works of John Galt.
Extraordinarily, however, Galt's reputation and visibility in his lifetime
was in no sense merely a question of his literary output. He was also a
speculator, a lobbyist and entrepreneur at a time when such roles were just
beginning to emerge. 'I have ever held literature to be a secondary
pursuit,' he wrote, and 'a mere literary man – an author by profession –
stands but low in my opinion.' And he was as good as his word. Business
enterprise dominated much of his life.
In 1820 Galt entered on a long-term engagement with imperial Canada. Having
earlier had success as a parliamentary agent – or lobbyist – persuading
Westminster to pass an act extending the Forth and Clyde canal at Falkirk,
he was employed by a group of Canadians who were seeking compensation from
the British government for losses they had incurred during the 1812 war with
the USA. He soon recognised the potential for expansion and development that
the Canadian province represented and helped to create the Canada Company in
1824.
In 1826 he sailed to New York en route to upper Canada where he took up his
post as the company's first commissioner. For three years he ran it with
great success. He founded the city of Guelph in Ontario as its headquarters,
and the business model he established flourished for many years after his
own dismissal and return to London in 1829. For the remaining years of his
life he reverted to being 'an author by profession' – beginning,
unsurprisingly, with a novel based on his Canadian experience called 'Lawrie
Todd: or, the Settlers in the Woods'.
The editors of this book – like all of its contributors – are agreed about
the history of neglect of a writer they regard as a major figure. Indeed in
their introduction, while trying to account for this situation, Gerry
Carruthers and Colin Kidd make some challenging observations about what they
see as a flawed tradition in Scottish literary history and criticism. They
argue that influential critics of 18th- and 19th-century Scottish writing –
such as Hugh MacDiarmid and Edwin Muir – established the view that the
weakness of Scottish writing was its failure to address the issues the
critics chose to see as crucial in Scottish culture. Specifically, Scottish
writers obsessed over religious issues while ignoring the post-1707 question
of Scottish nationhood. John Galt was such a writer and is neglected as a
result.
In his own essay in the collection, Professor Kidd, himself an historian,
sees religion as crucial to the nature of Galt's art. Beginning by
suggesting that 'Galt's fiction lives in a way that makes his obscurity not
only undeserved, but also a trifle mystifying', he proceeds to argue that
'the matter of Galt's art was the currency of ecclesiastical debate in
late-18th-century Ayrshire.' Galt, he insists, is 'a novelist who knows the
way the world works. Commerce, agriculture, manufacture, emigration, burgh
governance: all are presented with authority and expertise.' But what
defines and shapes the matter of his fictional world is something
originating in the almost century-long debate between the 'new licht'
Moderates and the 'auld licht' Calvinists in the Church of Scotland: a
continuing conflict over individual sincerity, hypocrisy, and self-deceit –
exactly the kind of material that appears over and over again in Galt's
fiction. The case Kidd makes for this view is both compelling and
convincing.
Another historian, Christopher Whatley, agrees that 'Galt is worth reading
and celebrating as a major Scottish writer' because 'from the historian's
perspective he is one of the most perceptive observers of Scottish society
during the golden age of Scottish literary production.' And he goes on to
make exactly the point that Hilary Mantel is recognised in her Reith
lectures on historical fiction: 'what Galt offers the historian of the late-
18th and early-19th centuries is a voice from within, the insights of an
insider's eye.'
Current theorising about the nature of historical fiction is ably explored
by Alison Lumsden in the context of a discussion of Galt's 1823 novel 'Ringan
Delhaize'. Set in 17th-century Scotland, the novel was a kind of riposte to
Scott's 'Old Mortality' which Galt felt had done less than justice to the
Covenanters and their cause. Gordon Millar makes the case for the view that
with novels such as 'The Provost' and 'The Member', Galt should be seen as
the pioneer of the political novel in English.
Taken together, the 10 essays in this volume do indeed provide what the
editors describe as 'the thick context in which Galt's writings are
enveloped.' But the puzzle of his lost reputation remains unresolved.
Perhaps the author himself provides a clue. In his autobiography published
in 1833, Galt suggests that his fictions 'are certainly deficient in the
peculiarity of the novel' – meaning that they were lacking in plot. 'They
would be more properly characterised', he goes on, 'as theoretical
histories, than either as novels or romances.' (More material here for
Hilary Mantel to ponder.)
Galt's surmise about the nature of his plotless fictions may well be
accurate. But for today's readers, familiar with modernist and even
post-modernist fiction, the absence of conventional plotting should not be a
problem. Several contributors here do indeed draw attention to surprisingly
'modernist' aspects of Galt's art. Professor Carruthers, for example, comes
up with a feminist reading of some short stories that might well have
surprised Galt himself. Even more to contemporary taste is his frequent
deployment of first-person narrators – such as the Reverend Micah Balwhidder
in 'Annals of the Parish' – who are simultaneously reliable (humanely
perceptive) and unreliable (unwittingly prejudiced). Will such aspects of
his art be enough to bring contemporary readers back to Galt? Only time will
tell.
You can read three of his books below.
See also the city he
founded - The Royal City of Guelph
in Canada Read
also...
Forty Years Residence in America
Exemplified in the life of Grant Thorburn (the original Lawrie Todd) written
by himself with an introduction by John Galt (1834) (pdf) |
