Basil Montagu, an English lawyer, born in London, April 24, 1770, died in Boulogne, Nov. 27, 1851. He was a natural son of John Montagu, fourth earl of Sandwich, and Miss Ray, who was shot in 1779 at Co vent Garden by the Rev. James Hackman, a frantic admirer. Basil graduated at Cambridge, was called to the bar in 1798, and acquired a large practice in cases of bankruptcy. He formed an intimacy with that literary circle of which Coleridge was a leader, and became a convert to the political theories of Godwin. In 1806 Lord Chancellor Erskine made him a commissioner of bankrupts. Impressed with the evils of the law administered in his court, he published a yearly detail of its pernicious results, and ultimately induced its amelioration. Under the new law Mr. Montagu was appointed accountant general, in which capacity he compelled the bank of England to pay interest (never previously demanded) on the moneys that had been deposited there by his court. He published 40 volumes, including several against capital punishment, and left, it is said, 100 volumes in manuscript. His principal professional work is "A Digest of the Bankrupt Laws" (4 vols. 8vo, London, 1805), of which several editions have been published.

Of his editorial works the most important is his edition of " The Works of Francis Bacon" (16 vols. 8vo, 1825-'34), the last volume of which contains a "Life of Bacon" by the editor.