To the "Retrospective Review" Montagu contributed in 1821 two articles on the "Novum Organum" of Francis Bacon, whose "Works" he edited, in 16 vols., between 1825 and 1837. He attempted to rehabilitate Bacon's character as a man. Thomas Babington Macaulay criticised Montagu in a celebrated "Essay" on Bacon, originally published in the "Edinburgh Review" for July 1837. In 1841 Montagu began the publication of "Letters to the Right Hon. T. B. Macaulay upon the Review of the Life of Lord Bacon"; only the first, however, dealing with Bacon's conduct in Peacham's case, appeared. Montagu's edition was effectively superseded by James Spedding's work from 1860; he was assisted in it by Francis Wrangham and William Page Wood, who were responsible for the translations of the Latin treatises.