CB ^'^^Mm <«x ^'-^•^#^1?^ 3 3B^-ZA lAh 490^38 DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY T^reasure %oom A 4.^ {From the North tmm Whig .^ THE LIVING AND THE DEAD. LADY BYRON'S REMARKS, ADDRESSED TO MR. MOORE RESPECTING HER SEPARATION FR03I HER HUSBAND. In common^ we believe^, with the whole world, we have read with the closest attention and the deepest interest. Lady Byron's letter to Mr. Moore, or rather Remarks occasioned by certain passages in the Notices of Lord Byron's Life by that gentleman, relative to her separation from her husband ; and it is no more than justice to her ladyship to say, that the motives which ap- pear to have induced her to come before the public, and to advert to circumstances of the most delicate and painful description, are of such a nature as in no degree to detract from the estimate we had previously formed of her ladyship's character. " Self -vindi- cation (she says) is not the motive which actuates me to make this appeal, and the spirit of accusation is unmingled with it ; but when the conduct of my parents is brought forward in a disgrace- ful light, by the passages selected from Lord Byron's Letters, and by the remarks of his biographer, I feel bound to justify their characters from imputations which I hiorv to be false." Filial piety, in short, has alone, it seems, prompted this publication upon the part of Lady Byron ; and it is impossible not to feel the highest respect and admiration for one who, professing to exercise a virtuous self-denial in regard to matters of a personal nature, seeks only to vindicate from unmerited censure the cha- racter and conduct of her parents. But in performing this sacred duty, which she has discharged in a manner equally becoming B and satisfactory. Lady Byron has been unavoidably, and we may add most unfortunately, led to advert to circumstances of a most painful nature, connected with her separation from her late hus- band, and to throw out hints of a description calculated to affix a deep stain on his memory. Her defence of her parents is, un- consciously perhaps, blended with allusions and insinuations, which, interpreted by the ready malice of the world are certain to assume a dark and malignant complexion, to give shape and consistency to suspicions which never before took a definite form, and to revive calumnies which were well nigh forgotten. In justice to the dead, therefore, no less than to the living, we deem it a species of duty to examine her Ladyship's production a little closely, and to endeavour to ascertain the precise amount of it, in so far as it is calculated to affect the character and reputation of one whose memory can never die. Mr. IMoore's statement, to which Lady Byron chiefly directs her reply, is distinct and unequivocal. He says, " It was in a few weeks after the latter communication between us (Lord Byron and his biographer) that Lady Byron adopted the deter- mination of parting from him. She had left London at the latter end of January, en a visit to her father's house in Leicestershire, and Lord Byron was in a short time to follow her. They had lyarted in the utmost kindness ; she wrote him a letter full of playfulness and affection, on the road ; and immediately on her arrival at Kirkby-Mallory, her father wrote to acquaint Lord Byron that she would return to him no more." Such is Mr. Moore's statement ; and it is material to observe that its accu- racy, as a narrative of facts, is not impeached by Lady Byron, who, in effect, admits every part of it, but denies, and enters into explanations calculated to take off, the inference of incon- sistency on her part to which it inevitably leads. It is im- portant, therefore, in every view to attend to these explanations, upon which Lady Byron rests her justification, and endeavours to reconcile the apparent inconsistencies of her conduct in this matter, as displayed in Mr. Moore's statement. After fixing the date of her departure from London for Kirby- jMallory, the residence of her father and niotlior, Ladv Byron 3 proceeds to inform us, that, previously to this^ it had been strongly impressed upon her mind that Lord Byron was insane: — that this opinion was derived, not so much from her own observations as from communications made to her by Lord Byron's " nearest relatives and personal attendant" or bodi/ serva7it; — that, under the impression thus produced, she had consulted Dr. Baillie, who, on the assumjition of Lord Byron's insanity, ha,d enjoined her, in any correspondence she might have with him, to avoid all but light and soothing topics; — that in consequence of this advice she wrote his Lordship " in a kind and cheerful tone," as stated by Mr, Moore ; — that subsequent accounts given her by persons in constant intercourse with Lord Byron had created doubts as to the reality of the alleged disease, while the reports of his Lordship's medical attendant " were far from establishing the existence of any thing like lunacy;" — that under this uncertainty as to his Lordship's sanity or insanity. Lady Byron informed her parents that if she were to consider Lord Byron's past conduct as that of a person of sound mind, nothing could induce her to re- turn to him ; — that further inquiries were instituted, the result of which left no doubt whatever that the notion of insanity was an illusion ; — and that, in consequence, LadyByron no longer hesitated to authorise " such measures as were necessary in order to secure her from being ever again placed in his power." As soon as this resolution was taken, therefore. Lady Byron drew out " a written statement" of her matrimonial grievances and injuries, with which her mother. Lady Noel, proceeded immediately to London, in order to take legal advice as to the course most proper to be pur- sued; and it appears from Dr. Lushington's letter on the subject, which Lady Byron has engrossed in her own, that the professional persons consulted (being the late Sir Samuel Romilly and the learned civilian just named) were of opinion that the circum- stances detailed by Lady Byron in her '• written statement" were such as justified a separation, but that they were not of that aggravated description to render such a measure indispensable, and that they deemed a reconciliation with Lord Byron still practicable. Upon tliis Lady Byron herself repaired to town, and for the first time informed her legal advisers of facts, which she had carefully concealed from her parents, and which were of such a nature that, " on receiving this additional information," both united in " considering a reconciliation impossible." Lady Byron adds, " that if the statements on which my legal advisers formed their opinions were false, the responsibility and the odium should rest with me only;" a sentiment in which aU the readers of her Remarks must at once coincide. Here, then, is Lady Byron's case, as stated by herself, or at least in her name : and it is impossible, we think, for any one to examine it attentively without feeling that it is, in several re- spects, open to very serious, if not fatal, animadversion. In the Jirst place. Lady Byron cautiously avoids the mention of a single fact or circumstance from which an opinion may be formed as to his Lordship's general conduct, or his behaviour to herself; and consequently, the propriety or impropriety of the course he latterly pursued must rest upon her own appreciation of acts known only to herself, and upon the assumption of the truth of which, as narrated by her, the opinion of her legal advisers was obtained. Secondly, the theory of Lord Byron's supposed insanity or lunacy, at first adopted by Lady Byron, and afterwards rejected by her as " an illusion," is by no means calculated to increase our con- fidence in any opinion or conclusion formed by her Ladyship ; for it appears, from her own statement, that " this opinion was derived, in a great measure, from the communications made to her by his (Lord Byron's) nearest relatives," with whom his Lordship might have been on bad terms, " and his personal attendant" or valet, the last person on earth to whom we should have conceived a high-bred and high-minded woman — and that woman a wife ! — to apply for information touching a subject of such extreme delicacy as the sanity of her husband. That old maiden aunts and pet flunkies should, in their united wisdom, conclude that this strange, wayward son of genius was mad, is not in the least degree surprising, considering that a few eccen- tricities of the most innocent description would naturally appear to persons of this class and grade in the light of insanity ; but that Lady Byron should have adopted " an opinion derived in a great measure" from such sources, and for a^ time acted upon it, with undoubting faith, is really calculated to excite our wonder. By her own statement, however, this opinion proved an " illusion." It turned out, she says, that Lord Byron was neither permanently nor periodically mad, but, on the contrary, in his sound mind, and fully accountable for all his actions; and she took her measures accordingly. Now, we would just ask this simple question : — If Lady Byron was mistaken, as she distinctly admits herself to have been, in regard to so vital a point as the sanity of her husband, what assurance can the public have that she was not equally so in regard to matters contained in her " written statement" and subsequent oral communication upon which the opinion of her legal advisers was formed } All her proceedings and statements were ex parte. Lord Byron, though so deeply affected by them, had no opportunity of appearing for his own interest to offer any competent or relevant explanation. The whole was managed with the utmost secrecy, and an opinion at length obtained that a reconcilement was impossible, upon evi- dence of which nothing is known, except that it proceeded from a person who rests her title to credit partly on the fact of her having been misled respecting a matter of vital importance to the whole case. Is Lord Byron, then, to be condemned, and held out to public reprobation as a monster, because his wife, who kindly assumed that he was insane, chose, upon discovering her •erfor, (as she thought,) to make certain statements which he had no opportunity of answering, and of which, up to the present moment, nothing whatever is known ? But, thirdly, it appears, from Lady Byron's own showing, that, upon her arrival at Kirkby-Mallory, and being satisjSed that the notion of Lord Byron's madness was ill-founded, she drew up " a written statement" of her matrimonial wrongs, which she put into the hands of her mother; and that the latter, armed with this document, proceeded to London in order to take legal opinions upon the facts and circumstances therein set forth. If Lady Byron's " written statement," however, contained the truth, it did not, it seems, contain the whole truth. She had then reasons, she says, for reserving a jjar^ of the case from the knowledge even of her fiither and mother; and this reservation would not, in aU probability, have been departed from, had the " written statement" fully answered the purpose intended by it. But Lady Byron's legal advisers having come to a con- clusion that, although the circumstances detailed in the " state- ment" were sufficient to justify a separation, they were not of that aggravated description to render such a measure indispen- sable, her Ladyship soon after repaired to London, and, bringing up along with her the reserve above-mentioned, succeeded in thus obtaining the opinion she seems to have aU along desired, namely, that a reconciliation was impossible. The inference to which it is meant that all this should lead is too plain and obvious to be mistaken by any one. The "written statement," we are left to conclude, contained nothing so very bad that it might not have been atoned for; but in the appendix which Lady Byron subsequently added to it, there was something so shocking and unnameable, that all idea of reconciliation was at once abandoned as impossible. And in this way, without pro- ducing a particle of evidence, or specifying a single fact or cir- cumstance likely to throw a ray of light upon the subject. Lady Byron has contrived to make out a statement calculated to stimulate the most horrible suspicions, and almost to countenance the infamous insinuations put into circulation by the base and ungrateful wretch whose imagination, " foul as Vulcan's stithy," once teemed with the festering abominations of " Rimini." -^»^ ^ Now this is really too bad. Lord Byron, heaven knows, was any thing but a model of virtue ; and we are far from having any wish to shelter his name from the reproach due to his mis- deeds, when these are made kno^vn and established. But we have no notion whatever of blasting a man's memory upon an hypothesis or insinuation, unsupported even by a tangible alle- gation. That such is the tendency of Lady Byron's production, however, no one who reads it can possibly doubt. Its sting consists not in what it has said, but in what it leaves unsaid. It points to an inference that cannot be mistaken ; yet it con- tains not a single circumstance to warrant it. As far as facts are concerned, it leaves matters exactly where they stood before ; but it has raised up a dark cloud of suspicion, and flung it round the reputation of one who has long since gone to liis place, and bequeathed his fame to his country and to posterity. It may indeed be said, that delicacy prevents Lady Byron speaking out ; that there are circumstances which no female tongue can utter, and no female pen commit to paper. But we cannot recognise the validity of this apology ; for where it was impossible to pro- duce the evidence, care ought, in common charity, to have been taken not even to insinuate the accusation. Besides, wherever there is mystery there is also exaggeration. Things darkly hinted at are like objects seen in an imperfect light, magnified and distorted into the most hideous forms and shapes, which at first appal the eye and terrify the imagination, but which, when examined closely, are at once reduced to their natural insig- nificance. And so it might very probably happen with the contents of Lady Byron's " huge memorial of misfortune," were it permitted to the impartial and the unprejudiced to examine it closely, and to separate facts from the exaggerations and mis- representations, with which there is but too much reason to think that they have been combined. // / TeHf'- 'tje<' OK *ss^ :'0«Tt^ _V:.^«:'SC1 5> '^- «4; '.A <.<<'.«:t,. -•^^ «^c- ^ f^S^"<^•^''-SS''^-*<^^<■■ ^^^W .« t <<^^.<-^C'^'i«r - ; • "<:,««? «<: •,<- «5;4r, ; t r,<#^ ^r-^^<*^ ^'^-'CCC "'^r-r-c-^gvi .,.«^>v^ C_^