LORD BYRON VINDICATED, AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY Treasure %oom LORD BYRON VINDICATED, MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. There have been tears and breaking hearts for thee. Childe Harold. LONDON: PRINTED BY AND FOR MARSH AND MILLER, OXFORD STREET. 1830. 490S34 LORD BYRON VINDICATED. Scrivo Per vendicar l'illustre morto. Dante. And are there none his memory to defend ! He who, when living, called forth alternately our raptures, smiles, and tears ! He, who if living, had with a single breath made every nerve of Mr. Thomas Campbell's earthly composition tremble, ere he would have dared to buckle on the targe, which he has turned so mercilessly into a stabbing blade to hack and rake up the entombed remains of the once wor- shipped Byron ! Alas ! the age degenerates as our intellects march, and innovations steal upon us imperceptibly. Now is it become great and a2 4 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, glorious to enshrine mortals whilst they live — and now may the sepulchres of the dead be laid open, and their manes torn in pieces, although in the chaos of the new light thus broken in upon us, we stab a son, a husband, or a father ! It would befit a bolder person, and a far better pen than mine to venture forth as cham- pion of the dead, to rebut Mr. Thomas Camp- bell's assertions and insinuations respecting Lord Byron ; but since, with sorrow, I perceive that literary courage is slack, that speculative inter- est is awakened to the probable increase of fa- vour or fortune to be derived from lauding living demons, — that the dead can no longer charm, or serve — and that neither joy nor sorrow now depend upon their smiles or frowns, — I have chosen, seeing no one else so disposed, to come forward — not to criminate or inculpate Lady Byron, for I would despise the man who would AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 5 war even in words with woman — but to vindi- cate her Lord, and to refute some of Mr. Camp- bell's assertions, and much of his wide-spreading doctrine. No matter who I am, or what I am ; if I conceal my name it is from motives of humility, fearing that my cause may suffer, from the clash of its unimportance, with the loudly ringing, laurel-covered name of Thomas Campbell. Now then have at you, Mr. Campbell ; but, as it is a custom amongst modern pugilists to shake hands before they begin to blacken one another's eyes, I offer you my hand, in the as- surance that, although personally unacquainted with you, I rate high your talents, and I admire your genius. If, however, 1 admire the versa- tility of your talent, I much condemn the versa- tility of your opinions. I take you from your starting post, and I would ask you by what casuistical effrontery you have dared to contra 6 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, diet in print your own recorded judgment, and, by an apology of " believe," and " know," as flimsy as it is unsatisfactory, attempt to justify a deed unparalleled in modern literature, or even modern politics !* Why, I would ask you, Mr. Campbell, as the knowledge was within your reach, did you not " know" before you ventured to believe ? Trust me, this cannot satisfy the friends of Lady Byron, and, by corollary, I will add, of Lord Byron also ; for deep as may have been his Lordship's sufferings and regrets, his affection for his wife, and his consideration for her friends, have not, I believe, yet been ques- tioned. I will not, however, suffer you to sup- pose that I am ignorant of the occasional bit- terness of his invective, or the severity of his * All the rats of the Cabinet of 1829 took more than a month to case-harden their consciences against the system. AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 7 sarcasms; but this very invective, these very sarcasms, I take as illustrative proofs of his un- dying pain — of his undying affection. " Since that time," (say you again at page 4,) " the state of circumstances has wholly changed ; Lady Byron has spoken out." I would then ask, what are the circumstances that have wholly changed ? " Circumstances !" That word is so comprehensive, and incompre- hensible ! What circumstances, I repeat, are changed — or whose ? If Lady Byron has spoken out, we must admit her Ladyship to a larger share of candour and fearlessness than her auto-baptized illustrator, who tells us no- thing, but hints at horrors, and professes to deal in mysteries and darkness, which are indignantly rejected from every well-organized mind, with instinctive disgust for the person who thus insi- diously would promulgate their baneful belief, 8 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, as justificatory of a separation, which, if the truth be really known, originated, perhaps, only in some common misunderstanding, but has since been dexterously riddled up into an enig- ma, tortured into something monstrous, and for which I hope and believe myself that both the illustrious individuals felt mutually aggrieved. I, at all events, am certain that sorrow for the disunion was the cankering shaft of Lord Byron's doomed and devoted heart. I will not do her Ladyship the injustice to imagine that her grief at the continued separation was not equally poignant. But you tell us, Mr. Camp- bell, that " for more particular facts, respecting the separation, you applied to a different, but perfectly authentic quarter." So then, after all, this hocus pocus cause of domestic misunder- standing has not been disclosed to you by Lady Byron herself, but by " a different, although per- AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 9 fectly authentic quarter, 1 ' and you have elected yourself into a judge of its authenticity, and you would have us, upon your judgment, (which we know is not immutable,) greedily swallow this anonymous authentic illustration, and receive it, forsooth, as Gospel — and upon such vague assurances, you would have us con- demn the greatest man that ever lived. For- shame ! I come now to the succeeding paragraph, wherein, upon the showing of your own con- viction, that Lady Byron was justified in the parting, you would have all men believe as you do. This is not fair. You have established no right to expect from us a creed, for the groundwork of which we have only your simple deposition, without a single fact in corrobo- ration. I for one, even though I should be singular, a thing however far from probable, a5 10 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, am not of your way of thinking ; but because I think differently from you, I do not desire to dragoon people into my belief. I do not, as I have already said at starting, desire to visit the conduct of Lady Byron separating herself from her Lord with any inculpative re- mark or opinion of my own. It was an act for the consideration of the two illustrious per- sons concerned, with which no one else has a . right to interfere. But, when slanderous insi- nuations walk abroad, affecting Lady Byron's late husband's reputation, and you, Mr. Camp- bell, give them utterance, and, under the aegis of your respectability, usher them into circu- lation and belief; — when I am alive to the baneful effects of the prejudice so often attached to opinions founded upon the feverish or evil interpretation of loose surmises ; — when I am aware how these opinions are welcomed by the AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 11 malevolent dispositions of some parties, and im- bibed and re-ecboed from the too credulous and too garrulous dispositions of others, then am I compelled to break forth from my hermitage, and hurl back in your teeth every innuendo by which you would harness infamy to the car of immortality. I do not wish to be forced into reasons to prove that Lady Byron was not justified in the separation ; but, without breaking my plighted faith, not to attempt even to inculpate her Ladyship, I may, I hope, be permitted to men- tion the reason which strikes me would have fully justified her Ladyship in remaining with Lord Byron, under any and every circum- stance, without going into the pride which ought, and I make no doubt did, swell that Lady's bosom, in becoming the wife of such a man, and which I cannot help imagining 12 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, would alone have linked her inseparably to his destiny. Without entering into circum- stances (to which I must, in answer to some after paragraphs of your pamphlet, more fully resort, and which all, more or less, bear upon my opinion,) I will now content myself by the one solitary reason, which, independent of many others, in my opinion, should have fixed their dooms inseparably as one. I will then cite that cherished offspring of first-born affection, "Ada, beloved Ada Byron," inheritress and hope of all her great father's boundless imagination. I pass now, however, on to the italics which appear so industriously but vainly labouring to illustrate some particular point, at present either sedulously and selfishly bosomed as a secret, or perhaps the offspring only of your own ima- gination. If, however, it is a quotation from AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 13 Mr. Moore only, which you would thus illus- trate, permit me to observe, that there appears implied more sarcasm towards the Noble bu- ried, than illustration of a quotation from his biographer. I dare assert, and I do believe I could rally thousands round my flag to bear me out in my assertion, that if Lord Byron ever entered into the subject of confession with Mr. Moore, his Lordship neither forgot, nor glossed over any thing, nor did he fail, with all his " manly candour, 11 which appears so wonderfully to irritate you, to state every thing. I appeal to the few who have basked in his friendship, — to the thousands who have sighed for it, and to the millions who have admired his Lordship, whether amongst even his ene- mies and slanderers, such a charge was ever hinted as attempting either subterfuge, eva- • 14 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, sion, or falsehood ? Yet upon one, or all of these, your insinuation bears strongly — here, however, your arrow fortunately falls harmless. I am neither Mr. Moore's apologist nor de- fender. I defend — or rather I attempt to defend — only the DEAD. Mr. Moore is alive — I hope and believe well, and, I am sure, better able to shield his own reputation than I am able to do it for him — I shall therefore pass over the egotism with which you allude to your " plainness," as likely to contribute to his " popularity, 1 " and I will merely notice that, if " no weak nor timid remonstrance" from you could reach Mr. Moore — you who are both " stars" in literature, my remonstrance must of necessity be so much the less weak and timid, before it can possibly reach you. " Your interest in a suffering woman needs iio apology, 1 ' say you — " Mine then," say I, AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 15 " in the illustrious dead, requires at most as little/' " I found my right to speak on this painful subject, - " not on its now irrevocable publicity, but on the desire that ought to animate every generous mind, of rescuing the illustrious shade of immortality from unmerited opprobrium, and from the wanton attacks of any and every assailant. I claim to defend the memory of Lord Byron, upon the score of that religion, which ought to have taught you, Mr. Camp- bell, as it has taught me, to respect the remains of departed worth ; but, I do not claim to speak of Lord Byron as one of his " many friends," as you have put forth your right to speak on behalf of Lady Byron. I do not think Lord Byron had many friends, although thousands of enthusiastic admirers, who, like myself, would have considered it greater honour, and far more 16 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, glorious to have been worthy of " unloosening his shoe-latchet," than in being either groomed or lorded into the bedchamber of majesty. So many candidates and aspirants for the Noble Poet's friendship, therefore, rendered his Lord- ship naturally difficult — perhaps circumspect. I would respectfully recommend the adoption of similar caution to his illustrious widow. We have all read the fable of the " Hare and many Friends," and I cannot but look at your phrase, at least, as an unfortunate one. May she never have cause to rue or repent the in- terposition in her affairs of any of her many friends ! and this is a wish sincere and true, — as pure too as can possibly emanate even from you, Mr. Campbell, although perhaps founded upon different motives from your's. I desire it devoutly, with my whole heart ; because I know her Lord, if living, would desire it also. AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 17 I would, however, before I turn over page five of your pamphlet, wish to ask who has so " vir- tually dragged from the shade of her retire- ment" the suffering woman, who, with her friends and parents, are in such danger of being crushed by the Byron tombstone? Who has dragged her sorrows before this busy world more than you yourself? Who leaves the imagination room to work up horrors that never, in all probability, existed, more than you, Mr. Campbell ? In every page almost of your pseudo-bap- tized defence, we read the most shocking insi- nuations, forced, in italics, upon our reluctant observation, and hidden from us under the mys- terious plea of Morality. Mr. Campbell, you ought to have been hereupon quite silent, or have spoken quite out. As the friend of either Lord or Lady 18 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, Byron, such was your duty, and you have overstepped all modern bounds of friendship ; you have yourself transgressed the laws of that morality, which you so dexterously drag for- ward as a cloak for screening supposed infamy, by loosing upon the wide world a load of empty surmise, to be construed at leisure, as may suit the temper of the malignant or the fertile- minded. As, however, Mr. Campbell, you have assumed a most despotic and authoritative tone in volunteering the declaration that " to plenary explanation Lady Byron never shall be driven, 1 ' I am to conclude, at least, you have either her Ladyship's authority for venturing forth in such a commanding voice, or you have sufficient influence over her Ladyship to deter her from such an act ; but I cannot reconcile it to my own mind, to my conception of the loftiness of AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 19 that illustrious lady's actions and ideas, that under any circumstances she would make any friend, the confidant of a secret so affecting the reputation and character of her entombed and sacred Lord, as that the disclosure of it is to harrow up with " burning ploughshares," the hearts and feelings of her departed husband's friends and relatives. I will not — I cannot believe' it. I do not, however, for a moment wish to be supposed as calling upon Lady Byron to make to myself, or to the world, any disclosure that might by possibility affect her late Lord ; I conscientiously declare my belief that she has not done so to any one ; nay, that she cannot do so : were it proposed to myself I would not listen to it, and were it given to the world I would disbelieve it, and endeavour humbly, but strenuously, to refute it. I have only ventured to say so much, perhaps you 20 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, may term it in defiance ; but it is not so, it is to disabuse any idea that my silence on the subject might otherwise impose upon your belief, that I dreaded your threatened disclosure. No ! but I scorn the threat, and I can never augur much harm as likely to arise from courting the dan- ger of which I am so amply and kindly fore- warned by such desperate avant-couriers of future havoc, as your threatened " burning ploughshares." I will not admit that Mr. Moore has made either her Ladyship or her misfortunes a cause for public agitation. Mr. Moore is the biographer of Lord Byron only. It was Lord Byron whose wild but sub- lime imagination charmed and astounded all hearts. It is Lord Byron, who by his tower- ing and lofty genius, has left behind him the imperishable record of his unfading and glo- rious memory. AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 21 Lady Byron's name is introduced merely as elucidatory of facts and events, which with- out that name must have been passed over in sorry silence. Lady Byron belongs to us as the valued relic of her much- valued Lord. As such must her Ladyship be cared for; but had Miss Milbanke either remained Miss Mil- banke, or become Lady anybody else, I will ask fearlessly, if it is likely we had ever heard of her, save when, perhaps, herded amongst a hundred other Ladies, who figure and flourish alternately, and are afterwards forgotten. I come now, Mr. Campbell, to the first paragraph of your letter, in which our opinions, or rather desires are mutual, — " Lady Byron must be acquitted," say you. But I would ask you of what ? Who has accused her Lady- ship, unless it be yourself, and her many friends. We, who have not the honour either of her 22 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, friendship or acquaintance, do not accuse her. We neither know, nor believe harm of her, therefore have we nothing whereof to acquit her. Believe me, Mr. Campbell, this fending and proving will but ill advance your claims either to her Ladyship's sympathy, or her gratitude. The only accusation that by pro- bability can be fancied — mind, I say only fan- cied against her Ladyship, (I will add it, be- cause I believe it, her spotless Ladyship) has arisen from the dark and mysterious insinua- tions thrown out against her Lord, which, as you justly observe, are now walking " the Fashionable World," and are hurled about like firebrands, till I sincerely wish they may scorch the busy fingers which are meddling with them. If I read your pamphlet right, you say " You will not submit to be called Byron's AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 23 accuser. I wish I could modify the title, or give it you in some more harmonious sound ; but, Mr. Campbell, I must henceforth consider you, and fearlessly and loudly proclaim you the accuser of that departed noble Lord, unless you retract publicly every iota of your attack upon his Lordship in the pamphlet now under my consideration. In defending, or I would prefer more humbly to say, in attempting to defend his Lordship, I think you will, indeed you must do me the justice to acknowledge that I have not broken into your ranks once, and that her Ladyship, as far as my remarks have gone, is free from either direct or insinuat- ed censure. Nor do I take merit for this, for as I cannot blame, I cannot insinuate blame. Have you, Mr. Campbell, been equally fair, or have you not lashed by insinuations of the most exaggerated calumny, the memory of her 24 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, Ladyship's immortal husband ? Then can you suppose all is to be looked over, and, forsooth, forgotten by the worshippers and defenders of that idolized memory, merely by a short well- accented phrase setting forth after all these heinous insinuations that " a word against him you wished not to say ;" and then how well hangs pendant to the phrase, its following com- mentary, " beyond what is painfully wrung from you !" All this, I say, will not do ; — it will satisfy no one, — it cannot — I shudder to believe it possible — it cannot gratify the noble and ex- alted mind of Lady Byron, to hear these taint- ed innuendos breathed throughout the land. I will not believe it. I have nothing to do with, nor do I care about at whose bidding you have written, whether at Lady Byron's, or otherwise ; nor is it a matter to me of the slightest conse- AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 25 quence, whether you are baptized her Lady- ship's champion, or not. As you appear to ob- ject to the appellation, I will not inflict it's grating sound upon ) r our ears, after I have requested you, as the most particular favour you can confer upon me, to resolve also, never to become mine. I cannot resist noticing, now I am upon the subject, the pertinacity with which you put forward your eternal claim to Lady Byron's friendship. There is something so exquisitely egotistical in thus forcing yourself perpetually upon the attention of your readers, first in the singular number as her " friend," then again as one of her many friends, that luckless ex- pression ! then pompously proud of her friend- ship, and then again as one of the plural " we her friends," who, with infinite and condescend- ing pains you have informed us retired and B 26 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, unassuming mortals, " mix with the fashion- able world ;" that if it were not you, Mr. Camp- bell, who have thus imprinted on my mind by such numberless and unceasing repetitions, that you are Lady Byron's friend, and that you and others the rest of " We" do mix with fashionable society, I should e'en question both these circumstances. I take you now, Mr. Campbell, upon your own avowal, and I am bound to believe 30U when you assure me that " you do not pity this noble woman ;" and, although I will admit with you that Lady Byron does belong to sen- timent and morality, I will not admit that she belongs more exclusively to sentiment or to morality, than every, or any other fair-famed or unprotected female : but if from sentiment and morality you would drive me to celebrity, or the records of posterity ; or if in the gigantic AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 27 grasp of your imagination, you would infer so much, I must repeat to you, Mr. Campbell, that Lady Byron can live only in the memory of after ages, as the wife and widow of that illustrious Peer and Poet, whose dazzling and bewildering genius has grafted his name and nation upon the hearts of the astounded uni- verse. Far be from me the wish to lessen an iota of Lady Byron's supremacy. I look upon her, as you do, Mr. Campbell, with wonder and with envy — with phenomenonic admiration, even ; but my wonder, envy, and admiration are excited by the reflection that she was Lord Byron's wife, that she is now his widow, and mother to that dear child of so much affec- tion, ADA BYRON— all now left us of that bright being, who once electrified all our hearts, and stole away our reason ! b 2 28 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, I have already said, I do not arrogate to de- fend either Mr. Moore or his book ; I shall therefore pass over all criticisms levelled at that gentleman, which in their range do not attack the late Lord Byron, either in front or flank. I come then, at once, to Lady Byron's letter, the second line of which, acquaints you that it is for your " private" information. Yet in utter disregard of every confidential tie, and obligation, you give it publicly to the world with your paltry " meo periculo" apology, as unsatisfactory as it is ill-judged. The burglar breaks into a house, and the highwayman robs upon the heath ; but if either of these daring outlaws happens to fall into the hands of justice, a "■ suo periculo" apology would go very little way in saving him from the scaffold. In what manner, too, can an unprotected fe- male visit her displeasure beyond remonstrance., AND MR- CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 29 upon a man who, in defiance of faith and re- posed confidence, publishes to the world a com- munication strictly and essentially private ? And what does this letter say ? Just exactly what it ought to say ; precisely what a high-minded woman, like Lady Byron, might be expected to say. It informs you, Mr. Campbell, that her Ladyship did not separate from Lord Byron on account of the disorder of his mind, or the em- barrassment of his affairs : and it proceeds fur- ther to state, that her Ladyship cannot inform you what were the causes. In other words, Lady Byron very properly refuses to gratify your prying curiosity, and this very proper refusal on her Ladyship's part, to make you, or any man alive, the confidant of a secret, (most likely unimportant in itself, but having been retained undisclosed during her husband's life, has therefore become to her Ladyship im- 30 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, portant to preserve so,) first of all starts you a-gadding amongst some other wiseacres for authentic information, and then by an ingenui- ty, to which I should scarcely have considered you capable of descending, you have tortured it into italics, and by your insinuation you have distorted it into some imaginary monstrosity, to woo the weary appetites of cravers after scandal. Such efforts must, however, defeat them- selves, and Lord Byron's memory will rise up more glorified from such vain attempts to blast it, than had it passed through no ordeal ; whilst Lady Byron, in spite of your unhallowed de- parture from the bonds of faith, in spite of your vainly-labouring italics, must for ever oc- cupy that pre-eminent place in all our hearts, which is allotted always to spotless purity and high-minded virtue. I have before said, that I meddle not with AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 31 matters at issue between yourself and Mr. Moore. This latter gentleman is able, and will, no doubt, fight his own battles ; and well, and gloriously, do I feel certain he will come off. I pass, therefore, on to the " deserted husband," upon which subject I claim to say a few words. I would not wantonly impute, or even insinuate blame to Lady Byron. Without, therefore, using the word, or rather going into the inquiry of " desertion/' or, " deserted husband," I would suggest, upon the score of humanity, that the friends and defenders of both these illus- trious people should suffer that subject, if possible, now to rest; and that the blame of their separation, if any, (with which, I am at a loss to understand how, or in what manner save curiosity, you, Mr. Campbell, or any earth- born mortal breathing, can have any thing to do,) should be mutually shared. Lord Byron, 32 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, if alive, would I feel confident bear his part — I would appeal to her Ladyship if it be expecting too much to hope that she will bear her share. I suggest this with the honest view to render Lady Byron's hours of retirement, undisturbed in future by the noise and clamour of contend- ing disputants, who cannot palliate, and may aggravate all her sufferings. I suggest it in the religious hope of preserving rest for those dear ashes, which ought only to be disturbed by the trumpet of eternal glory. If, however, my conciliatory offer is rejected, I am " armed for either field," " Pret a quitter la plume, ou pret a la reprendre." I am any where, and every where, ready and willing to meet my opposers, for I would last, and least, of all suffer myself to be con- sidered as yielding a single point, which AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 33 I would not do, for a once dearly loved, and much idolized, but departed brother. I will never give a single inch of ground, which in my heart I do not believe that, in the pleni- tude of his magnanimous soul, Lord Byron, if alive, would not give also. For truly magnani- mous is that extracted letter which you your- self produce in page 12 of your pamphlet. It is a great soul, and a strong mind subduing the inward and uprising demon, which speaks as you have quoted, — " but I must say in the very dregs of all this bitterness, that there never was a better, or even kinder, or more amiable, and agreeable being than Lady Byron. I never had, nor ever can have any reproach to make her while with me." What a heroic example set by her late illus- trious Lord for her Ladyship now to follow ! and what real greatness of mind would it un- b 5 34 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, questionably prove, would her Ladyship come forward in equal terms to her late husband's honour ! Volumes, Mr. Campbell, cannot go farther or say more to prove the rectitude of Lord Byron's feelings, than those few fines. They are, as you say, indeed poetry — poetry, too, of no common order. Let me then hope, that since justice is better rendered late, than never, Lady Byron, yet, may in a relenting mood be tempted to lay aside the quill of bitterness and gall, and take up that of good-will and honey. In so noble a cause, she must endear herself to all her late husband's friends. She cannot fail to enhance (if it be possible) the esteem of her own, she will " heap burning coals upon the heads" of the enemies of both, and there is no telling what comfort such unction may afford her own soul. I proceed, now, Mr. Campbell, to notice that AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 35 paragraph of your pamphlet, which has astonish- ed me to the full as much as any other part of your extraordinary revelation. You must be really at a loss to know where to make a thrust, when you so injudiciously lunge out, to re- pudiate an imputation upon Lady Byron, which would decidedly reflect upon her the most un- qualified good sense, and the most unequivocal credit. Supposing for a moment, that Miss Milbanke did invite her future husband to a correspon- dence, I would ask any one, the most fastidious person alive, not what harm there was, but what there was extraordinary in such a proceed- ing ? In the first place, it is a thing almost of every-day occurrence between genial or con- tracting parties, to afford one another opportu- nities of judging of each other's principles, views, and opinions. In the next place, I would wish to remind 36 LORD BYRON VINC1CATED, you, that, at this particular time, Lord Byron's name was in every mouth, and his works were in every hand. There were thousands of our highest-born ladies, who lived upon the hopes of seeing that smile, or hearing that accent which now, alas, has ceased for ever ! What, then, was there improper, or even extraordinary in Miss Milbanke, with her finely tempered mind — her romantic but pure imagination, taking some little interest in the fate of that being, who was growing hourly the idol of thousands and the theme of millions ? j "At that time," say you yourself, " his Lord- ship was so pleasing, that had you had a daughter with ample fortune and beauty, you would have trusted her in marriage with Lord Byron." Your epithet of " pleasing," Mr. Campbell, falls so immeasurably short, and goes such very little way in defining, or exhibiting AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 37 the feeling — the furor, I will say, that was then raging about Lord Byron, that I am dis- posed to believe his Lordship might have been tempted to stray from the precise paths of gal- lantry, and to reject your fortune and beauty- gifted daughter, or that of any body else, whose brains were so addled, as to be unable to discover that his Lordship possessed no better qualifications, than that common-place, nothing- meaning attainment of being " pleasing." And then you, Mr. Campbell, talk of condescending to trust your daughter with the supreme being of the earth ! Why, would you not have licked the very dust he trod upon and spurned, to have earned one single salutation ? I think I hear Europe echoing with the answer. To go, however, on to the impression which you have asserted is circulating, as pro- duced by Mr. Moore's book, I must take leave 38 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, to observe that, but for what you have stated to be your version of that production, I do believe there are few, if any, so prone to evil thinking, as to construct the passages to the purport you wish to fasten to them. I do not, even now you point it out to me, believe that Lady Byron is a precise, wan, and un warming spirit — I do not think she is " a blue-stocking of chilblained learning, or a piece of insensitive goodness:" but, Mr. Campbell, I will not prostitute these pages by pouring over a list of adulatory enco- miums of what I think her Ladyship may be ; I have not taken up the pen to panegyrize Lady Byron, and by lauding a thousand inestimable qualities, which her Ladyship may or may not possess, fawn myself into favour. No — I ad- mired, I idolized her late Lord too much, and too devotedly, to do homage at the shrine of any thing that has not, or that does not, to the AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 39 fullest measure, appreciate that exalted and incomprehensible genius. " Lady Byron brought," say you, " to her Lord beauty, manners, fortune, meekness, ro- mantic affection, and every thing that ought to have made her to the most transcendant man of genius — had he been what he should have been — his pride and his idol." There was no beaut} T , no manners, no for- tune, no meekness, no romantic affection too great, or too much to be sacrificed at such an altar ; and methinks that there are thousands of my fairest and most virtuous, ay, of my high- est-bred countrywomen too, who would have thought bondage sweet with such a being, and who would have never repined at sufferings, or sorrows that were to be repaid by a single smile, or a solitary approving glance from that bright brow which, by its presence, put all others into 40 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, shade. The pride, too, that incentive and curb to all our actions, how greatly would it have been gratified in putting up and bearing with the temper and dominion of that almost super- human being, whose melodious tone would sometimes breathe out the endearing name of " Wife," — and now, when retrospective memory paints the ideal of what such a wife might have been, glorying in her Lord and glorified her- self, loving in all the enthusiastic raptures of wild affection his very faults, as of old Napoleon was proud of loving his once dear France, then starts the unbidden, but burning tear of sorrow, to solace what it cannot remedy. But to proceed. — With what presumption, Mr. Campbell, have you dared to arrogate to yourself the power of pointing out to us the model of what Lord Byron should have been ? Emulate him, vou mav — but to whom would AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 41 you point, or what imaginary but yet unpic- tured being would you fancy as the model of what Lord Byron should have been ? I do not appeal to three, or three hun- dred of the leaders of our land — leaders, too, known and respected for probity, virtue, and every honest feeling — ornaments, too, to their sex — but I appeal to admiring England, and from England to the world, Where "shall we; look upon his like again ?" and yet you would fain tell us what he should have been, and perchance you would have the index point to Ego — Bah ! You beg the question — you must bear the answer. You ask whether it will be believed that Lady Byron has written verses that would do no discredit to Lord Byron himself? Yes; why should it not be believed ? I will fear- lessly and frankly answer — Yes ! it will be be- 42 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, lieved the moment they are produced. I say no more ! nor will I now venture to state whe- ther I anticipate my pleasure at their ex- pected perusal, as either near at hand or other- wise. I have nothing to do with Lady Byron's intellect, manner, beauty, or temper. I am ready to receive all upon the very best of terms, and to take for granted that her Lady- ship in all is superexcellent, else had not Lord Byron chosen her ; but I must observe that there is gross indelicacy in opening the qualities of a retired and private Lady as the theme of pamphlet animadversion or panegyrism. I respect too much this noble widow to say more on the subject of such eulogies, as I feel cer- tain she must consider nauseous. I pass there- fore on to that passage (page 20) wherein I read that, " If Lady Byron was unsuitable, it AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 43 tells all the worse against Lord Byron." This is a species of sophistry which I cannot admit, supported by no other elucidation or proof than your mere assertion, which, with the best intentions in the world, I cannot look upon as of the same unquestionable authority as I do the doctrine of an Evangelist. I do not myself even see how such a phrase can possibly tell against Lord Byron ; but you are blessed with a perception in some things as repre- hensible, as in others it is enviable. If, how- ever, you build your argument upon the adu- latory groundwork of Lady Byron's super- excellence, as qualifying her for the " first of | mortals," and that therefore not to be suitable to her mate, is to infer that the disparity was in her favour, and that she raised Lord Byron to her level by the marriage, I must request you to use your own phrase, and blot out such 44 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, an absurdity from your volume. With all that Lady's superexcellent qualifications, ta^ lents, virtues, and accomplishments, of which I am ready and willing to allow her a full complement, I still am of opinion, that she could not be too much thus endowed to ren- der her a suitable match for the vast genius whom she wedded. It is painful to be thus forced, somewhat at the expense of gallantry, to be continually harping upon the merits of two illustrious beings, not striving betwixt themselves for superiority, but driven into the arena by cla- morous pamphleteers, and more odiously forced into comparisons by the most vague insinua- tions, without matter, manner, or point. I go on, however, now to another loose insi- nuation, viz. " that you could paint the woman that could have matched him. ,, I will, how- AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED. 45 ever, meet you there too, and were I gifted, Mr. Campbell, with your great and extraor- dinary talents, I would forestall you in your nobly projected work. If you, however, can, and do paint a woman to match — you see I use your own word, but without italics — Lord Byron, you will paint a woman as yet un- created, and who will become the idol of ad- miration for the worship of the world at large. But, beware, in the high-coloured delineation of so much perfection, that you do not inflict damnation upon the soul of some deluded lapi- cide, who, from your enchanting and bewil- dering description, may be led to infringe that article of the decalogue, which forbids him to raise up any graven image as the God or Goddess of his idolatry. You add that you have bargained to say as little against Lord Byron as possible — 46 LORD BYRON VINDICATED, But for your own extraordinary declaration to such an effect, I could hardly suppose it pos- sible that your silence of the dead was to be bargained for upon any terras. That little as possible for which you bargained, however, I am inclined to think, has been, by a stretch of your imaginative genius, enlarged to its broadest in- terpretation ; and if Mr. Moore, as you have accused that gentleman, has " shorn the living lamb," you have yourself, in the same breath at least, exonerated him from kicking the pros- trate lion. This was an act worthy of an as- pirant after reputation, and reserved for you, Mr. Campbell. Richly and amply, too, have you redeemed your destiny — " Heaven send you may repent !" I find that I have been led to a longer reply than the first glance of your pamphlet led me AND MR. CAMPBELL ANSWERED, 47 to suppose would be necessary, but I cannot adduce a better reason for your attack having thus forced me into detail than the quotation of that trite apothegm of J. J. Rousseau. " C'est une chose bien commode que la critique, car ou Von attaque avec un mot, il faut des pages pojir se defendre^ Having now replied, however feebly and in- competently to all the points which appear to reflect upon the late and lamented Lord Byron, I can have very little else to add, save the assurance, that if you are disposed to enter the lists again, I shall be at my post. You shall find in me no yielding antagonist, no sickling to be frightened into faint compliance by the blast of Mr. Campbell's brazen trumpet. I am in the field for life, till I have rescued, or set at rest the shade of that more than monarch of a man, from the imputations of masked 48 LORD BYRON VINDICATED. infamy. My sword is drawn, the scabbard thrown away ; so far will the fight be fair : but if you come down upon me with your threatened " ploughshares, 1 ' I will trust to the inspiration of some friendly granite rock, which in the ambition of being rudely carved with its illustrious martyr's name, shall shatter your "shares" to atoms, and I shall then be justified in availing myself indiscriminately of the scalp- ing-knife. THE END. PRINTED BY AND FOR MARSH AND MILLER, Oxford Street. ^'■■- v.. **v^; .'■*■• * ■ , "■'