The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-01 00:00:00

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

"The First Month of the Session" is a spirited
and pithy article, with one sentence in it which
contains a severe point :—" A junior boy,
in the fifth form at Westminster, is quite good
enough to chop logic with Sir James Scarlett ;
he is entirely beneath the criticism of scholars
and gentlemen." " Mr. Dickson's Account of
the Mexican Banditti," though scarcely so
deeply thrilling in its painful interest as it
was in the former paper, is yet well worthy of
perusal, especially as the writer speaks boldly
out, with the vividness of personal experience.
English Manners, or Satiric Sketches," is
lively,piquant, and amusing. Their only defect,
is,
tliere is too much of them. " Notices of the
Life of Byron, by Mr, Moore, and Remarks on
those Notices, by Lady Byron," is a sharp and
stinginginvective, directed by Mr. Campbell
..-.who buckles on his armour in defence
ho
of Lady Byron in the spirit of a Paladin of
oagainst Mr. Moore, for the mode in
which he e—has
discussed the circumstances of the
romance n
quarrel and separation between the Noble poet
and his Lady. The style of this article con-
trasts singularly enough with that of t letter,

written by Mr. Campbell to Mr. Moore, and
published but a few weeks since in The Sun.
We extract Mr. Campbell's " Notices," they
will doubtless much interest our readers:—

NOTICES of the LIFE of LORD BYRON by MR. MOORE,
. _

and REMARKS on those NOTICES by LADY BYRON.

" Mr. Aloore's Life of the Noble Bard was reviewed in
our last number : it must now be reviewed again.—
Among the literary notices of the New Monthly,' I con-
sented to the insertion of a laudatory account of the work ;
nay, more, I expunged a portion of the manuscript cri-
tique, in which Mr. Moore was censured for unfairness
towards Lady Byron. This I did from unwillingness to
blame any friend Mr. Moore, and from having scarcely
tippet into the censured parts of the book. Besides, I
did not then believe Lady Byron to be so perfectly justi-
fiable in the separation as I now know her to be. Such
were the circumstances under which I circulated among
thousands the little warranty of my approbation of a work,
which I find, on closer inspection, to he one of the most
injudicious books that was ever published. But since that
time, the state of circumstances has wholly changed.—
Lady Byron has spoken out. As her friend, I could not
keep my mind quiet about her feelings under this ill-starred
resuscitation of the question concerning her. I consulted
several of her friends ; and it was their joint opinion, that
since the ice of reserve had been broken by Lord Byron's
biographer on the luckless topic, it would be the duty of
some one of her friends to say in answer to Mr. Moore
something more than Lady Byron could with propriety
say herself. A female friend offered to do this, and she
would have probably done it better than I can. But I
could not be such a craven as to let a woman come forward
in nay place. I went to Lady Byron for such general cir-
cumstances of truth as might not involve her in accusing
Lord Byron. For more particular facts repecting the
separation, I applied to a different but perfectly authentic
quarter ; and there 1 learnt a few facts, which, though
my readers need not fear that I shall inflict them on their
delicacy, suffice to convince me that Lady Byron was jus-
tified in the parting by circumstances which Lord Byron
had either forgot, or, with all his manly candour,' had
tailed to state to Mr. Moore.

" My plainness in speaking of Mr. Moore is a compli-
ment to his importance and popularity, which would
make a weak or timid remonstrance incapable of reaching
him. My interest in a suffering woman needs no apology.
" I found my right to speak on this painful subject on
its now irrevocable publicity, brought up afresh, as it has
been by Mr. Moore, to be the theme of discourse to mil-
lions, and, if I err not much, the cause of mieconception
to innumerable minds. I claim to speak of Lady Byron in
the right of a man, and of a friend to the rights of women,
and to liberty, and to natural religion. I claim a right,
more especially, as one of the many friends of Lady Byron,
who, one and all, feel aggrieved by this production. It
has virtually dragged her forward from the shade of re-
tirement, where she had hid her sorrows, and compelled
her to defend the heads of her friends and her parents
from being crushed under the tombstone of Byron. Nay,
in a general view, it has forced her to defend herself ;
though with her true sense and her pure taste, she stands
above all special pleading. To plenary explanation she
ought not—she never shall be driven. Mr. Moore is too
much a gentleman not to shudder at the thought of that;
but if other Byronists, of a fir different stamp, were to
force the savage ordeal, it is her enemies, and not she, that
would have to dread the burning ploughshares.
" We, her friends, have no wish to prolong the discus-
sion ; but a few words we must add, even to her admirable
statement—for her's is a cause not only dear to herfriends,
but baring become, from Mr. Moore and her misfortunes,
a publicly agitated cause, it concerns morality, and the most
sacred rights of the sex, that she should (and that, too,
without snore special explanations) be acquitted out and
out. and honourably acquitted in this business, of all share
in the blame which is one and indivisible. Mr. Moore,
in farther reflection, may see this, and his return to can-
dour will surprise us less than his momentary deviation
from its path.
" For the tact of Mr. Moore's conduct in this affair 1
have not to answer; but, if indelicacy be charged upon me,
I scorn the charge. Neither will I submit to be called
Lord Byron's accuser—because a word against him I wish
not to say, beyond what is painfully wrung from me by
the necessity of owning or illustrating Lady Byron's un-
blameableness, and of repelling certain misconceptions re-
specting her, which are now walking the fashionable
world, and which have been fostered (though Heaven
knows wherr-they were born) most delicately and warily
by the Christian godfathership of Mr. Moore.
" I write not at Lady Byron's bidding—l have never
humiliated either her or myself by asking if I should write,
or what I should write—that is to say, I never applied
to her for information against Lord Byron, though I was
justified, as one who intended to criticise Mr. Moore, to
inquire into the truth of some of his statements. Neither
will I suffer myself to be called her champion, if by that
word be meant the advocate of her mere legal innocence,
for that, I take it nobody questions. Still less is it from
the sorry impulse of pity that I speak of this noble woman,
for I look with wonder and even envy, at the proud purity
of her sense and conscience, that heve carried her exquisite
sensibilities in triumph through suchpoignant tribulations.
But I am proud to be called her friend—the humble illus-
trator of her cause, and the advocate of those principles
which make it to me more interesting than Lord Byron's.
Lady Byron (if the subject must be discussed) belongs to
sentiment and morality—at least as much as Lord Byrom ;
nor is she to he suffered, when compelled to speak, to raise
her voice as in a desert, with no friendly voice to respond
to her. Lady B. could not have outlived her sufferings, if
she had not wound up her fortitude to the high point of
trusting mainly for consolation, not to the opinion of the
world, but to her own inward peace ; and having said
what ought to convince the world, I verily believe that she
has less care about the fashionable opinion respecting her
than any of her friends can have. But we, her friends,
mix with the world, and we hear offensive absurdities
about her which we have a right to put down.
" What Lady Byron professes to be her main aim in her
Remarks on the Life of her Husband, it seems to me that
she very clearly accomplishes. lam not sure that I should
feel my esteem for Byron, or for any man, much enhanced,
by finding that a foolish relative or two could sever from
him a wife once doatingly found of him. But we have
not a tittle of fair evidence against the pack of —, as
his Lordship politely calls them ; and, to throw the blame
on her parents, is proved ridiculous by Dr. Lushington's
letter, for it shows that the deepest cause or causes of the
separation, were not imparted to her parents. I dismiss,
therefore, this hinted plea of palliation with contempt.
" I proceed to deal more generally with Mr. Moore's book.
You speak, Mr. Moore, against Lord Byron's censurers
in a tone of indignation which is perfectly lawful towards
calumnious traducers, but which will not terrify me, or
any other man of courage, who is no calumniator, from
uttering his mind freely with regard to this part of your
hero's conduct. I think your whole theory ***out the un-
marriageableness of genius a twaddling little hint for a
compliment to yourself, and a theory refuted by the wedded
lives of Scott and Flaxman. I question your philosophy
in assuming that all that is noble in Byron's poetry was
inconsistent with the possibility of his being devoted to a
pure and good woman—and I repudiate your morality for
canting too complacently about the lava of his imagina-
tion,' and the unsettled fever of his passions being any
excuses for his planting the tic douloureux of domestic
suffering in a meek woman's bosom. These are hard
words, Mr. Moore; but you have brought them on your-
self by your voluntary ignorance of facts known to me—
for you might, and ought to have known both sides of the
question ; and if the subject was too delicate for you to
consult Lady Byron's confidential friends, you ought to
have had nothing to do with the subject. But you cannot
have submitted your book even to Lord Byron's sister,
otherwise she would have set you right about the imagi-
nary spy, Mrs. Clermont.
" Hence arose your misconceptions, which are so nume-
rous, that having applied to Lady Byron (you will please
to observe that I applied not for facts against Lord Byron,
for these I got elsewhere, but for an estimate of the air-
rectums of your statements), I received the following let-
ter from her Ladyship e..-:

. .
Dear Mr. Campbell,—ln taking up my pen to point out for
your private information . those passages in Mr. Moore's repre-
sentation of my part of the story which were open to contrarlic..
tion, I find them of still greater extent than I had supposed—and
to deny an assertion here and there would virtually admit the
truth of the rest. If, on the contrary, I were to enter into a full
exposure of the falsehood of the views taken by Mr. Moore, I
must detail various matters, which, consi.tently with my prin-
ciples and feelings, I cannot, under the existing circumstances,
disclose. I may, perhaps, convince you better of the difficulty of
the case by an example It is not true that pecuniary embar.
rassments were the cause of the disturbed state of Lord Byron's
mind, or formed the chief reason for the arrangements made by
him at that time. But is it reasonable for me to expect that you,
or any one else, should believe this, unless I show you what were
the causes in question ? and this I cannot do.'—l am, &c. &c.
E. NOEL BYRON.'

“Excellent woman! honoured by all who know her, and
injured only by those who know her not—l will believe
her on her own testimony.
gi What I regret most in Mr. Moore's Life of Lord Byron
is, that he had in his own hands the only pure means of
serving Lord Byron's character, which was his Lordship's
own touching confession, and that he has thrown sway
the said means by garnishing that fair confession with un-
fair attempts at blaming others. In Letter 235 Lord By-
• ” I had not time to ask Lady Byron's permission to print this
private letter, but it seemed to me important, and I published
it Imo periatio."

run takes al tte blame on himself. The fault,' he se,O,
was not, no, nor even the misfortune, in my choice (unless
in choosing at all); but I must say it in the very dregs of
;II this bitter business, that there never was a better, or
even a kinder or more amiable and agreeable being, than
Lady Byron. I never had, nor ever can have, any re-
proach to snake her while with me.' Now nothing in
Lord Byron's poetry is finer than this. But why, Mr.
Moore, have you frozen the effect of this melting candour
by dishing up the inconsistencies of Lord Byron on the
same subject, and by showing your own ungallant indif-
ference to the thus acquitted Lady Byron? In the name
of both of them I reprove you. Byron confesses, but you
try to explain away his confession ; and by-
your hints at
spies, unsuitableness, &c., you dirty awl puddle the holy
water of acknowledgment that alone will wash away the
poor penitent man's transgressions. You resort to Byron's
letter to Mr. Rogers for the means of inealrating Lady
Byron and ber friends. as blamers of Lord Byron. But
they never said more than that Lord Byron's temper was
intolerable to Lady Byron. That was true, and they never
circulated any calumnies against him.
" There is equal injustice in the allusion to Lord
Byron having been ever surrounded by spies. What
spy was near him ? The only person deneuncsd in
that odious capacity by Lord Byron himself was Mrs.
Clermont ; and what was the fact with regard to
her ? If Mrs. Clermont was a spy, surely the last per.
son in the world to have acquitted her would have been
Mrs. Leigh, the sister of Lord Byron ; but I have in
my possession the authentic copy of a letter flora Mrs.
Leigh to the same Mrs. Clermont, earnestly acquitting
her of the calumny, and offering even public testimony to
her (Mrs Clermont's) tenderness and forbearance (I copy
Mrs. Leigh's words) under circumstances that must have
been trying to any friend of Lady Byron. Another un-
worthy expression of Mr. Moore's is, teat of calling Lord
Byron a deserted husband.' Let him read Lady
Byron's remarks, and blot out this absurdity from his
volume. Dr. Lushington, versed in the harshest cases of
justifiable separation, and bound to admit none of a slight na-
ture, thought that it was impossible she could live with him.
" You should have paused Mr. Moore, before you com-
pelled any friend of Lady Byron to bring out this truth.
" It is a farther mistake on Mr. Moore's part, and I can
prove it to be so, if proof be necessary, to represent Lady
Byron, in the course of their courtship, as one inviting i
her future husband to correspondence by letters after she
had at first refused him. She never proposed a corres-
pondence. On the contrary, he sent her a message after
that first refusal, stating that he meant to go abroad, and
to travel for some years in the East; that he should depart
with a heart aching, but not angry; and that he only
begged a verbal assurance that she had still some interest
in his happiness. Could Miss Millbank, as a well-bred
woman, refuse a courteous answer to surh a message? She
sent him a verbal answer, which was merely kind and be-
coming, but which signified no encouragement that he
should's renew his offer of marriage. After that message
he wrote to her a most interesting letter about himself—
about his views, personal, moral, and religious, to which
it would have been uncharitable not to have replied. The
result was an insensibly increasing correspondence, which '
ended in her being devotedly attached to him. About that
time I occasionally saw Lord Byron, and though I knew
less of him than Mr. Moore, yet I suspect I knew as much
of him as Miss Millbank then knew. A t that time he was
so pleasing, that if I had a daughter with ample fortune
and beauty, I should have trusted her in marriage with
Lord Byron.
" Mr. Moore at that period evidently understood Lori
Byron better than either his future bride or myself; but
this speaks more for Mr. Moore's shrewdness than for
Byron's ingenuousness of character.
" It is another improper insinuation, when Mr. Moore
hints at a resemblance between the first wife of Milton and
the widow of Byron. The parallel is disgustingly unfair.
Of Milton's married life we know not much ; but, upon the
whole, it is clear that his wife could not have got two ho-
nourable men to justify her departure. She went away
from him, to all appearance, in rashness, and returned, for
her own convenience, in repentance. Lady Byron acted
no each part. Produce on Ms. Milton's part a Dr. Lush-
ington to speak for her, and we will meet you in the
parallel ; but beware of the ploughshare !
" It is more for Lord:Byron's sake than for his widow's
that I resort not to a. more special examination of Mr.
Moore's misconceptions. The subject would lead me in-
sensibly into hateful disclosures against poor Lord Byron,
who is more unfortunate in his rash defenders, than his
reluctant accusers. Happily his own candour turns our
hostility from himself against his defenders. It was only
in wayward and bitter remarks that he misrepresented
Lady Byron. He would have defended himself irresistibly
if Mr. Moore had left only his acknowledging passages.
But Mr. Moore has produced a Life of him which reflects
blame on Lady Byron—so dextrously that more is meant
than meets the ear. The almost universal impression pro-
duced by his book is, that Lady Byron must be a preciae,
and a wan, unwarming spirit—a blue stocking of chilbl sued
learning, a piece of insensitive goodness. Who that knows
Lady Byron, will not pronounce her to be everything the
reverse ? Will it be believed that this person, so un-
suitably matched to her moody Lord, bas written verses
that would do no discredit to Byron himself—that her
sensitiveness is surpassed and bounded only by her good
sense, and tbat she is
Blest with a temper, whose unclouded ray
Can make to-morrow cheerful as to-day.
She brought to Lord Byron, beauty, manners, fortune,
meekness, romantic affection, and everything that ought to
have made her to the most transcendent man of genius—
had he been what he should have been—his pride and his
idol. I speak not of Lady Byron in the common-place
manner of attesting character; I appeal to the gifted Mrs.
Siddons and Joanna Baillie, to Lady Charlemont and to
other ornaments of their sex, whether I am exaggerating
in the least when I say that in their whole lives they have
seen few beings so intellectual and well-tempered as Lady
Byron. I wish to be as ingenuous as possible in speaking
of her. Her manner, I have no hesitation to say, is cool
at the first interview, but it is modestly, and not insolently
cool : she contracted it, I believe, from being exposed by
her beauty and large fortune in youth to numbers of suitors,
whom she could not have otherwise kept at a distance...—
But this manner could have had no influence with Lord
Byron, for it vanishes on nearer acquaintance, and has no
origin in coldness. All her friends like her frankness the
better for being preceded by this reserve. This manner,
however, though not the slightest apology for Lord Byron,
has been inimical to Lady Byron in her misfortunes. It
endears her to her friends, but it piques the indifferent.—
Most odiously unjust, therefore, is Mr. Moore's assertion,
that she has had the advantage of Lord Byron in public
opinion. She is, comparatively speaking, unknown to the
world ; for though she has many friends—that is, a friend
in every one who knows her—yet her pride, and purity,
and misfortunes, naturally contrast the circle of her ac-
quaintance. There is something exquisitely unjust in Mr.
Moore comparing her chance of popularity with Lord
Byron's ; the poet who can command wets of talents, put-
ting even Mr. Moore into the livery of his service, and who
has suborned the favour of almost all women by the beauty
of Iris person and the voluptuousness of his verses. Lady
Byron has nothing to oppose to these fascinations but the
truth and justice of her cause.
"The true way of bringing off Byron from this question
of his conjugal unhappiness would be his own way, namely
to acknowledge frankly this one, and, perhaps the only
one great error of his life. Acknowledge it, and after all,
what a space is still left in our minds for allowance and
charity, and even for admiration of him ! All men, as
they are frail and fallible beings, are concerned in palli-
ating his fault—to a certain degree they are concerned ;
though if you reduce the standard of duty too low, the
meanest man may justly refuse to sympathise with your
apology for a bad husband, and disdain to take. the benefit
of an insolvent act in favour of debtors to morality. But
pay the due homage to moral principle, frankly own that
the child of genius is, in this particular, not to be de-
fended—abstain front absolving Byron on false grounds,
and you will do him more good than by idle attempts at
justification. Above all, keep off your sentimental mum-
meries from the hallowed precincts of hie widow's charac-
ter. There, Mr. Moore, you must not fish for compli-
ments, or poach for the pathetic.—Byron acquitted at
Lady Byron's expellee, can be taken home to no honest
heart's sympathy, though there is no saying how much the
heart yearns to forgive him when there is no sophistry
used in his defence.
"You said, Mrg Moore, that Lady Byron was unsuitable
to her Lord—the word is cunningly insidious, and may
mean as much or as little as may suit your convenience.
But if she was unsuitable, I remark, that it tells all the
worse against Lord Byron. I have not read it in yonr
book, for I hate to wade through it ; but they tell me, that
you have not only warily depreciated Lady Byron, but that
you have described a lady that would have suited him. If
this be true, it is the unkindest cut of all—to hold up a
florid description of a woman suitable to Lord Byron, as
if in mockery over that forlorn flower of virtue that was
drooping in the solitude of sorrow. But I trust there is
no such paasage in your book. Surely you must be con-
scious of your woman with her ' virtue loose about her
who would have suited Lend Byron' to be as imaginary a
being as the woman without a bead. A woman to suit
Lord Byron ! ! ! Poo ! poo ! I could paint to you the
woman that could have matched him, if I had not bar-
gained to say as little as possible against him.
" If Lady Byron was not suitable to Lord Byron, so

much the worse for his Lordship ; for la me tell you,
Moore, that neither your poetry, nor Lord Biroiers,.nikr ii
our poetry put together, ever delineated a more interinti
ing being than the woman whom you have so toidir,
trelted. This was not kicking the dead lion, but- wottid-14
ing the living lamb, who was already bleeding and shorai.:4;4 t"
rven unto the quick. I know that, collectively spealthirgsMsi6
the world is in Lady Byron's favour ; but it is 0)14
favourable, and you have not warmed its breath. - • Timei
however, cures every thing ; and even your book,
Moore, may be the means of Lady Byron's character being- :-
better appreciated. " THOMAS CAMPBELL" •