The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-02 00:00:00

COURSING FIXTURES.

OCTOBER.
Ancaster and Willoughby, Lincolnshire 5, 6
Orinesby 19, he
Huntingdon Club.. 26, 2?

REGATTAS AND MATCHES TO CO 11
AUGUST
31—King,,ton Town Rowing Club: Junior Seull3

SEPTEMBER.
4 Hop° Rowing Club: Eights
4—Oscillators Rowing Club: Junior Sculls
B—Orion Rowing Club: Senior Pairs, River Lea
10— M.:nchestr2r Nemesis It'iwibg Club: Four-oared Rae*
11—Weet London It swing Club: Eights
11—Lurhue Loating Club: Vice-President Pairs
11—London Rowing Club : Tub Fours
21—Alexaudra Rowing Club: Scratch Fours, River Lea
25 —West London Rowing Club: Eights
25 —Vesper Rowing Club : Club Fours, River Lea
25—London Rowing Club : Twelvo-oared Race
25—Oscillators Rowing Club: Eights

OCTOBER.

3—Mansheater Nemesis Rowing -6111 U : Eight-oared Rao.

YACHTING FIXTURES.
SEI?TEJIBEIt.
Prince Alfred Yacht Club: Closiii; Cruise

MARKE7 S-2 MS DAY•

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET.
Sept. 2.—Sales probably 10,000 bales. The rc /Ad
firm.

Bank of England Returns.

An Account, lursuant to t]
cap. 32, for the week ending
ISSUE DEF

lo Act 7th aid Bth Victoria,
Wednesday, Sept. 1, 1861
P AILTMENT.

Notes issued .....C34,932,080

Governmt. Debt..£11,015,100
Other Securities.. 3,981,900
Gold Coin and

Bullion
Silver Bullion

.C 34,932,080
BANKING D.

£4932,080

Proprietors' Capi-
tal .C14,553,000
Rest
Public Deposits
(including-Ex-
chequer, Sav-
ings' Banks,
Commissioners
of National
Debt, and Div.
Accounts 3,5+09,825
Other Deposits.. 18,412,679
Seven Days and
other Bills 519,222

:PARTMENT.
GOVerllint. Semi-
rities(including
Dead Wf±ight
Auuuity) £14,339.928
Other Securities 14,355,U09
Notes 11,731,540
Gold and Silver
Coin

£41,073,v83
GEOR,

.L 41,073,9338
Is FORBES, Chief Cashier.

CU URS E al.' EXCL lAN (lE.

Amsterdam
Do
Rotterdam — ... 12 1 ... 12 2}
Antwerp ... 25 42 . 25 47}
Brussels
_ __

Ilainburgh - ". 13 11i ." 13 111
PLuis
Ditto . 3 /as. ... 2) 321 _. 25 37j
Marseilles -
-. 25 321 „. 25 31
Frankfort-on-the-Alain -- ." 121 _. 1211
Vieuua - „. 12 421 ". 12 41
Trieste - l2 40 ... 12 47i
Petersburg - ". 191 291
Copenhagen -
~ 9 24 ... 9 27.
Berlin - „. 6 28, „. 6 24
lawhid- - ". 481 ... 484
Cadiz - ... 49 -. 49i
Leghorn
Milan - ." 26 .35 ... 26 40
Genoa - ." 126 34 ... 26 40
Naples - .„ 26. 33 ... 26 40
Palermo - -. 26 ". 26 40
Messina - , 26 -. 26 40
.
Lisbon - -. 511 .:-.. 52i
Oporto — ••• 51: ... 5:4
Rio Janeiro - -.— c" --
New York - ".

The Rev. J. E. Sabine, principal chaplain to the
troops at Aldershot, bas been granted leave
absence on private affairs, from the Ist to the lith
iustau t.

The next examination for admission of candi.
dates for Royal Artilltry and Engineers to the
Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, under rev,
lations dated Horse Guards, May 1, 1868, will taloa
place in January, 1870. The next examinations
for direct commissions, under regulations dated
January, 1867, will commence at Chelsea Hospita
on the Ist November.

EXCLUSIVE, VERY IMPORTANT, RARE, AND VALUABLE
are the properties of Lexciplougli's Pyretic Saline, curing the
worst headaches, sickness, akin, or biliary affections. Plematiti
palatable, and invigorating. Sold by all Chemists.—[Advt,)

DuNviLLE and Co., Belfast, are the largest
holders of Whisky in the aorta. Their Old Irish Whisky is re-
conuneaded by the medical profession in preference to Frsnoh
Brandy. Supplied in casks and cases for home use or exporta-
tion Quotations on application to Messrs. Dtuiville and ,
Belfast; er 3, BlAilitgirDniliinge,Stal24 11'5405, WA—VA
Teitiseaontd

---
1; 71-1 E 7RUE STORY Of LADY BYRON'S
- - LIFE."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TINES.

- -
Sir,—It is not only with regret, but with sur-
prise, that I notice the tone of your Monday's ar-
ticle on Lord Byron. After an interval of 30
years an article appears in a monthly periodical
which not merely contradicts flatly every theory
which has hitherto been formed on the subject of
which it deals, but also seems itself to be one tissue
of exaggerations and improbabilities, yet it is ac-
cepted
without questioning.
I believe a direct refutation of most at least of
the charges contained in this article to be quite
possible. This, however, I have at present neither
the means nor the opportunity of making, and
therefore leave it willingly to abler and fitter bands
eau mine. Still there are some general considera-
tions which may be borne in mind before we finally
pass sentence on one of the greatest men our coun-
try has ever produced.
The story is nasty enouLli ; still we are forced
to touch lightly on one or two points in it. Lord
Byron, we are told, formed an infamous attach-
ment with a lady whose character has hitherto
been deemed by all the world to be at least as pure
as that of her accuser. In order to indulge his
passion in secret he marries. By this he gains two
advantages--firstly he adds the crime of adultery
to that of incest ; and, secondly, he renders the
discovery of both a thousand times more probable
than it otherwise would have been. Again, he
does not marry a foolish, loving doll whom he
might, perhaps, win over to be his accomplice,
'but a lady of Spartan virtue, of a most deter-
mined character, and with a will of her own at
least as strong as his own. To proceed, he
commences operations by putting himself utterly
in her power by allowing her to guess his hideous
secret. To induce her to keep this secret he syste-
matically and brutally ill-treats her, finally turning
her and his daughter (whom by all accounts he
loved devotedly) out of his house. This year, by
the bye, of incestuous intercourse with one woman
and persecution of another is also the year of most
continuous and splendid mental activity in his
whole life. To hide his cruelty and render his
secret secure, Lord Byron next forgoes an account
of how two doctors come to him on behalf of his
wife to try and prove him to be mad. While in the
cue he also forges a loving note, which he pretends
that he has received from his wife, and then leaves
England and the object of his guilty passion for
ever.

During the rest of his life he studiously courts
inquiry into the subject of married life, though his
secret might be discovered in a thousand different
ways besides the single one of a direct statement
from his wife ; and, finally, he dies like a hero,
beloved and respected by all, who ever knew him.
Before dying he leaves his journal as a legacy to
Moore, on the distinct understanding that it is to I
be printed, as he considers that it will for ever
clear his character. After swallowing the past
statements, we have, of course, no difficulty in be-
lieving that this private journal was also a tissue
of lies prepared for publication, otherwise it must
blast his character for ever. Of this, however, we
cannot be sure, since beft:re publication Moore was
bribed by Lord Byron's relatives, Lady Byron ap-
parently among them, to burn the whole journal,
an act which has been often and justly censured. '
All we know of the contents of this journal is that
Moore, who probably was the only person who
read it, remained all his life Lord Byron's most
steadfast friend and defender.

Nor is this all we are called upon to believe.
Lady Byron, we are told, retires from the world,
refusing absolutely to make any reply to her hus-
band's solicitations, either to clear his name or her
own, and maintaining a dignified silence till her
death approaches. Then, when it can do no good
either to herself or to her husband, she determines
to load his memory with infamy for ever by reveal-
ing what she had refn=ed to reveal at his request,
and to hide which the journal had been burnt un-
published. In order to make her statement abso-
lutely incontrovertible, she does not put legal
proofs in the hands of her lawyers, but prefers to
make a verbal communication to a chance acquaint-
ance—an American, who had already made herself
famous as a special pleader. After an interval of
some years this hideous story is given to the world
iu the pages of a magazine. Surely, under these
circumstances, we should suspend our judgment
until the matter has been thoroughly sifted, and
not yield to the morbid longing to believed every-
thing strange and horrible.
It would not be difficult to retaliate on Lady
Byron that argumentum ad honzinent her defender
makes such liberal use in her attack on Lord Byron ;
but this would be not merely unjust and unneces-
sary, but also below the dignity of criticism. There
is but one word which we would say in conclusion.
It is this :—ln judging of Lord Byron's character,
let us either accept his works as a whole as a wit-
ness to it, or refase to receive them at all. Do not
let us call his appeals to his wife, to his sister, to
his child, to his friends mere hollow, claptrap, and
call him, as is too often done, a Childe Harold
without his morality, a Conrad without his single
virtue, a Don Juan without his excuses, and say
that whenever be paints a fiend he paints himself,
whenever he draws an angel he copies his wife.—
Your obedient servant, G.