Daily national Democrat., 1858-09-10
DAILY DEMOCRAT.
(IIOIH IUTHVy IOS9'J
Lord and Lady Byron.

(From Forneys IresS.)
Lord and Lady Byron.
BYRoN's Autobiography, wherever il
sees the light-whch it will one day
for several copies of it were transcribed
during the five years it was in MOORE S
hands-it will be seen what really slend-
er grounds for leaving him were afford.
ed by his conduct to Lady BYRON. A
man of genius himself, SIR RICHARD
STEELE hit the white when he wrote his
sentence:
In all the marriages | have ever seen,
most of which have been unhappy ones,
the great cause of evil has proceeded
from slight occasions Indeed, few
months before his death, BYRON him.
self declared as much when he said, at
Cephalonia, to an English gentleman,
who was enumerating the various reput-
ed causes of the separation, 'The
causes, my dear sir, were too simple to
be easily found out
Incompatibility ofdisposition-oftem-
permanent, rather than temper-un-
doubtedly was the first, great cause,
least understood which separated By
RON and his wife. She was a coldly
correct and impulselcss woman, of
whom with more wit than propriety)
BYRON gives sketch, more true than
flattering, in the first Canto of Don
Juan" Undoubtedly, in the many
stanZaS there devoted to Dona Inez, we
have Lady BYRON handed down to pos
terity in the crystal authorization of
satiric song. How sharp the lines,
"Some women use their tongues-she looked
lecture,
Each eye sermon and herIbrow homily I
And how cutting is the sarcasm, sug-
gested, of course, by the manner in
which the world, recognizing her as
blending of matyr and saint, took her
part, and drove him into a exile:
" Calmy she heard each calumny that rose,
And saw his agonies with such sublimity
That all the world exclaimed, What magma
nimityl"
1t certainly was to personal recollec-
ton of his wife, with the genius mathe-
maticaP and the wit which was Attic
all, that we are indebted to the immor-
tai couplet, which is applicable, at this
hour, to the strong-minded of the sex,
"And oh, We lords of ladies intellectual
Inform us truly, have they not hen-pecked
you allY
Upon the impropriety of thus pre-
senting his wife to the world, in print,
and to be laughed at, there will scarcely
be second opinion. Nothing can just
ify an assault upon woman-her very
weakness, as a woman, makes her
strength and is her protection. But
BYRON had received great provocatlon.
An account of, if not actually by, his
wife, he had had his 'life's life lied away
and his character branded as almost in
famous. Bad as this was, he had the
further pain of knowing that the fair
ADA, sole daudhter of his house and
heart, whom he loved so we'll and had
left in care of her mother, had been
brought up in horror ofhis name-that
his own anticipatio regarding her had
been relied by his wite-that to her
young mind dull Hate had been taught
as duty-that his name had been shut
from her--that not until she had be-
come wife had she the sad privilege
of reading his writings, of weeping over
his grave, and Of thus verifying his pro-
lection
"Albeit my brow thou never should'st behold,
My voice shall with thy future visions blend,
And reach into thy heart, when mine is cold,
token and a tone, even from thy father S
mould.
The mother who, even had she real
wrongs to complain of, could forbid her
only child to read her illustrious fathers
works to learn about his life, never
could have been strongly devoted and
loving as wife. No wonder that such
an il-assorted union as hers with By
RON came to an end within year. No
wonder that, with all his faults, and they
were many, the worlds later sympathy
has been given to the poet. What he
himself spoke Of as the late remorse of
love- came to mourn over the ashes of
him whom, living, it had baniShed from
his native land. Far across the Allan
tic. from land where he seriously had
intended making his final dwelling-place,
deep lament was sent, when his early
death was known, the echo of which, in
the heart even of youth aud virtue, as
well as the maturity Of intellect and
years, is still repeated often. For her,
the moral Clytemnestra of her lord,
there is a feeling of indifference, where
that indignant anger has not arisen.
x x K X
When Murphy, the publisher, was
bringing out the Byron Illustrations, he
requested Lady BYRON to sit for her
portrait. The reply was a cold and per-
emptory refusal. Mr.. THOMAS WRrGHr,
editor of the seventeen-yolume edition
of Byrou's Life and Works, went down
to Ealing, near London, where the La
dy Byron then resided; took an artist
with him; placed HIM in favorable sit
uation in the church, on Sunday; repeat
ed the visit in the afternoon; and did the
same that day week. As it was i'll
tendeu, Lady BYRON saw the artist on
the third occasion, as he was apparently
busy with his pencil and etch-book.
She sent for Mr.. WRIGHT, whom she
slightly knew, and requested an expla,
nation. The reply was that Mr.. MUIR
RAY must have her portrait. and would