Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-05
THE BYRON SCANDAL.
The Pro and Con of if from COnsid-
crate Sources.
FOR BYRON AND HIS SISTER.

FOR BYRON AND HIS SISTER.
The terrible charge alleged against
Lord Byron and his sister Mrs. Leigh
by Mrs. Stowe is still the prevailing
topic. 1t fills all minds, and engages
universal attention. Generally, by
press and public, it has been disbe-
lieved, discredited, and very ably re-
futed. The critics have put the Onus
of proof upon Mrs. Stowe, who so far
has given US but a vague and indeti-
mite statement of ByrOn's wife, embit-
tered as was against him and his.
The New York Journal Of Commerce,
a staid, cool and discriminating jour
nal, discredits the whole statement
from testimony furnished by Notes
and Queries which is to the effect that
in a notice OF a sketch of his father,
severely reflective upon that gentle
man, Lord Byron wrote that if the
notice should reach England it would
give pain to his sister Augusta, whom
he characterised rs the most angelic
being upon earth. Again, after some
aliusiOn to his ancestors, speaking Oft
contemplated visit to his cousin, Mrs.
Masters, he tells how he was persua-
ded from IT by his sister, who said:
" If you will 90 you viii fall in love
again, and then there will be q scene;
one step viii lead to another, ct celd
ferd tM ecldt,' etc. l was guided by
these reasons, and shortly after | mar
ried, with what success it is useless to
say"
Now, it seems to US that these para
graphs tend to establish the following
. = - E.ak-. TL.N -, ngH.aAs,, -
sisted between Lord Byron and his
sister more intense than is ordinary
between persons so related. The
beauty and strength Ofsuch a tie have
been the panegyrie of poets without
end; but yet, in the actual world, it
rarely takes 50 enduring a form, Or
eXerts 50 much power as that between
Byron and Augusta. He left Eng
land in 1913, never to return, and new
er again looked on his sisters face;
and yet we find him in 1923, seven
years later, paying this lavish tribute
TO her moral beauty and goodness in
a letter TO a comparative stranger. 1t
reads like a spontaneous Outgush of
pure brotherly affection for a deeply
loved sister, from n whose heart
was full Of her.
Had Lord Byron been guilty Of the
monstrOus crime with his sister inn
puted to him by Lady Byron in her
falling years, and now described by
Mrs. Stoves piquant and imaginative
pen, it is scarcely credible that he
would have said of her " that there is
not q more angelic being on earth"
Would ha not rotbar bo.ra on.fffaJ all
~allusiOn to her, than have so cOnspic-
uOusly challenged an inspection of her
character? If consumed with re-
morse for his Own admitted offenses,
and always speaking of himself in the
most d~isparaging terms, is it probable
that he would voluntarily have paid
the highest possible homage to the
purity of one with whom he had COM
mitted the atrOcious crime of incest?
Judging from human nature, We
would say No. This letter, we say,
indicates that Augustus influence
over him was on the side OfmOrality-
for she exerted herself to dissuade him
from visiting Mrs. Masters MARY Cha
wOrth,), evidently fearing, from her
knowledge of her brothers. passionate
and impulsive nature, that wrong
might come of it. Is it likely that a
woman who had committed in
cest with him would be so very
.sOlicitOus for his moral welfare:
or that she could have always had
over him the prOdigiOus influence
which he ascTibes to her? This seems
to US improbable-impossible. Rather
would such a brace OF monsters have
bafol and lOo4baI aocb other q fer tho
first tumult of their guilty passion
was past. Pursuing the path of crime
upon which they had taken so terrible
a start, we should expect to find both
of them plunging into the widest ex-
cesse5 of vice in the efforts to seek OBJ
liviOn of each other and of their
mutual shame. But, on the contrary,
Mrs. Leigh, to the day of her death,
so far as history records, led the life of
a pattern wife and mother; and Mrs.
Stoves horrible accusation Is the first
whisper that the world has heard
against her fame. Lord Byron, as we
ali know, continued in foreign lands
the infamous career which he began on
English soil, with a fresh desperation,
easily explained by the circumstances
of his quarrel with his wife, and the
hatred and corn with which the
English public, In one of its ''peri-
odical fits of morality" as Macaulay
visited him, and which brought
into full play the defiant recklessness
of his nature.
AGAINST BYRON AND HIS SISTER.
The New York Nation, after review
ing Mr.. Stoves article on Lord By
ron, and showing that through her
mistakes in dates, etc, some of her al
legged facts are rendered improbable,
But there Is another version of the
story which, while il does not change
the central infamy, is more honorable
to Lady Byron's character and men,
DRY, and which we feel sure will be
established as the true one
were told the main facts of this
something more than ten