The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-09-27
THE BYRON CONTROVERSY.
What Wiiiam Hewitt Says-His Opinion OF
Byr0n's Brain and Mind-Deicnce Of ef,e

What Wii;iam Hewitt says-His Opinion OF
Byron's Brain and Mind-Deicnce OF ef,e
Poet.
To THE EDITOR or THE LONDON NEws:-
considerable amount OF discussion having now
taken place on the Byron question: and there ap-
pearing great danger OF the vital points Of the
trOversy being buried under multitude OF words
beg once more to recall the public attention to
whole dispute rest The great fundamental fact is,
that all the dark and revolving charges against Lord
Byron are avowed TO proceed from the very person
VINO. before making them, took care to destroy the
evidence Of the person against whom they are
her husband had sterny refused to make any expa-
nation to him or to the public OF the causes Of her
separation IL she had any TO make the proper time
to do that was while her husband was living, and, II
not true could have rebutted Them She should
When ner husband was dead and died with the hun
dred times repeated declaration Of his ignorance Of
her reasons Tor leaving him; when she had accom-
plished the destruction or her husbands statement
OF his side or the question, and then written, Us we
are informed, her own representation or II; when
all those who knew him best-who had his full
confidence and could best defend hm-had FOL
lowed him to the tomb, we find her, in open,
all lnvioable silence on the subject coming
out II Mrs. Stoves story be true with the most
danning calumnies watch 1t Is possible for woman
whether be the opinion OF the justice loving British
public that this style Of conduct can ! for moment
be tolerated, then Will no mans reputation be safe
from ''the wife of his BOSOM" Any wife with
husbands body rifle his cabinets, overhaul the most
sacred records Of his past life, and then with impu
odi0us pigments OF hell. This, however, is precisely
what the Jealous advocates OF Lady ByrOns unwar-
bic. have no hesitation in asserting that it Is pro-
ceedng as odlou5 as abhorrent to every right feel
ing as opposed 70 and destructive Of every principle
that ID sacred in life, as 1t Is pre-eminently un-En
glish. repeat 1t, that the moment that Lady Byron
caused to be destroyed the memoir Of her husband
she put herself out OF court on the question: and
rende ed 1t impossible that 1t can ever be settled
except upon defective and e1 parte evidence.
beyond THIS primal fact, which ought to stand for
ever broadly, strongly, ana uneclipsed by verbage
sophlstry before the public eye, It Is scarcely
worth while to 70; but there are one or Two minor
perfectly clear. from the letters OF Lady Anne Bar
nard and Lady Byron, quoted by Lord Lindsay, and
ments OF '.An American Citizen" In the Ttnses of
the sth inst, that for years after the separation
stowe makes her allege against Lord Byron thirteen
years ago. There Is not shadow OF shade OF any
saSa @
sanity and general Righteousness That Lord
on on'0 ner part the ;Amercan Citizen salts.
| iactorly shows from his intercourse with Moore;
that Lady Byron had no such idea, the fact well
observed, OF her naming her infant daughter after
! Augusta Leigh Is most conclusive proof II Lady
Byron afterwards fell into such belief IL must have
been from the flemish nsinuatOns Of some base per.
son like the woman born IN garrett In tue kitchen
| Bred"
| one more fact. The writers, English and Ameri-
| can, who claim Ior Mrs stowe the peculiar and
| almost exclusive confidence OF Lady Byron on tins
SUBJECT are dealing in mere fudge 1t Is well known
| to certain number OF persons that Lady Byron,
with all her anected strength OF character mad the
| weakness to make such conadantes OF most Of her
lady friends Of long standing Most OF these ladies'
| are now dead, and prudenty "dled and MADE no
sign" But there is one at least still living who posi-
sesses series Of letters from Lady Byron contain
ing not horrors OF the Beecher stowe type, but heavy
charges not only against ner husband, but against
| her own daughter.
What are we to do with person at once so viru
GUS and 80 vtuperatiye-so sanity in one corner Of
her mind and harborng in another that which does
| not spare even her own 1esh and blood What are
| we to say to the noble reticence Of u wife who de-
naming friends, and then furnishes to her lady
adnerents all round sheaf poisoned arrows to be
SHOT or wnen not an opposing shield can be raised
| against them 1t Is the story OF Orpheus over
| again-t0rn 10 pieces by mob Of lnfurated women
| Certain anonymous correspondents talk of Byron
being ''now unmasked.n lie the very last
| man to wear mask. His faults lay from first to
| last open to the day. We know no more posi-
lively or him now than we cid We have no proof
| whatever only one-sded assertions but much
| counter proof and we are bound to characterize
this attempt TO swear away his literary and moral
| Character-such as 1t was-as most mOnStrOus.
have no desire to condemn Lady Byron. No one
honors certain parts Of her character more than do
but she has condemned herself by her breach of her
| once honorable silence, and by the irreparable
wrong done TO Byron by the destruction OF MS Jus
fcatoTy case. Once more. and finally, Tor with this
| close my earnest protest on thus subject, exnort
| you, my countrymen to revert to ana to hold fast
and lmmovabiy BY those great principles oi Justice
which have distinguished us In all ages. "No man."
says our law and our deepest moral sentiment
''shal be condemned unheard." But If Lord Byron
| be condemned 1t must be unheard. HIS lady has MUIR
dered HIM IN his sleep; In the last great sleep as 1t
regards this world She has sted his voice from the
tomb. And let her not persuade you, under these
empty theatric impersonation sudiously got up for
effect. In whatever he wrote Byron was only too
real. At midnight, over his gin and water penning
! sDon Juan, his mind hoated in the sphere OF q
lawless world and Its "reminiscences; When he
| was anxiousy endeavoring TO probe those gloomy
! mysteries Of . corrupted human nature, which
MIN, and. contemporaneou Shelley, yet with no
! man accusing them OF incest In "Childe Harold" he
shut out the lower and Injurious world and ITS asso
| Citations and rose into n0ber and purer element
He assembled into rapport with the spirit OF the
august and eternal mountains aud their sub b,
Sl'G mans nSp highest and nobest aspirations
the sweetest and noblest poems which live IN any
| languages poem which breathes the true Iumpet
Of mpertsha6e lore neo OF berage
| OF our language and our common nature; tone
even OF religion, with which the matnematlcaL me-
sympathlze, because 1t could not veup and In TO IT.
Great. immense allowances are to be made Tor q
ton infected by mad and wicked ancestry. il
might be a great misfortune for Lady Byron TO
marry such a man-whch she did with her eyes
open.but it was terrible one for him to marry a
woman who could desert him living ana defalne
and v womans wrongs; spite Of oil defamasoy
efforts, his best sentiments snail animate our Gnu
dren 10 the love OF liberty, OF nature ana OF parl0t
ism as long as the nation ana It's language last And
II they descend TO his less haowed themes. they
viii do 1t at their own peril and responsibility, as
they do when they indulge In the grossnesses OF
ovid and Catuiius Of Sterne and Smolieu, Of Vol
taire, Rabelais and Paul do Kock, or wlfully seek
the scenes ofthe degraded life OF our present cor
rupted cities
With these words close my part In this contro.
versy and wait for the AUTHORITATIVE WORDS of those
few who are now the only ones Ia q position topro.
nounce them. am NC. WILLIAM HOWITT.
! PENMABNMAUR, Sept. 10.