Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1869-09-18
BYRON.
The True Story Of Lady ByrOn's Life.

From the London Times, OF August Both. !
An article under this title, written
by Mrs. Beecher Stowe, commences
the September number OF NaemH{dR's
EGg,f-iHe. it viii be read with World-
wide interest, for though forty-five
years have worn out the spell which
once belonged TO Byron ) verse, though
criticism has dealt cOldly and calmly
with it, rejecting its meretriciOus SEN
timent and determining its sterling
qualities, the man himself remains
much the same as ne was first pie
tured to US in MOOre's biography and
Macaulay's brilliant and pathetic es-
say. 70 those who cannot rest con-
| tent with an authors writings, but
must concern themselves with his in
dividuality, he is still the beau idedi of
poet. He stands out from them all
with his handsome face, his suscepti-
bic and impetuOus temperament, his
sorrows and designations, his loves
and hatreds. Condemned at the bar
of opinion as a dissOlute man, of viO-
lent, uncontrolled passions, his mis-
fortunes to this day have averted
Judgment. BY virtue Of them he has,
| like his predecessor, s. the wicked
Lord" claimed a benefit of clergy,
and not got off scot free.
There is no doubt that Mrs. Stoves
narrative will owe much of its univer-
sal interest to the taGt that It gfatiiies
the lowest kind Of curiosity; but it
was not written and ought not to be
read with this end in view. II is q
late and necessary 0ct Of fjHStice-Of jus
tice 10 tie lOite, clearing AsT from tho
accusations Of fcOid-hedFtcdi1eSs and lal-
charitable DTudey.y made so repeatedly
during her WedRd since her d'edt4-dRG
Of justice on ne husband, DESTROYING al
once and tOPeueF the romance icIich has
so Tong been d{IOlCed TO CEYuDe the false
hood and nle0llReSS Of his character.
Leaving the present revelation out of
the question, the fact that those inter-
esting misfortunes which at one time
the world delighted to weep over were
the natural consequences of the vices
of their victim, has all along been clear
enough, yet seldom, if ever, has this
been boldly and insisted on, while in
nearly every extant biographical n0-
tiee OF the pOet-and their name is le-
giOn-his wretchedness has been
pleaded in mitigation of his errors.
His domestic quarrels have been
discussed wherever English poetry is
read, and the public, forced reluetant-
~ to take LADY Byron's part, has
done so with the worst grace. To
blame her, was, indeed, impossible;
but it was easy to pity him; to con-
dole with this genius thrown away on
a woman who could not understand
him, and paying so dearly for his
mistake. Men, and women, too, made
haste TO revife the cold and ungener-
Gus prude, who left her husband to
make what wreck he pleased of his
life, when, by bearing with his faults,
as the good wife of great man ought
to bear, she might have saved him
from himself, and done the duty she
owed no less to the world than to its
poet,
The public, however, has had some
excuse for its tacit condemnation of
the most devoted wife that ever sacri-
feed herself to an unworthy man, for
Lady Byron never uttered word in
her own Justification, and it is only
now, when she herself and all those
whom the dreadful revelation would
oVerWhelm are in their graves, that it
Is given to the world. As it is, the
seals of it would have remained un-
broken, perhaps forever, were it not
for the recent publication by Byron's
mistress of a book reviving the old
and threadbaTe calumnies against his
wife, and referring his reckless indul-
gence and miserable life to the de-
spair which took possession of him
when he found himself abandoned by
the woman on whom he rested his
hopes of better things.
Mrs. ,Soi1e states July her anime
pedchd6le authority for the R0rTdtiUs
Ibid before as. When, as the authoresse
of"Uncle Toms CABIN, ," she first came
to England, she formed friendship
with Lady Byron; crossing the At
lantic a second time, in 1856, this was
renewed, and Mrs. Stowe received one
day an invitation, in which her friend