The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1869-09-01
subscription to pay for it, Whatever else 10
forgotten at Washington this appointment must
be remembered.


count Johannes ON tho Byron Scandal
1t is not surprising that George, "Count
Johannes" should be prompted by the spirit
Of the age of ohivalry to defend dead and
slandered lady against the shameless, malignant
attack which has recently been made upon the
memory of the Hon. Mrs. Leigh. Count
Johannes was personally acquainted with the
half sister Of Lord Byron, and some of his
revelations are based on her own statements
James Palace. The intimacy Of Count
Johannes with La Belle !Guccioli, with the
Countess of BIessington, ''Trelawney the
Terrible" the Count dOrsay, the Earl OF
Harrington formerly the Hon. Leicester
Stanhope), who were. all intimate with Lord
Byron, certainly entities him to speak with at
least equal authority on the points at issue as
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Count Johannes
has been singularly fortunate in enjoying the
hospitality of empeross, kings, car
dinals and archbishops, and there is
something impressive in his manner Of
skilfully reserving to the last, in
his mastery refutation of Mrs. Stoves libel
against the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, his strongest
moral evidence, and citing the Qneen Of Eng
land. that model of chastity and all matrsnly
virtues, as chief witness in favor of his
client. Our readers cannot fail to be struck
with the fact that Lady Byron herself is
brought forward az witness in behalf of the
Hon. Mrs. Leigh. That the name of this
much injured lady was bestowed upon Ada
Augusta, the only child of Lord and Lady
Byron, as token of Lady ByrOn's belief in
the innocence of the relations between her hus-
band and his half sister, is an interesting and
significant fact Mrs. Stoves account of the
parting interview Of Lord Byron, his wife and
his sister, is shown to be a mere fiction. The
cause of separation, as assigned by Mrs.
Stowe, is equally false, and the true and natu-
raj reasons are given in the Counts letter,
which defines "Byron's curse of life" and
portrays, with graphic power, the melancholy
issue of ''woman's malignant tongue and tenn
per conjoined." Lord Byron's deathbed scene is
presented by Count Johannes with great effect
Byron's dying declaration to his intimate friend,
Stanhope, is conclusive, taken in connection
with the incident as to the second name OF the
poets daughter. Light is thrown upon the
broken sentences addressed by Lord Byron to
his valet. In fine, the letter of Count Johannes
is the first complete and conclusive REPUTATION
of the most atrocious and Puritanical libel
upon the dead which has ever defiled the his
tory of literature. 1t is rather an aggravation
than justification of that libel that it was
designed simply as an advertising dodge,
eclipsing all that Bonner or even Barnum ever
attempted in the advertising line. No wonder
that Bonner declares he would not have pub
blshed it for million of dollars. Mr.. Bonner
emphatically expresses our own opinion OF
Mrs. Stoves slanderous article on Lord Byron
in the atlantic Monthly, when he says:-T
know of no article published in my lifetime
calculated to exert more injurious and de-
moralizing influence on the rising generation"
Happily, Count Johannes letter supplies an an
tidote for the poison with which Mrs. Stowe
and her publishers have tried to infect the
| public mind.