The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-08-19
LORD AND LADY BYRON.


Mrs Harriet Beecher Stowe, of the real diff
Guilty between Lord and Lady Byron which led
TO their separation. We give all the essential
points from the long narrative prepared by
Mrs. Slower
The reading world of America has lately
been presented with a book, which is said TO
sell rapidly, and which appears to meet with
universal favor. The subject of the book
may be thus briefly stated: The mistress of
Lord Byron comes before the world for the
sake of indicating his fame from ISLANDERS
and aspersions cast on him by his wife. The
story of the mistress against wife may be
summed up as follows-
Lord Byron, the hero of the story, is repre-
sented as n human being endowed with every
natural charm, gift, and grace, who, by the
one false step of an unsuitable marriage,
wrecked his whole life. A narrow-minded,
cold-hearted precisian, without sufficient in
tellect to comprehend his genius, or heart TO
feel for his temptations, formed with him one
of those mere woIdly marriages, common in
high life, and, finding that she could not
reduce him to the mathematical propreties
ndconventionalrule of herown modeiof life.
suddenly and without warming, abandoned
him in the most cruel and inexplicable man
ncr. 1t is alleged that she parted from him
in apparent affection and good humor, wrote
him a playful. conhding letter upon the wav:
but, after reaching her fathers house sud
denly. and without explanation, announced
to him that she would never see him again:
that this sudden abandonment drew down
upon him a perfect storm of scandalous sto-
ries which his wife never contradicted: that
she never, in any way or shape, stated what
the exact reasons for her departure had been
and thus silently gave scope to all the malice
of thousands Of enemies. The sensitive vic
tim was actually driven from England his
home broken up, and he doomed to be a
lonely wanderer on foreign shores.
In Italy, under bluer skies and among
a gentler people, with more tolerant modes of
Judgment, the authoress intimates that he
found peace and consolation. lovely
young Italian Countess fell in love with him,
and breaking her family ties for his sake
deyotes herself TO him. and in blsSful retire
ment with her he finds at last that domestic
life for which he was so fitted. Soothed
calmed. and refreshed, he wrote Don Juan,
which the world is at this late hour informed
was a poem with a high moral purpose, de-
signed to be a practical illustration of the
doctrine of total depravity among young
gentlemen in high life. Under the elevating
influence of love, he rises at last to higher
realms of moral excellence, and resolves to
devote the rest of his life TO some noble and
heroic purpose, becomes The savior Of Greece,
and dies untiuoly. leaving a nation to
mourn his loss. The authoress dwells with a
peculiar bitterness ON Lady Byrons silence
during all these tears, as the most aggravated
form Of persecution and injury. She informs
the world that Lord Byron wrote his auto
biography with the purpose OF giving fair
statement of the exact truth of the matter,
and that Lady Byron bought up the manu-
script Of the publisher and insisted ON its
being destroyed unread, thus iIIeXibly de-
priving her husband of his last chance before
the tribunal of the public As q result of this
silent, persistent cruelty on the part Of a cold,
correct nalTow-miudod woman, the character
of Lord Byron has been misunderstood, and
his name transmitted to after ages with asper-
sions and accusations which it is the object
of this book to remove.
1t does not appear to occur to the thou
sands of unretecting readers that theyare Is-
tening merely to the story of Lord Byron's
mistress and of Lord Byron, and that even bv
their own showing their heaviest accusation
against Lady Byron is that size ht$ nat xD0Elu
at Ill., her story has never been told.
Lady Byron obdurate cod-heartedness in
refusing even to listen to his prayers or to
have any intercourse with him which might
lead to reconciliation, was the one point con-
ceded on all sides. The stricter moralist de-
Tended her. but gentler hearts throughout all
the world regarded her as a marble-headed
monster of correctness and morality. a per-
soniiication of the law unmitigated by the
Gospel Literature in its highest walks busted
itself with Lady Byron.
The true history of Lord and Lady Byron
has long been perfectly understood in many
circles in England but the facts were of a
nature that could not be made public. While
there was a young daughter living, whose
future might be prejudiced by its recital, and
while there were other persons on whom the
disclosure of the real truth would have been
crushing as an avalanche Lady Byrons only
course was the perfect silence in which she
took refuge, and those sublime works of
charity and mercy to which she conse-
Grated her bhghted earthly life
No person in England we think. would as
yet take the responsibility of relating the
true history which is TO clear Lady Byrons
memory But by singular concurrence of
circumstances, all the facts of the case. in tbe
most undeniable and authentic form. were at
one time placed i'll the hands of the writer of
this sketch, with authority to make such use
OF them as she should judge best. Had this
melancholy history been allowed to sleep. no
public use would have been made of them.
but the appearance of popular attack on the
character OF Lady Byron calls for a vindica.
tion, and the true story of her married life
will, therefore, now he related.
Lord Byron has described in one of his let
ters the impression left upon his mind by :
young person whom he met one evening il
society, and who attracted his attention by
the simplicity of her dress and a certain air o.
singular purity and calmness with which sh,
surveyed the scene around her On inouir,
he was told that this young person was Mis-
Milbanke, an only child and one of the arges
heiresses in England.