Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1869-08-26
ByroM'S PurgatOriaI Fame

Mrs. Stoves deeply interesting and vet
repcllent articles on Lord Byron. put forth
in the atlantic Monthly as a defence of Lady
Byron from the attacks of Countess Gu;cy.
con, will challenge the attention of the
clNlized world, and will elicit much di-
verse comment. 1t is written with all
moiidiiy lerVor, and with thorough full
hcss vi convection of its truth. vet the all
Scnce OF testimony relative 70 tbn chief
polI' oi ,iie story, provokcs an nyoiuu.
lary siliile IN the mind of every reader
whose Judgment, though MOI ;ndi';,I
seeks some evidence on which ymon.nli,
improbable and easily invented narr,t;;au
mat Lord Byron was, during ccrt,ir
years of his life. a libertinc, he and III
friends have taken SO much pains To- adj.
vertlse, that the public impression proba-
bly, does full justice to the fact. That La.
dy Byron was n person by much Lord
Byron's superior in general intellect and
IN learning; that she was fully his equal
i'm personal accomplishments and shcir,
position and graces, and that her puritv
of heart and life were without blemisli.
has been apparent TO the world from hi;
W descriptions of her, contained in hi-
published writings, and of which the most
glowing and laudatory were written after
their separation. That the antapouIsm
which separated them grew out of hey
virtues and his vices has generally been
assumed. Critics might style her virtues
""toiO iitdTlcu COlulcSS ana DruuCrN.'
ana those admirers of Byron whose moral
standard approXimated to his, would ma
turally soften his adulteries into generous
Saiiantry. 1et the general verdict N
mankind has been that Lady Byron would
nave oeeh iatitless as the wife of any de-
ce.t h"soahu' ana tlat Lord Byron COM
mitted a sort of ravishment in LEADING To
the altar any reputable woman.
And yet we doubt whether public ou;n-
ion even thus prepared, and moulded into
this form as much by Byron himself as Inv
all others combined, will accept implicit
ly the new revelation which Mrs. Stowe
now makes, that Lord Byron's dark abvsS
of infamy had still a lower and hitherto
unexpected depth, whose horrors drove
into an insanity of anguish and remorse
Il soul steelcd against every lesser terror
of conscience.
Mrs. Stowe asks us, on the strength of
communications made to her by Lady
Byron some four years before her death,
but when she was in immediate apprc-
tension of dying, to believe that Byron
had become the father of Il child by an in
c%estuous Hdson with his own sister
and that it was Byron's conscious
ness that his wife had discovered This
crime which drove him so near to madness
and inspired in his mind a hatred of her,
that caused him to drive her from his
house. That the chief of these events
could ave lived four years and at last
have died under the immediate charge and
nurture of Lady Byron herself. and no
whisper of such an intamy have gone to
the public, seems incredible in the ease of
IL man with whose name the public were
so busy "a with that of Lord Byron. It's
true that il would, perhaps, have been ~
easy to keep this fact from the public ~
to impose upon the Imagination of 50 un-
imaginative Il person us Lady Byron.
Since Lady Byron is n witness who, upon
Byron's own testimony, had no fault. cX-
cept that of being faultlcSs. which he cs-
tcemed the worst fault of all. her %clIarac-
ter for varacity, relative to any facts
which ever became actually known TO her,
would be ample to convict her husband of
any extent of bestiality. Mrs. Stoves
narrative is ~proyOkingly silent, both upon
the means by Which Lady Byron diScoN-
cred the fact, and the reasons why the
world at large did not. 1t is-not stated
that Byron himself revealed il. thouph if
is intinatcd that, within Il few hours after
their marriage, she learned that his soul!
was narrowed by some deep sense of guilt.
1t is not affirmed that his sister made the
revelation, though the reader is left to i'll
fer from the fact that the sister died in
Lady ByrOn's arms, that her sources of
correct knowledge were uncrring. The
revelations of Mrs. Stowe will doubtless
receive some sitting at the hands OF Eng
lish critics., and further statements, cor
roboratiye or contradictory. cannot fail TO
appear. The publication of such Il fact, if
it be Il fact, may be justified on the ground
of the worlds right to historic truth, but
scarcely as a vindication Of Lady Byron.
The only charge made against her, that of
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES is not effected by
showing that her husband committed i'll
cest. The eulogy which Mrs. Stowe be
slows upon her of being the trusting,
fond, warm-hearted wife, who believed
that her husbafid's guilt was insanity;
that his hpffar an Dpl wnul1 ultimuIplV rn'
deem him, and that he died a purified
Christian, is scarcely borne out by her
method in placing in the hands of a pro-
tesslonal authOress, for future publication,
IA charge against her husband of having
committed a daInning crime, Of WhiclI all
the proof was absent, and all who could
furnish the denial or disproof were dead.
1t is not claimed hat Lady Byron made
the discovery Il ground of separation, but
on the contrary that she clung TO him
long afterward until he actually COMPEL
ed her to leave him. The alIcdged fact
would explain their separation if she had
as has usually been supposed, left him.
But it would in no way explain why hc
should separate from her. On the contra
ry, upon any ordinary calculation of
chances, he could do nothing so certain 10
insure the publication TO the world of
crime which would blast him from civil
Zed society, as to turn out from his tIircsII-
hold the wife who knew all the facts and
could at any Ome damn him by pub
fishing them. IL is certain that Lady BY
ron could not have been ignorant, when
she married him, that she was marrying Il
For his debauchery had been
so public n matter that marriage was pre-
to him by his friends to sober him.
IL is contcndcd that, even when Byron's
mistrcsses preceded her in favor in his
own house, she still desired to live with
him. Such faultlessncss" is certainly
the worst of faults. Ii is not calculated
to raise her in the esteem Of the world.
And if il is to be defended on the ground
that she regarded Byron's alterations rs
insanity, it was scarcely worth while 10
the world by exposing the bestia-
lities of one from whose darkencd mind
the hand Of God had Withdrawn the lights
of reason and conscience, though by the
stroke of disease an intcnser brilli~
ancy was impaired to his Imagination and
passions. If Byron was insane, he ceased
be morally responsible. If Ec was
morally responsible, and the facts now
charged were true, Lady Byron is less
by their publication han she
had previously been by her silence
Chicago Tribune.