Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1869-11-03
From tie Netu prh Sm.
Mrs. stewe's Wnstrosity.
THE ISLANDER oY YTHE DEAD.

Lord Byron, the poet, was born IN
1888. He died in lS24-forty-five years
ago. In 1915 he. was married to Miss,
Mlbanke, from whom he separated for
eyer about one year after their mar
riage. She died in lSG0-nine years ago.
Their daughter, and only child, died:
several years earlier, but she left chill
dren, who are still living.
Forty-iive Years after the death OF
Lord Byron. and nine years after the
death Of Lady Byron, Mrs. Stowe, an
American woman, comes forward and
announces that she has an important
and interesting secret to disclose: that
the cause Of sestrangement and separa-
tion between Lord and Lady Byron was
an adulterous, incestuous intercourse
between Lord Byron and his own sis
ter This fact Mrs. Stowe says was
communicated to her by Lady Byron
inlS56.
Two questions arise in the mind of
the reader of this horrible announce
ment first. Is it true? and second,
Gu bono 9-for what good end is it
made
There seems to be no good and suhl-
cient reason for believing the statement
OF Mrs. Stowe to be true WewiGl cred
it her assertion that hady Byron made
it TO her According TO l-er own ac-
count, Lady Byron was very i'll at the
line-so i'll that she was expected to
die soon If she was so i'll, she proba-
bly>was taking medicines. Was she or
was she not under the influence Of Opt
um, or OF some anodyne that affected
her reason? Or it may be that under
the effects Of disease alone her mind
had given way. She had suffered great
mental anguish about her separation
from her husband, and it is not improb-
able that she was insane on this subject,
even if sane on I'LL others.
By what evidence was the foul charge
of Lady Byron supported? So far as
we can Judge by Mrs. Stoves article,
not by one title And the public are
asked to believe this terrible accusation
on tn, merest hearsay testimony, which
in q court of justice would be inadmis-
sible to prove that an accused person
had stolen penny
1t is not Lord Byron alone whose re-
putation is affected by this dreadful
story. The fair fame OF his sister-fair,
we believe, until -now-and who has
been permitted long to rest peacefully
in her grave-that, too is to be blight
ed and blasted for ever hereafter, by
the stain of an unnatural crime.
1t is horrible that woman of Mrs.
Stoves standing should bring forward
this most repulsive charge against those
whose lips, being sealed in death, can
never answer it, however innocent they
may have been. And the strong pre-
sumption, from the laws of human na-
ture-so, strong as to be overcome on
ly by the most irrefragable evidence
is, that they were entirely innocent.
1t is altogether probable that even if
Lady Byron was sane, and if she sus-
pected this incredible crime, the suspi-
cion was the offspring Of a jealous and
morbid disposition. Whatever people
may have thought Of Lady Byron here
tofora, no one hereafter can blame hus-
band for lcaying wife who hated I'm
bitterly enough to invent this s,Jry
about him after he had been dead a
third of a century. 1t seems, however,
according to Mrs. Stowe, that the sepa-
ration was entirely the work of Lord
Byron, and that his divine and lovely
wife was very anxious to continue to
live with her adulterous and incestu-
Gus husband. To one who asked her
how she could loye him, she replied,
My dear, there was the angel in him :"
A pretty place, we Should think, ac-
cording to her own story, for an angel
to dwell! Then, too, Lady Byron al
WAYS expressed the most .undoubting
confidence, after his death, that this
same adulterQHs and incestuous fend
had gone straight to heaven
Lord. .Byrons sister, we are told, in
her last sickness and dying hours, look
ed to Lady Byron for consolation and
help. The woman who, under these
circumstances, could deliberately fasten
this vile blot on her memory many
years after her DEATH must have been,
if gane, moral monster,
Whose name AiTrs Stowe has benefit
ed we are unable to perceive. uol;aip-
lv not Lady Byrons; for she had her
admirers before. and can have few left
now. Not the names Of the innocent
grand children, who must suffer cruel
torture from this scandal Not her own,
which was i:air before, but will hcreaf
ter be associated with one Of the most
outrageous and vilcst Of all the pruiiont
stories ever invented.
THE BYRON ScANDAL.--Thc Courier
JoouWal has the following:
LONDON, Gugust 48--The Times, in
an editorial to-day. in which the sepa-
ration Of Lord Byron and his wife is
detailed, asserts that Mrs Stoves mar
.raaYe is entirely without foundation
and base slander
The press of the country universally
condemn Mrs. Stowe, and she stands
this day of all yirtuous women the most
unenviably notorious
AUNT HARR1Er.-The Norfolk TTu-
gtam calls Mrs. Stowe Literary Body
Snatcher. She is likewise q trooly
loil woman. What an amalgam
-.
How AIr>- n,,,r uIrD,-n.