The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-01-07
THE BYRON SCANDAL.
The Story of Medorn Letgh-Mr'
stoves New Effort, &c.

Mr., Charles MacHay, au EngllSn ut
teratenr, has just given the world, In
book form, what he calls the story of
Medora Lsigh--a story very revolving
in itself, but the publication of which
was no doubt intended to anticipate
Mrs. Beecher Stoves promised aadi-
tioual revelations. Medora Leigh pro-
fesses to be the offspring of Lord Byron
aud the Honorable Augusta Leigh-but
on what authority other than a pre-
tended declaration of her sister does
not appear. There is what pnrports to
be her autobiography, in which she Is
made to confess that she too had been
guilty of monstrous offences, with IL
legitimate offspring, &c. Altogether,
the revelation is very disgusting enc,
and we should prefer to pass it by un-
noticed, but that meantime Mrs. Stoves
new book is printed, and 1t is worth
while to point out the fact that it does
not sustain the new revelation by
Mackay nor the old one by Mrs. Stowe
herself. The New York Journal Of Com
meres having been put in possession of
the proof-sheets of the latter's last pro
duction, says:
All that Mrs. Stowe says in the new
said, when she spoke at all, in her first
Atlantic paper, so that her entire charge
against the memory of Lord Byron
might have been before the world at
one time, and in brief compass, aGd
promptly confirmed, or refuted, or re-
iegated to the limbo of forgotten sepsa-
tions. Her present venture looks like
piece of professional book making, of
which the Atlantic article was but the
cheap and successful advertisement in
advance. Professional book making"
is the exact phrase for this piece of lit
erary patchwork and padding. 1t bears
every appearance of having been wit
ten to sell-to take advantage, we Rean,
of the still lingering desire TO hear more
of the shocking story which rang
through the papers months ago, and TO
profit by that love of indecent scandal
which the prurent HtterGteurS of the
day find so much gain in catering to. 1t
consists of 4S2 16mo. pages, and proves,
upon analysis to be only hammorlng
out of the scanty data contained in the
Atlantic paper (Which also reappears in
full, } q reprint and examination ofsome
of the facts and arguments offered In
defense of Lord Byron, prodigiousIy
tiresome effort to prove from passages
in his works that he was not too good
to commit incest, few of Byron's
poems bearing on his unhappy marriage,
and about five pages of matter that
may be called new, though it is only an
elaboration, still vague ard unsatisfac-
terry, of Mrs Stoves previous report of
Lady Byron's statement to her.
Il. IS "a. naf nF In
alleged crime is adduced. The gist of
the matter, as newly dressed mp, is this:
That Lady Byron told Mrs. Stowe that
zone night in her presence, he (Lord
Byrou) treated his sister with liberty
which both shocked and astonished her
and that in conversations with his wife
subsequently, Lord Byron boldly
ayowed the connection with his sister,
as having existed in time past, and as
one that was to continue in time To-
come, and implied that she must submit
to it, Lady Byron did not say that
she was q witness of any actual guilt
between them, nor that any one else
saw evidences of it, or that she had
scrap of writing or any testimony what
ever (other than Byron's ipse diriD going
to confirm it. She does not allege that
Mrs. Leigh confessed her participation
in the imputed crime. So much for the
"hour Of revelation" which Mrs. Stowe
limited at so melodramatically in her |
Atlantic paper. The "ehild born with |
the curse of sin on it" makes an equally !
shadowy figure in this book. Here is |
all that Mrs. Stowe has to say on this |
important topic, and we call the read. |
er's particular attention to the evident |
desire of Lady Byron and Mrs. Stowe
to shirk the responsibility of charging
that there was an offspring of the al.
legged incest: ,,, i
been told by Mrs. - that there
was daughter, who had lived some
years.
"She said there was one "a daughter,
who made her friends much trouble.
being of very difficult nature to man
age. had understood that at one time
this daughter escaped from her friends
TO the continent, and that Lady Byron |
assisted in efforts TO recover her. OF
Lady Byron's kindness both to Mrs. |
Leigh and the child, had before heard |
from Mrs. -, WHO gave me my first |
information"
This is evasive and quibbling. The
fact that Mrs. Stowe lodges the direct
accusation, and gives no pame to the
woman who tod her "that there was
daughter" and slips away from this |
branch of the subject so quickly, shows
that she does not fully believe her in
situation to be true, though she is none
the less willing to make il. A curious
d;ecrapanny droDs ont in Mrs Stoves |
new version of her conversation with
Lady Byron. 1t is this: Lady Byron
cars j It on one oecasian in her presence,
before marriage, Lord Byron tainted
away, and attributes his emotion to
'sfear of detection" of the incest; and
yet, few pages further on, we find her
declaring that he freely acknowledged
the crime to her, (of which she had no
ocular or other prosfs,) boosted of it,
and justified it. The whole case,as now