The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-03

was an unfortunate wayward child Of Mrs.
Leigh's upon whom Lady Byron, believing her
to be the fruit Of her husbands incestuous pas
sion, layished a mothers care; probably that
this child believed Lady Byrons story OF her
shameful BIRTH This leaves the problem as far
as ever from solution, and OF course does not
weaken in the least the tremendous force oil
Lady Byron's letters to her sister-ln-law which
were published In The Quarterly ReUielo, or the
fact mentioned in the postscript to the same
periodical that when Lord Broughton lHoo,
house) acting for Byron, met Mr.. (atterwaro
Sir Robert) Wilmot Horton, Lady
Byron's representative, with view to an ami
cable settlement and questioned him upon All
the charges and rumors which had been uttered
against the poet a cause for the separation.
Mr.. Horton, in the name Of the lady, expressly
repudiated the specific charge which has now
been revived by Mrs. stowe. DR.. Mackays
theory is that so far as Mrs. Leigh is concerned
the present accusation dates from Mrs. Ire
vanion's statement to Medora about 1881 that
Colonel Leigh was not her father. He believes
that IL was the wicked invention OF an out
ragged wife who wanted to get rid OF her
husband, after she had once discovered MS
infdelity. if she obtained a divorce, Ire
yanion could not marry his wiies sister,
and lit was necessary to make Medora oeneVe
that she was not really Georgianas sister-or,
at all events, not the child of Georgianas
father--in order that the unfortunate girl, even
at the sacrifice of her mothers good name,
might delude herself with the hope that IL the
divorce were obtained, there would remain
DO real ODSLacle 10 lcT Will hCl DC
ducer." Lord Byrons name, it will be observed,
was not coupled with the story at this time;
Medora was only told that she was the lllegltl-
mate child of her mother. 1t was from Lady
Byron, in 1910, that she learned the name OF
her father. DR.. Mackay believes that Lady
Byron learned it from Georgiana Trevanionn,
and that unnatural woman either invented 1t
altogether for the shameful purpose we nave
mentioned, or, possibly, got it from Mrs. Charle-
mont. To us this theory seems incredible. 1t
supposes q moro loathsome deprayity in Mrs.
Trevanion than has ever been attributed to any
Of the actors in this shocking drama: 1t sup
poses that, for no adequate reason, she would
blast the reputation of her mother, and condemn
her sister to q life of shame. If she wanted
divorce, she had cause already, for adultery had
been committed and proving that Medora was
her half-sister would not further her plans. 1t
is much more likely that she never made any
such revelation. We have only Medora's word
for it, and that is worth very little in such case
as this She blanes her mother and her sister
Tor exposing her TO the danger which proved her
ruin. She even charges the sister with virtually
enticing her to sin. Probably these charges are
purely fictitious, designed to soften the horrors
of her narrative and stand for her excuses.
DIR. Mackay argues that Lady Byron cannot
have entertained the suspicion or belief which
she communicated TO Medora until some time
later than this supposed revelation OF 1881, be-
cause her account of the separation published
in MoOre's Life in 1880 seems inconsistent with
it. But in the first place that account is not
really inconsistent with belief in the charge Of
incest; it is only inconsistent with willingness
to have that belief suspected. And again, even
if she did not know it in $780, it is queer logic to
conclude that she cannot have known it in 1881.
There is another difficulty, however, which the
editor hasapparently overlooked. Mrs says that
DR.. Lushington and others in lS43 were in pos
session of the ''secret' which Lady Byron con-
fded to Mrs. Stowe as the cause of the separa-
ton. Are we to infer that the ''secret" which
she impaired to her adviser in 1916 different
from the secret which she impaired to him later !?
There arc obvious difficulties in believing that
it was the same; there are equally obvious diff
on the suppostio9 that that She Il e' had become mon
this one point of unsound mind-a suppostion
in which DIR: Mackay's book upon the whole
tends to confirm us.