one felt sensibly her degradation, and complained without effect, the others could only pity and remain absent. At length patience was exhausted, and a temporary separation occurred; during which, an amicable correspondence was carried on for a few weeks, but without producing any change of conduct or such promises of amendment as the party aggrieved had a right to demand. In such a state of irritable suspense it is impossible to keep curiosity hoodwinked, and many particulars thus came to light which otherwise perhaps would have remained buried for ever in silence. The beginning of domestic uneasiness is like the dropping of water; and that which by concession and liberality might have been at first easily gathered up, or absorbed in oblivion, swells into a stream, till it defeats every attempt to prevent its progress.

On the one side no measures were taken, but those which common prudence suggested, and which the highest wisdom' must have approved; for the case was laid in consultation before the nearest relatives, who saw enough to convince them that the chance of happiness was hopeless where so much duplicity had been practised. But though satisfied in their own minds

236

THE LADY VINDICATED.

after a very close and delicate inquiry, that a reconciliation was neither practicable nor even advisable, they thought it safest to take the opinion of an eminent civilian upon the case; and when it is known that the judgment of Dr. Lushington was decidedly in favour of Lady Byron's resolution to live apart from her husband, there will be few persons hardy enough to call the propriety of her determination in question. That determination was a very painful, but it was also a very deliberate, act of duty; and did not result from mere capriciousness of temper, or jealousy conceived on false grounds, and nourished by base insinuations.

Now what was the line of conduct pursued on the other side, where, from intellectual superiority, and natural dignity of feeling, it might have been expected that the utmost delicacy of reserve would have distinguished the deportment of the husband, so as to have kept him from all conversation and communion on the subject of his domestic differences, except with those who were immediately interested in them? Instead of weighing seriously the particulars of his conduct, entering into an explanation of those

CONDUCT OF JAMES PERRY.

237

points which were most suspicious, and frankly confessing what might be wrong, he delivers his sentiments in harmonious verse, and talks of his own wounded feelings in heroics, without paying the slightest regard to the feelings of others. But this was not all; for this man, of exquisite sensibility, calls to his counsel, not a professional advocate, or a relative of dignified rank,-in both of whom he might have reposed his secrets with safety, but the proprietor and editor of a newspaper, to whose honest hands and immaculate honour he entrusts the letters of his spouse and his own verses. The consequence was, as might have been easily predicted, the world soon became acquainted with the particulars of a separation, which, whatever might be its expediency under the circumstances of the noble parties, was not of a nature to be made a matter of public discourse. The part which the late Mr. Perry took in this unpleasant affair did him little credit; for he made the Morning Chronicle a stage of exhibition, and strutted about on it with an air of as much consequence as if this concern had been one in which he had a personal interest. But when the editor threatened the father of Lady Byron with the publi

238

ANECDOTE OF LORD FALKLAND.

cation of his daughter's letters, his wonted acuteness of intellect seems to have been obtunded by his excessive vanity; or else he would not have overlooked the plain questions naturally arising, how he came into possession of them, and what authority he had to publish the correspondence of two persons, without the consent of both having been previously obtained.

Lord Byron in one of his poems has paid a tribute of respect to the unfortunate Lord Falkland, who some years ago was killed in a duel. But the great Earl of Clarendon has bestowed a finer encomium upon the

illustrious ancestor of that nobleman, who fell in the battle of Newbury.

"Lord

"One thing," says the noble historian, Falkland could never bring himself to, while Secretary of State, and that was the liberty of opening letters, upon a suspicion that they might contain matter of dangerous consequence; which he thought such a violation of the law of nature, that no qualification of office could justify him in the trespass."

This was certainly carrying the sense of honour

DISCLOSURE OF CORRESPONDENCE.

239

very far; but what would such a person have thought of the man who, in a family quarrel, could make the conductor of a weekly paper the depository of his secrets, and entrust to his hands, not for his private perusal, but for publication, the letters that had passed between himself and his wife?

The friendship of Lord Byron and the proprietor of the Morning Chronicle, was formed on a literary and political basis; to poetry and politics, therefore, that relation should have been rigidly confined. The advantage of it was all on one side; and there can be no doubt but that the Journalist duly appreciated the value of a connexion, which so materially contributed to uphold and extend the popularity of his paper. But for that very reason, this man was one of the last persons in the world to whom Lord Byron should have confided the secrets of his heart and the state of his house; for it was not in the nature of things that such an adviser could be impartial, even supposing that in other respects he might be an unobjectionable arbiter of family differences. The manner in which he deported himself in a business so