MRS. STOWE AND THE BYRON CONTROVERSY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 115, 21 April 1870, Page 6

MRS. STOWE AND THE BYRON CONTROVERSY.

The " Pall Mall Gazette " publishes the following epitome of Mrs. Stowe's book in the form of a telegram from New York, dated January sth :—: —

" Mrs. Stowe's Lady Byron Vindicated" is published to-day. The author does her best to explain away the various objections that have been made to the credibility of her story. In effect what Mrs. Stowe says is this : That Lady Byron's charge against her husband was made on the authority of her own confession. She avers, also, that when Lady Byron made this statement to her she was of sound mind ; and therefore maintains that, as Lady Byron was totally incapable of inventing such a story it must be received as true. The precise xvords used by her ladyship were these : — " Mrs. Stowe, he was guilty of incest with his sister ;" and here adds the recipient of these confidences, " Lady Byron became so deathly pale that I feared she would faint, and hastened to say, ' Dear friend, I have heard that before.' She asked quickly, ' From whom V and I answered, ' From Mrs. ;' when she replied, 'Oh, yes!' as if recollecting herself. She said that from the outset of their married life, Ms conduct towards her had been unaccountable. He seemed resolved to shake and combat both her religious principles and her views of the family state ; and told her that as he could not be expected to confine himself to her, neither should he expect or wish that she should confine herself to him. She could have her lovers, and must allow him the same freedom. She said she did not comprehend to what this was tending till after they went to London, and his sister had come to stay with them. At what precise time the idea of an improper connection between her husband and his sister was forced upon her she did not say ; but she told me how it was done. She said that one night, in her presence, he treated his sister with a 1 liberty which both shocked and astonished her. Seeing her amazement and alarm, he came up to her and said, in a sneering tone, ' I suppose you perceive you are not wanted here. Go to your own room and leave us alone. We can amuse ourselves better without you.' She said, 'I went to my room trembling. I fell down on my knees and prayed to my Heavenly Father to have mercy on them. I thought, what shall Ido V

She did not tell me what followed immediately upon, this, nor how soon after she spoke on the subject with either of the parties. Byron boldly avowed the connection 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. It was no sin ; the world was first peopled in that way. Afterwards he took another turn, and said that the horror and crime were the very attraction. He had worn ont all ordinary forms of sin, and longed for the stimulus of a new kind of vice. She spoke of the danger of detection, and then he became furious, swearing that she at any rate should never be the means of his detection. She should leave him — that he was resolved upon ; but she should always bear all the blame of the separation. In the sneering tone that was common with him, he said, ' The world will believe me, and it will not believe you. The world has made up its mind that By. is a glorious boy, and the world will go for By., right or wrong. Besides, I shall make it my life's object to discredit you. I shall xise all my powers.' " Lady Byron said she at first believed her husband to be insane, and pitied and excused him. Mrs. Leigh was weak and wholly under his control. She afterwards repented, and became a truly good woman, and Lady Byron seemed to take comfort from the recollection of her subsequent intercourse with her. Lady Byron said, in reply to a question, that she had letters and documents in proof of her story, but Mrs. Stowe did not see them. The memorandum to which she alluded in the article published in " Macrnillan's Magazine " was sent by- her to Lady Byron. It contained only an outline of the facts, and and was without dates. Mrs. Stoye conjectures that Mrs. Leigh persuaded Lady Byron at first that her brother had only made insane attempts which she resisted, and that she alone could control his insanity. It was in this belief that the letters published in the "Quarterly Review" were written. Fuller revelations were, however, made later. Mrs. Stowe has no proof of this theory, but shows that Mrs. Leigh did represent Byron to be insane. Lady Byron told Mrs. Stowe there was a daughter, who gave her friends much trouble. From other sources Mrs. Stowe learned that the daughter escaped from her friends to the Continent, and that Lady Byron assisted the efforts that were made to recover her. An English correspondent, it seems, has written to Mrs. Stowe, averring that the crime was first committed, and the child born, shortly before Byron married, "The child, a daughter, must not be confounded with the natural daughter of Lord Byron, born about a year after his separation." The history more or less of that child of incest is known to many ; for in Lady Byron's attempt to watch over ' her, and rescue her from ruin, she was compelled to employ various agents at different times. Mrs Stowe treats the controversy as a question of veracity between Lord Byron and his wife.