ch is perfectly lawful towards calumnious traducers, but which will
not terrify me, or any other man of courage who is no calumniator,
from uttering his mind freely with regard to this part of your hero's
conduct. I question your philosophy in assuming that all that is
noble in Byron's poetry was inconsistent with the possibility of his
being devoted to a pure and good woman; and I repudiate your morality
for canting too complacently about "the lava of his imagination," and
the unsettled fever of his passions, being any excuses for his
planting the tic douloureux of domestic suffering in a meek woman's
bosom.

'These are hard words, Mr. Moore; but you have brought them on
yourself by your voluntary ignorance of facts known to me; for you
might and ought to have known both sides of the question; and, if the
subject was too delicate for you to consult Lady Byron's confidential
friends, you ought to have had nothing to do with the subject. But
you cannot have submitted your book even to Lord Byron's sister,
otherwise she would have set you right about the imaginary spy, Mrs.
Clermont.'

Campbell now goes on to print, at his own peril, he says, and without
time to ask leave, the following note from Lady Byron in reply to an
application he made to her, when he was about to review Moore's book, for
an 'estimate as to the correctness of Moore's statements.'

The following is Lady Byron's reply:--

'DEAR MR. CAMPBELL,--In taking up my pen to point out for your private
information {86} those passages in Mr. Moore's representation of my
part of the story which were open to contradiction, I find them of
still greater extent than I had supposed; and to deny an assertion
here and there would virtually admit the truth of the rest. If, on
the contrary, I were to enter into a full exposure of the falsehood of
the views taken by Mr. Moore, I must detail various matters, which,
consistently with my principles and feelings, I cannot under the
existing circumstances disclose. I may, perhaps, convince you better
of the difficulty of the case by an example: It is not true that
pecuniary embarrassments were the cause of the disturbed state of Lord
Byron's mind, or formed the chief reason for the arrangements made by
him at that time. But is it reasonable for me to expect that you or
any one else should believe this, unless I show you what were