or re-opening the controversy of Lord Byron with his wife.

The rest of the review devoted to a powerful attack on Lady Byron's
character, the most fearful attack on the memory of a dead woman we have
ever seen made by living man. The author proceeds, like a lawyer, to
gather up, arrange, and restate, in a most workmanlike manner, the
confused accusations of the book.

Anticipating the objection, that such a re-opening of the inquiry was a
violation of the privacy due to womanhood and to the feelings of a
surviving family, he says, that though marriage usually is a private
matter which the world has no right to intermeddle with or discuss, yet--

'Lord Byron's was an exceptional case. It is not too much to say,
that, had his marriage been a happy one, the course of events of the
present century might have been materially changed; that the genius
which poured itself forth in "Don Juan" and "Cain" might have flowed
in far different channels; that the ardent love of freedom which sent
him to perish at six and thirty at Missolonghi might have inspired a
long career at home; and that we might at this moment have been
appealing to the counsels of his experience and wisdom at an age not
exceeding that which was attained by Wellington, Lyndhurst, and
Brougham.

'Whether the world would have been a gainer or a loser by the exchange
is a question which every man must answer for himself, according to
his own tastes and opinions; but the possibility of such a change in
the course of events warrants us in treating what would otherwise be a
strictly private matter as one of public interest.

'More than half a century has elapsed, the actors have departed from
the stage, the curtain has fallen; and whether it will ever again be
raised so as to reveal the real facts of the drama, may, as we have
already observed, be well doubted. But the time has arrived when we
may fairly gather up the fragments of evidence, clear them as far as
possible from the incrustations of passion, prejudice, and malice, and
place them in such order, as, if possible, to enable us to arrive at
some probable conjecture as to what the skeleton of the drama
originally was.'

Here the writer proceeds to put together all the facts of Lady Byron's
case, just as an adverse lawyer would put them as against her, and for
her husband. The plea is made vigorously and ably, and with an air of
i