t we cannot but wonder that her conduct in this
respect has ever been called in question. If it was her right to have
had a public expose in 1816, it was certainly her right to show to her
own intimate circle the secret of her life when all the principal actors
were passed from earth.

The 'Quarterly' speaks as if, by thus waiting, she deprived Lord Byron of
the testimony of living witnesses. But there were as many witnesses and
partisans dead on her side as on his. Lady Milbanke and Sir Ralph, Sir
Samuel Romilly and Lady Anne Barnard were as much dead as Hobhouse,
Moore, and others of Byron's partisans.

The 'Quarterly' speaks of Lady Byron as 'running round, and repeating her
story to people mostly below her own rank in life.'

To those who know the personal dignity of Lady Byron's manners,
represented and dwelt on by her husband in his conversations with Lady
Blessington, this coarse and vulgar attack only proves the poverty of a
cause which can defend itself by no better weapons.

Lord Byron speaks of his wife as 'highly cultivated;' as having 'a degree
of self-control I never saw equalled.'

'I am certain,' he says, 'that Lady Byron's first idea is what is due
to herself: I mean that it is the undeviating rule of her conduct . .
. . Now, my besetting sin is a want of that self-respect which she
has in excess . . . . But, though I accuse Lady Byron of an excess of
self-respect, I must, in candour, admit, that, if any person ever had
excuse for an extraordinary portion of it, she has; as, in all her
thoughts, words, and actions, she is the most decorous woman that ever
existed.'

This is the kind of woman who has lately been accused in the public
prints as a babbler of secrets and a gossip in regard to her private
difficulties with children, grandchildren, and servants. It is a fair
specimen of the justice that has generally been meted out to Lady Byron.

In 1836, she was accused of having made a confidant of Campbell, on the
strength of having written him a note declining to give him any
information, or answer any questions. In July, 1869, she was denounced
by 'Blackwood' as a Madame Brinvilliers for keeping such perfect silence
on the matter of her husband's character; and in the last 'Quarterly' she
is spoken of as a gossip 'running round, and repeating her story to
people below her in rank.'

While we are upon this subject, we have a suggestion to make. John
Stuart Mill sa