Thomas Moore - Life of Lord Byron, Vol. II

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* * * * *

LETTER 84. TO ROBERT RUSHTON.

"8. St. James's Street, Jan. 21. 1812.

"Though I have no objection to your refusal to carry _letters_ to
Mealey's, you will take care that the letters are taken by _Spero_
at the proper time. I have also to observe, that Susan is to be
treated with civility, and not _insulted_ by any person over whom
I have the smallest control, or, indeed, by any one whatever, while
I have the power to protect her. I am truly sorry to have any
subject of complaint against _you_; I have too good an opinion of
you to think I shall have occasion to repeat it, after the care I
have taken of you, and my favourable intentions in your behalf. I
see no occasion for any communication whatever between _you_ and
the _women_, and wish you to occupy yourself in preparing for the
situation in which you will be placed. If a common sense of decency
cannot prevent you from conducting yourself towards them with
rudeness, I should at least hope that your _own interest_, and
regard for a master who has _never_ treated you with unkindness,
will have some weight. Yours, &c.

"BYRON.

"P.S.--I wish you to attend to your arithmetic, to occupy yourself
in surveying, measuring, and making yourself acquainted with every
particular relative to the _land_ of Newstead, and you will _write_
to me _one letter every week_, that I may know how you go on."

* * * * *

LETTER 85. TO ROBERT RUSHTON.

"8. St. James's Street, January 25. 1812.

"Your refusal to carry the letter was not a subject of
remonstrance; it was not a part of your business; but the language
you used to the girl was (as _she_ stated it) highly improper.

"You say that you also have something to complain of; then state it
to me immediately; it would be very unfair, and very contrary to my
disposition, not to hear both sides of the question.

"If any thing has passed between you _before_ or since my last
visit to Newstead, do not be afraid to mention it. I am sure _you_
would not deceive me, though _she_ would. Whatever it is, _you_
shall be forgiven. I have not been without some suspicions on the
subject, and am certain that, at your time of life, the blame could
not attach to you. You will not _consult_ any one as to your
answer, but write to me immediately. I shall be more ready to hear
what you have to advance, as I do not remember ever to have heard a
word from you before _against_ any human being, which convinces me
you would not maliciously assert an untruth. There is not any one
who can do the least injury to you while you conduct yourself
properly. I shall expect your answer immediately. Yours, &c.

"BYRON."

* * * * *

It was after writing these letters that he came to the knowledge of some
improper levities on the part of the girl, in consequence of which he
dismissed her and another female servant from Newstead; and how strongly
he allowed this discovery to affect his mind, will be seen in a
subsequent letter to Mr. Hodgson.

LETTER 86. TO MR. HODGSON.

"8. St. James's Street, February 16. 1812.

"Dear Hodgson,

"I send you a proof. Last week I was very ill and confined to bed
with stone in the kidney, but I am now quite recovered. If the
stone had got into my heart instead of my kidneys, it would have
been all the better. The women are gone to their relatives, after
many attempts to explain what was already too clear. However, I
have quite recovered _that_ also, and only wonder at my folly in
excepting my own strumpets from the general corruption,--albeit a
two months' weakness is better than ten years. I have one request
to make, which is, never mention a woman again in any letter to me,
or even allude to the existence of the sex. I won't even read a
word of the feminine gender;--it must all be 'propria quae maribus.'

"In the spring of 1813 I shall leave England for ever. Every thing
in my affairs tends to this, and my inclinations and health do not
discourage it. Neither my habits nor constitution are improved by
your customs or your climate. I shall find employment in making
myself a good Oriental scholar. I shall retain a mansion in one of
the fairest islands, and retrace, at intervals, the most
interesting portions of the East. In the mean time, I am adjusting
my concerns, which will (when arranged) leave me with wealth
sufficient even for home, but enough for a principality in Turkey.
At present they are involved, but I hope, by taking some necessary
but unpleasant steps, to clear every thing. Hobhouse is expected
daily in London; we shall be very glad to see him; and, perhaps,
you will come up and 'drink deep ere he depart,' if not, 'Mahomet
must go to the mountain;'--but Cambridge will bring sad
recollections to him, and worse to me, though for very different
reasons. I believe the only human being that ever loved me in truth
and entirely was of, or belonging to, Cambridge, and, in that, no
change can now take place. There is one consolation in death--where
he sets his seal, the impression can neither be melted nor broken,
but endureth for ever.

"Yours always, B."

* * * * *

Among those lesser memorials of his good nature and mindfulness, which,
while they are precious to those who possess them, are not unworthy of
admiration from others, may be reckoned such letters as the following,
to a youth at Eton, recommending another, who was about to be entered at
that school, to his care.

LETTER 87. TO MASTER JOHN COWELL.

"8. St. James's Street, February 12. 1812.

"My dear John,

"You have probably long ago forgotten the writer of these lines,
who would, perhaps, be unable to recognise _yourself_, from the
difference which must naturally have taken place in your stature
and appearance since he saw you last. I have been rambling through
Portugal, Spain, Greece, &c. &c. for some years, and have found so
many changes on my return, that it would be very unfair not to
expect that you should have had your share of alteration and
improvement with the rest. I write to request a favour of you: a
little boy of eleven years, the son of Mr. * *, my particular
friend, is about to become an Etonian, and I should esteem any act
of protection or kindness to him as an obligation to myself; let me
beg of you then to take some little notice of him at first, till he
is able to shift for himself.

"I was happy to hear a very favourable account of you from a
schoolfellow a few weeks ago, and should be glad to learn that your
family are as well as I wish them to be. I presume you are in the
upper school;--as an _Etonian_, you will look down upon a _Harrow_
man; but I never, even in my boyish days, disputed your
superiority, which I once experienced in a cricket match, where I
had the honour of making one of eleven, who were beaten to their
hearts' content by your college in _one innings_.

"Believe me to be, with great truth," &c. &c.

* * * * *

On the 27th of February, a day or two before the appearance of Childe
Harold, he made the first trial of his eloquence in the House of Lords;
and it was on this occasion he had the good fortune to become acquainted
with Lord Holland,--an acquaintance no less honourable than gratifying
to both, as having originated in feelings the most generous, perhaps,
of our nature, a ready forgiveness of injuries, on the one side, and a
frank and unqualified atonement for them, on the other. The subject of
debate was the Nottingham Frame-breaking Bill, and, Lord Byron having
mentioned to Mr. Rogers his intention to take a part in the discussion,
a communication was, by the intervention of that gentleman, opened
between the noble poet and Lord Holland, who, with his usual courtesy,
professed himself ready to afford all the information and advice in his
power. The following letters, however, will best explain their first
advances towards acquaintance.

LETTER 88. TO MR. ROGERS.

"February 4. 1812.

"My dear Sir,

"With my best acknowledgments to Lord Holland, I have to offer my
perfect concurrence in the propriety of the question previously to
be put to ministers. If their answer is in the negative, I shall,
with his Lordship's approbation, give notice of a motion for a
Committee of Enquiry. I would also gladly avail myself of his most
able advice, and any information or documents with which he might
be pleased to intrust me, to bear me out in the statement of facts
it may be necessary to submit to the House.

"From all that fell under my own observation during my Christmas
visit to Newstead, I feel convinced that, if _conciliatory_
measures are not very soon adopted, the most unhappy consequences
may be apprehended. Nightly outrage and daily depredation are
already at their height, and not only the masters of frames, who
are obnoxious on account of their occupation, but persons in no
degree connected with the malecontents or their oppressors, are
liable to insult and pillage.

"I am very much obliged to you for the trouble you have taken on my
account, and beg you to believe me ever your obliged and sincere,"
&c.

* * * * *

LETTER 89. TO LORD HOLLAND.

"8. St. James's Street, February 25. 1812.

"My Lord,

"With my best thanks, I have the honour to return the Notts, letter
to your Lordship. I have read it with attention, but do not think I
shall venture to avail myself of its contents, as my view of the
question differs in some measure from Mr. Coldham's. I hope I do
not wrong him, but _his_ objections to the bill appear to me to be
founded on certain apprehensions that he and his coadjutors might
be mistaken for the '_original advisers_' (to quote him) of the
measure. For my own part, I consider the manufacturers as a much
injured body of men, sacrificed to the views of certain individuals
who have enriched themselves by those practices which have deprived
the frame-workers of employment. For instance;--by the adoption of
a certain kind of frame, one man performs the work of seven--six
are thus thrown out of business. But it is to be observed that the
work thus done is far inferior in quality, hardly marketable at
home, and hurried over with a view to exportation. Surely, my Lord,
however we may rejoice in any improvement in the arts which may be
beneficial to mankind, we must not allow mankind to be sacrificed
to improvements in mechanism. The maintenance and well-doing of the
industrious poor is an object of greater consequence to the
community than the enrichment of a few monopolists by any
improvement in the implements of trade, which deprives the workman
of his bread, and renders the, labourer "unworthy of his hire." My
own motive for opposing the bill is founded on its palpable
injustice, and its certain inefficacy. I have seen the state of
these miserable men, and it is a disgrace to a civilised country.
Their excesses may be condemned, but cannot be subject of wonder.
The effect of the present bill would be to drive them into actual
rebellion. The few words I shall venture to offer on Thursday will
be founded upon these opinions formed from my own observations on
the spot. By previous enquiry, I am convinced these men would have
been restored to employment, and the county to tranquillity. It is,
perhaps, not yet too late, and is surely worth the trial. It can
never be too late to employ force in such circumstances. I believe
your Lordship does not coincide with me entirely on this subject,
and most cheerfully and sincerely shall I submit to your superior
judgment and experience, and take some other line of argument
against the bill, or be silent altogether, should you deem it more
advisable. Condemning, as every one must condemn, the conduct of
these wretches, I believe in the existence of grievances which call
rather for pity than punishment. I have the honour to be, with
great respect, my Lord, your Lordship's

"Most obedient and obliged servant,

"BYRON.

"P.S. I am a little apprehensive that your Lordship will think me
too lenient towards these men, and half a _framebreaker myself_."

* * * * *

It would have been, no doubt, the ambition of Lord Byron to acquire
distinction as well in oratory as in poesy; but Nature seems to set
herself against pluralities in fame. He had prepared himself for this
debate,--as most of the best orators have done, in their first
essays,--not only by composing, but writing down, the whole of his
speech beforehand. The reception he met with was flattering; some of the
noble speakers on his own side complimented him very warmly; and that he
was himself highly pleased with his success, appears from the annexed
account of Mr. Dallas, which gives a lively notion of his boyish elation
on the occasion.

"When he left the great chamber, I went and met him in the passage; he
was glowing with success, and much agitated. I had an umbrella in my
right hand, not expecting that he would put out his hand to me;--in my
haste to take it when offered, I had advanced my left hand--'What!' said
he, 'give your friend your left hand upon such an occasion?' I showed
the cause, and immediately changing the umbrella to the other hand, I
gave him my right hand, which he shook and pressed warmly. He was
greatly elated, and repeated some of the compliments which had been paid
him, and mentioned one or two of the peers who had desired to be
introduced to him. He concluded with saying, that he had, by his speech,
given me the best advertisement for Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."

The speech itself, as given by Mr. Dallas from the noble speaker's own
manuscript, is pointed and vigorous; and the same sort of interest that
is felt in reading the poetry of a Burke, may be gratified, perhaps, by
a few specimens of the oratory of a Byron. In the very opening of his
speech, he thus introduces himself by the melancholy avowal, that in
that assembly of his brother nobles he stood almost a stranger.

"As a person in some degree connected with the suffering county, though
a stranger not only to this House in general, but to almost every
individual whose attention I presume to solicit, I must claim some
portion of your Lordships' indulgence."

The following extracts comprise, I think, the passages of most spirit:--

"When we are told that these men are leagued together, not only for the
destruction of their own comfort, but of their very means of
subsistence, can we forget that it is the bitter policy, the destructive
warfare, of the last eighteen years which has destroyed their comfort,
your comfort, all men's comfort;--that policy which, originating with
'great statesmen now no more,' has survived the dead to become a curse
on the living, unto the third and fourth generation! These men never
destroyed their looms till they were become useless,--worse than
useless; till they were become actual impediments to their exertions in
obtaining their daily bread. Can you then wonder that, in times like
these, when bankruptcy, convicted fraud, and imputed felony, are found
in a station not far beneath that of your Lordships, the lowest, though
once most useful, portion of the people should forget their duty in
their distresses, and become only less guilty than one of their
representatives? But while the exalted offender can find means to baffle
the law, new capital punishments must be devised, new snares of death
must be spread for the wretched mechanic who is famished into guilt.
These men were willing to dig, but the spade was in other hands: they
were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them. Their own
means of subsistence were cut off; all other employments pre-occupied;
and their excesses, however to be deplored or condemned, can hardly be
the subject of surprise.

"I have traversed the seat of war in the Peninsula I have been in some
of the most oppressed provinces of Turkey; but never, under the most
despotic of infidel governments, did I behold such squalid wretchedness
as I have seen since my return, in the very heart of a Christian
country. And what are your remedies? After months of inaction, and
months of action worse than inactivity, at length comes forth the grand
specific, the never-failing nostrum of all state physicians from the
days of Draco to the present time. After feeling the pulse, and shaking
the head over the patient, prescribing the usual course of warm water
and bleeding--the warm water of your mawkish police, and the lancets of
your military--these convulsions must terminate in death, the sure
consummation of the prescriptions of all political Sangrados. Setting
aside the palpable injustice and the certain inefficiency of the bill,
are there not capital punishments sufficient on your statutes? Is there
not blood enough upon your penal code, that more must be poured forth to
ascend to heaven and testify against you? How will you carry this bill
into effect? Can you commit a whole county to their own prisons? Will
you erect a gibbet in every field, and hang up men like scare-crows? or
will you proceed (as you must, to bring this measure into effect,) by
decimation; place the country under martial law; depopulate and lay
waste all around you, and restore Sherwood Forest as an acceptable gift
to the crown in its former condition of a royal chase, and an asylum for
outlaws? Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace?
Will the famished wretch who has braved your bayonets be appalled by
your gibbets? When death is a relief, and the only relief it appears
that you will afford him, will he be dragooned into tranquillity? Will
that which could not be effected by your grenadiers, be accomplished by
your executioners? If you proceed by the forms of law, where is your
evidence? Those who refused to impeach their accomplices, when
transportation only was the punishment, will hardly be tempted to
witness against them when death is the penalty. With all due deference
to the noble lords opposite, I think a little investigation, some
previous enquiry, would induce even them to change their purpose. That
most favourite state measure, so marvellously efficacious in many and
recent instances, _temporising_, would not be without its advantage in
this. When a proposal is made to emancipate or relieve, you hesitate,
you deliberate for years, you temporise and tamper with the minds of
men; but a death-bill must be passed off hand, without a thought of the
consequences."

In reference to his own parliamentary displays, and to this maiden
speech in particular, I find the following remarks in one of his
Journals:--

"Sheridan's liking for me (whether he was not mystifying me, I do not
know, but Lady Caroline Lamb and others told me that he said the same
both before and after he knew me,) was founded upon 'English Bards and
Scotch Reviewers.' He told me that he did not care about poetry, (or
about mine--at least, any but that poem of mine,) but he was sure, from
that and other symptoms, I should make an orator, if I would but take to
speaking, and grow a parliament man. He never ceased harping upon this
to me to the last; and I remember my old tutor, Dr. Drury, had the same
notion when I was a _boy_; but it never was my turn of inclination to
try. I spoke once or twice, as all young peers do, as a kind of
introduction into public life; but dissipation, shyness, haughty and
reserved opinions, together with the short time I lived in England
after my majority (only about five years in all), prevented me from
resuming the experiment. As far as it went, it was not discouraging,
particularly my _first_ speech (I spoke three or four times in all); but
just after it, my poem of Childe Harold was published, and nobody ever
thought about my _prose_ afterwards, nor indeed did I; it became to me a
secondary and neglected object, though I sometimes wonder to myself if I
should have succeeded."

* * * * *

His immediate impressions with respect to the success of his first
speech may be collected from a letter addressed soon after to Mr.
Hodgson.

LETTER 90. TO MR. HODGSON.

"8. St. James's Street, March 5. 1812.

"My dear Hodgson,

"_We_ are not answerable for reports of speeches in the papers;
they are always given incorrectly, and on this occasion more so
than usual, from the debate in the Commons on the same night. The
Morning Post should have said _eighteen years_. However, you will
find the speech, as spoken, in the Parliamentary Register, when it
comes out. Lords Holland and Grenville, particularly the latter,
paid me some high compliments in the course of their speeches, as
you may have seen in the papers, and Lords Eldon and Harrowby
answered me. I have had many marvellous eulogies repeated to me
since, in person and by proxy, from divers persons
_ministerial_--yea, _ministerial!_--as well as oppositionists; of
them I shall only mention Sir F. Burdett. _He_ says it is the best
speech by a _lord_ since the '_Lord_ knows when,' probably from a
fellow-feeling in the sentiments. Lord H. tells me I shall beat
them all if I persevere; and Lord G. remarked that the construction
of some of my periods are very like _Burke's_! And so much for
vanity. I spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest
impudence, abused every thing and every body, and put the Lord
Chancellor very much out of humour; and if I may believe what I
hear, have not lost any character by the experiment. As to my
delivery, loud and fluent enough, perhaps a little theatrical. I
could not recognise myself or any one else in the newspapers.

"My poesy comes out on Saturday. Hobhouse is here; I shall tell him
to write. My stone is gone for the present, but I fear is part of
my habit. We _all_ talk of a visit to Cambridge.

"Yours ever, B."

* * * * *

Of the same date as the above is the following letter to Lord Holland,
accompanying a copy of his new publication, and written in a tone that
cannot fail to give a high idea of his good feeling and candour.

LETTER 91. TO LORD HOLLAND.

"St. James's Street, March 5. 1812.

"My Lord,

"May I request your Lordship to accept a copy of the thing which
accompanies this note? You have already so fully proved the truth
of the first line of Pope's couplet,

"'_Forgiveness to the injured doth belong,_'

that I long for an opportunity to give the lie to the verse that
follows. If I were not perfectly convinced that any thing I may
have formerly uttered in the boyish rashness of my misplaced
resentment had made as little impression as it deserved to make, I
should hardly have the confidence--perhaps your Lordship may give
it a stronger and more appropriate appellation--to send you a
quarto of the same scribbler. But your Lordship, I am sorry to
observe to-day, is troubled with the gout; if my book can produce a
_laugh_ against itself or the author, it will be of some service.
If it can set you to _sleep_, the benefit will be yet greater; and
as some facetious personage observed half a century ago, that
'poetry is a mere drug,' I offer you mine as a humble assistant to
the 'eau medicinale.' I trust you will forgive this and all my
other buffooneries, and believe me to be, with great respect,

"Your Lordship's obliged and

"Sincere servant,

"BYRON."

* * * * *

It was within two days after his speech in the House of Lords that
Childe Harold appeared[44];--and the impression which it produced upon
the public was as instantaneous as it has proved deep and lasting. The
permanence of such success genius alone could secure, but to its instant
and enthusiastic burst, other causes, besides the merit of the work,
concurred.

There are those who trace in the peculiar character of Lord Byron's
genius strong features of relationship to the times in which he lived;
who think that the great events which marked the close of the last
century, by giving a new impulse to men's minds, by habituating them to
the daring and the free, and allowing full vent to "the flash and
outbreak of fiery spirits," had led naturally to the production of such
a poet as Byron; and that he was, in short, as much the child and
representative of the Revolution, in poesy, as another great man of the
age, Napoleon, was in statesmanship and warfare. Without going the full
length of this notion, it will, at least, be conceded, that the free
loose which had been given to all the passions and energies of the human
mind, in the great struggle of that period, together with the constant
spectacle of such astounding vicissitudes as were passing, almost daily,
on the theatre of the world, had created, in all minds, and in every
walk of intellect, a taste for strong excitement, which the stimulants
supplied from ordinary sources were insufficient to gratify;--that a
tame deference to established authorities had fallen into disrepute, no
less in literature than in politics, and that the poet who should
breathe into his songs the fierce and passionate spirit of the age, and
assert, untrammelled and unawed, the high dominion of genius, would be
the most sure of an audience toned in sympathy with his strains.

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