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Tomahawk (1867-1870), 18th September 1869, Edition 1 of 1, Page unpag, [ THE TOMAHAWK. A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SA...

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    • THE BYRON SCANDAL.
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      [ The Tomahawk. A Saturday Journal Of Sa...

      [ THE TOMAHAWK . A SATURDAY JOURNAL OF SATIRE . 0 ¦ < 3 Ei > itet ) bv & rtf ) UT h'l & zckett . o "INVITAT CULPAM QUI PECCATUM PRETERIT . " i

      ! No. 124.] London, September 18, 1869. ...

      ! No . 124 . ] LONDON , SEPTEMBER 18 , 1869 . [ Price Twopence .

      The Byron Scandal.

      THE BYRON SCANDAL .

      It Is Difficult To Believe, Even Of Byro...

      It is difficult to believe , even of Byron , the mad debauchee of whom we catch a glimpse at Venice in the memoirs of the friends or companions of his after-life , that he could be guilty of such deliberate and fiendish villany ' as Mrs . Beecher Stowe imputes to him . But if the accusation is true , surely it should have been boldly advanced in his lifetime and in the lifetime of the so-called " partner of his guilt , " or it should not have been made at all . If this terrible crime was revealed to Lady Byron in the carriage on the wedding day , as Mrs . Stowe says , and if Lady Byron ' s charity and long-suffering patience were sufficient to sustain her after such a revelation in the endurance of cohabitation with her husband , and of the terrible disgrace of bearing a daughter to such a monster , surely no person who , on whatever slight grounds , calls herself the friend and confidante of Lady Byron , can , with any semblance of truth , pretend that she is vindicating the character of her departed friend by publishing this revelation years after the deaths of all the principal persons concerned . We can imagine nothing more cruel to Lady Byron , we can conceive no more deadly injury to her , than the course which her friend , Mrs . Beecher Stowe , has thought fit to take . If Lady Byron ' s chastity , if her fidelity to her marriage vows , had been called in question , if she had suffered under the filthy imputations so freely brought , without a tittle of evidence , against her husband in his lifetime—then the heroic vindication of her character might have been necessary , . But the very last person who , in body or in spirit , can be gratified by this ecstatic and sensational tribute to her virtue which Mrs . Stowe offers , is the wife who , to the last , through years of separation , embittered by the imprudent enthusiasm of friends and the malignant malice of enemies , still loved her impulsive , violent , dissolute husband j who , in spite of the loathsome degradation into which he had sunk , according to Mrs . Beecher Stowe , still confessed that there was somewhat of the angel in him . If there is any certain fact to be evolved from the inspired rhapsody of the guardian spirit of Lady Byron ' s reputation , it is that to the end , through all provocation , through all insults , through all outragesthe forlorn wife loved her unfaithful husband . In , proportion as this increases our reverenceour lovefor the memory of Lady Byron , in proportion as it , adds to the , bitter sorrow with which we deplore the viciousness of Lord Byron's life , are we infuriated against this lady authoress , who , in order to snatch from the pollution of the grave of the suffer-. ing loving wife , and the suffering erring poet , some ray of

      that glory and that fame which must ever cling to them , with which to decorate her literary reputation , thus mercilessly drags into light the wicked scandal of years gone by , and revivifies the buried monster of crime past , and , let us hope , repented and atoned . We fearlessly challenge that reckless malignancy which , biting its lips over such a congenial morsel of scandal as this , imputes to all who will not join in its rabid assumptions of virtuous indignation , the crimes that it gloats over while it deplores . We are content to be classed by such creatures with the irreclaimable votaries of vice , because we have protested against the beastly curiosity which lays bare the repulsive secrets of the lives of those who were great in spite of their moral blemishes . Even if the next week produces indisputable proof of the truth of Mrs . Beecher Stowe ' s Great Revelation , we shall be proud to have protested against the publication of it . If we are to add to the acknowledged vices of that fitfully noble poet the indelible stain of incest , the time has gone by for the expression of any more vindictive feeling than heartfelt pity . It is easy to exalt our own virtue by denouncing the vices of dead men , —vices which have happily lost all power for evil , all power of injury , except for the unhappy author of them , if even for him . We shall be the last to falter in the fearless execration of all evil , whether in the dead or living , which is illumined by the halo of success , or which is held up in the disguise of good by facile parasites to the admiration of the world . But even as no sense of our own demerits can cause us to falter in the advocacy of right , or in the impeachment of wrong , so can no false and hypocritical assumption of the lives of virtue ' s servants delude us into the sin of worshipping what is really the corrupted curiosity of degraded minds . We would respect the sanctity of the grave , even if it conceals the bones of the most vicious , so long as we are not called to worship the mock image of a saint set over them . If the growing apathy of mankind , if the revolting insincerity of public morality , robs us of the glorious privilege of being gentle and indulgent to the sins of the present , at least we may hide our heads under the silverlined cloud of mercy that protects the dead from our weapons . If there is any occasion when man may , without presumption , ape the graced toleration of a god , it is when life no longer gives to the sinner the power of doing evil . In words more vehement than it may seem fit to the well-disciplined writers of the present day we have pleaded for reticence , if not for truth and justice , towards the dead Lord Byron ; we know that we plead in vain j and that if the fierce rebellious spirit that for comparatively so

  • Citation
    • Tomahawk (1867-1870), Sept. 18, 1869, page unpag, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/t/issues/ttw_18091869/page/1/