The death of Lord BYRON, ...
The death of Lord BYRON, whatever may liave been the 'failts of the man, crcated an almost unprecetdented ex- pression of sorrow and regret in the public mind, both here and abroad. People of all parties, in religion and politics, participated in the feeling. WVe were, perhaps, as slightly affected by the contagious sorrow as any, being no great adnmirers of his eccentricities; and we were tlherefore but the bettcr qualifiecl to observe the intensity and generality of the sentinint in the rest of the world. WVe remarked farther also, that at the period when the interest respecting his LordLship was at its height, people would incessantly turn their thoughts towards his literary enemy, and ex- claim " Now grating this must be to SOUTIIEY ! His death, he must be but too sensible, would occasion no such pub- " lic emotion ! Is his hatred extinguishedl with the life of "him who was the ebject of it? or does it survive the grave? AVc hrar nothing of SourHEY now ! He is silent ! Is "he afraid to let his barking be heard amidst the softer "accents of sorrow ? or dloes he really grieve for one to "whom he may have given some needloss pain, an)d whom "he could not reform?" Mlr. SoUTrHr.Y answers these questious himself, by a letter which we have extracted from an evening paper, bearing his own signature. He waits- we should say dexterously waits-till the public grief lias in somc degree expended itself; and then rushes on the me- mory of his hated antagoniist, with a fury unrestrained by the sense of decency, and uncontrolled by the dread of chastisement. Mr. SOUTHaY has had, he says, " transmitted to him by " a friend, some extracts fromr Medwin's Conversations of "Lord B,,row," an(d in these be has found a false state- mnent against himielf, the nature of whicil will be best .seen by MIr. SouTH EY's letter. We are far from defending :ither the general morals of Lard By Ros, or advocating his particular claim to veracity. Neither can we believe Mr. SouvHEaV. when he says that he was totally indifferent to bis Lordshiip's praise or ccnsure: for if he had not actually been stung to marlness by the latter, could he, vrjen writhig of one but recently snatched away by a premature death, have composed a sentence so brutally coase as the following ?--" Here I dismiss the subject: it irnght have been thought that Lord BYRoN liad obtained "the last degree of disgrace when his head was set up for 'a sign at one of those preparatory schools for the brothel "and the gallows, where obscenity, sedition, and blasphe- " my, are retailed in drams to the vulgar." Is this the lan- gaage of a rational or a decent man ? 'Surely the author, however now iniflamed by hatred, or raving with walignant jcalousy, must,-if he shall ever hereafter come to have one calm moment, when the namne or person of BYRON crosses his nmind,-must, we say, blush that he has so written Tespecting him. _ _-