1828.] Notes for the Month. 287: 



over, of dispute and difference of opinion; less as to the pleasantry 

 and amusingness of the work (which is generally admitted) than as to the 

 truth and effect of certain matters which it contains. Our own impres- 

 sion is, that it requires very little conjuration, to perceive clearly the 

 spirit in which Mr. Hunt's book is written which is the most impor- 

 tant circumstance to consider in forming an opinion of it : and not a great 

 deal more of metaphysics to discover, that the mere relative positions of 

 Mr. Hunt and Lord Byron, while they were in Italy, must inevitably 

 have led to quarrel and enmity, if the parties had both been the most 

 virtuous people in the world. 



In the year 1815 just to illustrate this view Mr. Hunt being then 

 the Editor of the Examiner Newspaper, and in prison for a libel upon 

 the king, of rather an offensive nature, Lord Byron visited him, and 

 paid him some attention. It occurred to the parties suddenly pro- 

 bably because they were both poets to " swear an eternal friendship :" 

 an arrangement not very wise on the side of Mr. Hunt ; who, if he 

 disdained the homely apologue of " the two pots that floated on the 

 stream,"* might have recollected the more elegantly conveyed counsel 

 of Selden " To have nothing to do, in business or pleasure, with men 

 much stronger and more powerful than yourself." The intimacy, how- 

 ever, grew rapidly familiar j and Mr. Hunt, who had been quizzing 

 and railing at " lords" all his life, thought, that, on the sudden by way 

 of return the whole peerage had voted that he should be considered a 

 " lord" himself. He took Lord Byron's opinion upon his MS. works : 

 and Lord Byron shewed him Lady Byron's MS. letters : two measures 

 of confidence perfectly well calculated to bring about an immortal 

 hatred between brothers within a month. In due season, Mr. Hunt 

 dedicated his poem of Rimini to " my dear Byron !" on which dedication, 

 it has been said, that Lord Byron made a very illiberal remark. How- 

 ever this may have been, the " my dear Byron," we rather suspect, over- 

 shot the mark of his Lordship's companionability ; for, from that time, 

 the ardour of the friendship seems rather to have declined, t 



Shortly after this event, Lord Byron went abroad ; ceasing altogether 

 to think of Mr. Hunt; but not ceasing the devil is in the notice of 

 these great men ! to be thought of by him. And the careers of the 

 two acquaintances, as regarded their personal fortune as well as literary 



* Le pot de fer, et le pot de terrain. "A certain river," says the fabulist, "over- 

 flowing its banks, swept away the furniture of several cottages, and, among other move- 

 ables, two pots : one of earth, and the other of iron. The wind blew, and the waves were 

 high, and the pots, which were near one another, were in danger of filling and being 

 swamped. On which the iron vessel, which had the stouter heart of the two, called out to 

 the other, i Courage, comrade ! and fear nothing ; for if any evil happens I will assist 

 you.' ' I return you many thanks,' replied the earthen pot ; 'but if you wish to do me 

 service, pray keep as far off as possible : for if any chance gust should drive us together, / 

 must infallibly be dashed to pieces.' " 



f When Mr. Hunt published Rimini, he dedicated it (as every body knows) to Lord 

 Byron, in a familiar letter, beginning "My dear Byron," &c. Lord Byron (thus says the 

 story) on receiving a copy of the work, wrote against the head of the dedication " Impu- 

 dent varlet !" and either left the book carelessly about, or gave it away. The volume 

 is said to have lately made its appearance : whence the hostility shewn to Lord Byron 

 in the book before us. If this be true, it is a fact that does not tell at all against Mr. 

 Hunt. His dedication was a very silly one, but equally so, whether it be true or not. 

 The act would rather go to indicate a want of candour and good feeling on the part of 

 Lord Byron, who ought not to have treated with contumely a man of talent, with whom 

 he was upon terms at least approaching to familiar acquaintance. 



