1828. J Notes for t/te Month. 289 



with the very material (though amiable) incumbrances of a wife and 

 six children ! 



Now such a conjunction as this, even between the two persons of all 

 the earth most suited to agree with each other, must have been unhappy. 

 Co-habitation never succeeds even where individuals are upon a footing 

 of real equality. Every man feels such a virtuous indignation against 

 the vices or follies even of his nearest friends, that the very moment 

 two people know one another perfectly except in the single case of 

 man and wife (where the law interferes to prevent it) the acquaint- 

 ance always ceases. In a case like that of Mr. Hunt and Lord Byron, 

 the disgust must have been immediate. 'In fact, it was so : Mr. Hunt 

 himself shews that it was so. But, unfortunately, the very course which 

 he adopts when he discovers this dilemma, is even more mad or injudicious 

 than the miscalculation which had brought him into it. 



As soon as a man of ordinary tact, perceived that Lord Byron felt 

 the advantage of his position : that he counted ' ' money" as " money," 

 " rank" for " rank/' and superiority as a thing worth having : as soon 

 as Lord Byron exhibited those dispositions to excess without some 

 previous provocation which in Mr. Hunt's case it is not quite made out 

 that he did do a reasonable man ought to have perceived that there 

 could be no choice, for him, but in submission, or separation. In- 

 stead of which, directly he finds that he is in a place where he ought 

 not to be, our author proceeds bound absolutely hand and foot and 

 helpless and incapable to increase the difficulty of his position by assump- 

 tion and offence in it! In truth it is difficult to catch from Mr. 

 Hunt's own story the exact dates of particular occurrences which 

 nevertheless are highly material : but nothing is more certain than that 

 Mr. Hunt's mode of entertaining Lord Byron in his own house, might 

 have very well induced a more patient man to wish him out of it. 



Mr. Hunt, for instance, it appears, was no sooner located, so that he 

 had hold of Lord Byron at all occasions, than he found it an extremely 

 convenient opportunity to moot a great variety of abstract questions with 

 him. And among these was the somewhat delicate one considering 

 the comparative rank and education of the two parties of his lordship's 

 personal gentility ! Adverting to their differences on that point, he 

 tells the reader deliberately" I have reason to think that the opinions 

 / entertained of breeding and refinement, puzzled him extremely !" &c. 



And, in other places, discussing the elements of the same subject, 

 he adds " He" (Byron) " was not a good judge" " His notion of 

 what was gentlemanly in appearance was a purely conventional one, 

 and could include nothing higher." 



In another place we find, that " He" (still Byron) " had no address, 

 even in the ordinary sense of the w r ord ; and hummed, and hawed, and 

 looked confused on very trivial occasions!" The whole of which might 

 be true (although we don't at all admit that it was true) : but, true or 

 otherwise, in Mr. Hunt's situation, he certainly shewed no wisdom in 

 dwelling upon it. 



On another occasion, it appears that Byron's mental weaknesses, as 

 well as his bodily carriage, it was his excellent friend's care from time 

 to time to correct and improve. He affected sometimes to imitate the 

 tone of Dr. Johnson ; and used to like to say ," Why, Sir !" in a high 

 and mouthing way, looking about him. On which, catching a happy 



M.M. New Series* VOL. V. No. 27- 2 P 



