212 
is no partizan of Lord Byron’s, either 
in politics or in morals, Let us see, 
however, what, in reference to the lat- 
ter, the candour of criticism has to offer 
in extenuation, 
“It seems to me,” says our author (p. 
290), “that Lord Byron’s personal charac- 
ter has been frightfully misrepresented and 
misunderstood. There is, in the world, 
very generally prevalent, a strange perver- 
sion of mind and heart, which forgives to 
young men who have no redeeming virtues 
or talents, that, as the venial folly of early 
life, which is branded with infamy in him 
who has genius and a thousand brilliant 
qualities of heart, and a thousand brilliant 
actions, which ought to efface even great 
irregularities and faults.”—‘‘ Lord Byron 
has been tried by rules not applied to 
others,—not applicable to the qualities of 
our frail being; and, what is worse still, 
very often upon assunied and invenicd 
facts !”’ 
Our liberal critic, after admitting the 
probability, “that Lord Byron had in- 
herent in him, not only an excess of 
pride, but a good deal of vanity ;” in 
other words, “that there was implanted 
in him a strong Jove of distinction,’ — 
then proceeds to notice several unto- 
ward circumstances, which tended to 
give bitterness to these feelings, and 
superinduce that species of misanthropic 
irascibility, and defiance of public opi- 
nion, conspicuous in his works and con- 
duct. Among these, his oppression and 
disappointment at Harrow are not for- 
gotten; nor does Sir E. Brydges sup- 
press his opinion,—that “there is no- 
thing more illiberal than a great school, 
on the subject of fortune, manners and 
connexions ;” in neither of which, not- 
withstanding the rank and antiquity of 
his family, was Lord Byron protectively 
circumstanced. Sir Egerton considers, 
however, the Hours of Idleness as in- 
dicating an effort of “ the noble flame 
of a cultivated, amiable, and splendid 
mind,” for the development of more 
congenial dispositions; and he “ thinks 
it no exaggeration to say, that much of 
the colour of the eccentric part of Lord 
Byron’s future life is to be attributed 
to that article” in the Edinburgh Re- 
view, in which that “ effort of a grand 
spirit emerging from a cloud,” was 
turned into the most offensive mockery 
and contempt.” 
That it had something to do in the 
production of such effect, it is impossible 
rationally to doubt: for it compelled 
the poet, if he would not stoop beneath 
if, to make the first vigorous. effort of’ 
his incipient power in that bitterness 
Philosophy of Contemporary Critteism—No. XLIII. 
[ ApriPt, 
and. fierceness of spirit, which was the 
only alternative to the lethargy of de- 
spair. It was with the scorpion-lash of 
satire alone that he was permitted to 
demonstrate, that he was not the abject 
thing which the knot of conspirators, 
who had seized the throne and falsified 
the oracles of criticism, had pronoun- 
ced; and certainly, if there be any cir- 
cumstance, or combination of circum- 
stances, that can palliate or excuse the 
perverted feelings, or misanthropic tur- 
bulence, which is sometimes the vice of 
superior minds, it is when such a mind 
is compelled, by persecution and. pro- 
scription, to appeal to the fierce and 
angry passions, as the only energies of 
sufficient force to maintam its indepen- 
dence, or repel an overwhelming injus- 
tice. With provocations to the exertion 
of these fiercer energies, the juvenile 
years of Lord Byron were sufficiently 
visited. Isolated in his early education, 
with a fortune and connexions much 
below his rank, and the stirring con- 
sciousness of an incipient talent, to 
which all rank and fortune ought to be 
regarded as inferior distinctions, he grew 
up, even in the inhospitality of public 
seminaries, an isolated being ; and when 
(prematurely, we confess) he attempted 
to emerge into intellectual distinction, 
and send his spirit socially abroad, he 
found himself encountered on the very 
threshold of literary effort by a dog- 
matical and illiberal confederacy, with 
whom a sneer was criticism, and un- 
blushing falsehood was oracular adjudi-~ 
cation; but whose very presumption 
had given them an influence over public 
opinion, which they basely exerted for 
the invidious purpose of his intellectual 
extinction, 
We are speaking somewhat strongly, 
we perceive, upon the subject, and may 
be accused, perhaps, of warmth ; but 
the interests of literature demand that 
we so should speak. Of the trammels 
and oppressions of the English press, 
the most grievous and intolerable, after 
all, are those which are imposed by the 
self-constituted federations that tyrannize 
in the press itself. It is by the conduct 
of those who should most protect its 
freedom, that its freedom is most vio- 
lated and abridged, Joint-stock mo- 
nopoly is the very spirit of their code; 
and associated reporters, and associated 
reviewers, with their organized par- 
tialities and sympathetic enmities, extol 
or proscribe, as faction, venality, or ca- 
price may dictate, or the interest, per- 
haps, of a club of publishers,—and shut 
up 
