776 



BYRON. 



Olid picturesque manners, ami by the personal interest 

 which he had already excited then-. Whatever inny 

 have been the exact combination t>f motive, in 

 August, 1823, he embarked, accompanied by five or 

 six friends, in a British vessel, which lie had him! 

 for the purpose, and arrived at the commencement of 

 the third campaign. He established himself some 

 time in Cephalonia, and despatched his friends, 

 Messrs Trelawney and Hamilton Brown, with a letter 

 to the Creek t>o\ eminent. The result of their infor- 

 mation induced him to advance 12,000 for the relief 

 of Missolunghi. The dimensions among the Greeks 

 gave him great pain, and involved him in consider- 

 able difficulties. At length he sailed from Argostoli 

 \viih two loniail vessels, and, taking considerable 

 on board, proceeded to Missolunghi, where, 

 iiiter coii-idi nil'le hazard and danger, and the loss of 

 one of liis vessels, he finally arrived, and was re- 

 reivcd with every mark of honour Grecian gratitude 

 amid devise. His influence was immediately salu- 

 tary in the mitigation of the ferocity with which the 

 war was waged on the part of the Greeks; but it 

 was much more difficult to produce union among 

 their leaders. He immediately began to form a bri- 

 gade of Suliotes, 600 of whom were taken into his 

 pay, with a view to an expedition against Lepanto ; 

 but such was the disorderly and unsettled temper of 

 these troops, that he was obliged to postpone it. This 

 unexpected disappointment preyed on his spirits, and, 

 Feb. 15, he was attacked with a severe fit of epilepsy. 

 He had, subsequently, other attacks, but at length 

 Uie violence of the disorder began to yield to the skill 

 of his physician, and he was recommended to remove, 

 for a while, from the flat, marshy, and unhealthy site 

 of Missolunghi, to Zante. This step, with his usual 

 tenacity, he refused to take. " 1 cannot quit Greece 

 (he wrote to a friend) while there is a chance of my 

 being even of supposed utility. There is a stake 

 worth millions such as I am, and while T can stand 

 at all, I must stand by the cause. While I say this, 

 I am aware of the difficulties, dissensions, and defects 

 of the Greeks themselves; but allowance must be 

 made for them by all reasonable people." On the 

 expedition against Lepanto being given up, other 

 projects were proposed with reference both to mili- 

 tary operations and to congresses for uniting Eastern 

 and Western Greece ; but, unhappily, the fatal mo- 

 ment was at hand which was to deprive the Greek 

 cause of its firm and energetic friend. On the 9th of 

 April, Byron, while riding out, got extremely wet ; 

 and, scarcely recovered from the effects of his former 

 disorder, a tever ensued, which, it is thought, might 

 have yielded to copious bleeding in the first instance, 

 but which, owing either to his own objection or the 

 inaccurate opinion of the physician of the nature of 

 the disease, was destined to prove fatal on the even- 

 ing of the 19th of April, 1824. During his illness, 

 some fine traits of humanity and feeling for his at- 

 tendants were exhibited by Byron, and nearly his last 

 words, previous to sinking into the lethargy which 

 ended in death, were, " My wife, my child, my sister ! 

 you know all you must say all." His utterance 

 then failed him, as it had previously done in referring 

 to the same near connexions. 



Thus, in his 37th year, prematurely died this ex- 

 traordinary genius, to the deep affliction of the peo- 

 ple whose cause he had espoused, who decreed every 

 possible public testimony of their sorrow. Nor was 

 his death a subject of less regret to many, who look- 

 ed for a noble recompense, in the maturity of his 

 life, for the faults of it? commencement and preced- 

 ing progress. Many of his errors were evidently the 

 result of a too early release from all discipline and 

 control, and the neglect which family circumstances 

 had thrown round Him. In other respects, the vices 



and failings of Byron, undeniable, it is true, were 

 much magnified by the peculiarity of his penius and 

 character, which attracted an intensity of observation 

 to all which concerned him. The disposition of the 

 public at once to admire and condemn, accompanied 

 as it was with an involuntary tendency to confound 

 the character of the poet with some of the most ro- 

 mantic creations of his imagination, however it might 

 annoy him in the first instance, in the sequel too ob- 

 viously nurtured a degree of personal vanity, which 

 formed one of the greatest weaknesses of his charac- 

 ter. Common-place censure produces little effect 

 when coupled with great admiration, ^uul still less i-, 

 effected by the virulence of party attack, or by direct 

 personal hostility. The morals of Byron, on the 

 score of gallantry, his carelessness of female reputa- 

 tion, and hasty and vindictive spirit of resentment, 

 are altogether indefensible; but it is certain that they 

 were mixed up with great humanity, benevolence, 

 and generosity. It was evident, too, from his death, 

 and many other circumstances, that, whatever his 

 pride and resentment at being so decisively abandon- 

 ed, he nurtured the natural feelings of a husband and 

 father deep in his bosom. In respect to several dis- 

 puted points of his conduct, the Memoirs, by himself 

 (which he gave to Mr Moore to raise a loan from Mr 

 Murray, the bookseller, and which that gentleman, 

 at the instance of his family, thought proper to de- 

 stroy), would, doubtless, have given much informa- 

 tion to the world. As it is, certain journals of visit- 

 ors, and of temporary companions, professing to record 

 his conversation, but poorly supply their place. The 

 body of Byron was brought to England, and lay in 

 state in London. It was subsequently interred near 

 his own seat of Newstead abbey, where a plain mar- 

 ble slab merely records his name and title, date of 

 death, and age. Besides his only legitimate child 

 and heiress, Byron left another daughter in Italy, to 

 whom he bequeathed 5000, on the condition of her 

 not marrying an Englishman. The successor to his 

 estate and title was his cousin, captain George Anson 

 Byron, of the royal navy. 



BYRON, John, an English commodore, was born in 

 the year 1723, and embarked, at the age of 17, in 

 one of the ships of lord Anson, which was fitted out 

 for a voyage round the world, but was wrecked on 

 the coast of the Pacific, north of the straits of Magel- 

 lan. Byron, with some of his unfortunate compan- 

 ions, was conducted, by the Indians, to Chili, and re- 

 mained there till 1744, when he embarked on board 

 a ship of St Malo, and, in 1745, returned to Europe. 

 At a subsequent period, he published a " Narrative " 

 of his adventures, which is extremely interesting. In 

 1758, he commanded three ships of the line, and dis- 

 tinguished himself in the war against France. George 

 III., who wished to explore the ~part of the Atlantic 

 ocean between the cape of Good Hope and the south- 

 ern part of America, gave B. the command of a fri- 

 gate, with which he set sail, June, 1764, having un- 

 der his order the frigate Tamar. Both ships touched 

 at Madeira and the Cape Verd islands, and proceeded 

 thence to the Rio Janeiro, opposite the city of that 

 name. B. then sailed to the southern part of the 

 Atlantic ocean, and, after having searched in vain 

 for Pepys' islands, he visited the Falkland islands, 

 and, passing through the straits of Magellan, con- 

 tinued his voyage in the South sea. Here he fell 

 in with Bougainville, who was engaged in found- 

 ing a colony in the Falkland islands. B. directed 

 his course northward to the island of Massa- 

 fuero; then, sailing westward, he passed the Dan- 

 gerous Archipelago, lying en the east of the Society 

 islands, and discovered the isles of Disappointment 

 and King George's islands. Thence he directed his 

 course north west, and discovered the islands called 



