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there should be no niche assigned to him in Poet's Corner. I have often thought of erecting a monument to him at my own expense in Westminster Abbey, and hope yet to do so. But he was a Catholic, and, what was worse, puzzled Tillotson and the divines. That accounts for his not having any national monument. Milton, too, had been very nearly without a stone, and the mention of his name on the tomb of another was at one time considered a profanation to a church. The French, I am told, lock up Voltaire's tomb. Will there never be an end to this bigotry ?"

Byron, probably, had a presentiment that he himself should furnish another example of this intolerant bigotry, in having his remains excluded from the repository of departed orthodox poets; although there is scarcely a better poet, and many a worse man to be found among the collection. But the time will-must come, when mankind will be convinced that they have a real interest in investigating the truth; and when the inquiry will be encouraged, instead of being stifled by penal statutes, fines and incarcerations. Truth needs no such props; it can stand alone. A free and enlightened government will rather carry conviction to the minds than use coercion over the bodies of the people. There is pleasure in the one; in the other there may be danger.

In matters of religion Byron was exemplary; he paid respect to the public worship of whatever

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country he visited; and the respect which he shewed to others, was returned to himself. It was this conduct that made him beloved by the Roman Catholics in Spain, Portugal, Italy; by the Greek Christians in Greece, and by the Mahomedans in Turkey; in short, by every one and every where but by the intolerant bigots in his own native country!

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CHAPTER XII.

Continuation of Extracts from various Letters of Lord Byron, explanatory of certain parts of his conduct, and illustrative of his Opinions.-His aristocratic spirit derived from his Scotch Education.-His superstitious belief attributable to the same source. His daughter, Ada.-Dr. Polidori's Death. -True Account of the publication of "The Vampyre."Byron's economical Freak.-The feminine Aristocracy.-All pretty Women belong to Nature's Noblesse.-Anecdotes of Madame de Staël and the Ex-Queen of Sweden.-Byron's Amours. The Guiccioli, and account of her Portrait, given as an embellishment to 3rd vol.-Byron's Opinions respecting Women. His paradoxical Conduct.-Description of his Person and Mode of Life. His Portrait by Phillips, and another in his Albanian Costume.-Hints to his daughter Ada.-Respectful attention of the Greeks to Byron's Memory. His cynical Disposition caused by the neglect or ingratitude of others.-The Earl of Carlisle.-Mr. Southey. -Mr. Dallas.-The present Lord Byron.-Reflexions on the whole.

BEING taxed by a lady with having a leaven of aristocratic pride in his composition, he writes to her in answer:-"It is also very true that I am, as you say, aristocratical, and, perhaps, bigoted lyso on the whole; but the cause is, partly, that I am half a Scotchman,-and you are aware that the clannish and family spirit makes a part of their

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education; at least, it did of mine. But I have always found that the feminine aristocracy did not depend upon birth and rank, but rather on the age and appearance of the peeress, as all pretty women belong to Nature's Noblesse."

Byron, naturally enough, attributes his hereditary pride to his early bringing up in Scotland, where it is (or rather lately was) in luxuriant growth. Every duty, moral and political, was among the Highlanders, absorbed in affection and adherence to the chief. "Not many years have elapsed (says Dr. Johnson) since the clans knew no law but the laird's will; he told them to whom they should be friends or enemies, what kings they should obey, and even what religion they should profess." It is certain that the Highlanders esteemed it a most sublime degree of virtue to love and adhere to their chief; and, next to his love, is that towards the particular branch from which they sprang; and, in a third degree, towards the whole clan or name, whose cause is at all times espoused against those with whom they are at variance. The castle of the Scottish chieftain was a kind of hospitable and open court, in which every individual of his tribe or clan was ever welcome, and where he was sure to be entertained according to his station in time of peace, and the rendezvous to which all flocked at the sound of war. Thus the meanest individual of the clan, conscious that his birth was as noble

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as the head of it, respected, in his chieftain, the spirit of his own honour; loved, in every member of his clan, a portion of his own blood,-felt not the difference of station to which Providence had decreed him, but respected himself as a part of a noble and powerful body. The chieftain, in return for this willing homage and strict union of interests, bestowed an unbounded protection, founded equally on gratitude for important services, and the consciousness that it all resulted to his own interest and stability of power. This explanation may lead to an insight into many points in the character of Lord Byron, which might not be otherwise well understood. Born an aristocrat, he confessed himself to be naturally one in temper. Many parts of his "Hours of Idleness," particularly his "Farewell to Newstead Abbey," evince the early pride he took in the glory of his ancestors. He used to relate, with indignant feelings, that the commander of a British sloop of war made the captain of his yacht haul down his pennant. They might have respected the name of the great navigator (said he). In a time of peace, and in a free port, there could have been no plea for such an insult. I wrote to the captain of the vessel rather sharply, and was glad to find that his first lieutenant had acted without his orders, and whilst he was on shore; but, as they had been issued, they could not be countermanded." From his earliest in

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