THE FACT. Capt. Medwin, according to his own statement, never saw Lord Byron, for he arrived at Pisa on the 18th of August, and left it on the 28th of that month; and when Mr. Hobhouse arrived at Pisa, Captain Medwin was gone. It will be in vain to say that there has been a slip of the pen or the press, and that for the 28th of August, should be read the 28th of September, for Lord Byron quitted Pisa on the 22d or 23d of that month, the day after Mr. Hobhouse. So that the whole of this conversation must be a pure fiction, and must have been invented for the sake of making it appear that Lord Byron was in the habit of talking confidentially with Mr. Medwin respecting his private friendships. Descending from the author to the editor, and from the editor to the publisher of this volume, we feel inclined to remonstrate with the latter respectable personage for not contriving to make , a book (an art in which he ought to be an adept) without taking an entire article from the third number of our Review, equivalent in length to one-fourth of the whole Conversations. A little more invention on the part of the Conversation-seller, and a little more liberality on that of the Conversation buyer, would have rendered such an expedient unnecessary; and as we like to choose our own company, we really must protest against being forced to hunt in couples with Mr. Colburn's authors. We trust that this is the last time we shall have to complain of such a disagreeable con nexion. In concluding our comments on the pseudo-biographers of Lord Byron, we must confess that we have been obliged to adopt a mode and style of criticism extremely uncongenial to our inclinations, as well as foreign to the purpose of that species of publication which we have undertaken to conduct. It is our business to review the works and public conduct of our contemporaries, not to enter into investigations which require a reference to their domestic history. But when an author garbles a series of letters, or becomes in any way an inventor, rather than a narrator, of biography, he is to be dealt with rather as an informer than as a writer. This can be done only by the production of such documents as he may have suppressed, or by the citation of such facts as ought to be contrasted with his fictions. There is no other corrective for spurious biography, and if those who can, and who alone can, destroy the credibility of that pernicious species of imposture, refrain from so necessary an exposure, the character of celebrated men, as well as the happiness of their associates, will henceforth be at the mercy of any pretended historian of their private life; and the justice of the living will no longer extend its protection to the memory of the dead. Just as we write the concluding line of this article, appears Mr. Southey's furious epistle, which we are sorry for-because it so happens that we have been in the habit of thinking the laureate not utterly destitute of all the qualities which are requisite for civil and social life. But what excuse can we make for this letter? We have before said, that nothing can be more unpardonable than the taking Medwin's Conversations for authentic, merely for the sake of founding on them a charge against Lord Byron; with this feeling (in which we are sure every impartial man in the kingdom will sympathize with us) we need not say what we think of Mr. Southey's conduct on this occasion. That Mr. Southey might fairly refute assertions put into the mouth of Lord Byron we do not deny; but that he should make that denial the pretext for a formal and most unmeasured invective against his deceased antagonist, was not to be expected, except from a person, in whose. breast the jealousy of a rival, and the rancour of a renegade, had silenced every humane and generous feeling. We did not suspect that, in spirit, Mr. Southey would ever show himself of the hare species, "Whose valour plucks dead lions by the beard;" and with this specimen of posthumous animosity, we will contrast the conduct and sentiments of Lord Byron himself, as displayed in a circumstance with which we are personally acquainted. When Lord Byron transmitted his first manuscript of Don Juan to England, it was found that it opened with a long dedication in XII stanzas, to BOB SOUTHEY, in which the laureate was handled with no little severity. His lordship's correspondent recommended the omission of the dedication, upon grounds which his lordship did not perhaps think were tenable; but he did consent to leave out the stanzas, when he altered his mind as to putting his name to the poem, and he wrote the following direction opposite to the lines to be erased: - "As the poem is to be published anonymously, OMIT the dedication. I wont attack the dog in the dark; such things are for scoundrels and renegadoes like himself.” Lord Byron thought himself deeply injured by Mr. Southey, and he had otherwise an antipathy for the laureate, which he took no pains to conceal; but he still thought, it seems, that all modes of attack were not allowable even against this object of his aversion. In this particular Mr. Southey has certainly shown himself much less scrupulous than his lordship, and, unless we think much better of the laureate than he deserves, the time will come when he will be heartily ashamed of this pitiful insult over the ashes of the illustrious dead. SELECTED FOR THE MUSEUM. VESPER OF PETRARCH. "I bless the happy moment, says Petrarch, that directed my heart to Laura. She led me to see the path of virtue, to detach my heart from base and grovelling objects: from her I am inspired with that celestial flame which raises my soul to Heaven, and directs it to the Supreme Cause, as the only source of happines." Mrs. Dobson's Life of Petrarch, vol. i. p. 37. To sigh for hours at Beauty's feet, And brighter eyes, and then forsake, To seek one form in early youth, To court no gaze, no vow beside, To hold through life an holy truth, Which firmest proves when deepest tried, And like the diamond's sparkling light Yet shines more cheering and more bright This faith descends from realms above, This, this is Woman's changeless love!-M. A. SELECTED FOR THE MUSEUM. LE MOIS BUBBLOSE; OR THE A. S. S. COMPANY. If we named the several divisions of the year after the French revolutionary fashion, by the phænomena observable in them, we should, from our experience of January, 1825, call it Bubblose. It has been a month of most flagitious and flourishing knavery. The definition of a bubble we take to be an undertaking which is blown up into an appearance of splendour and solidity, without any probability of permanence; and the name, we take it, is derived from the specious products of puffing and soapy water, with which most of the ingenuous youth of this realm have been long familiar. Our readers, who, like all other persons' readers, are eminently enlightened, know, no doubt, how to blow a real and innocent bubble with a tobacco-pipe; but the formation of the metaphorical but more mischievous bubbles which have been of late floating up and down the kingdom is not generally so well known, but merits quite as well to be so. Mr. Jeremiah Hop-the-twig, attorney at law, perceives a great probability of advantage to the public, from a more safe and easy communication with the moon, and from the introduction and general use of the pig's wool with which it is well known that satellite abounds. The benevolent mind of Mr. Hop-the-twig immediately conceives the idea of directing the "surplus capital" in which in these days of wonderful prosperity this country abounds, to the formation of a Joint Stock Company for the outfit of air balloons, the purchase of herds of swine, and the other requisites for a flourishing lunar commerce. Mr. Hop-the-twig, therefore, seated on his joint-stool, forms the Aronautical, Swine-shearing Lunarian Joint Stock Commercial and Agricultural Company-Capital, One Million, divided into 10,000 shares of £100 each. Nothing now is wanted but directors, and subscribers' money, and an Act of Parliament. Mr. Hop-the-twig, the Company ad interim, opens an account with a respectable banking-house, in the name of the Lunarian A. S.S. Company, which the respectable bankers have no scruple in doing, as the "opening an account" signifies nothing more than receiving the benefit which is to be derived from the use of money paid into their hands. Mr. Hop-the-twig, or the Company, now applies to a number of respectable merchants, gentlemen, and Members of Parliament, to accept the offices of directors in the Lunarian A. S. S. Company, which promises (a good word) the highest advantages to the subscribers and the country. These respectable men are informed by Mr. Hop-the-twig that by so doing they incur no sort of responsi bility, and have a very fair prospect of respectable gain. If "the Lunarian" come out at a premium, as from the respectability of the parties there is every reason to hope it will; the directors, having the distribution of the shares, will have all the advantages to be derived from the premium. If they come out at a discount they need not be burdened with them. On these terms a respectable direction is soon formed. It now becomes high time to form an establishment. Mr. Jeremiah H. and Co. are, by the very constitution of the A. S. S. Company, its Standing Solicitors. Mr. Hop-the-twig's son-in-law is Secretary; and some of the respectable directors taste the sweets of patronage in the appointment of clerkships, purveyorships of long-haired swine, balloon builder-ships, &c. &c. In a word, the establishment is suited to the prospects of the Company; id est, to the prospect of money enough being got to pay the officers, after discharging the first claim in law and gratitude-the continually accumulating bill of Hop-the-twig and Co. The son of a highly respectable director is appointed Standing Counsel. The speculation now bears every mark of respectability, and is advertised in the respectable newspapers. Tenders for shares are received, and deposits, at the respectable banking-house of and Co. and at the office of the respectable solicitor of the Company. As many active persons as can be engaged by promise of shares to exert themselves by talking or writing in favour of the A. S. S. must now be procured. Their zeal, the well-known respectability of the direction, and the general opinion that "every thing comes out at a premium," bring in applications for shares in abundance. Mr. Hop-the-twig takes care to have it stated that the applications for shares exceed four-fold the amount which can be granted-so favourable are its prospects, and so great is the quantity of unemployed capital. A. S. S. shares bear a premium by anticipation, and are quoted in the market. Mr. Hop-the-twig, and the directors now form themselves into a share committee, for the distribution of shares, and take measures for reaping the fair reward of their exertions. The very extensive arrangements which they have made; the negotiations they have entered into in the moon; the inquiries concerning the best breed of swine; the scientific investigations of the comparative merit of the several kinds of shears; and finally, the value which the public sets upon the A. S. S. stock; justify them in taking a contractors' premium. Mr. Hop-the-twig and Co. demand from their subscribers £5 on each £100 share, and a deposit is called for of £5 more, applicable to the purposes of the Company. A large reserve is made of shares, for the respectable directors, for their respectable friends, and for the respectable persons who have been employed in promulgating the merits of this highly beneficial institution. Here it is that the management becomes delicate. Hitherto the matter has been easy-hitherto the bubble has been firm on the bowl of the tobacco-pipe; it is now to be shaken off, and to rely on its own firmness and buoyancy. The point is this: to know how |