plainly what this poem was written for, and how thoroughly it did its
work! Considering Byron as a wronged man, Murray thought he was
contributing his mite towards doing him justice. His editor prefaced the
whole set of 'Domestic Pieces' with the following statements:--

'They all refer to the unhappy separation, of which the precise causes
are still a mystery, and which he declared to the last were never
disclosed to himself. He admitted that pecuniary embarrassments,
disordered health, and dislike to family restraints had aggravated his
naturally violent temper, and driven him to excesses. He suspected
that his mother-in-law had fomented the discord,--which Lady Byron
denies,--and that more was due to the malignant offices of a female
dependant, who is the subject of the bitterly satirical sketch.

* * * *

'To these general statements can only be added the still vaguer
allegations of Lady Byron, that she conceived his conduct to be the
result of insanity,--that, the physician pronouncing him responsible
for his actions, she could submit to them no longer, and that Dr.
Lushington, her legal adviser, agreed that a reconciliation was
neither proper nor possible. _No weight can be attached to the
opinions of an opposing counsel upon accusations made by one party
behind the back of the other, who urgently demanded and was
pertinaciously refused the least opportunity of denial or defence_. He
rejected the proposal for an amicable separation, but _consented when
threatened with a suit in Doctors' Commons._' {23}

Neither John Murray nor any of Byron's partisans seem to have pondered
the admission in these last words.