Lady Anne Isabella Byron, Brighton, to Henry Crabb Robinson, [30 Russell Square, London], 26 September 1854.

[f. 113r]

Brighton

Septr 26. 1854

Dear Mr Robinson

       May I resume our conversation respecting the concerns of The Family in whom you take a kind interest? –

       The question which I have the responsibility of deciding in their affairs, is in fact this,—

      Shall certain mistaken hypotheses be destroyed by the substitution of unpleasing facts for an interesting fable? – (suppose it possible)

      I ask was any one ever the better for associations with the unlovely?—for what could not excite ennobling sympathies nor offer a model for Imitation? – If for instance, it could be shewn in the case referred to that Silence on one side was cunning, or Profession on the other [f. 113v] Hypocrisy, who would gain by the disclosure?

       It is answered,  That all Falsehood is injurious – That another item might be added to our knowledge of human nature, –  That the wronged might be righted.

  I reply –

1st That Truths may be injurious if divulged without regard to “reason” or measure.  There is a letter sealed up in the year 1816 by a Public Man, & never since opened, in which a regard to that Principle is stated to be one of the reasons for the Silence maintained. – It is true however that the lapse of nearly 40 years with intervening events has weakened that ground for suppression.

2nd I admit this.

3rd the wronged could not [f. 114r] be righted if they have acted from motives which the Public would not sanction – If for instance, a stricter Standard as to virtue (in its special sense) is maintained by one than by the other, – if Austerity would be demanded by one, Forgiveness considered the right course by the other.

  To such a Tribunal there could not be any appeal. Its decision would be of no weight. The private judgment of the person or persons concerned would not bend to plead before it. There I will for the present leave the matter, hoping to have said enough to elicit your opinions.

                         Yours very truly

                                     A I. Noel Byron

Text:  MS-DEP Lovelace-Byron 109, fols. 113-14] [copy], Bodleian Library, Oxford.