arlotte Bronte_, I am instructed to retract every
statement contained in that work which imputes to a widowed lady,
referred to, but not named therein, any breach of her conjugal, of
her maternal, or of her social duties, and more especially of the
statement contained in chapter 13 of the first volume, and in chapter
2 of the second volume, which imputes to the lady in question a
guilty intercourse with the late Branwell Bronte. All those
statements were made upon information which at the time Mrs. Gaskell
believed to be well founded, but which, upon investigation, with the
additional evidence furnished to me by you, I have ascertained not to
be trustworthy. I am therefore authorised not only to retract the
statements in question, but to express the deep regret of Mrs.
Gaskell that she should have been led to make them.--I am, dear sirs,
yours truly,

'WILLIAM SHAEN.

'Messrs. Newton & Robinson, Solicitors, York.'

A certain 'Note' in the _Athenaeum_ a few days later is not without
interest now.

'We are sorry to be called upon to return to Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of
Charlotte Bronte_, but we must do so, since the book has gone forth
with our recommendation. Praise, it is needless to point out,
implied trust in the biographer as an accurate collector of facts.
This, we regret to state, Mrs. Gaskell proves not to have been. To
the gossip which for weeks past has been seething and circulating in
the London _coteries_, we gave small heed; but the _Times_ advertises
a legal apology, made on behalf of Mrs. Gaskell, withdrawing the
statements put forth in her book respecting the cause of Mr. Branwell
Bronte's wreck and ruin. These Mrs. Gaskell's lawyer is now fain to
confess his client advanced on insufficient testimony. The telling
of an episodical and gratuitous tale so dismal as concerns the dead,
so damaging to the living, could only be excused by the story of sin
being severely, strictly true; and every one will have cause to
regret that due caution was not used to test representations not, it
seems, to be justified. It is in the interest of Letters that
biographers should be deterred from rushing into print with mere
impressions in place of proofs, however eager and sincere those
impressions may be. They _may be_ slanders, a