e principal part of the day drinking with
the captain of the ship.' Lord Byron, as we all did, passed his time
chiefly reading. He dined alone on deck; and sometimes in the evening he
sat down with us to a glass or two, not more, of light Asti wine. He
amused himself in jesting occasionally with the captain, whom he ended,
however, by inspiring with a love of reading, such as he thought he had
never felt before."

But his enemies were not discouraged. When they saw that Byron landed in
one of the Ionian Islands, which was a far wiser and more prudent course
to adopt, and one which might prove infinitely more beneficial to Greece
than going straight to the Morea, they spread the report that instead of
going to Greece, he spent his life in debauchery and in the continuation
of his poem of "Don Juan," at rest in a lovely villa situated on one of
the islands. Moore informed him rather abruptly of this report, which
distressed him greatly.]

REFLECTIONS UPON MR. DISRAELI'S NOVEL

"VENETIA:"

A SEMI-BIOGRAPHY OF LORD BYRON.

Is Mr. Disraeli to be classed among the biographers of Lord Byron
because in his preface to "Venetia" he declares that his object is to
portray Lord Byron? We do not think so. Truth and error, romance and
history, are too much intermixed, and the author himself confesses this
fact in calling his work a novel. But while denying to "Venetia" the
right of being styled a biography, we must admit that it is both a deep,
true, and at times admirable study of the fine and so ill-judged
character of Lord Byron. The extraordinary qualities with which he was
gifted, both in heart and in mind, his genius, his amiability, his
irresistible attractions, his almost supernatural beauty, are all set
forth with consummate ability, and the greatest penetration. He has made
all his other characters, which are for the most part imaginary,
subservient to this end; and he has created some (such as Lady Annabel)
which moralists will not easily admit to be possible, it being granted
that all the characters in the book are mentally sane. It is
questionable whether the virtues and qualities which adorn Lady Annabel
are compatible with the defects of her nature. Mr. Disraeli has acted in
the same way as regards the circumstances of Byron's life; he has heaped
them together without any regard to what may or may not be true in their
supposed occurrence, some of them being founded on reality and others
not so.

He has g