Lord Byron's Apology
No one knew how to apologize for an affront with better grace, or with
more delicacy, than Lord Byron. In the first edition of the first
canto of Childe Harold, the poet adverted in a note to two political
tracts--one by Major Pasley, and the other by Gould Francis Leckie,
Esq.; and concluded his remarks by attributing "ignorance on the one
hand, and prejudice on the other." Mr. Leckie, who felt offended at the
severity and, as he thought, injustice of the observations, wrote to
Lord Byron, complaining of the affront. His lordship did not reply
immediately to the letter; but, in about three weeks, he called upon
Mr. Leckie, and begged him to accept an elegantly-bound copy of a new
edition of the poem, in which the offensive passage was omitted.
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