Conversations
and of Dallas's
Recollections
; but, owing to difficulties with Southey, it was not published. It was the substance of this article which afterwards appeared in the
Westminster Review
in 1825. In 1830 he wrote, but, by Lord Holland's advice, withheld, a refutation of the charges made against the dead poet as to his separation from Lady Byron. He has, however, left on record that it was not fear which induced Byron to agree to the separation, but that, on the contrary, he was ready to "go into court."
The staunchest of Byron's friends, Hobhouse was also the most sensible and candid. As such Byron valued him. Talking to Lady Blessington at Genoa, in 1823, he said (
Conversations
, p. 93) that Hobhouse was
"the most impartial, or perhaps," added he, "unpartial, of my friends; he always told me my faults, but I must do him the justice to add, that he told them to me, and not to others."