[73] The publication of "Astarte," by the late Lord Lovelace, containing the documents and letters relating to Byron's separation from his wife, has now made it quite clear that the grounds for separation were real.

[74] The second volume of "Life and Letters of Sir Gilbert Elliot, First Earl of Minto."

[75] Mr. Odo Russell (afterwards Lord Ampthill) and his wife.

[76] Daughter of Lord and Lady Amberley, born in February, 1868.

[77] A favourite stanza of Lady Russell's in "Childe Harold":--

What from this barren being do we reap?
Our senses narrow, and our reason frail,
Life short, and truth a gem which loves the deep,
And all things weighed in custom's falsest scale;
Opinion an omnipotence, whose veil
Mantles the earth with darkness, until right
And wrong are accidents, and men grow pale
Lest their own judgments should become too bright,
And their free thoughts be crimes, and earth have too much light.
BYRON.

[78] In February Mr. Forster introduced the Elementary Education Act. It passed the second reading without a division. In Committee the Cowper-Temple Clause was admitted by the Government.

[79] Their Italian servants.

[80] Lord Acton, "Historical Essays and Studies."

[81] King William of Prussia had just taken the title of German Emperor.