There was a general confusion and outcry, which reacted both on him and
on Lady Byron. Her friends were angry with him for having caused this re-
action upon her; and he found himself at once attacked by Lady Byron's
enemies, and deserted by her friends. All the literary authorities of
his day took up against him with energy. Christopher North, professor of
moral philosophy in the Edinburgh University, in a fatherly talk in 'The
Noctes,' condemns Campbell, and justifies Moore, and heartily recommends
his 'Biography,' as containing nothing materially objectionable on the
score either of manners or morals. Thus we have it in 'The Noctes' of
May 1830:--

'Mr. Moore's biographical book I admired; and I said so to my little
world, in two somewhat lengthy articles, which many approved, and
some, I am sorry to know, condemned.'

On the point in question between Moore and Campbell, North goes on to
justify Moore altogether, only admitting that 'it would have been better
had he not printed any coarse expression of Byron's about the old
people;' and, finally, he closes by saying,--

'I do not think that, under the circumstances, Mr. Campbell himself,
had he written Byron's "Life," could have spoken, with the sentiments
he then held, in a better, more manly, and more gentlemanly spirit, in
so far as regards Lady Byron, than Mr. Moore did: and I am sorry he
has been deterred from "swimming" through Mr. Moore's work by the fear
of "wading;" for the waters are clear and deep; nor is there any mud,
either at the bottom or round the margin.'

Of the conduct of Lady Byron's so-called friends on this occasion it is
more difficult to speak.