During the period that Mr. Moore had been in negotiation with the Longmans and Murray respecting the purchase of the Memoirs, he had given “Lady Holland the MS. to read.”  Lord John Russell also states, in his “Memoirs of Moore,” that he had read “the greater part, if not the whole,” and that he should say that some of it was too gross for publication.  When the Memoirs came into the hands of Mr. Murray, he entrusted the manuscript to Mr. Gifford, whose opinion coincided with that of Lord John Russell.  A few others saw the Memoirs, amongst them Washington Irving and Mr. Luttrell.  Irving says, in his “Memoirs,” that Moore showed him the Byron recollections and that they were quite unpublishable.

Mr. Moore himself seems to have been thrown into some doubt as to the sale of the manuscript by the opinion of his friends.  “Lord Holland,” he said, “expressed some scruples as to the sale of Lord Byron’s Memoirs, and he wished that I could have got the 2,000 guineas in any other way; he seemed to think it was in cold blood, depositing a sort of quiver of poisoned arrows for a future warfare upon private character.” [Footnote:  Lord John Russell’s “Memoirs, Journals, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore,” iii. p. 298.] Mr. Moore had a long conversation on the subject with Mr. J.C.  Hobhouse, “who,” he says in his Journal, “is an upright and honest man.”  When speaking of Lord Byron, Hobhouse said, “I know more about Lord Byron than any one else, and much more than I should wish any one else to know.”

Lady Byron offered, through Mr. Kinnaird, to advance 2,000 guineas for the redemption of the Memoirs from Mr. Murray, but the negotiation was not brought to a definite issue.  Moore, when informed of the offer, objected to Lady Byron being consulted about the matter, “for this would be treachery to Lord Byron’s intentions and wishes,” but he agreed to place the Memoirs at the disposal of Lord Byron’s sister, Mrs. Leigh, “to be done with exactly as she thought proper.”  Moore was of opinion that those parts of the manuscript should be destroyed which were found objectionable; but that those parts should be retained which were not, for his benefit and that of the public.

At the same time it must be remembered that Moore’s interest in the Memoirs had now entirely ceased, for in consequence of the death of Lord Byron they had become Mr. Murray’s absolute property, in accordance with the terms of his purchase.  But although Mr. Murray had paid so large a sum for the manuscript, and would probably have made a considerable profit by its publication, he was nevertheless willing to have it destroyed, if it should be the deliberate opinion of his Lordship’s friends and relatives that such a step was desirable.