'I presume you have heard that Mr. Shelley and Captain Williams were lost on the 7th ultimo in their passage from Leghorn to Spezzia, in their own open boat. You may imagine the state of their families: I never saw such a scene, nor wish to see another. You were all brutally mistaken about Shelley, who was, without exception, the _best_ and least selfish man I ever knew. I never knew one who was not a beast in comparison.'[7] Writing August 8, 1822, to Thomas Moore, Byron says in allusion to Shelley's death: 'There is thus another man gone, about whom the world was ill-naturedly, and ignorantly, and brutally mistaken. It will, perhaps, do him justice _now_, when he can be no better for it.' In another letter, written December 25, 1822, Byron says: 'You are all mistaken about Shelley. You do not know how mild, how tolerant, how good he was in society; and as perfect a gentleman as ever crossed a drawing-room, when he liked, and where he liked.' Byron's opinion of Leigh Hunt, and his own connection with that ill-fated venture known as _The Liberal_, is concisely given by Byron himself in a letter to Murray. _The Liberal_, published October 15, 1822, was fiercely attacked in the _Literary Gazette_ and other periodicals. The _Courier_ for October 26, 1822, calls it a 'scoundrel-like publication.' Byron writes: 'I am afraid the journal is a _bad_ business, and won't do; but in it I am sacrificing _myself_ for others--I can have no advantage in it. I believe the brothers Hunt to be honest men; I am sure they are poor ones. They have not a rap: they pressed me to engage in this work, and in an evil hour I consented; still, I shall not repent, if I can do them the least service. I have done all I can for Leigh Hunt since he came here; but it is almost useless. His wife is ill, his six children not very tractable, and in the affairs of the world he himself is a child. The death of Shelley left them totally aground; and I could not see them in such a state without using the common feelings of humanity, and what means were in my power to set them afloat again.' In another letter to Murray (December 25, 1822) Byron says: