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PPEFACE

TO CANTOS VI-VII.-AND VIII.

THE details of the Siege of Ismail in two of the following Cantos (i. e. the 7th and 8th) are taken from a French work, entitled "Historie de la Nouvelle Russie." Some of the incidents attributed to Don Juan really occured, particularly the circumstance of his saving the infant, which was the actual case of the late Duc de Richelieu, then a young volunteer in the Russian service, and afterwards the founder and benefactor of Odessa, where bis name and memory can never cease to be regarded with reverence. In the course of these cantos, a stanza or two will be found relative to the late Marquis of Londonderry, but written some time before his decease. Had that person's Oligarchy died with him, they would have been suppressed: as it is, I am aware of nothing in the manner of his death or of his life to prevent the free expression of the opinions of all whom his whole existence was consumed in endeavouring to enslave. That he was an amiable man in private life, may or may not be true; but with this the Public have nothing to do; and as to lamenting his death, it will be time enough when ireland has ceased to mourn for his birth. As a Minister, I, for one of millions, looked upon him as the most despotic in intention and the weakest in intellect that ever tyrannized over a country. It is the first time indeed since the Normans, that England has been insulted by a Minister (at least) who could not speak English, and that Parliament permitted itself to be dictated to in the language of Mrs. Malaprop.

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Of the manner of his death little need be said, except that if a poor radical, such as Waddington or Watson, had cut his throat, he would have been buried in a cross-road, with the usual appurtenances of the stake and mallet. But the Minister was an elegant Lunatic-a sentimental Suicide-he merely cut the "carotid artery" (blessings on their learning) and lo! the Pageant, and the Abbey! and "the Syllables of Dolour yelled forth" by the newspapers-and the harangue of the coroner in an eulogy over the bleeding body of the deceased-(an Anthony worthy of such a Cæsar)-and the nauseous and attrocious cant of a degraded crew of conspirators against all that is sincere and honourable. In his death he was necessarily one of two things by the law a felon or a madman-and in either case no great subject for panegyric.* In his life he was-what all the world knows, and half of it will feel for years to come, unless his death prove a "mortal lesson" to the surviving Sejanit of Europe. It may at least serve as some consolation to the nations, that their oppressors are not happy, and in some instances judge so justly of their own actions as to anticipate the sentence of mankind.—Let us hear no more of this man; and let Ireland remove the ashes of her Grattan from the sanctuary of Westminster. Shall the Patriot of Humanity repose by the Werther of Politics!!!

With regard to the objections which have been made on another score to the already published Cantos of this poem, I shall content myself with two quotations from Voltaire:

"La pudeur s'est enfuite des cœurs, et s'est refugiée sur les livres."

"Plus les mœurs sont depravés, plus les expressions deviennent mesurees; on croit regagner en langage ce qu'on a perdu en vertu."

This is the real fact, as applicable to the degraded and hypocritical mass which leavens the present English generation, and

*I say by the law of the land--the laws of Humanity judge more gently; but as the legitimates have always the law in their mouths, let them here make the most of it.

+ From this number must be excepted Canning: Canning is a genius. almost an universal one, an orator, a wit, a poet, a statesman; and no man of talent can long pursue the path of his late predecessor Lord C. If ever man saved his country, Canning can; but will he; I, for one, hope so.

is the only answer they deserve. The hackneyed and lavished title of Blasphemer—which, with radical, liberal, jacobin, reformer, &c. are the changes which the hirelings are daily ringing in the ears of those who will listen-should be welcome to all who recollect on whom it was originally bestowed. Socrates and Jesus Christ were put to death publicly as Blasphemers, and so have been and may be many who dare to oppose the most notorious abuses of the name of God and the mind of man. But persecution is not refutation, nor even triumph: the "wretched Infidel," as he is called, is probably happier in his prison than the proudest of his assailants. With his opinions I have nothing to do -they may be right or wrong—but he has suffered for them, and that very suffering for conscience-sake will make more proselytes to Deism than the example of heterodox* Prelates to Christianity, suicide Statesmen to oppression, or over-pensioned Homicides to the impious Alliance which insults the world with the name of "Holy!" I have no wish to trample on the dishonoured or the dead; but it would be well if the adherents to the classes from whence those persons sprung should abate a little of the cant which is the crying sin of this double-dealing and false-speaking time of selfish spoilers, and—but enough for the present.

* When Lord Sandwhich said "he did not know the difference between Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy"-Warburton, the bishop, replied "Orthodoxy, my Lord, is my doxy, and Heterodoxy is another man's doxy."-A Prelate of the present day, has discovered, it seems, a third kind of doxy, which has not greatly exalted in the eyes of the elect, that which Bentham calls Church-of-Englandism."

A 2

DON JUAN.

CANTO VI.

I.

"THERE is a tide in the affairs of men

Which taken at the flood"-you know the rest, And most of us have found it, now and then, At least we think so, though but few have guess'd The moment, till too late to come again.

But no doubt every thing is for the best

Of which the surest sign is in the end:

When things are at the worst they sometimes mend.

II.

There is a tide in the affairs of women

"Which taken at the flood leads"-God knows where: Those navigators must be able seamen

Whose charts lay down its current to a hair;

Not all the reveries of Jacob Behmen

With its strange whirls and eddies can compare:

Men with their heads reflect on this and that-
But women with their hearts on heaven knows what!

III.

And yet a headlong, headstrong, downright she,
Young, beautiful, and daring-who would risk

A throne, the world, the universe, to be
Beloved in her own way, and rather whisk

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