t of the
Tuileries, 1815-1848_, by Lady Jackson, 1883, ii. 19.]
[eo] {568}
_Immortal Wellington with beak so curled_.
_That foremost Corporal of all the World--_
_Immortal Wellington--and flags unfurled_.--[MS. erased.]
[329] "Naso suspendis adunco."--HORACE [_Sat._ i. 6, 5]. The Roman
applies it to one who merely was imperious to his acquaintance.
[330] [Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, afterwards Marquis of
Londonderry (1769-1822), who had been labouring under a "mental
delirium" (Letter of Duke of Wellington, August 9, 1822), committed
suicide by cutting his throat with a penknife (August 12, 1822). He was
the uncompromising and successful opponent of popular causes in Ireland,
Italy, and elsewhere, and, as such, Byron assailed him, alive and dead,
with the bitterest invective. (See, for instance, the "Dedication" to
_Don Juan_, stanzas xi.-xvi., sundry epigrams, and an "Epitaph.") In the
Preface to Cantos VI., VII., VIII., of _Don Juan_, he justifies the
inclusion of a stanza or two on Castlereagh, which had been written
"before his decease," and, again, alludes to his suicide. (For an
estimate of his career and character, see _Letters_, 1900, iv. 108, 109,
note 1; and for a full report of the inquest, _The Annual Biography_,
1823, pp. 56-62.)]
[ep]
_Whose penknife saved some nations t'other day_.
_Who shaved his throat by chance the other day_.--[MS. erased.]
[331] ["The Pilot that weathered the Storm" was written by Canning, to
be recited at a dinner given on Pitt's birthday, May 28, 1802.]
[eq] {569} _With reason--whate'er it may with rhyme_.--[MS. erased.]
[332] [George Canning (1770-1827) succeeded Lord Londonderry as Foreign
Secretary, September 8, 1822. He was not a _persona grata_ to George
IV., who had been offended by Canning's neutral attitude, as a minister,
on the question of the Queen's message (June 7, 1820), and by his avowal
"of an unaltered regard and affection" for that "illustrious personage"
herself. There was, too, the prospect of Catholic Emancipation. In 1821
he had spoken in favour of Plunket's bills, and, the next year (April
30, 1822), he had brought in a bill to remove the disabilities of Roman
Catholic peers from sitting in the House of Lords. If Canning persisted
in his advocacy of Catholic claims, the king's conscience might turn
restive, and urge him to effectual resistance. Hence the warning in
lines 563-567.]
[333] {570} [Demeter gave
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