In 1821, when the latter published his _Vision of Judgment_--the most quaintly preposterous panegyric ever penned--he prefixed to it a long explanatory note, in the course of which he characterizes _Don Juan_ as a "monstrous combination of horror and mockery, lewdness and impiety," regrets that it has not been brought under the lash of the law, salutes the writer as chief of the Satanic school, inspired by the spirits of Moloch and Belial, and refers to the remorse that will overtake him on his death-bed. To which Byron, _inter alia_: "Mr. Southey, with a cowardly ferocity, exults over the anticipated death-bed repentance of the objects of his dislike, and indulges himself in a pleasant 'Vision of Judgment,' in prose, as well as verse, full of impious impudence. What Mr. Southey's sensations or ours may be in the awful moment of leaving this state of existence, neither he nor we can pretend to decide. In common, I presume, with most men of any reflection, _I_ have not waited for a death-bed to repent of many of my actions, notwithstanding the 'diabolical pride' which this pitiful renegade in his rancour would impute to those who scorn him." This dignified, though trenchant, rejoinder would have been unanswerable; but the writer goes on to charge the Laureate with spreading calumnies. To this charge Southey, in January, 1822, replies with "a direct and positive denial," and then proceeds to talk at large of the "whip and branding iron," "slaves of sensuality," "stones from slings," "Goliahs," "public panders," and what not, in the manner of the brave days of old. In February Byron, having seen this assault in the _Courier_, writes off in needless heat, "I have got Southey's pretended reply; what remains to be done is to call him out,"--and despatches a cartel of mortal defiance. Mr. Douglas Kinnaird, through whom this was sent, judiciously suppressed it, and the author's thirst for literary blood was destined to remain unquenched. Meanwhile he had written his own _Vision of Judgment_. This extraordinary work, having been refused by both Murray and Longman, appeared in 1822 in the pages of the _Liberal_. It passed the bounds of British endurance; and the publisher, Mr. John Hunt, was prosecuted and fined for the publication.