A bungler even in its disgusting trade, And botching, patching, leaving still behind Something of which its masters are afraid-- States to be curbed, and thoughts to be confined, Conspiracy or Congress to be made-- Cobbling at manacles for all mankind-- A tinkering slave-maker, who mends old chains, With God and Man's abhorrence for its gains. XV. If we may judge of matter by the mind, Emasculated to the marrow _It_ Hath but two objects, how to serve, and bind, Deeming the chain it wears even men may fit, Eutropius of its many masters,[9]--blind To worth as freedom, wisdom as to wit, Fearless--because _no_ feeling dwells in ice, Its very courage stagnates to a vice.[10] XVI. Where shall I turn me not to _view_ its bonds, For I will never _feel_ them?--Italy! Thy late reviving Roman soul desponds Beneath the lie this State-thing breathed o'er thee[11]-- Thy clanking chain, and Erin's yet green wounds, Have voices--tongues to cry aloud for me. Europe has slaves--allies--kings--armies still-- And Southey lives to sing them very ill. XVII. Meantime, Sir Laureate, I proceed to dedicate, In honest simple verse, this song to you. And, if in flattering strains I do not predicate, 'T is that I still retain my "buff and blue;"[12] My politics as yet are all to educate: Apostasy's so fashionable, too, To keep _one_ creed's a task grown quite Herculean; Is it not so, my Tory, ultra-Julian?[13] Venice, Sept. 16, 1818. FOOTNOTES: {3}[1] ["As the Poem is to be published anonymously, _omit_ the Dedication. I won't attack the dog in the dark. Such things are for scoundrels and renegadoes like himself" [_Revise_]. See, too, letter to Murray, May 6, 1819 (_Letters_, 1900, iv. 294); and Southey's letter to Bedford, July 31, 1819 (_Selections from the Letters, etc._, 1856, in. 137, 138). According to the editor of the _Works of Lord Byron_, 1833 (xv. 101), the existence of the Dedication "became notorious" in consequence of Hobhouse's article in the _Westminster Review_, 1824. He adds, for Southey's consolation and encouragement, that "for several years the verses have been selling in the streets as a broadside," and that "it would serve no purpose to exclude them on the present occasion." But Southey was not appeased. He tells Allan Cunningham (June 3, 1833) that "the new edition of Byron's works is ... one of the very worst symptoms of these bad times" (_Life and Correspondence_, 1850, vi. 217).]