30 NOVEMBER 1918, Page 15

BYRON ON NAPOLEON.

[To THE EDITOR or TEE " SPECTATOR."] Sza,—You quote some extraordinarily appropriate verses of Byron on Napoleon. The following are scarcely lees apposite to the present occasion :— " Conqueror and captive of the earth art thou!

She trembles at thee still, and thy wild name

Was-ne'er more bruited in men's minds than now That thou are nothing, save the jest of Fame, Who wood thee once, thy vassal, and became The Flatterer of thy fierceness, till thou wart A god unto thyself; nor less the same To the astounded kingdoms all inert, Who deem'd thee for a time whate'er thou didst assert, Oh, more or less than man—in high or low, Battling with nations, flying fram the field; Now making monarchs' necks thy footstool, now More than thy meanest soldier taught to yield :

An empire thou oouldst crush, command, rebuild, But govern not thy pettiest passion, nor,

However deeply in men's spirits skilVd, Look through thine own, nor curb the lust of war, Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the -loftiest star."

—Child. Harold, Canto III., St. 37-38.