The name is absent

Byron’s Social Doctrine          37

people than another”—that is, he would have added, if that
government begins to tyrannize.

The Doge’s blind obedience to the laws of the state, and
to his own oath of allegience, regardless of mitigating cir-
cumstances, is a philosophy which has seldom faded to bring
about disorder. History, from the time of the fall of the
Roman Empire to the fall of the Fascist states, illustrates
this fact. The Doge’s own words best sum up this concept:

[Venice has] subdued the World; in such a state
An individual, be he richest of

Such a rank as is permitted, or the meanest,
Without a name, is alike nothing, when
The policy, irrevocably tending

To one great end, must be maintained in vigour.²⁷

The Doge’s error was in adhering to the principles of a gov-
ernment which had so perverted its aim as to make, not its
citizenry its primary concern, but the glory of the city itself.

Here, then, are the two extremes, and the mean was what
Byron sought. It is what men who would be free have sought
through the ages. Byron would be willing that men serve a
state only that the state might serve men.

These three works on Italian history, all of which dealt
with the problem of Italian freedom, were published at a
time when unification was the primary question and the Car-
bonari were secretly active. They could not have escaped
official notice. Byron’s letters to friends in England at this
time are full of allusions to the situation in Italy and of his
own active participation in these affairs. He harbored the
ammunition and arms of the liberals in his home, offered to
defend any who were in danger of arrest by the authorities,
offered his house as a kind of fort to be used by the Hberals
until the countryside could be aroused, and at one time wrote
out an address to the Italian people, in which he proffered

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