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339

SONNET XXI
THE NAVAL PRIZE BILL

[_]

The Naval Prize Bill, which carries with it the Declaration of London, was thrown out by the House of Lords on Tuesday, December 12, 1911.

Crippled and fettered, shorn of half their power,
Yet once again, as often, England's Lords,
Stood between her and meanest foemen's swords
Nor were found wanting in the crucial hour.
The Code wherethrough as from a vantage tower
Fly all the poisoned darts of alien hordes,
Devised to maim and bind her as with cords,
Shrinks like a parchment which red flames devour.
This much is left—the horror to conceive
(For this we must) that Englishmen were found
Of mind so feeble or of soul so base
As to fling German filth in England's face:
Conscious, to sell their country and achieve
Damnation here and elsewhere beyond bound.
December 13, 1911.
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