"The intellectual eunuch Castlereagh?" - a perspective on Viscount Castlereagh of Mount Stewart, by Lord Byron (written between 1819-1824)

 

XI

Think'st thou, could he—the blind Old Man—arise

       Like Samuel from the grave, to freeze once more

The blood of monarchs with his prophecies

       Or be alive again—again all hoar

With time and trials, and those helpless eyes,

       And heartless daughters—worn—and pale—and poor;

Would he adore a sultan? he obey

The intellectual eunuch Castlereagh?

XII

Cold-blooded, smooth-fac'd, placid miscreant!

       Dabbling its sleek young hands in Erin's gore,

And thus for wider carnage taught to pant,

       Transferr'd to gorge upon a sister shore,

The vulgarest tool that Tyranny could want,

       With just enough of talent, and no more,

To lengthen fetters by another fix'd,

And offer poison long already mix'd.

- From Don Juan (link here to The Poetry Foundation)