Traitor's Gate

I think we are agreed. The Traitor’s Gate,
The Tower, and Star Chamber were fitting
instruments to deal with power’s ingrates.
A closed court against those who pitted

themselves against the nation’s interests,
appropriating it to themselves.
Or a tribunal at Westminster
such as Warren Hastings would salvage

himself from. Johan Zoffany shows
Cowper’s beloved schoolmate bare-headed,
conscious in Kolkata, of power’s glow
about him. Mandelson discredited,

has no such Realist exculpation, save
Realism save itself from being depraved.

Woodford Halse - 7 February 2026

Johan Zoffany ( 1733 -1810 ) painted Warren Hastings ( 1732 - 1818 ) the Governor, then Governor General of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal from 1772 to 1785, when the former was in India from 1783.

Hastings was the ruler of British India for the East India Company. He was impeached before the House of Lords for fraud, extortion, judicial murder and crimes against humanity, but was not convicted after an 8 year long trial. William Cowper the Abolitionist and anti-imperialist poet had been his school friend at Westminster School, and could believe no evil of him.

If Peter Mandelson ever did the UK any services, he should at the last spare it the shame of a protracted public trial. It may damage the polity irreparably. Confess, and get it done with.

I admit it seems I overran a syllable in the last line, but pronounce being as a diphthong.