Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Year of the Smoking Pipe

. Wednesday, January 2, 2008

HOW MANY POOR SOULS made yet another new year's resolution promising themselves they're going to quit smoking? Hah! As a social smoker (and occasional drinker), I intend to carry on handsomely, thank you very much. With a few precautionary safeguards to protect the family from the pungent fumes, and a smoking jacket to keep the ashes and embers off my clothing, my resolution in 2008 is to take up pipe smoking - a promise I intend to keep! Do read on - the tobacco pipe is good for the soul, and a blessing to all who are near.

Godfrey_Harold_Hardy

TOBACCO AND THE SOUL

by Michael P. Foley

Copyright (c) 2006-2008 First Things (April 1997).

The current brouhaha over smoking has made everyone painfully aware of tobacco’s effects on the body, but it has also obscured a more profound reason for smoking’s popularity: its relation to the soul. As the heyday of smoking passes into the ashheap of history, it is meet that we reflect on this connection.

The soul, of course, is a complex thing. Long ago Plato suggested that we consider it as divided into three parts—the appetitive, spirited, and rational—that correspond to the three basic kinds of human desires: the desire to satisfy physical appetites, the desire for recognition, and the desire for truth. Once this tripartite division is recalled, tobacco’s relation to the soul becomes clear: the three prevalent types of smoking tobacco—cigarettes, cigars, and pipes—correspond to the three parts of the soul.

Cigarettes correspond to the appetitive part of the soul, a fact that explains their association with both food and sex. The connection with the latter is particularly obvious: think of the proverbial postcoital cigarette, or of the ubiquity of cigarettes at singles bars. People with strong physical desires demand instant gratification, and they try to make what they desire as much a part of their own bodies as possible: hunger demands eating, thirst drinking, and lust making the body of one’s lover a part of one’s own. So too with cigarettes. A cigarette is inhaled: it must be fully and internally consumed in order to give pleasure. And a cigarette, with its quick buzz, is also instant gratification. Even the cigarette’s notorious connection to death ties it into appetites: both are indifferent to health in their quest for satisfaction, and both, when they reach addictive levels, become hostile to it.

Cigars, on the other hand, correspond to the spirited part of the soul. This explains their traditional popularity among men seeking honor or reputation—politicians, executives, etc. The reason for this correspondence can be found in the similarity between cigars and ambition. A cigar is visually impressive: with its large size and great billows of smoke, it often leaves a greater impact on the spectator than on the smoker. Further, a cigar is phallic—not with regard to male lust, but to male power. “Testis” in Latin means “witness”: the phallic status of the cigar is meant to bear public witness to the smoker’s prominence, his virility. The fact that a cigar is not inhaled reflects this external focus.

Ambition also has these traits: it too is more external than internal. Unlike physical desires, which are satisfied simply by consumption, ambition requires the consensus of others. The honor-seeker, for example, has to be honored by as many people as possible in order to be satisfied.

Finally, the pipe corresponds to the rational part of the soul, which explains why we tend to picture wise figures smoking pipes: the Oxford don surrounded by his great books, or Sherlock Holmes, who, in Doyle’s original stories, actually smoked other sorts of tobacco as well, yet is almost always portrayed with a pipe. Unlike cigars and cigarettes, a pipe endures. Similarly, the questions of the philosopher far outlast the passing concerns of physical desires on the one hand and human ambitions on the other. Further, while the cigar is entirely masculine, the pipe has both masculine and feminine elements (the stem and the bowl). This corresponds to the philosopher’s activity, which is both masculine and feminine: masculine in its pursuit of Lady Truth, feminine in its reception of anything that she discloses. Finally, the effect that the pipe has on others is analogous to the effect of philosophizing: the sweet fragrance of a pipe, like good philosophy, is a blessing to all who are near.

It is fitting that all three kinds of smoking tobacco involve the use of fire, for each relates to the soul’s responsiveness to reason, and fire, at least from the days of Prometheus, is especially emblematic of reason. But there are also nonhuman parts to the human soul. The growth of our hair and fingernails, for example, is due to the soul’s activity, yet is not responsive to rational instruction.

The use of tobacco that does not involve fire, therefore, somehow corresponds to these nonhuman—or more accurately, subhuman—parts of the soul. Chewing tobacco, for example, is a quintessentially subhuman activity. It is the rumination of bovine men. Or perhaps we should say it is camel-like, for camels not only chew, but spit as well. In either case, the point is clear: chewing tobacco is a sub-rational activity, which is why we usually associate it with men of limited acumen.

Snuff, too, would fall into this category, but with some minor differences. First, because it is not so disgusting, it would not have the same negative connotations as “chew.” (Activities can be sub-rational without being bad.) Second, snuff taken through the nose would fall under a different category. Everything else we have seen involves the mouth, and this is only natural, for the mouth was made to receive things into itself. But to sniff something up one’s nose . . . this is unnatural.

A question remains, however, about smoking non-tobacco. One candidate immediately comes to mind because it, like tobacco, is a natural leaf. Marijuana is also noteworthy because it is used in the same ways as smoking tobacco.

The key to the difference between the two is how each one affects the smoker. Tobacco—whether in a cigarette, cigar, or a pipe—leads to conversation, loosening the tongue just enough to incline it towards speaking, but not enough to disconnect it from the brain. Marijuana, on the other hand, does not keep this balance, loosening the tongue only to have it reel away from rational thought. It does not truly facilitate conversation, drawing the smoker into himself (not outwards, as does all good conversation) and dumbing-down any speech that is uttered. Thus the appearance of conversation can be created, but it is usually only that—an appearance. Marijuana is therefore a charlatan-weed, an impostor that apes its distant relative tobacco in a shallow and perverse way.

The uses of marijuana are twisted imitations of the uses of tobacco. Joints perversely imitate cigarettes in both their appearance and in their users’ claim to be erotic. But while the claim is one thing, the reality is another. Eros requires both a healthy tension and a sense of discrimination in order to be truly human. Marijuana, however, eliminates both. Think of the counterculture of the 1960s, which, in preaching sexual liberation, actually destroyed the human part of our sexuality by robbing sex of any sense of mystery, standards, or fidelity. Where once sex was a magical moment between eternally committed lovers, it was now purely animalistic, something that had no more meaning than any other bodily function. The pot-smoker fancies himself an erotic man, but ends up being an unerotic animal.

Similarly, the hash pipe is a perverse imitation of the tobacco pipe. The pot-smoker often fancies himself an intellectual: he gets high and thinks “deep thoughts” (again bringing the 1960s to mind). But the appearance is one thing, the reality another. Just as the wisdom of the 1960s student turns out to be sophomoric, so too do the deep thoughts of the pot-smoker end up being moronic.

And yes, there is even a marijuana counterpart to the cigar. In the early 1990s the inner cities gave birth to a new practice called “blunting,” in which cheap cigars are gutted and stuffed with marijuana. It is fitting that this practice originated in the same place where gangs come from. An inner-city gang seems supremely concerned with honor and courage: its elaborate codes would suggest as much. But seeming is one thing, being another. The gang-member fancies himself honorable, but is in reality a thug. Just as the cigar is the counterpart to the real virtues of honor and courage, the marijuana-blunt is the counterpart to the fake virtues of gang-honor and gang-courage.

As every student of Plato knows, if something has a relation to the soul it has a relation to the city. Thus if our theory is anything more than the smoke it purports to explain, it can be used to analyze political phenomena. For example, in recent years we have witnessed a concerted effort to sterilize our erotic attachments, to sap them of their danger but also of their vigor. The flat, unerotic words we now use for these attachments confirm this. Instead of “lover” and “beloved,” we now have “significant other” and, even worse, “partner” (a term which lends to the affairs of the heart all the excitement of filling out a tax form). Given this environment, it is no wonder that our most vigorous moral war waged today is against cigarette-smoking. Nor is it any wonder that this war’s only rival in intensity is the one in favor of “safe sex,” for condoms sterilize sex not only literally but figuratively as well.

Further, the relation between cigars and spiritedness may explain why cigars are now for the first time gaining a significant number of female disciples. For as women continue to enter the traditionally male world of competition, many are beating men at their own game by using the same tactics of gaining power. And with the tactics have come the symbols.

Most significantly, however, the relative rarity of pipe-smoking in America is a telling sign of its current intellectual crisis. If the pipe epitomizes the intellectual way of life, then is it any surprise that it cannot be found where schools substitute politically correct ideology for real philosophy, or where the intelligentsia, instead of engaging in serious thought, pander to the latest activist fads? Is it any surprise that America’s most famous pipe-smoker in the last thirty years has been Hugh Hefner, pajama prophet of the trite philosophy of hedonism? No, the age of the pipe-smoker is as far from us as the day when philosophers will be kings and kings will philosophize, a sad reality to which the thick blue haze of non-pipe smoke is only too ready to attest.

It should also be no surprise in this pipeless age that the ferocious battle over tobacco has missed the real point about its addictive power. Tobacco holds sway over the soul as much as it does the body. The qualities it takes in its various forms make it a near irresistible complement to the particular desire dominant in an individual’s soul. How we react to these forms says as much about our attitude toward those desires as it does toward the weed itself.

37 comments:

Beracahvalley said...

Very interesting blog and post about smoking.

Cool Blue said...

I recently purchased a pipe myself but I have yet to test it out. I want to finish creating my "study" first.

Please update us on your experience and recommendations.

David Byers said...

I have smoked cigars for years but have recently slowed down to the point of not having had one in many months. Two reason, firstly my wife and secondly cost - they are so damn expensive and with the PC crowd pushing the taxes up and up I just can't keep up.

Lord Best said...

I've always been tempted to smoke cigars or a pipe. While I can appreciate the smoke produced by both, I find cigarette smoking repugnant, oddly enough.
Unfortunately I have asthma and choking to death on ones cigar smoke is rather lacking in dignitas, I feel.

Beaverbrook said...

Her Majesty has been known to enjoy an occasional puff. I'm not sure how true that is anymore, however.

Charles Ryder said...

As a regular pipe-smoker I commend you on this most excellent resolution!

I should pass along a small anecdote that you will, doubtless, find amusing.

"Paul Johnson, writing in the Spectator (11 August) said…..” Ronnie Knox (Msgr. Ronald Knox), on coming into a strange room would sniff and say ‘ This room smells suspiciously of never having been smoked in.’ He thought a smokeless room might carry a curse. ‘the Devil lives in Hell but he never smokes.’ Writing in the same piece about his schooldays Paul Johnson says, " a priest told me ‘Tobacco is essential to a celibate priesthood.'"

Aeneas the Younger said...

I'm afraid I am with their Majesties James I and Charles I on this issue ...

David Byers said...

Just so we are all clear about snuff; it is different in Australia and the UK from the USA. In Australia and The UK it means a dry powdered tobacco that is taken up the nose, whereas in the USA it is a type of chewing tobacco that is like a tea bag with powdered tobacco in it.

By the way snuff has now been made illegal to sell in Australia.

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Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
J. Moran said...

As a pipe smoker (along with the odd cigar and decent cigarette (Sobranie being my brand of choice) I wholeheartedly agree with this post, though I've never encounters a philosophy of thid nature behind smoking before. Excellent stuff.

Neocon said...

What a load of tosh!

Trying to glorify what is a despicable and self-harming addiction is a sad excuse for the inability to quit.

Far from smoking pipe being attractive to the soul, it is repulsive to the mind! Breathing in toxic smoke defies all rational thinking, period.

As part of a younger generation, I can only look back in disgust at how smoking (pipe or otherwise) was considered socially acceptable. But for that reason, I don't demonise or judge older people for smoking. Any educated person who grew up in the 90s and who takes up smoking can only be a fool of the highest class.

Smoking should be slowly phased out, in recognition of the fact it was a historical mistake, a useless, destructive invention. Cigarettes should be illegal for anyone born after say 2025, and prohibitively expensive for those born after say 2015. This may sound like Orwellian social engineering but is really a common sense approach to a vice that is a social pollutant and irritant which takes far more than the puny pleasures that it gives.

Make smoking history

Anonymous said...

Oh Neocon, stick in your pipe and smoke it! Your righteous fume is most toxic... and bad for global warming.

Anonymous said...

To Neocon I would point out that pipe smoke is traditionally NOT inhaled, so one is not "breathing in toxic smoke". Likewise, the oral cavity, unlike the lungs, is not efficient at transferring nicotine, so pipe smoking, especially in moderation, is not addictive like cigarette smoking. That said, if a gentleman chooses to enjoy a pipe from time to time, he may want to consider the following suggestions:
1) Smoke in moderation: no more than one bowl per day. The days of the all-day smoke, with pipe clenched between the teeth, is neither attractive nor polite to those around you (English blends, unlike aromatics, don't all have a pleasant aroma).
2) Don't inhale! If you have previously smoked cigarettes, it's probably best to not take up the pipe. Evidence suggests that giving up the inhalation habit is difficult to do.
3) Enjoy your pipe in either a well-ventilated indoor space, or outside, and with consideration for those around him.
4) Consider non-tobacco herbal blends, such as Honeyrose Farmer's Blend. While all smoke is carcinogenic, non-tobacco blends do not contain tobacco-specific nitrosamines, which are extremely mutigenic.
5) If you smoke tobacco rather than non-tobacco blends, blonde and oriental tobaccos have lower toxicity than dark tobaccos and burley.
6) Consider using an activated charcoal filter. Evidence suggests it cuts down on the toxicity of the smoke.

Kevin McCrea said...

To Whom it May Concern:

If you don't want to smoke, don't. Nobody's forcing you to do it. Go veg, eat tofu, jog in the park, chew bubble gum, ride a bike to work, do whatever it is you do when you're not spewing self-righteous pontification about how evil tobacco is. I'm probably in better shape than you physically (in fact, I'd be willing to bet that I am), and I'm not stressing myself into an early grave over other people's perfectly legal social habits. Thank you for your smug sanctimony posing as concern, we'll manage our own lives without your social engineering experiments.

Anonymous said...

Comparing the tobacco and the soul its really great,its harmful for health.

smoking pipe

Anonymous said...

I dont care what anyone smokes if there enjoying it.
I get sick of listening to people who drink gallons of vodka telling us smokers how bad it is for you to smoke.
As a smoker foraround 50 years never been in hospital or doctors . i serve more tobacco in a shop than food to people who are nearer getting a telegram from the queen for there longevity and almost 2 world wars . and when the do gooders who collect charity money fo cancer research and have been soaking enough money out of the public for more than 140 years
wich i would say goes into the trillions without a great deal of benefit apart from cleaner knives .
Think if everyone stopped smoking on earth do you think cancer would stop.
Definately not. every creature on earth has it and always has

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The Royal Jelly: A new king has been coronated, and his subjects are in a merry mood
Victoria Cross: Australian TROOPER MARK DONALDSON awarded the VC
Godless Buses: Royal Navy veteran, Ron Heather, refuses to drive his bus
Labour's Class War: To expunge those with the slightest pretensions to gentility
100 Top English Novels of All Time: The Essential Fictional Library
Royal Racism? Our intellectually febrile self appointed arbiters of modern manners
The Story of Bill Stone, RN: "Contented mind. Clean living. Trust in God"
Bill Stone: Last British veteran of both world wars dies
Reverse Snobbery: "Prince William and Harry are not very bright"
Poet Laureate: The English-Speaking Peoples need a poet laureate
Prince Harry: Much Ado about Nothing
H.M.A.S. Sydney: Australia seeks answers to its worst naval disaster
BIG BEN: Celebrating 150 Years of the Clock Tower
Winnie-the-Pooh: Canada's famous bear, Winnie (Winnipeg), to be published in a sequel
Not Amused: Traditional fairytales are not politically correct enough for our children
The British Empire: "If you were going to be colonized, you wanted to be colonized by the British"
Gross Constitutional Impropriety: Without mandate for change, plebiscites work to undermine the system


2008 ARTICLES


Count Iggy: Michael Ignatieff takes the reigns of the LPC
Lord Black of Crossharbour: Harper and Ignatieff promise a rivalry for the ages
Strange Bedfellows: The monarchy is safe from this republican
Fount of Dishonour: The growing distinction of remaining an unadorned Mister
Republican Poet: Colby Cosh on that mute inglorious Milton
Church of England: The Conservative case for the Established Church of England
Liberal Secular Scrooges: A Blight on the Festive Landscape
Fount of Honour: The Queen's New Year Honours List
Act of Settlement: the last brick in a crumbling wall, by Philip Lardner
What next, Mr. Hannan, the conservative case for disestablishing the monarchy?
Hair to the Throne: Prince William's beard is fit for a King.
Canada's House of Lords: Why reforming the Senate is profoundly unwelcome.
Someone who gets it: The proper relationship between liberty and democracy.
More Pseudo Democracy: Keep on voting until you get it right.
Royal Christmas: Queen's Christmas Message still trumps seasonal schedule.
Archbishop Williams: A 'certain integrity' to a disestablished Church of England.
Loyal Subject: Debunking the antimonarchist claims of The Economist.
Royal Prerogative: Grand Duke says no to legalised murder assisted suicide.
Lord Iggy: The Nobleman versus the Doberman
It's Over: the day, the decision, the crisis, the coalition, and Dion’s leadership
Loyal Subject: Speak out Charles, our teenage politicians never will
Prince Charles at 60: 60 Facts About HRH, Prince Charles of Wales
Remembrance Day Hymns: O Valiant Hearts; Abide With Me
For Liberty and Livelihood! Duke of Norfolk leads hunt protest ban
Keating Remembers: "I have never been to Gallipoli, and I never will"
John Cleese a Republican? An anti-monarchist rant worthy of Monty Python
Balfour Declaration: The precursor to the Statute of Westminster
Beaverbrook's Grandson: SAS Major Sebastian Morley resigns in disgust
"His Mightiness": Yanks and the royals; the Eagle and the Crown
England Expects: The Hero of Trafalgar at 250
Harper and Howard: An embarrassing example of Anglosphere Unity
Crowning Insult: Labour's legacy will be its destruction of the monarchy
Her Excellency: An Interview with Governor-General Quentin Bryce
Age of Oversensitivity: Churchill wouldn't stand a chance in Canadian election
William of Wales: Prince chooses RAF career over that of a 'working Royal'
Australia's Loyal Opposition: Republican Turnbull now on Queen's side
Loyal Subject: The Age of Elizabeth II, by A.N. Wilson
Tory Icon? Daniel Hannan says British Tories should follow Stephen Harper
Chasing Churchill: Around the world with Winston
Her Majesty The Queen - A Life in Film
The Crown in Oz: Australia swears in first female governor-general
Lèse majesté? The Royal Australian Institute of Architects drops the 'royal'
Rest In Peace: David Lumsden of Cushnie (1933-2008), President of the 1745 Assn.
Monarchies Rule: Prominent Australian republican says monarchies are the best
Sir Don Bradman: Oz remembers The Don, the greatest cricketer batsman of all time
Padre Benton: The Living Tradition in Piddingworth
"Stodgy anachronism" More moist, vapid effusions from the Diana cult
Drool Britannia: London Summer Olympics 2012
Taki the Aristocrat: Unrepentedly wealthy and well mannered
Wanted: Uncorker Message in a bottle faster than Royal Mail
The Other St. George: Will Georgia restore its monarchy?
Gentlemen's Clubs: The Great Club Revolution of New York
The Laughing Cavalier: What an utterly absurd article
Health unto His Future Majesty: "Royalty dares to challenge the New Order"
"Grace, Your Grouse!" Better to kill a fellow gun than wing a beater
Boys will be adventurous: To Ulaanbaatar by London cab
A King's Breakfast: A trenchant defence of the full English breakfast
Republican beer: Forget Coopers, support Fosters
Trafalgar Square: Sanity prevails on the fourth plinth
The Empire Builder: How James Hill built a railroad without subsidies
"Harvard was not amused": Alexander Solzhenitsyn, 1918–2008
Greatest Briton: Wellington is "greater than Churchill"
Death of the Necktie? A well-tied tie is the first serious step in life
Not Amused: The next Chief Justice of Australia to be a republican
Royal New Zealand Air Force: God Save N.Z. from the Cannibals
Why English Pubs are Dying: The totalitarian smoking ban.
Swooning over Princess Obama: A Coronation or the Second Coming?
Dreams of an Academic: Gough Whitlam to have the last laugh?
Joshua Slocum meet President Kruger: Yet another reason to love the Boers
Changing of the Guard: Annual Inspection at Rideau Hall
H.M.S. Iron Duke: A Foe for William and Sea Room
Fountain of Honour: Australian pop star gets Order of the British Empire
DOMINION DAY: Read David Warren's Lament for a Nation
Kiwi Tribalism: Sealords, Treelords, what are New Zealanders coming to?
Of Queen and Country: John Elder disects the current state of monarchy in Oz
Not Amused: The Olympic Games trump Buckingham Palace
CMR Returns: The Royal Military College of St. John
Hereditary peers overwhelmingly rejected the Lisbon Treaty
Archbishop Cranmer: Royal Assent given to the Treaty of Lisbon
Crown Commonwealth: Referendum confirms Her Majesty as Queen of Tuvalu
Duke of York: Prince Andrew Visits Troops in Afghanistan
Treaty of Lisbon: A Litmus Test for the British Monarchy
The Queen and I: The man who caused royal kerfuffle gives view of the monarchy
HMS Ontario sunk in 1780, found intact! at bottom of Lake Ontario
Hold the Lime, Bartender: Only lemon properly complements a gin and tonic
Elizabethans Down Under: Are most Australian monarchists merely "Elizabethans"?
Edwardian Gentleman: What To Do When You Find a Hohenzollern in Your Study
Hooray for Kid's Day!! Melbourne newspaper won't come of Age
Unhappy Kingdom: Why Liberal Democracy is Failing Us
Knightless Realm: The world yawns as John Howard is made an AC
Scots Tory: Bring Back the Stiff Upper Lip, says Gerald Warner
HMY Britannia: Let's lay the keel for a new royal yacht
For Queen, Country and Low Pay: PM pledges to do better
Maple Leaf republic? Roger Kimball's sleight of hand (since corrected!)
Queen's Birthday: New Zealand unveils new Vice-Regal Standard
Prince Charming: Quebec author calls Canadian G-G a "negro queen"
The Senior Service: Sub-Lieutenant Wales to take on Pirates of the Caribbean
Crown of Disenchantment: What does it require to withhold royal assent?
Colonial Mentality: Key republican thinks Victoria Cross is a colonial relic
The Red Baron: Billy Bishop, not Mannock, was the British Empire's top ace
Which Scots conservatism: Unionist or Nationalist?
Loyal Subject: After all she has done, we owe the Queen our oath
Victoria Day – Fête de la Reine: Official B'day of the Queen of Canada
Renaming the Victoria Day Weekend: Let's get rid of Heritage Day Bob
Pro Valore: Canada mints its own Victoria Cross in time for Victoria Day
State Visit to Turkey: Mustafa Akyol says God Save the Queen, Indeed
Norn Iron Unites: What issue is uniting all parties of Northern Ireland?
Extreme Loyalist: Michael Stone attempted to slit the throats of Adams and McGuinness because he just "can't handle" republicans being in government.
Canada's Vice-Regal dubbed an elegant mix between Lady Di and Nelson Mandela
Queen of Australia: Support for Australian republic hits new low
A Heroes Welcome: The Windsor Castle Royal Tattoo, 8-10 May 2008
Fat, Vile and Impudent: Alan Fotheringham is back on the bottle
The Devine Right of Bling: Our Royals have become hereditary celebrities
Battle of the Atlantic: Canadians remember the longest battle of WW2
Old Etonian Toff: Boris Johnson installed as Tory Mayor of London
Britain needs a Patron Saint: Cry God for Harry, Britain and St. Aiden?
Anglos in Mont-Royal: Rooting for the Montreal Canadiens
Daniel Hannan: Borders of the Anglosphere and the British Empire was a mistake
Australia 2020: One Big Fat Republican Con Job
Bye bye Tommy: O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy go away"
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
Carpetbaggers Down Under: Kevin 'Mugabe' Rudd wins 98.5% support for republic
Kipling: The Jeremiah of Empire and the Poet Laureate of Civilisation
Duke of Edinburgh: Behind the gaffes is a man of real sincerity
Lord Rutherford: The Father of the Atom lives on in great great grandson
Queen of Australia: Royalty Protects us from Tyranny, David Barnett
Long Live the Broadsheet! Norumbega, more traditionalist than the Pope.
A Tale of Two Countries: Soldiers of Britain and Canada serve the same Queen but...
Loyal Subject: Polishing the Royal Crown, Matt Bondy & Brendon Bedford
Devoted to the End: Obituary of Sir Phillip Bridges
The Monarchist does not recognize the Republic of Kosova
Loyal Subject: MPs Ruse Defeated; God Save the Queen!
St. Paddy's Day: Edmund Burke, the greatest Irishman who ever lived
Not Amused: The Bunkum of Timothy Garton Ash
Hero Harry: Rave Reviews across the Commonwealth
Patriot Prince: Prince Harry fought for us all, Charles Moore
William F. Buckley, RIP: He had a Tory gratitude for the pleasures of life
Their Lordships' Duty: The House of Lords can influence the Lisbon Treaty debate
Knights of Oz: Revive Sirs or I'll have your guts for garters
Peter Hitchens: People love the Queen...and the BBC hates us for it
Our Greatest Monarch: Paul Johnson says Henry V was our greatest monarch
Princess Diana Inquest: A Dirty Raincoat Show for the World
Malcom Turnbull: 'Queen's death will spark republican vote'
Duke of York: The Royals are not "stuffed dummies". They should have their say
Peers of the Realm: The decline and fall of the House of Lords - Charles A. Coulombe
Peter Hitchens: Get rid of the monarchy and you will get rid of a guardian of liberty
THE FALL OF CHURCHILL
Honouring Sir Edmund Hillary
The Queen versus an E.U. President
Going Solo: Prince William earns his Wings
James C. Bennett: The Third Anglosphere Century
Knights of Oz: Revive Sirs or I'll have your guts for garters
Princess Diana Inquest: A Dirty Raincoat Show for the World
Malcom Turnbull: 'Queen's death will spark republican vote'
Future Peer: The life and times of Lady Victoria Beckham
Peers of the Realm: The decline and fall of the House of Lords - Charles A. Coulombe
Peter Hitchens: Get rid of the monarchy and you will get rid of a guardian of liberty


2007 ARTICLES


New York Times: Ever Backwards into the Royal Future
Peter Hitchens: People love the Queen...and the BBC hates us for it
Christopher Hitchens: An Anglosphere Future
Andrew Cusack: Republicanism is a traitor's game
DIAMOND WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
Courageous Patrician: Rt Hon Ian Douglas Smith (1919-2007)
The Last Rhodesian: What began with Rhodes and ended with Ian?
Gentleman Journalist: The Lord Baron W.F. Deedes, 1913-2007
Not Amused: Blair's sinister campaign to undermine the Queen
Loyal Subject: Queen Elizabeth: A stranger in her own country
Reverence Deference: Bowing and Scraping Back in Tradition
Rex Murphy: Kennedy, Churchill, Lincoln - The rousing bon mot is no more
Gerald Warner: Don't shed a tear for Diana cult in its death throes
The End of Grandeur: Rich, chincy Canada puts Strathmore on the blocks
Confessions of a Republican Leftie: "The Queen charmed the pants off me"
The King's Own Calgary Regiment: Cpl. Nathan Hornburg is laid to rest
The Royal Gurkha Rifles: Prince William grieves the death of Major Roberts
Queensland Mounted Rifles: Trooper David Pearce, 41, killed in Afghanistan
The Order of Canada: 100 investitures later, Canada's highest honour turns 40
Prince Edward on Prince Edward Island: Troop's link to monarchy important
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN: Unveils the UK Armed Forces Memorial
Great Britain: "A rotten borough with a banana monarchy" - by Europhile
FADE BRITANNIA: THE UNION OF ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND IS OVER - Simon Heffer
Peers of the Realm: The decline and fall of the House of Lords - Charles A. Coulombe
Remembering 'Smithy': An obituary tour de force by Andrew Cusack here, here and here.
NOT AMUSED: Her Majesty The Queen in Right of Quebec not invited to Quebec's tercentenary