Her Majesty has once again returned to the Elder Dominion!
This has, sadly, led to the usual republican carping. You've heard it all before.
The monarchy is obsolete they say. But style, grace, virtue, honourable tradition and loyalty to noble values is never obsolete.
The monarchy is unrepresentative. Life is not representative. It is only the jacobin and utopian who wishes to mangle all our institution into statistical conformity.
The monarchy is unCanadian. Canada has never been a republic. The very thought was considered absurd until only a few years ago. The Crown is as Canadian as maple syrup. Canadians revered the monarchy long before they started playing hockey.
The monarchy is British. Even if this is so, why is that a problem? With the exception of the classical civilizations of Greece and Rome, who laid the foundations of Western Civilization, no other political force in history has done more good that the British Empire. Reminding Canadians of that fact is a wise exercise at any time. In remembering out past we affirm to ourselves the wellspring of our prosperity, peace and freedom.
The monarchy is unpopular. We hear continually that Canadians are apathetic toward it. This is not surprising. People are often apathetic to that which they do not understand. For forty years educators, civil servants and politicians have striven mightily to erase the monarchy from Canadian history and civics classes. Teach and they will understand.
The monarchy is elitist. We are born with equal rights, not with equal talents or gifts. The law is the same for all - the Queen's law incidentally. Some are born handsome, others plain. A few can run fast or speak well, others stagger in foot and tongue. There are few things more pernicious than a levelling belief. Behind the leveller is not a noble aspiration but something quite dark, the sin of envy.
The monarchy is undemocratic. The most common objection. Democracy is useful for somethings, such as choosing certain public officials. It would be absurd to imagine - sadly a common absurdity in our era - that a mere political mechanism has some sort of inherent moral value. Beauty, truth, virtue, compassion, justice and reason are not the products of majority votes. Old King Canute could not command the waves, neither can a democratic Leviathan. It's no use saying you didn't vote for who sits on the throne, you also didn't vote for your parents. Are your parents therefore illegitimate? Experience shows that somethings are best left to the accidents of nature.
The monarchy is foreign. Canada is not alone in the world. We are part of a great family of free nations, stretching across the globe. The monarchy is a living link to that family. Why would we wish to abandon our kith and kin? For what? A lonely nationalism? Parochialism is not a virtue.
The monarchy is a reminder of old values that have fallen out of fashion. The Queen and her Consort are living reminders of those values in their speech and deed. They are not perfect, for no human thing ever is. The monarch is an exemplar and does not pander. The monarchy is traditional, and tradition is accidental, as is wisdom. It does not matter how we learned, we have learned this and should keep it. Why must so many strive to forget? Amnesia is not a state to be desired, the jacobins be damned.
Over the last weekend violence erupted in Toronto, as so-called protestors ran havoc through the streets of the downtown area. Their malignant energies directed at an international conference, whose protection required the expenditure of a billion dollars. This is far more than has ever been spent defending Her Majesty's person.
As she makes her progress through Canada we can be assured of certain things:
Gangs of monarchists will not start smashing windows and attacking police officers.
Neither Her Majesty, nor her many admirers, will resort to using profanity to express themselves.
The highlight of her visit will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding our navy. On show will be Canada's finest, who have dedicated themselves to the service of Crown and Country. They use violence as a last resort in the defense of life and liberty. Not as a method of "communicating," as do some small children and most barbarians.
Her Majesty will cast a light upon the best of Canada.
Parce que vous êtes un grand seigneur, vous vous croyez un grand génie ! ... Noblesse, fortune, un rang, des places, tout cela rend si fier ! Qu’avez-vous fait pour tant de biens ? Vous vous êtes donné la peine de naître, et rien de plus.
ReplyDeleteA wonderful post, Kipling. Most don't get it, but you get it completely. Beautiful.
ReplyDeleteJe me demande ce que l'auteur du commentaire anonyme ci-dessus trouve d'intéressant à consulter ce site puisque manifestement il ou elle nourrit des sentiments anti monarchistes et anti britanniques... La présentation de ce site mentionne qu'il s'agit d'un club monarchiste et comme vous n'en faites pas partie, vous devriez nous épargner vos commentaires infantiles au sujet de la naissance, de la fortune et de la noblesse. Vous êtes singulièrement anachronique, et il n'est pas nécessaire d'être "grand seigneur", comme vous l'écrivez pour estimer que la couronne est ce qui convient le mieux au Canada. Je partage le sentiment de Kipling quand il dit que l'honneur, la grâce et le style ne sont et ne seront jamais obsolètes, mais ce sont peut-être des valeurs qui vous échappent. En attendant, la couronne canadienne repose sur une tête bien faite et nous ne pouvons que souhaiter longue vie à notre très gracieuse Souveraine et à son consort.
ReplyDeleteLong live the Queen!
Ps: As long as you will not have something more interesting to write, you should restrict your comment to the weather....
Ils répondent qu'ils ignorent la politique, lorsque je parle de notre monarchie...
ReplyDeleteQ'Dieu protège la Reine!!!
Welsh
M.H.
2010
"no other political force in history has done more good that the British Empire"
ReplyDeleteThe assasinations and the oppression of millions of human beings in Ireland, India, Australia, Africa... The Slave trade, the apartheid in South Africa. One of the most racist, oppressive empire in history.
If Canada wants a monarchy at least the country should have a monarchy of its own, not a foreign head of state.
And of course the monarchy is undemocratic why the head of state belong to a family and is hereditary.
Why shouldn't democracy be applied to the head of state ?
Give me reasons and no nonsense that you don't vote for your parents.
My dear anonymous, you all use the same arguments to discredit the Empire, and so the same old arguments will suffice in reply.
ReplyDeleteDue to the fact it has no doubt been gone over many times before, I will keep myself brief. The British Empire did not assassinate millions of people nor did it oppress millions of people. I hardly call good laws and good government oppression.
When Hitler suggested, in all seriousness, to I believe Henderson (though it might have been Halifax) that the best way to deal with Gandhi would be to assassinate him, we thought the very idea so abhorrent that Hitler must have been joking, and that hardly gives the impression of a hard heart allowing widespread assassinations of enemies of the Empire; and we all know how much of a thorn in the side Gandhi was.
You mention the slave trade; this is a testament to the good much more than the ill of the Empire, as the Empire totally decimated the Atlantic trade - on our own coin no less, nothing any of the other empires could match. I am not sure how you can see that as wickedness, unless, of course, you approve of slavery and think it a morally good thing.
Apartheid was the work of the Boers et al first and foremost; one of the main reasons for their 'Great Trek' was that we made them give up their slaves.
Never mind Magna Carta, the love of liberty, the King James Bible, Parliament, good government, the smashing of Philip, Napoleon, the Kaiser, Hitler; the English language, a tremendous heritage in the Dominions, three of which are among the most advanced and influential nations on earth, and (had they not thrown it away) the other former colonies would have had the same as well, etc etc etc.
Why shouldn't democracy be applied to the head of state? Primarily because it does not provide good government to the same extent that a monarch does, and good government is the goal, not just more democracy.
Earl McRae wrote in the 3 July Ottawa Sun:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ottawasun.com/news/columnists/earl_mcrae/2010/07/02/14594976.html
"The Queen is perfect. I love the Queen. She is dignity and grace and decency and manners and caring and class. She has always been those. When she was a young girl, and now when she is elderly. How can you not love Queen Elizabeth?"
"Those who are against the Queen say we don’t need her, we don’t need the monarchy. Morons all. How is the Queen harming us? How is the monarchy harming us? Not at all.
What’s beautiful and reassuring is to know that the elected, commoner, federal politicians in this country — unlike in America — aren’t the highest order of our regard, our respect, it’s a woman to whom even they confer their blandishments of acknowledged superiority: The non-political Queen Elizabeth".
Long to reign over us, God save the Queen! Amen.