Writes Mr. Theodore Dalrymple over at Taki's Magazine:
Modern politicians, having been given the mandate of heaven (vox populi vox Dei), do not accept limitations of their authority or their moral competence, even if, in practice, only a third or even a quarter of the eligible voters have voted for them. Procedural correctness is all that is necessary for such a man to feel justified in pursuing his own moral enthusiasms at other people’s expense.
98 years ago today, Emperor-King Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary passed away – ending a reign eleven days short of 68 years.
Archduke Karl ascended the thrones of the Dual Monarchy as Emperor-King, with his eldest son, Archduke Otto as Crown Prince.
To Her Britannic Majesty and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.
They married three years short of seventy years ago today.
Today marks the 102nd birthday of the late Archduke Otto of Austria – the fourth after his passing.
The Principality of Monaco, one of two monarchies in Europe where the monarch can actually in any meaningful way be said to still be ruling, celebrates her National Day.
Congratulations! Especially to the Princely Family and the people and residents of Monaco! And good wishes for the expected heirs!
Eight years short of a century ago today, Mehmed VI was expelled and departed Constantinople.
In this constitutional bicentennial year, two years short of two centuries ago today, Christian August Selmer, Norwegian Prime Minister of King Oscar II, who fought with His Majesty against the usurping Parliament during the “constitutional crisis” of the 1880s, was born.
Prime Minister Selmer met with King Oscar at Sofiero Palace to discuss how to handle the “constitutional crisis.”
Five quarters of a century ago today, Emperor Pedro II was deposed.
Two years shot of a century ago today, Henry Charles Keith Petty-Fitzmaurice, the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, former Governor General of Canada and Viceroy of India, expressed disagreement with the Allied war effort. About a year later, he wrote (according to the History Channel):
[The] prolongation [of the war] will spell ruin for the civilized world, and an infinite addition to the load of human suffering which already weighs upon it[...]
Eight dozen years ago today, the guns of the Great War fell silent – the first anniversary of Armistice Day after the centennial of the beginning of that same dreadful war.
On the same day, the Emperor of Austria renounced power and the Austro-Hungarian Imperial-Royal Family moved from Schönbrunn to internal exile at Eckartsau.
Two days later, the Hungarian equivalent to the Austrian renunciation was signed at Eckartsau.
A world ended, it was the dawn of a new age, the era of Wilsonian mass democracy.
On the day 29 years later, on November 11, 1947, Winston Churchill delivered his famous dictum on democracy (also: on his supposed quote on a five minute conversation with an average voter). He did so in defense of the prerogatives of the House of Lords. The following year the first volume of Churchill's six-volume work on World War Two came out. In his assessment of World War One and its end, Churchill praised the achievements of the Habsburg monarchy and decried how World War One was a war of peoples who could not come to good terms with each other, as opposed to how the aristocrats managed affairs at the Congress of Vienna just over a hundred years earlier.
It is too the anniversary of the House of Lords Act 1999.
This seems to be a day for modern democracy. At least, the end of a dreadful war should indeed be celebrated, as a deed in itself.
In this centennial year of the outbreak of the war to end civilization, four years short of a century ago today, Emperor Wilhelm II's abdication was announced.
Four years short of a century ago today, the world was struck by Red October.
In the present money madness, Dr. Tom Woods gives a simple but excellent explanation of the Austrian business cycle theory:
Two centuries ago today, the Kingdoms og Sweden and Norway were joined in union through the Norwegian Parliament's constitutional revision of this day, resulting in what is known as the November Constitution.
In this year of the centennial of the outbreak of World War I, four years short of a century ago today, revolutionaries were making their way in Austria-Hungary and Germany.
In this year of 225 years since the outbreak of the French Revolution, a year short of nine quarters of a century ago today, Edmund Burke had his Reflections on the Revolution in France appropriately published.
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