Tea at Trianon: Invasion

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Invasion

From Jeffrey Lord:

On Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced that he will be invoking an “invasion” clause of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions to combat President Biden’s (D) illegal immigration crisis at the U.S. southern border. The announcement comes shortly after Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported that border officials had encountered more than 230,000 migrants attempting to illegally cross the southern border last month – an all-time record for October.

Additionally, CBP officials reportedly told Fox News that there were about 64,000 “gotaways” in October, meaning that more than 2,000 illegal immigrants managed to evade border patrols each day.

“I invoked the Invasion Clauses of the U.S. & Texas Constitutions to fully authorize Texas to take unprecedented measures to defend our state against an invasion,” Abbott announced on Tuesday.

“I’m using that constitutional authority, & other authorization & Executive Orders to keep our state & country safe,” he added. (Read more.)