Tea at Trianon: A Warning to the West

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

Friday, January 2, 2026

A Warning to the West

From Diane Montagna:

Europe is undergoing a process of intentional self-annihilation. Its political leaders have sealed the continent’s fate through unchecked mass migration, deliberately choosing to replace the coming generations with Muslims. The Church has aided them in this endeavor with talk of “mercy” towards refugees, while justice for Europeans has been sidelined. And perhaps the bell would not have tolled with such finality, had Europe held fast to its ancient faith. Yet in religion’s stead, each person determines his own morality and subjective truth. Christianity is viewed as superfluous to true ethics and human rights.
One might even argue that the European elite—in politics, media, and beyond—are relentlessly pressing and manipulating the population toward surrender, even self-erasure, thereby igniting the fierce counterfire of a surging populism they themselves provoked. They must explain the reason for such folly. A German economist once remarked on former Chancellor Merkel’s inexplicably destructive migration policies: “Either she has lost her mind, or she pursues some hidden agenda unknown to us.” This is compounded by the tendency of the so-called elite to converse chiefly among their own kind, insulated from the concerns and reflections of ordinary citizens—a detachment that serves to bolster their one-sided dominance.
Wolfgang Kubicki, the former liberal vice president of the German Bundestag, who authored the book Meinungsunfreiheit (Unfreedom of Opinion), observed that whereas people once exchanged arguments to find the truth, they now discredit the people who make arguments so that no one has to address the arguments themselves. This tactic was rightly condemned by US Vice President J.D. Vance in his memorable address in Europe. And this was precisely the point of President Trump’s recent warning: Look at Germany, see what they have done there, and know what awaits us should we fail to alter course — irrespective of whether one agrees with every step he has taken. (Read more.)