[IN THE NICK OF
TIME?-A LAST
CHANCE APPEAL!]
Despotism and the
origins of the
European Union
by
Don Briggs
Don Briggs finds
that Alexis de
Tocqueville has much
to teach us about
freedom
Peter Mullen,
concerned about our
feebleness today
[Winter-2008/9],
expressed bafflement
at how the British
people coped with
casualty levels such
as the death toll of
2,614 in one night
in 1941.
It
was a mystery to
A. L. Rowse. In his
'The use of History
'(Hodder &
Stoughton, 1946)
Rowse attributed it
to the fact that
"Germany
was a strong state
with a weak people.
Britain was a week
state with a strong
people."
As regards the
origins of the
European Union,
which Philip Warren
believes days back
to the 1920's, they
could be earlier.
In
the wake of the
French Revolution of
1789, which shook
the world, Edmund
Burke said to the
French: " You wish
to correct the
abuses of your
government, but why
not return to your
old traditions? Why
not confine yourself
to ma resumption of
your ancient
liberties? Or, if
not possible to
recover the
obliterated features
of your original
constitution why
not look towards
England." There you
would have found the
ancient common law
of Europe.
Burke
was chided by a wise
Frenchman for
failing to
understand the true
meaning of the
revolution. In his
L'ancien regime
et la revolution,
Alexis de
Tocqueville wrote:
"
Burke did not see
that what was taking
place before his
eyes was a
revolution whose aim
was precisely to
abolish the 'ancient
common law of
Europe' and that
there could be no
question of putting
the clock back."
In a
version published by
Doubleday Anchor in
1955, written three
years before his
death in 1859. De
Tocqueville lamented
that his countrymen
had abandoned the
original ideal of
the Revolution and
turned their backs
on freedom to "
acquiesce in an
equality of
servitude under the
master of all
Europe" (sounds
familiar).
In place of the old
regime they had
created and accepted
an all-powerful
government, stronger
and more autocratic
than the one they
had destroyed, and
which " suppressed
our dearly-bought
liberties and
replaced them by a
mere pretence of
freedom. France's
tamed Assemblies
were there now only
to give meaningless
assent in servility
and silence."
(familiar?)
"Thus
was the nation
deprived both of
means of
self-government and
of the chief
guarantee of its
rights, that is the
freedom of speech,
thought and
literature which
ranked among the
most valuable
achievements of the
revolution."
Despotic government
had made France the
sick man of Europe,
wrote de Tocqueville
because it had
virtually
extinguished all
those virtues which
were so vital to a
nation: a spirit of
healthy
independence, high
ambitions, faith in
oneself and in a
cause, he said.
(familiar?) De
Tocqueville stated
three facts with
certainty about the
future.
1.
All his
contemporaries were
driven by a force
which might have
checked or curbed
but which they could
not stop; the
headlong destruction
of the aristocracy.
"Freedom alone is
capable of lifting
men's minds above
mammon worship."
2. Those
peoples whose
constitutions make
it most difficult to
get rid of despotic
government for any
considerable period,
were those where
aristocracy had
ceased to exist.
3.
Nowhere was
despotism calculated
to produce such evil
effects as in social
groups as these
where ties of
family, of caste, of
class and craft
fraternities no
longer
exist, people became
self-seekers, think
only of their own
interests, narrow
individualists
caring nothing for
the public good.
despotism encourages
these vices, and
money becomes the
sole criteria of a
social status,
changing hands
incessantly, raising
and lowering the
status of
individuals and
families. Feelings
for others' welfare
cools; despotic
government freezes
them.
" love of gain, a
fondness for
business careers,
the desire to get
rich al all costs, a
craving for material
comfort and easy
living become ruling
passions under a
despotic
government... and
tend to lower the
moral
standards...(familiar?)
" Lowering as
they do the national
morale, they are
despotism's
safeguard since they
divert men's
attention from
public affairs and
make them shudder at
the mere thought of
a revolution.
"
Despotism alone can
provide that
atmosphere of
secrecy which
favours crooked
dealings and enables
the freebooters of
finance to make
illicit fortunes."
Despotism gave these
vices free rein. "
Freedom and freedom
alone can extirpate
these vices, for
only freedom can
deliver the members
of a community from
that isolation which
is the lot of the
individual left to
his own devices..."
And " Freedom
alone is capable of
lifting men's minds
above mere mammon
worship."
Societies must be
democratic, and
Christian too, but
if they were not
free, " I make bold
to say, never shall
we find under such
conditions a great
citizen, still less
a great nation;
indeed I
would...maintain
that where equality
and tyranny co
exist, a steady
deterioration of the
mental and moral
standards of a
nation is
inevitable."
wrote de
Tocqueville.
In
July 1971,
Edward Heath, as
Conservative Prime
Minister,
promised a
government White
paper,
Britain and Europe:
" The
British safeguards
of habeas corpus and
trial by jury will
remain intact. So
will the principle
that a man is
innocent until
proved guilty."
" The common law
will remain the
basis of our legal
system."
As we
watch habeas corpus
and the common law
go out of the window
today along with our
other freedoms, it
is worth recalling
what
Winston Churchill;
once said about the
alternatives if we
abandoned our
parliamentary
democracy:
:"
there is really only
one, namely
Dictatorship." And
of its many forms, "
rule by a caucus of
political
secretaries driven
by bigoted
conviction" was one
of them.
That
too sounds familiar.
MAGNA CARTA
[We chanced on
this article with
others a few days
ago and realised
that they had to be
included in the
Christmas message
because as our
heading above we
have little time
left to make a stand
in the true
Winstonian spirit to
reclaim what is ours
by RIGHT! and was in
trust for future
generations. What
was the point of our
people fighting in
the past TWO WORLD
WARS with such huge
casualties and cost
to let what we had
held in trust to be
given away by our
own representatives.
This is your last
chance to make
amends and show the
greater number of
your supposed
protectors of your
accustomed
" RIGHTS and
LIBERTIES of
ENGLISHMAN"
[COMMENTS IN
BRACKETS AND
HIGHLIGHTING AND
CAPS ARE OURS!]
THE ABOVE ARTICLE BY
DON BRIGGS-FREEDOM
TODAY-Winter-2008/9
DECEMBER-2013
* * *
ON
DECEMBER 12,2019 at
the General Election
those who wished to
live again in a FREE
NATION STATE voted
to LEAVE THE EU.
However though the
People voted to do
so in June 2016 they
are now informed by
David Churchill the
Daily Mail Brussels
Correspondent on
Saturday December
28,2019
EU
'Want us tied to
single market for
THREE YEARS
[Making a total of
over 6 years since
the overwhelming
victory
to
LEAVE THE EU in June
2016.]
It is stated in the
article of December
28,2019.
THE European Union
may ask Britain to
remain locked inside
its single market
until 2023.
Ironically, the man
of the hour Boris
Johnson and Michael
Gove, are greatly
responsible for the
delay, since their
inter- rivalry after
the June 23,2016
resulted in Theresa
May a ardent
REMAINER becoming
Prime Minister, and
we all now know the
result of that great
fatal consequence,
in delaying our
delivery from
Hitler's planned so-called EU.
Because of this past
history it is
important that we
LEAVE THE EU
WITH A
NO DEAL]
DECEMBER 28-2019
]H.F.1805 |