Sunday Drive: Louie Louie

I now have it on very good authority--my spies are everywhere--that the name of His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge is pronounced Louie.

Therefore, I just can't resist offering, in the spirit of trans-Atlantic friendship, this famous old American tune in celebration of HRH's birth.

Cambridge Baby Number Three

Embed from Getty Images

Surely my truckbuddies have already heard the lovely news that yesterday, being by happy auspices St. George's Day, the Duchess of Cambridge was delivered of a prince around lunchtime in London, and before the day was out the Duke was driving mother and baby home, a merry smile on his face, such as you might expect to see on that of any proud papa.  As is the royal custom in such matters, the baby's name will be announced at a later date.




Yes, it is rather a lot of fuss to be made over an anonymous baby, identical in all essential respects to every other baby in the world, who may or may not ever do anything remarkable. And there are those who will question the fairness and rightness of showering so much attention and status upon any baby, or any family, born to wealth and privilege. However, as I am not running a course in political philosophy here, I feel no need to delve for a reply to that inquiry.

I will merely ask, whether things that are not, strictly speaking, needful in the scheme of things may yet be deemed useful and good. One has only to turn one's gaze from this happy scene beyond the sea to the ugly, sordid, vicious, loathsome orgy of political maneuvering and recrimination on our own shores to be reminded that a republic is not necessarily a garden of sober patriotism and civic virtue. And who will assert that the American system - or any system but an imaginary one - is devoid of undeserved fame or entitled wealth and privilege, sometimes nefariously misused and perverted for utterly selfish ends, or damnable purposes? In England, at least, the wealth and privilege of a crown comes only at the heavy price of lifelong duty, diligence, and impartial conduct in every public word and deed.

I ask you, whether monarchist or no, is it not refreshing to look at the simple happiness of a young, wholesome, thoroughly unpolitical couple with their newborn child, the "brilliant edition of a universal fact," as Bagehot put it, and then to feel that perhaps there is yet some hope left for sanity and decency in this rotten old world?

But there, with all good wishes to little No-name and his family, I must leave you to draw your own conclusions.

It's a Prince!

At 9 p.m. BST, an aerial view from the Telegraph's live coverage shows
a small crowd gathered in front of Buckingham Palace to cheer the news.

The Telegraph reports:

The baby was born at 4.24pm, weighing 8lbs and 6ozs. The Duke of Cambridge was present at the birth, and both mother and baby are said to be doing well.

Well done, Kate.

Clarence House, home of the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, announces:

The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince Harry & families have been told and are delighted.

What I Say: A monarchy would never do over here, of course, and we Americans are rightly proud of all that we have achieved and ensured through our republican traditions. Still, from a wider view of the life of nations, there is something about the continuity and renewal that each new generation of a monarchy, especially this one, provides that is satisfying at the level of the human heart, and for a moment makes one feel that all is right with the world and things are unfolding as they should.

Mere illusory sentiment and nonsense, you say. But Reader, pray tell me what feeling, great or small, have you ever had in your entire life that from the standpoint of cold science and remorseless logic was not, at bottom, a mere illusion? The right sort of illusions, or we may call them ideals, are both proper and indeed necessary to civilized life.

Man does not live by logic and science alone, not nearly. What lifts him above the level of mere animality is the enfolding sense of belonging to the human race, nobler than the beasts and a little lower than the angels, touched by something warm and tender and enduring - the human capacity for the divine which comes hopefully into the world all over again at the birth of each new child - that is to say, a freshly minted spark of the Love that moves the stars.

The editors of the Telegraph seem to agree with your Head Trucker:

A baby, to be welcomed into the world, does not have to show any qualifications. The nation welcomes this particular prince not just because his parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have exhibited charm, humour and a sense of duty. Nor is an heir to the throne a good thing just because the present Queen is so admirable. It is the case, though, that Britain is readier now to declare itself in favour of the monarchy than a generation ago. This only reflects the arguments of republicans, which are threadbare and theoretical, whereas the benefits of the monarchy have been tried and tested by any Briton alive. Nor is it an objection that an heir comes by accident of birth. Accidents of birth are the way that families continue in being, and a family is a microcosm of the kingdom. . . .

The Prince arrives at an interesting time in the history of the United Kingdom. It is in a period of transition, though not, we are confident, a transition to a dismembered Union. Gone is the weary presumption that we are a small island in decline. We have always been quite a large island, as islands go. The sense of nationhood need not run out like North Sea oil. “No future” sang the Sex Pistols for the Silver Jubilee of 1977, but there was a future, of our own making – and there still is. The monarchy is part of it. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, exhibited a welcome historical perspective in commenting on the birth. When this child is old, he observed, “the 1940s will be as far away as the Crimean War and the charge of the Light Brigade is today”. Many of us will not be there to look back from that standpoint, but it shows vividly that (like any child) a prince is a declaration of confidence in the future. By embodying history, monarchy is implicitly conservative; by investing in generations to come it is implicitly progressive.

So we are left with emotions as warm as the weather. These are not irrational if founded on a fact, and a fact weighing 8lb 6oz is a solid enough fact. We wish mother and son well. When any baby is born we may want to ring bells in celebration. For a prince, we can, and the big guns too will fire 41 times in salute. This is something we are not shy to make a noise about.

Update, 7/24/13:  The Telegraph reports that the little tyke is to be named George Alexander Louis, formally known as HRH Prince George of Cambridge.  Which is a very nice name, to be sure, but I was a bit disappointed that Philip was not one of the names.  I don't think the Duke of Edinburgh, still convalescing now at Windsor Castle after abdominal surgery last month, has ever gotten his props for being the rock of the monarchy in this queen's reign. 

But George certainly is a good remembrance of the Queen's father and grandfather, both beloved and very successful monarchs.

Royal Baby News Caps Queen's Diamond Jubilee Year

First comes love, then comes marriage,
Then comes baby in a baby carriage!

It's official: HRH the Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby, who will likely be born next June or July. Britain is rightly agog with the happy news, and felicitations are pouring in from all corners of the world.

Here's the Telegraph's editorial, which appeared under the headline "Delightful News":

Just the right word to describe the reaction of the Royal family and the Duchess of Cambridge’s family to the news that she is expecting a baby is “delighted”. It is a delight the nation can share, as we shared the joy of the wedding of the new Duke and Duchess on an April morning last year. Who would not be delighted at the prospect of a mother’s first child, especially a mother who has won affection with her natural beauty and straightforward character?

It is sad that the Duchess has an extreme form of morning sickness, though she is in good hands. The best medical technology will doubtless be placed at her disposal; indeed, such have been the advances since the birth of the present Queen, and so hardy is our ruling dynasty, that the new heir to the throne could see the Windsors into the 22nd century. The thought itself is comforting – and delightful.

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It does give one a rather warm, jolly feeling - something our republic has no counterpart of. Not a necessary thing, of course; but a nice one.

More coverage from the Telegraph:





As a side note, it is expected that before the baby is born, Parliament will have passed a bill allowing the couple's firstborn child to become monarch, regardless of sex.