Robert Menzies: 'I did but see her passing by", Welcome remarks for Queen Elizabeth II - 1963

18 February 1963. Parliament House, Canberra, Australia

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness

It's my very great privilege as Prime Minister, your Prime Minister, Madam of Australia to offer you and His Royal Highness a very, very warm welcome once more to this country.

I know that we had a little arrangement that speeches should be reduced to the minimum,. a matter of , which I think I might safely say Your Majesty warmly approved, but you can't expect, really, in this place of Parliament which is the house of speeches, and with myself and then the Deputy Prime Minister and then the Leader of your Opposition in this country, to let the occasion pass without saying something.

But I assure you, Ma'am, we will reduce it to a minimum.

The first thing that I want to say is to remind everybody of something you said when you were here last, when you referred to the fact that in the constitutional structure of Australia Parliamentary, executive, judicial you are there.

You are, indeed the Head of this House. " Be it enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty" and, therefore Madam, you are among your friends, and in one sense, among your colleagues. We, of course, are also delighted to see His Royal Highness, Prince Phillip, who has been here a few times — not enough but a few times — and who has a standing among us which I don't need to describe because he has been conscious of it so many ' times.

Ma’am, there are a lot of interesting people in the world who like to discuss the Monarchy. There are clever people in the world, at least so I understand, who have discovered that all sorts of things ought to be done to the Monarchy, to democratize the Monarchy, to do something to it, to do something to what we all are proud to say is the most democratic Monarchy in the whole wide world. ( Applause)

We pay no attention to that; when we see you, we see you as our Queen, we see you as our Sovereign Lady, we see you as the successor of monarchs who in this very century, have by their own conduct and their own standards and their own genius, helped to preserve our Monarchy in a world in which crowns have been tumbling and disasters have beset mankind.

And we are proud to think that so far from abrogating any of our liberty, because we are your subjects, we know that we add to our liberty because we are your subjects as are scores and scores of millions of people around the world, and out of all our joint allegiance to you comes an addition to our freedom, not a subtraction from it.

Your Majesty, it’s a proud thought for us to have you here, to remind ourselves that in thiis great structure of Government which has evolved and of which this Parliament is one of the fruits, you — if I may use the expression are the living and lovely centre of our enduring allegiance. (Applause)

Ma'am, I say one thing more and one thing only. You today begin your journey around Australia. It is a journey you have made before. You will be seen in the next few weeks by .hundreds of thousands and, I hope, by millions of your Australian subjects. Mothers will hold their children up to have a look at you as you go by, and they themselves, and their husbands will have a look at you as you go by. This must be to you now something that is almost a task. All I ask you to remember, in this country of yours, is that every man, woman and child who even sees you with a passing glimpse as you go by, will remember it remember it with joy, remember it in the words of the old seventeenth-century poet who wrote those famous words " I did but see her passing by. And yet I love her till I die"

Queen Elizabeth waves to first nations people of the Northern Territory during her 1954 tour. Photo State Library of NSW collection

Neville Bonner: 'Once again you are telling us that you know better. How dare you!' Constitutional Convention - 1998

4 February 1998, Canberra, Australia

This is a part transcript . The full transcript is pasted below.

My heart is heavy. I worry for my children and my grandchildren. I worry that what has proven to be a stable society, which now recognizes my people as equals, is about to be replaced. How dare you. I repeat, how dare you.

You told my people that your system was best. We have come to accept that. We have come to believe that. The dispossessed, despised adapted to your system. Now you say that you were wrong and that we were wrong to believe you.

Suddenly you are saying that what brought the country together, made it independent, that ensured its defence, saw it through peace and war, and saw it through depression and prosperity, you are saying all this must go.

I cannot see the need for change, I cannot see how it will help my people. I cannot see how it will resolve the question of land and access to land that troubles us.

Fellow Australians, what is most hurtful is that after all we have learned together, after subjugating us and then freeing us, once again you are telling us that you know better. How dare you? How dare you?

I look across this chamber and cannot fail to see the very rich amongst you … what reason do you have now in 1998 to tell the indigenous people that we must accept what you have decided about our country again. Why are you doing this?

King Charles I: 'I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible crown', Speech from the scaflold - 1649

30 January 1649, outside Whitehall, London, England

I shall be very little heard of anybody here, I shall therefore speak a word unto you here.

Indeed I could hold my peace very well, if I did not think that holding my peace would make some men think that I did submit to the guilt as well as to the punishment. But I think it is my duty to God first and to my country for to clear myself both as an honest man and a good King, and a good Christian.

I shall begin first with my innocence.

In truth I think it not very needful for me to insist long upon this, for all the world knows that I never did begin a War with the two Houses of Parliament. And I call God to witness, to whom I must shortly make an account, that I never did intend for to encroach upon their privileges. They began upon me, it is the Militia they began upon, they confessed that the Militia was mine, but they thought it fit for to have it from me. And, to be short, if any body will look to the dates of Commissions, of their commissions and mine, and likewise to the Declarations, will see clearly that they began these unhappy troubles, not I. So that as the guilt of these enormous crimes that are laid against me I hope in God that God will clear me of it.

I will not, I am in charity, God forbid that I should lay it upon the two Houses of Parliament. There is no necessity of either. I hope that they are free of this guilt, for I do believe that ill instruments between them and me has been the chief cause of all this bloodshed; so that by way of speaking, as I find myself clear of this, I hope and pray God that they may too; yet for all this, God forbid that I should be so ill a Christian as not to say that Gods Judgments are just upon me.

Many times He does pay justice by an unjust sentence, that is ordinary. I will only say this, that an unjust sentence that I suffered to take effect, is punished now by an unjust sentence upon me. That is, so far as I have said, to show you that I am an innocent man.

Now to show you that I am a good Christian; I hope there is [pointing to D. Juxon] a good man that will bear me witness that I have forgiven all the world, and even those in particular that have been the chief causers of my death. Who they are, God knows, I do not desire to know, God forgive them. But this is not all, my charity must go further.

I wish that they may repent, for indeed they have committed a great sin in that particular. I pray God, with St. Stephen, that this be not laid to their charge. Nay, not only so, but that they may take the right way to the peace of the kingdom, for my charity commands me not only to forgive particular men, but my charity commands me to endeavor to the last gasp the peace of the kingdom.

So, Sirs, I do wish with all my soul, and I do hope there is some here [turning to some gentlemen that wrote] that will carry it further, that they may endeavor the peace of the kingdom.

Now, sirs, I must show you both how you are out of the way and will put you in a way.

First, you are out of the way, for certainly all the way you have ever had yet, as I could find by anything, is by way of conquest. Certainly this is an ill way, for Conquest, sirs, in my opinion, is never just, except that there be a good just cause, either for matter of wrong or just title. And then if you go beyond it, the first quarrel that you have to it, that makes it unjust at the end that was just at the first. But if it be only matter of conquest, there is a great robbery, as a pirate said to Alexander the Great, that he was the great robber, he was just a petty robber. And so, sirs, I do think the way that you are in, is much out of the way.

Now, sirs, to put you in the way, believe it, you will never do right, nor God will never prosper you, until you give God his due, the King his due (that is, my successors) and the people their due. I am as much for them as any of you.

You must give God his due by regulating rightly His church according to the Scripture, which is now out of order. For to set you in a way particularly, now I cannot, but only this. A national synod freely called, freely debating among themselves, must settle this, when that every opinion is freely and clearly heard.

For the King, indeed I will not, [then turning to a gentlemen that touched the ax] Hurt not the Ax, that may hurt me.

For the King the Laws of the land will clearly instruct you for that; therefore, because it concerns my own particular, I only give you a touch of it.

For the people, and truly I desire their liberty and freedom as much as any body whomsoever. But I must tell you that their liberty and freedom consists in having of government. Those Laws by which their life and their goods may be most their own. It is not for having share in government, sirs. That is nothing pertaining to them. A subject and a sovereign are clean different things, and therefore until they do that, I mean, that you do put the people in that liberty as I say, certainly they will never enjoy themselves.

Sirs, it was for this that now I am come here. If I would have given way to an arbitrary way, for to have all laws changed according to the power of the sword, I needed not to have come here. And therefore I tell you, and I pray God it be not laid to your charge, that I am the martyr of the people.

In truth, sirs, I shall not hold you much longer, for I will only say thus to you. That in truth I could have desired some little time longer, because I would have put then that I have said in a little more order, and a little better digested than I have done. And, therefore, I hope that you will excuse me.

I have delivered my conscience. I pray God, that you do take those courses that are best for the good of the kingdom and your own salvation.

[William Juxon, Archbishop of Canterbury:]

Will Your Majesty, though it may be very well known Your Majesties affections to religion, yet it may be expected, that You should, say somewhat for the world's satisfaction.

[King:]

I thank you very heartily, my Lord, for that. I had almost forgotten it.

In truth, sirs, my conscience in religion, I think, is very well known to all the world. And therefore, I declare before you all that I die a Christian, according to the profession of the Church of England, as I found it left me by my father.

And this honest man [pointing to Juxon] I think will witness it.
[Then turning to the Officers]

Sirs, excuse me for this same. I have a good Cause, and I have a gracious God. I will say no more.

[Then turning to Colonel Hacker]

Take care that they do not put me to pain. And sir, this, and it please you...

[But then a gentleman coming near the Ax, the King said]

Take heed of the ax, pray, take heed of the ax.
 

[Then to the Executioner]

I shall say but very short prayers, and when I thrust out my hands.

[Then the King called to Juxon for His night cap and put it on. Then to the Executioner]

Does my hair trouble you?

[The Executioner desired Him to put it all under His cap, which the King did accordingly, by the help of the Executioner and the Bishop. Then the King turning to Juxon:]

I have a good cause, and a gracious God on my side.
 

[Juxon:]

There is but one Stage more, which is turbulent and troublesome, yet it is a short one. You may consider it will soon carry you a very great way. It will carry you from earth to heaven. And there you shall find a great deal of cordial, joy, and comfort.


[King:]

I go from a corruptible, to an incorruptible Crown, where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world.

[Juxon:]

You are exchanged from a temporal to an eternal crown. A good exchange.


[The King then asked the Executioner]

Is my hair well?

[Then the king took off his cloak and his George, giving his George to Juxon, saying:]

Remember.

[Then the King put off his doublet and, being in his waistcoat, put his cloak on again. Then looking upon the block, the king said to the Executioner:]

You must set it fast.


[Executioner:]

It is fast, sir.

[King:]

It might have been a little higher.

[Executioner:]

It can be no higher, sir.

[King:]

When I put out my hands this way, then.

[After having said a few words as he stood to himself with hands and eyes lift up, immediately stooping down, the king laid his neck on the block. Then the Executioner again putting his hair under his cap, the king said:]

Stay for the sign.

[Executioner:]

Yes, I will, and it please Your Majesty.

[After a very little pause, the king stretching forth his hands, the Executioner at one blow, severed his head from his body.]

Elizabeth II: 'I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands', First televised Queen's speech - 1957

25 December 1957, Sandringham House, Norfolk, United Kingdom

This was the first Queen's speech to be televised. 

Happy Christmas.

Twenty-five years ago my grandfather broadcast the first of these Christmas messages. Today is another landmark because television has made it possible for many of you to see me in your homes on Christmas Day. My own family often gather round to watch television as they are this moment, and that is how I imagine you now.

I very much hope that this new medium will make my Christmas message more personal and direct.

It is inevitable that I should seem a rather remote figure to many of you. A successor to the Kings and Queens of history; someone whose face may be familiar in newspapers and films but who never really touches your personal lives. But now at least for a few minutes I welcome you to the peace of my own home.

That it is possible for some of you to see me today is just another example of the speed at which things are changing all around us. Because of these changes I am not surprised that many people feel lost and unable to decide what to hold on to and what to discard. How to take advantage of the new life without losing the best of the old.

But it is not the new inventions which are the difficulty. The trouble is caused by unthinking people who carelessly throw away ageless ideals as if they were old and outworn machinery.

They would have religion thrown aside, morality in personal and public life made meaningless, honesty counted as foolishness and self-interest set up in place of self-restraint.

At this critical moment in our history we will certainly lose the trust and respect of the world if we just abandon those fundamental principles which guided the men and women who built the greatness of this country and Commonwealth.

Today we need a special kind of courage, not the kind needed in battle but a kind which makes us stand up for everything that we know is right, everything that is true and honest. We need the kind of courage that can withstand the subtle corruption of the cynics so that we can show the world that we are not afraid of the future.

It has always been easy to hate and destroy. To build and to cherish is much more difficult. That is why we can take a pride in the new Commonwealth we are building.

This year Ghana and Malaya joined our brotherhood. Both these countries are now entirely self-governing. Both achieved their new status amicably and peacefully.

This advance is a wonderful tribute to the efforts of men of goodwill who have worked together as friends, and I welcome these two countries with all my heart.

Last October I opened the new Canadian Parliament, and as you know this was the first time that any Sovereign had done so in Ottawa. Once again I was overwhelmed by the loyalty and enthusiasm of my Canadian people.

Also during 1957 my husband and I paid visits to Portugal, France, Denmark and the United States of America. In each case the arrangements and formalities were managed with great skill but no one could have 'managed' the welcome we received from the people.

In each country I was welcomed as Head of the Commonwealth and as your representative. These nations are our friends largely because we have always tried to do our best to be honest and kindly and because we have tried to stand up for what we believe to be right.

In the old days the monarch led his soldiers on the battlefield and his leadership at all times was close and personal.

Today things are very different. I cannot lead you into battle, I do not give you laws or administer justice but I can do something else, I can give you my heart and my devotion to these old islands and to all the peoples of our brotherhood of nations.

I believe in our qualities and in our strength, I believe that together we can set an example to the world which will encourage upright people everywhere.

I would like to read you a few lines from 'Pilgrim's Progress', because I am sure we can say with Mr Valiant for Truth, these words:

"Though with great difficulty I am got hither, yet now I do not repent me of all the trouble I have been at to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who now will be my rewarder."

I hope that 1958 may bring you God's blessing and all the things you long for.

And so I wish you all, young and old, wherever you may be, all the fun and enjoyment, and the peace of a very happy Christmas.

Geroge VI: 'For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war', broadcast to the Empire - 1939

3 September, 1939, London, United Kingdom

This speech is a feature in the movie 'The King's Speech'. It was delivered with His Majesty's Australian speech therapist, Lionel Logue, in the room.

In this grave hour, perhaps the most fateful in our history, I send to every household of my peoples, both at home and overseas, this message, spoken with the same depth of feeling for each one of you as if I were able to cross your threshold and speak to you myself.

For the second time in the lives of most of us, we are at war.

Over and over again, we have tried to find a peaceful way out of the differences between ourselves and those who are now our enemies; but it has been in vain.

We have been forced into a conflict, for we are called, with our allies, to meet the challenge of a principle which, if it were to prevail, would be fatal to any civilized order in the world.

It is a principle which permits a state, in the selfish pursuit of power, to disregard its treaties and its solemn pledges, which sanctions the use of force or threat of force against the sovereignty and independence of other states.

Such a principle, stripped of all disguise, is surely the mere primitive doctrine that might is right, and if this principle were established through the world, the freedom of our own country and of the whole British Commonwealth of nations would be in danger.

But far more than this, the peoples of the world would be kept in bondage of fear, and all hopes of settled peace and of the security, of justice and liberty, among nations, would be ended.

This is the ultimate issue which confronts us.  For the sake of all that we ourselves hold dear, and of the world order and peace, it is unthinkable that we should refuse to meet the challenge.

It is to this high purpose that I now call my people at home, and my peoples across the seas, who will make our cause their own.

I ask them to stand calm and firm and united in this time of trial.

The task will be hard.  There may be dark days ahead, and war can no longer be confined to the battlefield, but we can only do the right as we see the right, and reverently commit our cause to God.  If one and all we keep resolutely faithful to it, ready for whatever service or sacrifice it may demand, then with God's help, we shall prevail.

May He bless and keep us all.