Posted by Richard Toporoski
on September 8, 2009, 3:30 pm, in reply to "Re: Some Monarchical Questions..."
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As Mr Benson explains, the use of "We", "Us", and "Our" is traditional for sovereigns when writing in the most formal contexts (Queen Victoria's apocryphal comment, "We are not amused", being an importation of this practice into informal speech, although Roman Pontiffs continued to use the plural even in speech up to Pope John XXIII). As for an explanation of the usage, in a note published in "Questions Answered" in The Times on 29 May, 2002, I suggested that when the later Roman Empire began to be ruled regularly by a college of emperors, these rulers naturally referred to themselves as "We" in their pronouncements. Then, when Germanic chieftains moved south and became territorial European rulers, they adopted the only royal practices they knew, those of the emperors of the later Roman Empire, including, for example, the orb and the royal plural, forgetting that the plural had originally actually referred to more than one person.
Contemporary Canadian governments have forgotten that speeches from the throne are in theory the representative of the Crown's explanation to a legislature "why he/she has summoned you". Indeed, Canadian media no longer report, for example, "The Lieutenant-Governor said...," but "The government said in its speech from the throne, read by the lieutenant-governor...." Speeches from the throne have ceased to be an outline of proposed legislation (rarely are phrases like "Legislation will be laid before you to..." or "You will be asked to consider..." used any more), and the Lieutenant-Governor of British Columbia, for example, is now compelled to add a few informal comments of his own at the end, since the government does not allow him his proper opportunity within the speech. Since these speeches have in practice become "State of the Federation" or "State of the Province" addresses, that is, propaganda statements of the government itself, it no longer occurs to governments to allow governors to refer to them as "My government" or "My ministers".
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