The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-31

in folling great Russian despotism rotten at
the core. barely succeeded in Italy in in
flictipg defeat that was barely more than a
drawn battle on the most alien and worst
organized government which ever earned the
curses of q nation. 1 did not even succeed
against the barbarous anarchy of Mexico, and
the moment q great power threw its weight
into the scale, l had to retreat, and infanously
leave the ruler of my choice to a shameful
death. Iwoefully failed in curbing the de-
crepit power of the Pope. 1 woefully failed
in setting limits to the ambition of Prussia.
And now that l have for the first time pitted
myself and my people against power really
young, fresh, and full Of vigor, 1 am staring
ruin in the face and waiting helplessly for
the coup de grace. My main idea Of internal
government, that you can give the form of
popular liberty while retaining, in an admi-
nist1ation which has a chronic fear of the
people, the means of undermining and plot
ting against its will, has turned out failure.
My main idea of foreign policy. that you can
crafty the sentiment of patriotism and of
unity of race without conceding the power
which makes patriotism and unity of
race formidable to neighboring am
billions, has proved drearier
failure still. My scheme for
freeing Italy from the foreigner, and yet not
giving it to the Italians, was but the first and
greatest blow against my own throne. My
hope of gratifying the federal instinct of Ger
many without raising anew rival to France was
futile dream. Whether in foreign or home
policy, the limits which plotted to assign to
the popular ideas l recognized have been
mere threads round the arms of a giant.
And the very advantages on which 1 counted
from imposing those limits, the advantages
of strong administration beyond the med
ding of popular criticism, have proved disad-
vantages instead. My personal government
has turned out not only corrupt but
feeble, unable even to bring strong army
into the field, and to sustain the glitter of
the Imperial name 1 had thought that l
could at once give a certain satisfaction to
great popular ideas, and yet prescribe to them
boundaries which they should not pass. But
l failed conspicuously abroad, where every
step L took towards satisfying the popular
yearnings of Europe recoiled upon me, and
made my own throne unstable, and now at
last have been driven to menace unsuccess-
fully, by arms, the extension of the very
ideas which 1 first authoritatively intro
duced into the Cabinets of Europe.
My best ideas are subverting my worst,
and find me, at the close of my life, at
the head of an army, fighting for my worst
ideas, and ready to be subverted by them.
Melancholy and exhausted myself, and with
out the elasticity of genuine creed. | have
always believed that human nature was to be
governed through its weakness, and that its
best tendencies needed very partial satsfac-
tion and now / find whole peoples fanatically
inspired by that one of my beliefs which was
nearest to creed, and raging vehemently
against me for supposing that that creed
could be confined by the conditions conve-
nient to me. The men I have exiled, the
men have murdered, the men 1 have sent
to Cayenne cause me no remorse. They
were in my way, and l could never
have been anything but a vagrant
gambler if I had not put them out of
my way. But for those popular ideas which
L have so cautiously encouraged, and which,
after slipping all their bonds, are coming
back to destroy me-those, which L have
called my best ideas only because they have
been the most living-for the stimulus have
given to them do feel some remorse. Might
| not have stihed instead of forcing their
development Should 1 not have kept my
hard-won throne longer if 1 had? My only
permanent success has been the support Of
the Pope against the revolution. Had but
supported Austria against Italy first, and
against Prussia next, could the new
foreign policy of Europe have grown so
far beyond my power to guide it as it
has? Surely it would have been wiser to
keep my secret-which was really the secret
of the power most hostile to me-to myself,
and use it only to teach me what to fear
That /, who have never had the animal spirits
for great initiative, should have myself set
in motion popular forces which it would
require the most peremptory and commanding
| initiative to restrain even for a moment, was
surely the blindest of plots against myself.
| A dreamer like me, who not only does not
enjoy action, but feels like the paralytic
whose nerves will not obey his volition even
when he resolves on action, ought to
| have put the drag on every popular
movement in Europe, the passions
of his own people included, rather
than have sown broadcast forces which, as he
could give them neither prompt guidance mol
prompt resistance, are hurting him to ruin
1t may perhaps be the easier for nae to lay
down power, that have never enjoyed it,
| but am not sure that it is SO. 1t is hard to
think that if l had held my own counsel as to
national ideas, and used more freely and
| persistently the instruments by which ]
gained my throne, might at least have died
| as powerful and as inscrutable as | had lived,
and never betrayed to the world the lassitude
of nature and paralysis of will which, though
they wholly unfit me for military
command, are not entirely without their ad-
vantages for dampening the enthusiasm OF
nations and maintaining the dignity of q
leaden crown. l suppose have been bad
man, though / hardly know the meaning OF
the term. But as feel that should be less
miserable now if had been a worse man,
| there can hardly be much in the superstitions
which it has been my most successful and
only consistent line of policy to support
Wedonot suppose that such exactly have been
the Emperor reflections; but he has given 8
very unfair view of himself to Europe, il
they have been in any great degree either
| more hopeful, more manly, or less tinped