Evening journal., 1896-11-24
WILLIAM THE wITLEss.

When, a little more than six years /
ago, the Emperor William goaded /
Prince Bismarck into resignation, stu |
dents Of politics who knew, or thought /
they knew, the Iron Chancellor, Gag |
erly asked what was likely to happen /
under the new regime William ii had |
given no proof of unique abilities as
q statesman; but he had given ample
proof of an eXcitable, erratic and emo
tiOnal disposition. When he elected
to take command Germany was strong
and respected on all hands. France
was Isolated. Russia was friendly,
England was, to all intents and puI
poses. an adherent to the Triple AL
lance. and the Triple Alliance itself
stood firm as a rock. That was the
European situation which Prince Bis
marck was mainly instrumental in
creating and maintaining Powers
which he could not command as allies
he set by the ears among themselves.
Europe might be kept on the tenter-
hooks of terror from weeks end to
weeks end. Germany dominated the
position. What has been the effect of
Prince Bismarcks supersessiOn by the
Emperor William? The answer is
writ large across every daily paper
published for months past. Germany
under the misguiding hands of the
present kaiser has managed TO bring
Russia and France together in bonds
of intimacy which, on the one hand,
permit the autocratic czar to embrace
the republic i'm "a profound sentiment
of comradeship," and on the other in
due the anti-monarchical Gaul to sub
scribe cheerfully three and a half mil
| lions of francs for an emperors enter
/ tainment Nor is this all His imper-
1 ial majestys efforts have shifted the
weight of Great Britain's sympathy
! from the Triple Alliance to the Dual
! Alliance, thus ensuring for Russia
and France i'm Europe the position oC-
cupied previously by Germany, Aus
/ tria and Italy. Germany, after half q
/ dozen years of the kaiser's undivided
control of foreign affairs. has become
the one power hopelessly isolated In
Europe, and is hardly less distrusted
by those who must still be called her
allies than by those whose friendship
she has sought in vain to compass and
to keep.
How this has come to pass may
easily be indicated The Emperor
William imagined that the divine
right, which he assured the world en-
titled him to rule, conferred also dip
lomatic genius To his mind, the or
dering of the universe was business
in which a heaven-helped Hohenzoi-
| len could hardly fail to prove a
| greater adept than a Bismarck With
curious, but characteristic, inability %
read q moral however plainly set be-
fore it. the European press has wholly
failed to grasp the significance of the
latest Bismarckian revelations. They
are not. perhaps, so much revelations
as q confirmation of convictions now
seen to be we'll grounded. The en-
peror does not deny their authenticity
because denial is Incompatible witt
the respect which even amateur diplo
macy must sometimes pay to truth
or it may be that the emperor regards
as stin operative the despatch Of May
1890, I'm which he informed German
representatives abroad that Prince
Bismarcks utterances or views in the
press were of no practical Importance
In the present instance they are al
least of practical Importance to thu
extent that they enable one TO gaug
the degree of discontinue which vii
; liam II has brought upon the Father
D. land.-London Saturday Review