The record-union., 1897-06-26

POSen and nominated TollSH ecCleS-
iastic to the Archbishopric of that
province, but likewise appointed a
number of Polish mobiles to important
offices at court and in the army.
All things come to an end, even the
reign of a beautiful and clever woman.
If court gossip at Berlin is to be be-
lieved, both the Empress Victoria Au-
gusta and her mother-in-law, Empress
Frederick, showed themselves aggrleV-
ed by the amount of talk created both
at home and abroad through the atten-
tions of the Kaiser to the fair Pole.
Moreover, during the grand army man
euverS that took place in the province
of Posen, some of the Polish mobiles in
whose castles Bavarian, Saxon and 9TH
er Princes of the confederation known
as the German Empire had been quar-
tered were emboldened by what they
looked upon as the Emperor'S favor to-
ward their race to adopt a spirit of
independence which took the form in
several cases of a refusal to hoist the
flag of their royal guests over their
castles on the ground that no colors
could be permitted to fly there except
those of Poland. The climax, however,
cielski on meeting the Austrian EN-
peror at the opening of the exhibit
ton at Lemberg, in Austrian Poland,
hailed not Emperor William, but his
Austrian majesty as the real and only
king of Poland" the "only King" to
v hom alone all Poles were willing to
accord allegiance.
A SUDDEN REVULSION.
This speech was Immediately COM
municated to Emperor William, and as
it happened to reach his ears simul-
taneously with angry protests from the
Kingaof Saxony, who complained of the
Sights to which his brother, Prince
George, had been subjected as above
described by the Polish noblemen at
whose castles he had been quartered
during the army maneuvers, he deter
mined, in his usual impulsive fashion,
to cut adrift from influences that had
become a matter of public gossip and
popular ill-will So he intimated to
the Baron and TO the Baroness that
their absence from court was preferred
to their presence; and when the Baron
Travelled to PotSdam to try to explain
matters the Emperor sternly refused
to receive him, and suggested in a
manner that allowed no misunderstand-
ing that the Baron should leave the
city at once and remain on his estates.
That ended Polish influence at the
Court of Berlin, and as if to atone for
his infatuation, which, while it lasted,
seemed TO estrange many of his Prus-
sian mobiles and his South German al
lies, William is now manifesting as
much bitterness and ill-will toward the
Poles as he formerly showed favor.
He has as far as possible removed all
the Polish mobiles from the positions of
dignity and trust to which he had ap-
pointed them while subject to the thral-
dom of the Baroness, and loses no op-
portunity of saying harsh things about
the Poles in general, denouncing them
as ungrateful and disloyal, threatening
them with the fullest measure Of his
wrath in the event of his discovering
them engaged in any practices that
can possibly be construed as treason
able. Naturally, his subordinates take
their cue from him, and the result is
that at no time have there been re-
corded so many instances of persecu-
ton, oppression and downright brutal
ity on the part of the Prussian authori-
ties toward the Poles as of late.
Of course this only serves to accent
uate the conciliatory course pursued by
the Czar on the eastern banks of the
Vistula, and one of the effects there
fore has been to lead many great land
ed proprietors in Prussian Poland to