The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-26

this time ibis subjects ought surely to be
prepared for anything that he may say
during the course of his after-dinner
speeches. No monarch in Christendom
has delivered so many orations of this
character, and were they to be collected
into volume for publication their perusal
would leave the reader impressed with the
conviction that, the utteranCes were those
of a man whose mind was distinctly I'M
balanced either through drink or some
disease of the brain. Like his grand
uncle, King Frederick William ". of
Prussia and his great-granduncle, King
William ~ of Great Britain, popularity
known as "Silly Billy" he seems to lose
his head whenever he gets upon his feet
10 deliver an after-dinner speech and TO
be completely carried away, apparently in
toxicated by his own eloquence.
The Germans are a sensible. long-head-
ed race--of all the people ia Europe per-
haps the most sober minded-and it is 20
them a source of cruel modification that
their monarch should persist in exposing
himself TO rdicule and laughter of the
entire world by the extrayagance of his
after-dinner utterances, which usually
comprise some claim to the. vice regency
of the almighty on earth and to a semi
divine superiority above all his fellow
creatures He is never tired of insisting
in these after-dinner speeches that he is
responsible for the performance of his
duty as constitutional sovereign to no
one but to God alone, intimates that the
people, being constructed of an inferior
kind of clay, are unable to understand
the intimate relations existing between
himself and the Creator. and manifestly
considers himself possessed of greater
spiritual powers than the pope himself.
since on the last occasion when he visited
Leo XIII, he, instead of requesting the
blessing and prayers of the venerable pom
tiff when taking his departure, taxed the
gravity Of all the clerical and Law digni-
taries who were present by effusively pro-
ceeding himself 20 bless the pope with the
words, "Que Dieu vous benisse, Saint
PEREZ" (May God bless you, Holy
FatherD
Yet William is not such a lunatic or a
fool as one would gather from his after
dinner speeches. On the contrary, he is
a man of many accomplishments and of
great intellectual gifts, possessed of gen
erous instincts. as well as of a sincere re-
gard for honesty. He is religious too in
his own peculiar way, courageous, ener-
getic and conscientious. Indeed, he has
many endearing qualites-qualities caIcu-
lated to inspire loyalty and admiration
but which are unfortunately all over
Swallowed and warped by his incouceiv-
able vanity and conoeit, faults which be-
come most glaringly conspicuous in his
post-prandial utterances. If he could
only have been persuaded to keep his
mouth shut 1t is certain that he would oc-
cupy l. the present moment a very differ
ent position from what he does to-day
both at some and abroad Nor would
the center Of political gravity in Europe
have been transferred from Berlin to ST.
Petersburg.
1t would have been well had he followed
the examples of his English grandmother.
Queen Victoria, who, in the course Of her
taa Inn Of d.
have made only one after-dnner speech;
and that was at Balmoral, when. on re-
cept of the news of the victory of the En-
glish army at Tel-el-Keber, she delivered