The record-union., 1897-05-22
AN 0SSIANIC KAISER.
William II. Of Germany's Belief in
Himself.
Europe Now Suffering From the In
dividuafity of This Remarkable
German Emperor.

individuality, rather than from the pol
icy, of the German Emperor. He is
displaying a character with which 1t is
most difficulty for diplomatists to deal.
and which is not entirely consistent
with his earlier career, The habit of
ruling, and the success, or rather the
absence of resistance, which in Internal
affairs has so far distinguished his
reign, have developed the EmperorS S
peculiarities lin a most marked degree.
He had always a sufficient belief in him.
self, as he showed in his dismissal of
Prince Bismarck, but of late this belief
has become exaggerated into a conf
dence scarcely to be distinguished from
presumption. He seems capable of
thanking God for great harvest and
sending Him the Order of the Red Eagle
in acknowledgment. Even his own sub
jects, who were at first disposed by ira
dition and habit of mind to welcome an
other strong Hohenzollern, now shake
their heads and lament that their kai-
Ser, who is also their Commander-in-
Chief, acts so completely under the in
fluence of his own will. They never
know what he will do tomorrow. There
is no ruling statesman now visible IN
Germany, for the Chancellor is old and
deferential, the Minister of War ac-
cepts instead of advising orders, the FL
nance Minister CDR. MiqueD is highly
intelligent, exceptionally intelligent, in
strument of his majesty, and Baron Won
Marschall as recent trials proved,
though able and fairly trusted has to
contend against many adverse infiu-
ences. The Emperor is all in all; he is
more determined than ever to play the
first role in the political drama, and as
his claim is entirely acknowledged with
in his own dominions, where to speak
lightly of his majesty now involves
sort of civil DEATH he extends it to all
Europe, and indeed to all the world. 1t
is to be lord of worldwide empire
that the Emperor demands, or threatens
to demand, from his Parliament such
vast additions to the navy.
Naturally, holding such position, his
jealousy of Great Britain, the only
worldwide Power, has grown excessive,
overmastering personal liking for
England and the English court; and,
naturally also, revolutionary ideas,
which are floating about in halfde-
veloped way all through Germany, APP
pear to him almost impieties. THE
Revolution" is to William II. what
''clericalism" is to many French Radi-
cals-the enemy. 1t is his business, he
thinks, as the first of kings, to protect
the rights of sovereigns, though he is
an Emperor because his grandfather
crushed dynasties, some of them older
than his own by the half Dozen and he
cannot bear to see the sovereign
rights even of a Sultan of Turkey in
terfered with. Suppose Abdul Hamid
has massacred Armenians, they We're
his own subjects, and were almost in
rebellion. Is that any reason why he
should lose without war the right of
garrisoning his own dominions? His
dignity must, at all events, be preserved,
and those who have affronted it by in
vading Crete must be Inundated, even
if they are not punished. They are
close relatives of the Emperor but that
is an additional reason for giving an
example to the world, for have they not
been false to their order in invading
from motives which at bottom are dem
ocratic, sacred sovereign rights? The
King of Greece is not a King in Will
who is dallying with the revolution, and
even advancing its favorite idea the
right of nationalities, as an excuse for
democratic action. Let him abdicate if
he WILL but let Germany maintain the
principle that kings must govern un-
threatened from without. In no case
must the revolution triumph. 1t is, as
he told his Brandenburgers a few days
ago, in a speech which reads as if it had
been uttered by a crowned Ossian of
Tory convictions, the disease which all
Germans must combat by all means in
their power, the disease which not only
infectS the nation, but also seeks to
undermine the life of the family-yes,
and to undermine the holiest thing we
Germans know the position of
woman
A monarch who is imbued with ideas
like these, so imbued with them that
he ceases to argue, and expresses him
self in dithyrambs, and who also COM
mands an army supposed to be the
strongest in Europe, is of necessity
most uncomfortable factor in European
diplomacy. You cannot discuss politics
with a man who is singing, and the
speech we nave quoted IS really a song
of battle-not without a Tyraetan note
in it, too-against the revolution, and
the royal family of Greece as fosterers
of the same. 1t would not have been
difficult if the Emperor had been man
like his grandfather. who subordinated
himself to policy, to arrange the Cretan
difficulty by few reasonable concessions
to Greek pride. The Greeks would have
accepted the autonomy of Crete with
cordiality if only the Prince lad been
left to popular election, and the suzer-
anity modified by special flag, and
the Turkish troops withdrawn at the
same moment as the G. eek: but those
were precisely the con essionS which
William H. could not bring himself to
make The Sultan was a sovereign, and
sovereigns are entitled to garrison their
dominions. so do not talk of with
drawing Turkish troops. Greece must
go first, that is fiat, because Greece has
broken rules. She shall have no con-
Germ with Crete, whatever happens.
even as an autonomous province, for
else she would profit by her misdoing;
while as to an election of a Prince.
olutionist: Elect Prince, indeed. Not
while / am Emperor. AS Austria could
not break away from Germany it SEEM
ed for a moment as if nothing could be
done, and even at the last the Powers
were compelled to yield these dangerous
;,,fe, dor how