The times., 1897-04-18
AN 0SSIANIC KAISER.
William IL of Germany and His Be-
lief In Himself.

| fIst III
Europe is suffering Just now from the
individuality. rather than from the policy
OF the German Emperor. He is eispla wing
| character with which it is most diff
cult for dipIonatists 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 Emperor
| peCuliarities in most marked degree.
| He had always sufficient belief in him
| self, as he showed In his dismissal OF
| Prince Bismarck, but of late this belief
| has become exaggerated into a confidence
scarcely TO be distinguished from pre-
sumption. He seems capable of thanking
! God for great harvest and sending Him
| the Order of the Red EaGIein acknowledge
| Uent Even his own subjects, who were
| at first disposed by tradition and habit of
| mind TO welcome another strong" Ho-
| henzollern, now shake their heads and
| lament that their Kaiser. who is also
their commander In chief, acts so com
pleteiy under the influence of his own will
They never know what he will do to-
morrow. There is no ruling statesman
now visible in Germany, for the chancellor
is old and deferentiaI, the minister Of war
accepts instead OF advising orders, the
finance minister CDR. Miguel is a highly
intelIi gent, exceptionally intelligent, in
strunient of his majesty, and Baron Won
Marsohall, as recent trials proved, though
able and fairly trusted, has to contend
against many adverse influences. The L m
perOr Is all in all, he is more determined
than ever 20 play the first role in the
political drama, and as his claim is en-
tirely acknowledged within his own do
nlinions, where TO speak lightly of his
majesty now involves a sort Of civil death,
lie extends 1t TO all Europe, and indeed 10
all the world 1t is to be lord" of
world wide empire" that the Emperor
demands or threatens to demand from his
Parliament such vast additions to the
navy.
Naturally, holding such. a position, lis
jealousy OF Great Britain, the only world
wide power, has grown excessive, over
mastering a personal liking for Eng gland and
the English court, and, naturally also, revC-
lutionary idoas, which are floating about
in a haIf-developed way all Though Ger
y,appeartohima almost impeties. THE
Revolution is to William II what ''cleri-
the enemy. 1t is his business, he thinks. as
the first of Kings, to protect the rights Of
sovereigns, though lie is an Emperor be-
cause his grandfather crushed dynasties,
some OF them cider than his own, by the
half dozen, and he cannot bear TO see the
sovereign rights even of Sultan of Tur-
keyintCrfere1 with. Suppose Abdul -Hamid
has massacred Armenians, they were his
Is that any reason why he should lose
without u war the right of ganisoning
his own dominions? His dignity must at
all events he preserved, and those vi ho have
affronted it by invading Crete must be hu
inflated, 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 democratic,
sacred sovereign rights2 The King Of
Greece is not a King in william II eyes,
but a mere Garibaldian, who is dallying
with the revolution, and even advancing
its favorite idea, tie right of nationalities,
a an excuse for democratic action. Let
him abdicute if he VIII, but let Germany
maintain the principle that Kings must
govern unthreatened from without In no
case must the revolution triumph. 1t is,
as he told his Brandenburgers u few days
ago, in n speech which reads as If ii had
been uttered by a crowned OSsan of Tory
convictions, 1.-The disease which all Ger
mans must combat by all means in their
power, the disease which not only infects
the nation, hut also seeks to undermine
the life of the family, yes, to undermine
the holiest thing we Germans know the
position OF woman
Elect a Prince, indeed. Not while I am
an Emperor. AS Austria could not break
away from Germany, 1t seemed for a mo-
ment as If nothing could be done. and
even at the last the powers were compelled
to yield these dangerous points; dangerous
because they rouse the pride Of Greeks, |
rather than dispute any longer with SOW |
ereign who would listen to nothing but |
his own ideas, and who, under stress of |
those ideas, was drawing rapidly toward |
Russia, the ultimate and ineXoTable foe |
of revolutions They are not the ideas of |
the rest of Europe: they are cont rarY to |
the ideas of England and France: and to |
find great monarch protesting them when |
they are inconvenient reduces dipIomatists |
to sad perpleXity. They feel like the |
seniors of q household when Junior |
member, perhaps the heir, takes the bit |
IN his teeth, declares that he woull rather
die than take interest for money, or
maintains that to own land is to plumber
the community. Reasoning Is out of the |
question, and they can only fall hack |
and mutter hopes that ideas so wild, so
incoherent and SO lisastrously opposed to |
advice" may not Indicate some local
of the brain.
The self-confidence, jealousy, and Os- |
sanic ways of the Emperor are notthe less |
difficult to ma mage because there may be |
below them or behind them solid argu-
mcnts from selfinterest. There was such |
an argument also when the celebrated tele- |
gram was dispatched TO President Kruger. |
It is the speciality of his German Majesty
that while the method OF his action is con-
stanuy dictated by qualities which he has
allowed to grow too strong for him, the |
action itself is based on what he conceives !
TO be his interest and that Of his country
He not only wishes for peace, but is, we
especially disguised a t the idea of
var breaking on tupon the Easternquestiou,
which, however it may be solved, can,
Is Prince Bismarck once observed. offer no
1