New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-11-26


between the visit OF King Frederick William
" to attend the baptism of the Prince oe Wales
and the stay OF Emperor william at Windsor
during the week that has just come to a close?
At the time when the King guest Of
Queen Victoria Prussia in every Of
the word a second rate Power Frederick Will
lam, In fact, was almost abject in his subser-
vency to the German Emperor at Vienna and
to his brother-in-law, Car Nicholas |. AS far
as the Imperial house of Hapsburg con-
cerned. he seemed to be unable to forget that
his ancestors had until within a little more than
a hundred years held the position of cupbearer
to the Emperors at Vienna. and been compelled
to stand at state banquets behind the Imperial
chair. doing duty. if not a mental, at any
| rate a mere vassal. AS for his attitude
toward Russia. he permitted himself to be bull
lied and brOwbeaten to such an extent by the
Car that he did not venture to take any step
even In his own dOminiOns without the sanction
| Of his imperious brother-in-law So great
the contempt in which Prussia was held that
| at the time Of the congress OF great Powers
held in Paris at the conclusion OF the Crmean
War King Frederick Williams plenpotentares
| were not admitted to the meeting, the ground
that Prussia was not a Power of sufficient i'm
portance to warrant her receiving any such
privilege Punch" placed on pictorial record
this humiliation to which the Court Of Berlin
| was thus subjected by portraying King Fred
! erick William in sadly intoxicated condition
| batterng with an empty champagne bottlf
against the closed doors Of the chamber in which
the rulers of the great Powers of Europe were
discussing their affairs.
| King Frederick William was at the outset u
his reign when he visited Queen Victoria At
Windsor in 1872 Six years later he was
prisoner in the hands of the people of his capital
and forced TO pay homage to the dead bodies OF
the men, women and children who had been shot
down by his troops. And during that time his
brother William. who eventually succeeded HIM
on the throne, obliged to flee for his III;
to England, where ne in his turn enjoyed for 4
time the hospitality Of Queen Victoria and wrote
his name in her autograph book The closing
years of the reign of King Frederick William "
were darkened by insanity of the most violent
description William became first King Of
Prussia, and then, after 1870, German Emperor.
approprating at Versailles dignity which mad
been for centuries the most highly priced pos
session OF the house Of Hapsburg Before old
Emperor William passed down to the tomb he
had wrcsted the Duches OF Schleswig and Hol-
! stein from Denmark and had annexed to his
dominions not merely two OF Frances most
| prosperous provinces. but likewise the Duchie5
OF Brunswick and Of Nassau, the electorate N
Hesse, and the kingdom Of Hanover, driving
poor blind King George, first cousin Of Queen
Victoria and likewise one of the signers OF
her visitors book into the exile in which 10
died
"UNSER FRITZ"
! Emperor Williams successor was that "Unser
Fritz" who was of all queen Nictoria's sons-n-
| law the one whom she loved best, and many
were the visits which he paid to her at Bal
| moral and at Windsor, one sojourn at the latter
| p1ac. being however. suddenly interrupted ~
n violent tiff between his wife. the now widowed
Enprcss Frederick. and her august mother on
| the subject of the latter's crotchety, cranky
and terribly sury Highland gillie. John Brown.
Frcderick's hundred days reign constitutes
! one of the saddcst tragedies of Queen We
toria,s own tenure Of the throne. and. num-
erous as have been the sorrows which
have. laid their mark on Queen Victoria. it IS
doubtful whether she ever suffered greater
anguish Of mind than when she travelled all the
way To Berlin in order to take i last farewell OF
her yoceless and so terribly afflicted Fritz"
who vas doomed TO suffocaton only few days
after her departure.
Emp,r or William II. who now visits his grand
mother at Windsor for the second time since ais
accession to the throne. is therefore the fourth
ruler Of Prussia whom she welcomes beneath
her roof tree, and she greets him no longer as
the Sovereign OF second or even third rate
STATE but as the head of the greatest military
mower on the face ~ the globe. whose friendship
England Is only too glad to secure at the present
/ iunctyre and who holds to a great extent at the
! present moment the balance of power in the Old
| World his understanding with Great Britain
resulting in a combination so mighty az TO put
an end to all the projects which had been en-