The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-03

his escort will not have been permitted 10
leave the historic castle on the banks of
The Thames without having once more in
scribed their names and the date of theic
soJourn in that book, which, more per-
haps than any other thing comprised in
50 small a compass, shows the march of
time and the progress Of history For a
perusal of this vO unle serves to demon
strate above everything else the extent to
! which England's sovereign has outiived
her contemporaries. 1t calls forth memo
thrown and of kingdoms that have disap-
Deared and seems 20 evoke the specters
| of Il great throng of rulers and of cele-
brated statesmen, all now in theia graves,
not few of whom have met with terrible
deaths at the hands of assassins
The visits paid by foreign rulers and bv
foreign statesmen to her majesty pos
| sess, thanks to her absolute and supreme
control of England's foreign policy, far
mere Importance than one might be dis
posed to accord to them at first sight
For the stay at Windsor of nearly every
continental monarch has been followed b :
political consequences The course of his
Tory, indeed, may be said to have bean
largely influenced by these visits which
the queen receives from her brother and
sister sovereigns. And it is this that rem
ders her book of autographs, in which, bv
the way, are comprised number Of
American signatures, SO exceptionally in
terestins.
MILESTONES OF HISTORY.
The autographs may be regarded as
! bearing certain analogy to milesto es.
since they mark so many different epochs
What mere remarkable for instance.
than the changes which have fallen to the
share of the reigning house of Prussia.
ourirg the near sixty years intervening
between the visit of King Frederick Will
lam ~. to attend the baptism of the
Prince of Wales, ana the stay of Emperor
William at Windsor during the week that
has gust come to a close? At the time
When this king was a guest of Queen
Victoria, Prussia was in every sense Of
the word a second rate power. FREDERICK
William, In fact, was almost abiect In
his subserviency to the German emna1or
at Vienna, and to his brother-in-law
car Nicholas l. AS far as the imperial
house of Hapsburg was concerned. he
seemed to be unable to forget that his
ancestors had, until within a little mere
| IMAM 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. do
ing duty, If not as a mental, at any rate
as mere vassaI. AS for his attitude
To 1r6 h
pulled and browbeaten to such an ex-
tent by the car that he cid not venture
tc take any step, even in his own do
inlnIohs, without the sanction of his i'm
pel1Cus brother-in-law. So great was the
contempt in which Prussia was held thai
1t the time OF the congress of great now
ers held In Paris at the conclusion of
the Crinlean war King Frederick Will
lam plen1potentiaries We're not admitted
TO the meeting, On the ground that Prus-
sla was not 4 power of sufficient :m-
portahce TO warrant her receiving any
such privilege.
King Frederick William was at tho ont
set OF his reign when he visited Queen
victoria at Windsor, in 1872 Six wears
latef ne was prisoner In the hands of
the people of his capital and forced tn
pay homage to the dead bodies of the
men, women and children who had been
shot uoWn ny mis- troops. And during
that time his brother, William, who
| eventually succeeded him on the throne
was obliged to flee for his life to Eng
| land, where he In his turn enjoyed for a
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 dark
| ened by insanity of the most violent de-
! scriptton. William became first king of
| Prussia, and then, after 1870. German
! emperor, appropriating at Versailles q
| dignity which had been for centuries the
most highly priced possession Of the house
| of Hapburg.
'UNSER FRITZ"
Emperor Williams successor was that
| "unser Fritz" who was of all Queen Vic
tor1a sons-in-law the one she loved
pest, and many We're the visits which he
| paid to her at Balmoral and at Windsor
one soJourn at the latter place being,
however, suddenly interrupted by a vio-
| lent tiff between his wife the now wild
owed Empress Frederick, and her an.
gust mother, on the subject of the lat
ters crochety, cranky and terribly suriv
! Highland gillie, John Brown.
emperor William ii. is therefore the
fourth ruler Of Prussia whom she wei
comes beneath her roof tree. and she
| Sreets him no longer as the sovereign
| OF a second or even third-rate state I'M
| as the head of the greatest military DOW
| er on the face of the globe whose friend
snip England is only too glad to secure