New-York tribune., 1901-03-31
WILLI4M II AND RERLIN.

The German Emperor has once more startled
the world with speech 1t was n short one
addressed to some of his soldiers. whom he
urged to be faithful and ineXorabe in the dis
charge of their duty to him. their lord and
master. Then. according to report, which may
or may not he accurate he added that IF the
city of Berlin should again impudently and
''disobedently rise against the King. as in 1S4S"
il would be the soldiers duty with the points
Of their bayonets to annihiate the wicked rebels.
If the Emperor really spoke thus it is not
prising that his people are astounded and are
asking. as the "Berliner Tageblatt'' puts it.
what has occurred TO Justify his words.
We shall not attempt 10 vindicate the utter
ance: nor do we conceive il 10 be the function
Of an American to sit in judgment upon
foreign potentate and pronounce condemnation
upon him for his conduct in his own domestic
affairs. But II is fitting at least to recall the
antecedents and the circumstances of the case.
so TO arrive AZ the most intelligent possible
appreciation of il. The speaker referred 10 the
revolutionary outbreak of 1S4S, when his grand
fathers brother was King and that grandfather
was heir presumptiye to the throne. Techni-
cally il is true that. as the "Tageblatt" says,
the revolt was not directed against the Hohen-
zollern dynasty" Actually it was directed
fundamental principle upon which that dynasty
then conceived itself TO be founded. namely, the
divine right of kings.
You take my house when YOU do take the prop
That doth sustain my house.
So Frederick William " and his brother
afterward William /. regarded the revolt as
directed against their house since it was
directed against the cornerstone of that house:
and over that issue blood was shed in Berlin
streets. and the present Emperor's revered
grandfather practically compelled for his
supposed part in suppressinC the revolt to fee
the country for n time.
Now. William ii remembers that tragic Incl
dent. And he himself is to-day as firm believer
in the divine right of kings were his grand
father and granduncle. He bears to-day upon
his face, moreover, the fresh scar of wound
recently inflicted upon him because of his king
ship And he was speaking TO a regiment which
is named after an emperor who was murdered
for being an emperor. and whose descendant
now Emperor, is in daily peril of a like fate
Such We're the recollections which inspired the
Emperor's speech, and such were the circum-
| stances amid which il was made In view OF
them ii is the more readily 20 he understood
| The disapnroval with which ii is regarded may
not be diminished. But the real gist of the
matter Is made obvious. The ''boisterous old
| notion" OF the divine right of kings-that is
the crux. So long as the sovereign persists in
maintaining il. and so long as the people or a
| large proportion of them. persist in rejecting
and defying it, so long is repetition of the
| scenes OF 1SiS within the bounds of serious DOS
| sibility. We cannot blame the Emperor for
| recognizing that fact. The amazing thing is
! that with his high enlightenment and gener.
ously advanced ideas he should still cling 10
that outworn relic OF the Dark Ages which
makes possible the crisis he has in mind For
| We cannot wish the people TO be brought TO his
way OF thinking upon that subject. nor can WI
I believe they ever will be- The question ,vbetbe,