E-text prepared by Al Haines
THE SCHEMES OF THE KAISER
From the French of Juliette Adam
by J. O. P. Bland
New York
E. P. Dutton & Company
1918
Printed in Great Britain
TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION
More fortunate than the majority of the prophets who cannot speak
smooth things, Madame Adam has lived to find honour in her own country:
_La grande Française_ has come into her own. God willing, she should
live to see that _revanche_ for which, through good and evil report,
she has laboured unceasingly these forty-five years, to see the
arrogant Prussian humbled to the dust and Alsace-Lorraine restored to
France. 1917, she firmly believes will revenge and reverse the tragedy
of 1871. More fortunate than the great British soldier who spent his
veteran days in warning his countrymen of the ordeal to come, Madame
Adam, now in her eighty-first year, may yet hope to see the banners of
the Allies crowned with victory, the black wreaths on the statue of
Strasburg in the Place de la Concorde changed to garlands of rejoicing.
There have been dark days in these forty-five years, times when, even
to herself, the struggle for _la patrie_ seemed almost a forlorn hope.
It was so at the time of the Berlin Congress in 1878, when, after his
visit to Germany, Gambetta abandoned the idea of _la revanche_. It was
so in 1891, when she realised that the influence of Paul Déroulède's
Ligue des Patriotes had ceased to be a living force in public opinion,
when France had become impregnated with false doctrines of
international pacifism and homeless cosmopolitanism, when (as she wrote
at the time) there were left of the faithful to wear the forget-me-not
of Alsace-Lorraine only "a few mothers, a few widows, a few old
soldiers, and your humble servant." But never, even in the darkest of
dark days, was the flame of her ardent patriotism dimmed. After her
breach with Gambetta, determined not to be defeated by the Government's
abandonment of a vigorous anti-German policy of preparation, she
founded the _Nouvelle Revue_, to wage war with her brain and pen
against Bismarck and the ruler of Germany. The objects with which she
created that brilliant magazine, as explained by herself to Mr.
Gladstone in 1879, were threefold--"to oppose Bismarck, to demand the
restoration of Alsace-Lorraine, and to lift from the minds of young
French writers the shadow of depression cast on them by national
defeat." The fortnightly "Letters on Foreign Politics" which she
contributed regularly to the _Nouvelle Revue_, for twenty years were
not only persistently and violently anti-Teuton: they became a powerful
force in educating public opinion in France to the necessity for an
effective alliance with Russia, and to the cause of nationalism, in the
Balkans, in Egypt, and wherever the liberties of the smaller nations
were endangered by the earth-hunger of the great. She disliked and
feared the policy of colonial expansion inaugurated by Gambetta and
pursued by Jules Ferry, because she felt that it must weaken France in
preparing for the great and final struggle with Teutonism which she
knew to be inevitable. Thus, when Ferry requested her to cease from
attacking Germany, she defied him, assuring him that nothing less than
imprisonment would stop her, and that no honour could be greater than
to be imprisoned for attacking Bismarck.
Juliette Adam has always been intensely sure of herself and her
opinions. She has the virile fighting spirit of a super-suffragette.
"Always out of rank," as Gambetta described her, "Madame Intégrale" has
displayed throughout her political and literary work a contempt for
compromise of every kind, which occasionally leads her into untenable
positions and exaggerations. Like her friend George Sand, she has ever
been an inveterate optimist and in the clouds, and this defect of her
very qualities has tended to make her proficient in the gentle art of
making enemies. Thus she broke with Anatole France for espousing the
cause of Dreyfus, because, in spite of her keen sense of justice, she
identified the Army with France and was instinctively opposed to Jews,
because she regarded their "cosmopolitan" influence as incompatible
with patriotism. For her, all things and all men have been subordinate
to the sacred cause, to her watch-word and battle-cry of _Vive la
France_! Nobly has she laboured for France, confident ever in the
_renaissance_ of _la Grande Nation_, and of her country's final
triumph. And to-day her unswerving faith is justified, and her life
work has been recognised and crowned with honour in her own land.
With one exception, all the articles collected in this book have been
taken from Madame Adam's "Letters on Foreign Politics" in _La Nouvelle
Revue_. Together they constitute a remarkable testimony to the
political foresight and courage of _la grande Française_, and an
equally remarkable analysis of the policy and character of Germany's
ruler.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
Modesty is out of fashion nowadays: what is wanted is the glorification
of every kind of courage. That being so, I hold myself entitled to
claim a Military Cross, for my forty-five years of hand-to-hand
fighting with Bismarck and with William the Second, and to be mentioned
in despatches for the past.
JULIETTE ADAM.
CHAPTER I
1890
William II, the "Social Monarch"--What lies beneath his declared
pacifism--His journey to Russia--The German Press invites us to forget
our defeat and become reconciled while Germany is adding to her army
every day.
April 12, 1890. [1]
What an all-pervading nuisance is William!
To think of the burden that this one man has imposed upon the
intelligence of humanity and the world's Press! The machiavelism of
Bismarck was bad enough, with its constant demands on our vigilance,
but this new omniscient German Emperor is worse; he reminds one of some
infant prodigy, the pride of the family. Yet his ways are anything but
kingly; they resemble rather those of a shopkeeper. He literally fills
the earth with his circulars on the art of government, spreads before
us the wealth of his intentions, and puffs his own magnanimity. He
struggles to get the widest possible market for his ideas: 'tis a petty
dealer in imperial sovereignty.
There is nothing fresh about his wares, but he does his best to
persuade us that they are new; one feels instinctively that some day he
will throw the whole lot at our heads. I am quite prepared to admit
that, if he had any rare or really superior goods to offer, his
advertising methods might be profitable, but William's stock-in-trade
has for many years been imported, and exported under two labels, namely
the principles of '89 and Christian Socialism.
The German Emperor has mixed the two, after the manner of a
prentice-hand. His organ, the _Cologne Gazette_, with all the honeyed
adulation of a suddenly converted opponent, [2] has called this mixture
"Social Monarchism." Therefore, it seems, the German Emperor is
neither a constitutional sovereign nor a monarch by divine right. He
has restored Caesarism of the Roman type, clinging at the same time to
the principle of divine right--and the result is our "Social Monarch"!
Rushing headlong on the path of reform--full steam ahead, as he puts
it--he is prepared to change the past, present and future in order to
give happiness to his own subjects. But France is likely to pay for
all this; sooner or later some new rescript will tell us that the
valley of tribulation is our portion and inheritance.
It is one of his ambitions to put an end to class warfare in Germany.
To this end he begins, with his usual tact, by denouncing the
capitalists (that is to say; the wealth of the middle class) to the
workers, and then holds up the scandalous luxury of the aristocracy in
the army to the contempt of the bourgeois.
One of his most brilliant and at the same time most futile efforts, is
his rescript on the subject of the shortage of officers for the army.
As the army itself is steadily increasing every day, it should have
been easy in each regiment for him, gradually and quite quietly, to
increase the number of officers drawn from the middle-class; indeed,
the change would have practically effected itself, for the Minister of
War had a hundred-and-one means of bringing it about. But this
rescript has put a check on what might otherwise have been a natural
process of change, and unless William now settles matters with a high
hand, it will cease. In every regiment the aristocracy provides the
great majority of officers; bourgeois candidates for admission to the
service are liable to be black-balled, just as they might be at any
club; it is now safe to predict that they will henceforward be regarded
with less favour than ever, and that generals, colonels, majors and the
rest will form up into a solid phalanx, to prevent the Emperor's
platonic _protégés_ from getting in.
William II appeals to the higher ranks of officers, who are tradition
personified, to put an end to tradition. It is really wonderful what a
genius he has for exciting cupidity in one class and resistance in the
other. And he has done the same thing with the working class as with
the army.
What a strange riddle his character presents--this quietist, this
worshipper of an angry and a jealous God, with a mania for achieving
the happiness of his people in the twinkling of an eye! A strange
figure, this Emperor of country squires, who despises the bourgeois and
who threatens to despoil the aristocracy of the very privileges which
have been the safeguard of the Hohenzollerns' throne for centuries.
These peculiarities are due to an occult influence which weighs on the
mind of William II, an influence which, while it points the way to
action, blinds him to its consequences. The dead hand is upon him!
Frederick III, that liberal, bourgeois monarch, compels his
reactionary, Old-Prussian-school son, to do those things which he would
have done himself, had he not been victimised by Bismarck and his pupil.
I wonder whether the ever-mystical William II sometimes reflects on the
ways by which God leads men into His appointed ways? Such thoughts
might do more to enlighten him than his way of gazing at the heavens in
the belief that all the stars are his.
There is one piece of advice that William's friends should give
him--not to restore the sixty millions of Guelph money to the Duke of
Cumberland. This ultra-modern young Emperor will very soon have
greater need of the services of the reptile Press than even Bismarck
himself; for every one of his latest rescripts adds new public
difficulties to the number of those secret ones which the
ex-Chancellor, with his infinite capacity for intrigue, will hatch for
him.
Bismarck, of the biting wit, who accepts the title of Duke of
Lauenburg, because, as he says, "it will enable him to travel
incognito," sends forth from Friedrichsruhe winged words which sink
deep into the mind of the people. This phrase, for example, which sums
up the whole of William's policy: "The Emperor has selected his best
general to be Chancellor and made of his Chancellor a field marshal."
And Bismarck begs his readers to insert the adjectives, good and bad,
where they rightly belong.
April 28, 1890. [3]
Emperor William continues to increase the list of his excursions into
every field of mental activity. Intellectually divided between the
Middle Ages and the late nineteenth century, it would seem as if he
were trying to forget the infirmity of his one useless arm by assuming
a prominent rôle modelled on men of action. He tries to combine in his
person the effects of extreme modernism with those of the days of
Charlemagne. Because of his very impotence, his desire to grasp and
clasp all history is the fiercer, and this emphasises and aggravates
the cruelty he showed in relegating Bismarck to compulsory inaction.
Just imagine if some power stronger than himself were to compel this
ever restless monarch to quiescence! What would be the cumulative
effect of want of exercise at the end of a year?
And just because the German Emperor is pleased, amongst the innumerable
costumes of his wardrobe, to don that of a socialist sovereign, the
same people who before 1870 believed in the liberalism of Bismarck, now
believe in the socialism of William II. They go on saying the same old
things. In different words they ask: "Isn't the young Emperor
amusing?" (tis' a great word with us French people), and before long,
they will be appealing to the gullible weaklings among us by suggesting
"After all, why shouldn't he give us back Alsace-Lorraine?" And thus
are being sown the seeds of our national enervation.
The dangers that threaten us from the hatred that the Prussian bears us
are all the greater now that Germany is ruled by this man-chameleon.
Let William do what he will, let him change colour as he likes, our
hatred for Prussia remains unshaken and immutable. But acquiescence in
his performances will draw us into his orbit and expose us to those
same dangers which he incurs, dangers which, were we wise, we should
know how to turn to our own profit.
May 12, 1890. [4]
Amidst the ruins of his fallen fortunes, Bismarck can still erect a
magnificent monument to his pride. If the results pursued by his
once-beloved pupil stultify the old man's immediate intentions, they
constitute nevertheless a testimonial to the Bismarckian doctrine in
its purest form, to those immortal principles based on lies and the
exploitation of "human stupidity," which the ex-Chancellor raised to
such heights in German policy, from the commencement of his career to
the date of his fall.
Let us, in the first place, inquire how it has come to pass that
William II has been able to convince a certain number of people, either
through their "human stupidity" or their cowardice, that he is striving
for and towards peace, when every single act of his proves the
opposite. Is it enough that, because he declares himself a pacifist,
men should go about saying "Thank God that he, who seemed most eager
for war, now sings the praises of peace"? And there are others who
earnestly implore us to think no more or war "now that William of
Germany no longer dreams of it."
Now I ask, is there a single reason to be found, either in the
tradition of his race, or in his own character, or in the logic of
Prussian militarism, which can justify any clear-thinking mind in
believing that William is a pacifist?
During the past fortnight a pamphlet has been published in Germany
under the title _Videant Consules_ (a pamphlet having all the
appearance of a Berlin semi-official, or officious, document) which
gives us the key (my readers will agree that I have already placed it
in the lock) of William II's sudden affection for paths of peace.
The illuminating pages of this work are written with the object of
preparing the honorable members of the Reichstag to vote an annual
credit of twenty millions (it is said that the Minister of War and the
Chief of the General Staff originally asked for fifty). This money
will be asked for to provide 474 new batteries, to bring up to 700 the
number of the German battalions on the Vosges frontier and to increase
the peace footing strength of the army. According to a statement made
by William II, in his speech at the opening of the Reichstag, the
special object of those twenty millions is to strengthen the defences
of the eastern and western frontiers.
_Videant Consules_ tells us that Bismarck created the Empire by war,
but that his later policy threatened to destroy it by peace; for this
reason the young Emperor deprived him of power. According to this
pamphlet, the ex-chancellor allowed France to recover and Russia to
prepare her defences, whereas he should have crushed us a second time
in order to have only one enemy--Russia--to deal with later on.
Therefore, Germany's present task is to prepare in haste for the
struggle against Russia and France united, and for this reason it
behoves her (says _Videant Consules_) to increase her forces by a
superhuman effort. As matters stand, in spite of the Triple Alliance,
in spite of the sympathy and support of Austria and Italy (ruinous for
them) William II is by no means confident in the future success of his
arms.
Now this hero is not taking any chances. In order that might may
overcome right, he wants to be quite sure of superior numbers. And
this explains why the Emperor of Germany is a "pacifist" to-day!
But things are likely to be different by October 1. I would have the
dupes of pacifism read carefully the following extract from his speech;
if they remain deaf to its meaning, it can only be because, like the
man in the fable, they do not wish to hear.
"It is true," says the German Emperor, "that we have neglected none of
the measures by which our military strength may be increased within the
limits prescribed by the law, but what we have been able to effect in
this direction has not been sufficient to prevent the changes which
have taken place in the general situation from being unfavourable to
us. We can no longer postpone making additions to the peace footing of
the army and to effective units, more especially the field artillery.
A Bill will be brought before you which will provide for the necessary
increase of the army to take place on the first of October of this
year."
According to _Videant Consules_, the last _favourable_ date for
attacking France would have been in 1887. Bismarck sinned beyond
forgiveness in not provoking a war at that time. More than that, his
manoeuvres to undermine the credit of Russia and his policy of
intimidation towards France, by exciting the hatred of both countries
against Germany, only served to unite them.
In the position in which he finds himself, William II has therefore no
alternative; he must vastly increase his forces, while assuming the
pacifist rôle. He must pretend to be severe with the aristocracy of
his army--the apple of his eye--and to be full of sympathetic concern
for the welfare of the working classes and peasantry, whom he fears or
despises, and who are nothing but cannon fodder to him. And he does
these things in order to sow seeds of mutual distrust between France
and Russia.
He will use every possible expedient of trickery and guile, and, even
more confident than his teacher Bismarck in the eternal gullibility of
human nature, he will exploit it for all it is worth.
Take this example of our gullibility, as displayed in the question of
passports for Alsace-Lorraine. A section of the European Press, well
primed for the purpose (the Guelph funds not having been restored, so
far as we know, to their proper owner), continues unceasingly to
implore William II to consent to a relaxation of the regulations in
regard to these passports. The idea is, that when our credulous fools
come to learn that this relaxation has been granted, there will be
absolutely no limit to their enthusiasm for him. Already they speak of
him good-naturedly as "this young Emperor."
(Is it not so, that, every day, old friends whose rugged patriotism we
thought unshakable, meet us with the inquiry, "Well, and what have you
got to say now of this young Emperor?")
This young Emperor piles falsehood upon falsehood. If he permits any
relaxation of the passport regulations, you may be perfectly certain
that he will give orders that the _permis de séjour_ are to be more
severely restricted than before. Once a passport is issued, it is of
some value; but the _permis de séjour_ is a weapon in the hands of the
lower ranks of German officialdom, which they use with Pomeranian
cruelty. Every German bureaucrat in Alsace-Lorraine aims at preventing
Frenchmen from residing there, at getting them out of the country; and
nothing earns them greater favour in the eyes of their chiefs.
Therefore, if this "young Emperor" is to be asked to grant anything,
let it be a relaxation of the _permis de séjour_.
To be allowed to _travel_ amongst the brothers from whom we are
separated, can only serve to aggravate the grief we feel at not being
allowed to _live_ amongst them.
William's socialism is all of the same brand. His first display of
affection for the tyrant lower down was due to the fact that he used
him to overthrow a tyrant higher up: it was the socialist voter who
broke the power of Bismarck. When we see William embarking upon so
many schemes of social reform all at once, we may be sure that he has
no serious intention of carrying out any one of them. After having
made all sorts of lavish promises to the industrial workers, he is now
busy giving undertakings to make the welfare of the peasantry his
special care!
In his speech to the Reichstag there is no mention even of the one
definite benefit that the workers had a right to expect--namely, a
reduction of the hours of labour; but the threat of shooting "them in
the back" reappears in a new guise. William II warns the working
classes of "the dangers which they will incur in the event of their
doing anything to disturb the order of government."
"My august confederates and I," adds the Emperor, "are determined to
defend this order with unshakable energy."
Delicious to my way of thinking, this expression "my august
confederates." Is there not something astounding about the use of the
possessive pronoun in connection with the word "august," implying
sovereignty? One wonders what part can they have to play, these
confederates, led and dominated by a personality as jealous and
self-centred as this "young Emperor."
There is only one thing about which William II really concerns himself,
over and above his blind passion for increasing the forces of Germany,
and that is, other people's morals--the morals of working men or
officers. The devil has always had his days for playing the monk.
May 20, 1890. [5]
Do my readers remember my last article but one, written at a moment
when the whole Press was singing the praises of William the Pacifist,
on the eve of the day when _The Times_ published its despatch,
proclaiming the complete agreement between Tzar and Kaiser, the
_entente_ that assures the world of the peace that shall come down from
William's starry heavens? It was then that I wrote--
"Is there a single reason to be found, either in the traditions of his
race, or in his own character, or in the logic of Prussian militarism,
which can justify, any clear-thinking mind in believing that William is
a Pacifist?"
Hardly had that number of May 1 appeared when the German Emperor made
his speech at Königsberg! In his cups, the King of Prussia reveals his
true nature, just as a champagne cork flies from a badly wired bottle.
After giving expression once again to his animosity towards France, he
borrows from us one of the famous dicta of Monsieur Prudhomme--
"The duty of an Emperor," he declared, "is to keep the peace, and I am
determined to do it; but should I be compelled to draw the sword to
preserve peace, Germany's blows will fall like hail upon those who have
dared to disturb it."
Next, in the neighbourhood of the Russian frontier, he used the
following provocative language: "I will not permit that any one should
touch my eastern provinces and he who tries to do so, will find that my
power and my might are as rocks of bronze."
Sire, beware! The God of the Hohenzollern will prove to you before
long that your power and your might, those rocks of bronze, are no more
in His hands than a feather tossed in the wind; He will show you that a
tricky horse can unseat you, regardless of your dignity, when you take
your favourite ride, the road to Peacock island, with your august
brother-in-law.
Say what you will, the Prussians have not yet acquired either wit or
good taste! There is proof of this not only in the speeches of William
II at Konigsberg, but even more convincing, in that which was delivered
before the Reichstag by that famous strategist, our conqueror de
Moltke, on the subject of the proposed increase in the peace-footing
effectives.
One must read the whole speech to get an idea of the sort of nonsense
that "honorable" Germans are prepared to listen to. In urging the vote
of credit, "the Victor" said: "Confronted with the fundamental problem
of the army, the question of money is of secondary importance; for what
becomes of your prosperous finances in war-time?"
Having proved that conquerors are the greatest benefactors of the human
race, M. de Moltke goes on to declare that it is not the rulers, but
the peoples, who want war to-day. In Germany, it is "the cupidity of
the classes whom fate has neglected"; it is also the socialists who
decline to vote more soldiers because they desire to trouble the
world's peace and expect "to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of lives
in the next war and to threaten the existence of morality and
civilisation."
I do not know whether my readers can make head or tail of this
speech--I certainly cannot--but its intention is plain enough. William
II has been careful to emphasise it, by declaring that the increase in
the peace strength of the army is intended to reinforce the eastern and
western frontiers. Several officious newspapers (we no longer call
them reptile, but to do so would make them more authoritative) sum up
the matter in these words--
"The nearer the peace-footing of the troops on our frontiers approaches
to war-strength, the more effectively these troops are provided with
everything necessary to enable them to leave within _three hours_ of
receiving marching orders, the more secure becomes Germany's position."
Quite so! By next October there will be 200,000 men in
Alsace-Lorraine. As you see, the new law adds to the security of
Germany precisely what it takes from ours.
June 12, 1890. [6]
My readers will recollect that after a journey in Switzerland, two
years ago, I proved by statements which could not be (and never were)
refuted, that the Russian Nihilists established in Switzerland before
the Federal Government's inquiry, were all either deliberate or
unconscious tools of the German police.
On the one hand, M. de Puttkamer, Minister of the Interior, unable to
refute the evidence brought forward by the socialist deputy, Bebel, had
then been compelled to confess that the socialist agitators Haupt and
Schneider were his agents in Switzerland. On the other hand, at the
inquiry into the proceedings of these socialists, there was the
evidence furnished by letters seized on Schmidt and Friedmann,
associates of Haupt and Schneider, that Schmidt had been commissioned
by M. Krüger of the Berlin Police to commit a crime. In one of the
seized letters, the following words were actually used by Krüger: "The
next attempt upon the life of the Emperor Alexander must be prepared at
Geneva. Write to me; I await your reports." [7]
Whenever the alleged liberalism of William II finds its expression in
anything else but speeches, it is easy to take its measure. He has
just shown once more what it really amounts to, in the Treaty of
Establishment with Switzerland, wherein restrictions are placed upon
the issue of good moral character certificates by German parishes to
their parishioners. These will no longer be available to enable a
German to take up his residence in Switzerland. Henceforward it will
be the business of the German Legation to pick and choose those whom it
considers eligible to reside in Switzerland, either to practise a
profession or to conduct an export business there. It will be for
Germany to decide whether or not her subjects are dangerous abroad.
This would be well enough if it were only a question of restraining
rogues, but it is anything but reassuring when we come to deal with the
ever advancing phalanx of German spies.
July 9, 1890. [8]
It seems to me that this Wagnerian Emperor, pursuing his legends to the
uttermost parts of the earth, is doing his utmost to darken our
horizon. Everywhere, always he confronts us, appearing on the scene to
deprive us of the last remnants of good-will left to us in Europe.
In the Scandinavian States, even after 1870, we had preserved certain
trusty friendships: of these William II now tries to rob us. He
appears and, to use his own expression, draws men to him by magic
strings. To the people who are offshoots of Germany he figures as "the
Emperor," unique, mysterious, he who goes forward in the name of the
fables of mythology, gathering and uniting anew in his slumbering
people the instincts of vassalage. "Super-German virtues," he calls
them, "ornaments of old-time Germany." This monarch who, in his own
land, is pleased to pose as a Liberal!
Can it be that this same William who, on the Bosphorus held communion
with the stars, who, writing to Bismarck, said, "I talk with God,"
finds the celestial responses so inadequate that his mind must needs
invoke a retinue of Teutonic deities?
"Let the Latins, Slavs and Gauls know it," says he, "the German Emperor
bears to Germans the glad tidings which promise them the sovereignty of
the world!"
Have not even the Anglo-Saxons bowed before the sovereign will of
William II, so that before long the island of Heligoland will see the
German flag floating over its rocky shores?
Yes, let her Press and public men say what they will, proud Albion has
delivered herself over to Germany. She has made surrender to our enemy
in the hope that we shall thus become for her an easier victim, that
she will be able to recover at our expense what Germany has taken from
her. Lord Salisbury hopes, in return for the plum he has yielded, to
be able to help himself to ours, to those of Italy and Portugal, and to
share others with Germany.
But such is the character of William II that he despises those who
serve him or who yield to his will. Like Don Juan, he seeks ever new
worlds to conquer, new resistances to overcome, and neglects no means
to secure his desired ends. England and Austria to-day count for less
than nothing in his schemes. These countries have had a free hand in
Bulgaria, and they have used it to indulge in every sort of intrigue.
Screened by Bismarck, they have advised, upheld and exalted Stamboulof,
they have set up the Prince of Coburg. And William, not having
inspired any of this policy, would like to see it end in complications
shameful for his associates.
As to the King of Sweden, he thinks it due to the dignity of his people
to make some show of resistance, but one feels that this is only done
to save appearances. He also has delivered himself, bound hand and
foot, just as they have all done, the Emperor Francis Joseph, the King
of Italy, the Hohenzollern who reigns at Bucharest, Stamboulof, Lord
Salisbury and Leopold II.
July 29, 1890. [9]
The Imperial bagman travelling in Germanophil wares conceals under his
flag a very mixed cargo. He makes a Bernadotte to serve as speaking
trumpet for Prussian Conservatism at the same time that he subsidises
_agents provocateurs_ for the purpose of misleading and
internationalising the social reform programme of the Danes.
And all the time, in every direction, he comes and goes--this ever
restless, universal disturber--creating and perpetuating instability on
all sides, so as to increase the price of his peace stock, he
controlling the market. It is Bismarck's old game, played with
up-to-date methods.
August 12, 1890. [10]
Does it not seem to you, dear reader, that the voyage of William II to
Russia suggests in more ways than one the scene of the Temptation on
the Mount?
At St. Petersburg there reigns a sovereign whose life, directed by the
inspirations of his soul, is one long act of virtuous self-denial; who
prefers the humble and the lowly to fortune's favourites; whose works
are works of peace, and whose intentions are always those of a man
ready to appear before Him Who only tolerates the great ones of this
earth when their power is balanced by a due sense of their moral
responsibility, by devotion to duty and truth.
At Berlin there reigns a man of ungovernable pride, who aspires to be
torch-bearer to the world. Restless, like the spirit of evil,
tormented by his inability to do good, he has dedicated his soul to
wickedness and lies.
Alexander III regarded his accession to the throne as an ordeal, the
sacrifice of his life. He would have given his own blood to spare his
father the pangs of death. William II seized fiercely on the reins of
power, after having committed a crime, at least in his heart; after
having wished for the death of his father and increased his sufferings
by his conduct.
By the tragic end of two martyrs, God has brought face to face those
who are destined to be the champions of good and of evil respectively
in these last years of the century.
The German Emperor goes to Russia to say to the Tzar, "Divide with me
the kingdoms of the earth, always on condition that I receive the
lion's share."
The Emperor of Russia will reply: "Let us endeavour, my brother, to
work for the welfare of the nations, let us calm their hatreds and
follow the rugged paths of justice; above all, let us regard the power
which the God of hosts has confided into our hands as an instrument of
sovereignty, whose only purpose should be to keep the nation's honour
unsullied and safeguard the blessings of peace."
"Words, nothing but words," replies the Tempter. "Say, Yes or No, wilt
thou go with me to the conquest of the world? On all sides your
influence, which I have undermined, is waning: you and your followers
are caught in a ring of iron from which before long you will be unable
to escape.
"In Germany, all things are subject to my unfettered rule. Henceforth
nothing can ever check or stop my triumphal march. Throughout the
humbly listening world, which will soon be at my feet, I break that
which will not bend before me. I overthrow all those that stand, and
that which comes to me, I keep. Even the Church, which treated with my
forefathers on a footing of equality, now bows the knee before me and
humbly votes the money for my great slaughters.
"Socialism, that bogey of Bismarck's, is an easily tamed monster. I
have only to sow discord amongst its leaders to make it serve my ends
of policy like the veriest National Liberal party.
"In Austria, my grandfather and I created financial troubles, entangled
things, let loose envy and hatred and sowed the seeds of quarrels,
which have delivered her into my hands. Let them try as they will to
free themselves from the fetters with which I have bound them; I shall
create such obstacles to all these efforts that the future shall be
mine, like the present.
"In Hungary, Prussian diplomacy has found a way to turn the people's
hatred of Austria into hatred of Russia, and to make them forgive the
House of Hapsburg for a policy of coercion so cruel than even a
Romanoff denounced it.
"Everywhere I create dissension amongst my allies so that the final
decision may be mine.
"In Italy I have my _âme damnée_, the only one who understands me, an
ambitious tyrant, mad like Bismarck with the lust of power, who serves
my purposes at Rome as effectively as Bismarck hampered them in Berlin.
"I have stifled and destroyed the spirit of brotherhood in the cradle
of the Latin race. I have made history a liar, bringing a false
morality to the interpretation of the most brilliant days and deeds. I
have reduced to servility a Royal House that once was proud. I have
cheated and deceived the cleverest and most suspicious race on earth.
"At Rome, I have insulted the traditional and sacred majesty of the
Head of the Christian religion!
"In England, I have done even more. I have compelled proud Albion to
serve the ends of my personal policy. I have forced the most jealous
of nations to yield the leading place to me, to work, in her own
colonies and against her own interests, for the benefit of my growing
rivalry, sacrificing to me her dreams of supremacy in the four quarters
of the globe.
"As to America, I will deal with her later. I have my plans.
"Despite Lord Salisbury's make-believe of caution and reserve (about
which, I may say, we quite understand each other) England is so
completely delivered into my power that, after the Conservatives the
Liberals, in the person of the young leader John Morley, now proffer me
their services, and no matter what changes may take place in the
English parties my influence will soon prevail.
"My journeys to the Scandinavian States have been fruitful. In
Denmark, O Tzar! your own father-in-law has become almost associated
with my destiny.
"I have linked with my fortunes a king of French stock in Sweden, and I
will prove it at Alsen Island, where I shall compel him to take part in
the manoeuvres of my fleet.
"As to Norway, a few words from my Imperial lips have overcome the old
republicanism of these brother Teutons.
"So as to keep closer watch over the submission of my new allies, I
have wrested Heligoland from England; and there I shall build an
eagle's nest from which I shall be able to swoop down upon them, should
they attempt to escape me. Those who had any doubts as to the
importance of this surrender, have learned it from the speeches that I
made when taking possession.
"By this means I have closed the German Ocean _for ever_, and that
which is closed gives access to something.
"What need I say of Turkey that you do not know already? All her
thoughts, movements and actions are regulated by one man, and he a
vassal of German policy. Turkey's army, trade and finances, the
direction of her ruling minds, are either in my hands or in those of
England. And England, say what you will, is hypnotised by me.
"I can afford at my pleasure to challenge her policy indefinitely.
"The diplomas which she conferred upon the Bulgarian bishops after the
execution at Panitza have shown you, my brother, how greatly I am
pleased to favour those whom you have condemned! Stamboulof, the
inveterate foe of Russia, now dominates the elections in Bulgaria and
Roumelia, thanks to the iradé on the bishoprics. He goes in triumph
through the land, so that even the Russophile candidates invoke the
protection of this man, who shoots the country's heroes and reduces its
prince to the level of an ordinary public servant. His audacity, his
impunity, the length of his tether, have no limits except those which
will be imposed upon him by my power should you turn a deaf ear to my
proposals.
"And just as British policy has served the ends of Prussian statecraft
in Bulgaria and Roumelia, even so it serves them at this moment in
Armenia.
"It was I who willed and inspired the indulgence of the Sultan for the
bloodthirsty Moussa Bey. Massacred by the Kurds on the one hand, and
on the other observing the success of the revolution in Roumelia, the
Armenians will inevitably be led from one revolt to another and, helped
by a few timely suggestions, will come to believe that they can win
their autonomy.
"Herein lies another difficulty which disturbs your mind, and of which
my hands hold the threads; another people, to whom you might have
looked for help in the event of my allies going to war with you, but
which England and I will be able to remove from your influence.
"In Roumania, a Hohenzollern guards all the keys which open the doors
of his frontiers.
"In Serbia, I am working by sure means to destroy the last remaining
sympathies for Russia. To attain this end I will leave no stone
unturned, even as I am doing in Greece against France.
"With an eye to the future interests of my African colonies, I have
compelled England to keep Portugal quiet. I do not wish any
revolutionary upheaval to react upon Spain, that indomitable nation
which still resists me, but in whose mouth nevertheless, I have put an
invisible bit. I shall know how to drive her headlong into the trap
that awaits her in Morocco.
"With the help of Italy, Switzerland is mine. And Holland will fall to
me through the little Duchy of Luxembourg, which will come to me by the
marriage of one of my sisters with the heir of Nassau.
"My last master stroke was the way of my coming into Belgium. Therein
I was artful. The Belgians affected to believe in the neutrality of
their microscopic kingdom. I played up to the joke and entered their
country by way of the sea.
"In all the splendour of my power, I came to Ostend on the
_Hohenzollern_, and I made it my business to invest my appearance with
every feature calculated to impress the mob, in these days when outward
show appeals most powerfully to the popular imagination. And I was,
moreover, determined that nothing should be lacking to the full
effectiveness of this demonstration.
"Belgium had intimated by a revolution her objections to becoming
German. Well and good: I imposed myself upon her as German Emperor.
With wearisome reiteration she had manifested her sympathy for France.
In order to challenge these sentiments the more effectively, I
compelled King Leopold to take his seat beside me as the Colonel of one
of my Alsatian regiments!
"And do you suppose that the Belgians protested? Not a bit of it! No,
the trick is played. No longer in secret, but openly, Belgium will
play my waiting game, in the Congo and at the gates of France.
"My visit to Belgium is destined to produce such important results in
days to come, that I have neglected not the smallest detail in order to
produce a legendary impression upon Europe. Nothing have I forgotten:
costumes for each part, words, good seed sown broadcast in the public
mind, communications to the Press, advice given to sovereigns of a
nature to please the people, and elsewhere (as in England) popularity
with the military caste!
"An individual of the name of Van der Smissen, having dared to argue in
the ranks, got broken for his pains.
"At the same time, in order to cast into stronger relief the loftiness
and majesty of my countenance, I invested it, amongst these good
Belgians, with certain new features of good nature and cordiality.
"As to France, Russia's only possible ally to-day, her artless
simplicity protects me from all risks that I might otherwise run. I
shall compel her to accept the neutralisation of Alsace-Lorraine,
whenever the provinces shall have become thoroughly Germanised.
"For the present I leave England to deal with her: England who keeps
her busy with childish things, and soothes her vanity with illusory
diplomatic successes, such as the _exequatur_ of the Madagascar Consuls
(which the settled policy of the residents would have achieved in time)
and with useless concessions amidst the fogs of Lake Chad, or on the
Niger, or in regions whose possession none disputed.
"Lord Salisbury evoked much mirth, over these concessions at the Lord
Mayor's banquet, joking somewhat cynically at his own policy in
disposing of territories over which he had no rights. One country,
amongst others, given to France, has provided my good English friends
with an inexhaustible source of merriment.
"Concerning Egypt, Lord Salisbury has clearly intimated to France that
England will _never_ give it up.
"Thus, the Salisbury Ministry has still at its disposal, to keep busy
my fiery but easily duped neighbours, the Egyptian problem, with a
French Minister at Cairo, who is more of a help than a hindrance to
England; the Newfoundland question, with the Anglo-American Waddington,
more yielding for the purposes of the British Foreign Office than one
of its own agents.
"Moreover, whenever I choose, the rulers of France can be made to
believe in a francophile reincarnation of M. Crispi! I have many
things in store for them in that quarter.
"Deceived by the infinite resources of my diplomacy, led astray by my
agents who have taken on less reptilian disguises, the guileless French
nation remains a prey to ignorance and ambitions as countless as the
sands on the shore of her democracy.
"To sum up; England, through India; England and Germany, through China,
we hold in our hands that question of an Asiatic war, a scourge which
will exhaust the strength of your Empire, O Tzar! and which may finally
weaken France. I have said!"
'Tis a long tale, and were it all told at one time, Alexander III would
certainly not listen to half of it. But William II spent a fortnight
in Russia, and I have only an hour to summarise his argument.
Have the wings of the German Emperor the span of those of Lucifer, as
he believes? He may play the part, but he will never be able to carry
it through!
August 28, 1890. [11]
Although for the meeting of these two powerful Emperors (whose
destinies, as history proves, are so frequently commingled) there was
no real necessity, other than the desire of the young and restless King
of Prussia, to keep the whole world guessing as to the object of his
multifarious designs, their coming together has its undeniable
importance and significance, for it has been the means of increasing
the resistance and strengthening the determination of the Tzar.
Alexander III, whose mind reflects the great and untroubled soul of
Russia, is well able to estimate at its true worth the insatiable greed
of Germany and the ever-encroaching character of her ruler. Because of
his own self-control and disinterestedness, the Tzar must have been
able to gather from William's words and works a very fair idea of his
unbounded self-conceit; of that vanity which, like its emblem the eagle
of the outspread wings, aspires to cover the whole earth.
Even though William has offered to the Emperor of Russia the prospect
of a general disarmament; even though, with his present mania for
speech-making he may have suggested a Congress for the settlement of
Europe's disputes, his success must have been of the negative kind.
If the Tzar were to agree to a conference, it could only lead to one of
two results. Either it would embitter those disputes which threaten to
embroil the nations in a fierce struggle, and bring France and Russia
together in resistance to the same greedy foes, or it would end in the
imposition of a lasting peace, which would mean that the Prussian and
military fabric of the German State would be dissolved, as by a
miracle, to the benefit of French and Russian influences in Europe.
Let then the German Emperor have his head. God is leading him straight
on the path of failure. It is this still-vague feeling, that he will
never have power to add to the Prussian birthright, that makes him rush
feverishly from one scheme to another; stirring up this question and
that, ever testing, ever striving. It is this foreboding that has
driven him to pursue fame, fortune and glory, and so to weary them with
his importunities and haste, that they flee from him, unable and
unwilling to bear with him any longer.
Sire, if it be your ambition to become, immediately and by your own
endeavours, greater than any one on earth, allow me to express the
charitable wish without hoping to dissuade you--that you may break your
neck in the attempt!
September 12, 1890. [12]
It was just at the time that I was writing my last article, that the
Emperor of Germany, King of Prussia (who has a perfect obsession for
being in the middle of the picture), was carrying out at the army
manoeuvres at Narva, a certain strategic design, long-prepared and
tested, by means of which he proposed to fill with amazement and
admiration not only the Russian army but the Imperial Court--nay, all
Russia, and the whole wide world!
William's idea was to repeat the exploit performed by the troops of
Charles XII (with the aid of the Russian Viborg Regiment, of which he
is Colonel) and to pass through the heavy mass of a regiment of cavalry
with light infantry battalions. The future Commander-in-Chief of the
German Army wished to show the world that he would know how to add the
_élan_ of the French and the impetuosity of the Slav to the qualities
of method and strength perfected by leaders like Von Moltke or
Frederick Charles. Therefore, several weeks before, William II had
asked the Tzar to be allowed to take part in the manoeuvres and to
command in person the Viborg Regiment.
And so it came to pass that, having cast himself for a part of
invincible audacity, he came to cut a very sorry and ridiculous figure.
Surrounded by the Hussars, he was made to see that what may be done
with German infantry against Uhlans, cannot be accomplished, even with
Russian soldiers, against Russian cavalry.
This incident shows that the Tzar had something akin to second sight
when he gave orders that the length of the manoeuvres would be
optional. Thanks to this, the Kaiser was free to take home the sooner
his pretty jacket (no, his tunic, I mean) from Narva.
What an interesting broadsheet might be made on the subject of "William
II a prisoner"!
In the long winter evenings to come, how many a Russian peasant--gifted
with imagination as they are--in telling again the tale of the Viborg
Regiment's attack, will see in it an omen of the destiny of the German
Emperor! And they will add, with bated breath, that the
_Hohenzollern_, on leaving the shores of Russia narrowly missed being
cut in two by another vessel. And one more sign of evil omen--a
fearful tempest shook the Imperial yacht in Russian waters.
Let us, whose Emperor was a prisoner of the Germans in 1871, pray that
some day a German Emperor may be taken prisoner by the Russian
army--not like at Narva, but in all seriousness.
I said in my last letter that it might well be that William's journey
to Russia might result in stiffening the resolution of the Emperor
Alexander. And so it has proved, for scarcely had his Imperial guest
returned to Berlin, than a ukase raised the Russian Customs tariff and
imposed a new duty of 20 per cent. on German imports. A fine result
this, of that which the German Press, before William's departure,
described as the Russo-German Economic Entente, at a moment when, even
for the Berlin newspapers, the prospects of a political _entente_ were
somewhat dubious.
For this reason, Professor Delbrück says quite bluntly, in the
"Prussian Annals," that William II's journey to Russia has been a
lamentable fiasco; that the Tzar declined to listen to any diplomatic
conversation; that he ridiculed and entertained his Imperial guest with
a series of military parades whilst the Russian general staff was
carrying out important manoeuvres on the western frontiers.
In the same spirit as that of the ex-deputy Professor, the whole German
and Austrian Press have been demanding that, for the peace of Europe,
the German and Austrian troops should be withdrawn from their
respective frontiers, so as to compel the Russian forces to do the same.
That is all very well, but inasmuch as the military zones of the Great
Russian Empire are separated by enormous distances, and the movement of
troops being very much easier for Germany and Austria than for Russia,
one would like to know precisely what is the idea at the back of these
demands. As soon as ever he returned to Germany, two very significant
ideas occurred to William II: one, to make a display of the warmest
sentiments for his august _pis-aller_, the Emperor of Austria; the
other, to have his faithful ally Italy play some scurvy trick on
France, Russia's friend.
To this end, the German Emperor proceeded to hold a review of the
Austro-Hungarian Fleet and went beyond the official programme by going
aboard the ironclad _Francis Joseph_, flying the flag of Admiral
Sterneck. After this, inviting himself to luncheon with the Archduke
Charles Stephen, commanding the Austrian squadron, he made a fervent
speech, wishing health and glory to his precious ally the Emperor of
Austria.
September 27, 1890. [13]
When Germany agreed to withdraw her armies from the soil of France, she
replaced them by other soldiers: crossing-sweepers, clerks, workmen,
bankers (industrials or "reptiles" as the case might be), as well
organised, linked up and drilled as her best troops. Unceasingly,
therefore, and without rest, it behoves us to be on our guard and to
defend ourselves.
A good many amiable Frenchmen will shrug their shoulders at this, but
if we act otherwise we shall be delivered over to our enemies, bound
hand and foot, at the psychological moment.
And now, dear reader, to return to William II. You will grant, I
think, that since we have followed the interminable zig-zags of his
wanderings throughout Europe, we are entitled to coin and utter a new
proverb: "A rolling monarch gathers no prestige."
November 1, 1890. [14]
For mastodons like Bismarck, William II prepares a refrigerating
atmosphere which freezes them alive. Splendid mummies like Von Moltke
he smothers with flowers. The men whom William dismisses and discards
are great men in the eyes of Germany, even though in history they may
not be so, because the ex-Chancellor is of inferior character, and
because certain successes of Von Moltke were due rather to luck than
design. Nevertheless, they are in William's way and he gets rid of
them, by different means. He needs about him men of a different stamp
to those of the iron age; for the present, he is satisfied with
courtiers, later he will demand valets. All those who are of any
worth, all those who stand erect before his shadow, will be sacrificed
sooner or later. His autocratic methods will end by producing the same
results as those of the most jealous of democracies.
Let us bear in mind how often, under Bismarck and William I, the German
Press made mock of our fatal French mania for change, pointing out to
Europe how the everlasting see-saw of Ministers of War was bound to
reduce our national defences to a position of inferiority. In two
years William is at his fourth!
Soon, no doubt, William II will be able to score a personal success in
the matter of his intrigues against Count Taaffe. His benevolence
spares not his allies. We know the measure of his good-will towards
Italy. Lately, it seems, the Emperor, King of Prussia, said to the
Count of Launay, King Humbert's Ambassador at Berlin, "Do not forget
that, sooner or later, Trieste is destined to become a German port."
And it was doubtless with this generous idea in his mind that he had
his compliments conveyed to M. Crispi for his anti-irridentist speech
at Florence.
That the Triple Alliance is the "safeguard of peace," has become a
catchword that each of the allies repeats with wearisome reiteration.
But there! It is not that William II does not wish for war: it is
Germany which forbids him to seek it. It was not M. Crispi who
declined to seek a pretext for attacking France: it was Italy that
forbade him to find it. It is not the Germanised Austrians who
hesitate to provoke Russia: it is the Slavs who threaten that if a
provocation takes place they will revolt.
Let me add that the official organs in Germany, Italy and Vienna only
raise a smile nowadays when they describe Russia and France as
thunderbolts of war.
November 12, 1890. [15]
At the outset of the reign of William II, referring to his father, I
spoke of the "dead hand" and its power over the living. Now, what has
the young King of Prussia done since his accession to the Throne? He,
the flatterer of Bismarck, this disciple of Pastor Stöker, this
out-and-out soldier, this hard and haughty personage, who was wont to
blame his august parents for their bourgeois amiability and their
frequent excursions? He carries out everything that his father
planned, but he does it under impulse from without and he does it
badly, without forethought, without the sincerity or the natural
quality which is revealed in a man by a course of skilful action
legitimate in its methods.
He smashed Von Bismarck in brutal fashion. His father, on the other
hand, was wont to say: "I will not touch the Chancellor's statue, but I
will remove the stones, one by one, from his pedestal, so that some
fine day it will collapse of itself."
It is a curious thing that these reforms and ideas, not having been
applied by the monarch whose character would have harmonised perfectly
with their conception and execution, now possess no reversionary value.
They lose it completely by being subjected to a false paternity.
It is true that occasionally William II envoys some real satisfaction,
such as that which he has derived from the coming of the King of
Belgium. So impatient was His Majesty to return his visit, that he
could not wait for the good season and therefore he came in the bad.
At Ostend, Leopold II had caused sand to be strewn at William's coming
(the beach being conveniently handy). The King of Prussia only spread
mud. Why was the King of Belgium in such a hurry? After the visit of
General Pontus to Berlin and his three days in retirement with the
German headquarters staff, people at Brussels are still asking what
more King Leopold could possibly have to settle in person with Messrs.
Moltke and Waldersee at these same headquarters?
The _Courier de Bruxelles_ informs us that certain proposals for an
alliance were made to Leopold II during his stay at Potsdam. What!
Could Prussia possibly have dared to think of laying an impious hand
upon Belgian neutrality! But if not, why should they have been at such
pains formerly to prove to me that the thing was inconceivable?
Prussia wants a Belgian alliance and the King refuses. Splendid! But
let him tell us so himself! I confess that such a document would
interest me far more than all that I have published on the subject!
May not the explanation of King Leopold's journey be, that William II
would like a mobilisation in Belgium just as he wants one in Italy? M.
Bleichroder will supply the cash. He has already got his bargain
money, viz. Pastor Stöcker in disgrace, and the repudiation of
anti-Semitism by its ex-partisan, William II.
November 27, 1890. [16]
How can one avoid taking an interest in William II of Hohenzollern? He
is one of those people who, by every means and in every way, insist on
being noticed. This up-to-date Emperor is obsessed by the idea of
making profit, for purposes of advertisement, out of every sensation;
he loves to upset calculations and produce every kind of astonishment.
He believes that he has not fulfilled his part, until he has made a
number of people lift their arms to heaven at least once a day and
exclaim: "William is marvellous!" He wants to hear this cry arise from
the humblest and the highest, from the miner's gallery and the palace
of his "august confederates," from the workman's cottage and the homes
of the middle-class, from the officers' club, from church and chapel,
from the Parliament of the Empire and the House of Peers.
Being _blasé_ himself, it pleases him to tickle public opinion with
spicy fare; his lack of mental balance compels him to these endless and
senseless choppings and changes, to all these schemes projected,
proclaimed and cast aside.
The former Court of his grandfather is already in ruins, the work of
Bismarck crumbling in the dust; in less than no time he has reduced the
old aristocratic and feudal Prussian monarchy to the purest kind of
democratic Caesarism.
Perched above every political party in Germany, William the Young wants
to be the one and only ruler and judge of all. Among themselves let
them differ as and when they will, it being always understood that all
these separate opinions must equally be sacrificed to the Emperor.
Before long the King of Prussia will endeavour to be at one and the
same time the spiritual head of the Lutheran Church and the temporal
Pope of the Catholic Church, the leader of economists, the cleverest of
stategists, the one and only socialist, the most marvellous incarnation
of the warrior of German legends, the greatest pacifist of modern
times, explorer in his day and soothsayer whenever he likes. In his
own eyes, William is all these.
Have not the delegates of the old House of Peers ingenuously complained
during these last few days that they no longer possess any initiative
of legislation? But they have just as much or as little as the
honourable members of the Prussian Diet.
All schemes of reform emanate from the Emperor. The people have no
right to be Emperor. Surely that is simple enough?
To bulk larger in the public eye, William dwells apart; he can no
longer endure that any one should presume to think himself useful or
agreeable to him or to give him advice. He is fulfilling the
prediction that he made of himself when he was twenty-one: "When I come
to reign I shall have no friends; I shall only have dupes."
More infatuated with himself than ever, the Emperor wears his mystic
helmet _à la_ Lohengrin, tramples the purple underfoot and has the
throne surrounded by his life-guards, wearing the iron-plated bonnets
of the days of Frederick II. Thus he deludes himself with the dream of
absolute authority. His mania for power is boundless, his pride knows
no limits. He recognises only God and Himself.
To his recruits, he says: "After having sworn fidelity to your masters
upon earth, swear the same oath to your Saviour in Heaven!"
But in his moments of solitude, in the privacy of the potentate's
toilet-chamber, must it not be dreadful for him to reflect that his
silver helmet rests on ears that suppurate, that his voice comes from a
mouth afflicted with fistula of the bone, and that there are days when
his sceptre is at the mercy of the surgeon's knife?
December 11, 1890. [17]
The rumour has spread, and has not yet been authoritatively
contradicted, that William is suffering from disease of the brain. Is
not this in itself good and sufficient reason to make him wish to prove
that no one in his Empire can do as much brain work as he can? We,
whose minds are so confused in the endeavour to follow William's
movements at a distance, where little things escape us, can imagine
what it must be to observe them from close at hand!
One of the chief glories of his reign will be to have produced the
diagnosis of a new disease, "locomotor Caesarism" of the restless type.
Before his case, these symptoms were always associated with paralysis.
Here is a discovery that may turn out to be more genuine that that of
Dr. Koch.
The unfortunate Koch is one more of William's victims. It was his
Imperial will that Germany should wake up one morning to find herself
possessed of a Pasteur of her own. He could not even wait long enough
to allow the necessary experiments to be made with a remedy which is so
violent that it may well be mortal. At the word of command "Forward,
march," Koch found himself propelled by His Majesty into the position
of a benevolent genius.
Dr. Henri Huchard has expressed his opinion of Koch's method in the
following words: "In therapeutics, daring is always permissible, so
long as it preserves its respect for human life."
A few days ago, the German Emperor was thrusting his advice on a man of
science, to-day he is overthrowing the most venerable traditions of the
Prussian monarchy with the scheme of M. Miguel, the new system, for
taxing incomes and legacies, opening a campaign against the nobility
and the old conservatives. With the help of an official of the
"younger generation"--for thus is he pleased to describe his Minister
of Finance--he begins to make war on the "old school."
With the "old school" in his mind's eye, he conceives another idea,
namely, that of a new method of teaching in the elementary, secondary
and high schools, upon which it will be unnecessary to improve for the
next hundred years. He sets the faithful M. Hinzpeter to work, and
compels him to toil night and day to prepare a complete programme in
all haste--whereupon behold the Emperor holding forth to the collegians
just as he does to the recruits.
"Down with Latin!" cries William. "Let us make Germans instead of
Greeks and Romans! Let us teach our children the practical side of
life." All of which does not prevent him from adding: "Let us teach
them the fabulous history of our race."
William insists that his name shall be on every lip--that he be
recognised as father of his workmen, father of collegians, father of
the country at large. It is his ambition to look upon all his subjects
as his sons. Much good may it do them!
December 27, 1890. [18]
The Emperor of Germany, determined supporter of triumphant militarism,
and, therefore, the deadly enemy of every permanent and beneficial
social reform, has suddenly stopped short in his attempts to improve
the condition of the masses.
If you ask: To whom does William II give satisfaction? the only
possible answer is: Himself! For it matters nothing to him whether
these plans of his succeed or fail. The thing that does matter to him
is, that he should have left his mark everywhere, and that, after a
quarter of a century or more, legislators shall inevitably find, in
every project of law, the sacred mark, the holy seal of William's mind.
[1] From _La Nouvelle Revue_, of April 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[2] This paper had been, till then, in the service of Prince Bismarck.
[3] _La Nouvelle Revue_, May 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[4] _La Nouvelle Revue_, May 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[5] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[6] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[7] Several pages of the "Letters on Foreign Policy" of June 12 give
proofs, undeniable and complete, that the preparation of crimes
committed by anarchists in Europe was instigated at Berlin, William
knowing and approving the fact.
[8] _La Nouvelle Revue_, July 16, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[9] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[10] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 16, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[11] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[12] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[13] _La Nouvelle Revue_, October 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[14] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[15] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 16, 1890, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[16] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."
[17] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign
Policy."
[18] _La Nouvelle Revue_, January 1, 1891, "Letters on Foreign Policy."