We are not sure that spontaneity is a good quality
in a speaker when he happens to be Sovereign in a great country. The students of Bonn have been welcoming the German Emperor, and on May 7th he made a speech to them in which he expressed his distinct approval of students' duels, and students' clubs for beer-drinking. He maintains that they foster courage, obedience, and discipline, and declares it his " firm conviction that every youth who enters a corps or beer- drinking and duelling club will receive the true direction of his life from the spirit which prevails in them." He hopes " students will always take delight in handling the duelling- blade." The best German Professors are of a different opinion, and though we have said enough on the subject else- where, we may remark here that, as duelling is by German law a distinctly penal offence, the Emperor, in his zeal for the rougher virtues, has broken through an etiquette binding on all Sovereigns. It is not their business, at all events, to encourage breaches of the law.
