The Emperor's reply was equally terse and dignified. He had
always felt at home, he said, in " this lovely country," being the grandson of a Queen " whose name will ever be remembered as a noble character, and a lady great in the wisdom of her counsels, and whose reign had conferred lasting blessings upon England. Moreover, the same blood runs in English and in German veins." Following the example of his grandfather and of his ever-lamented father, he should always do "what was in his power" to cement the friendship between the two nations, and he was much encouraged by the testimony of such an assembly as that to the earnestness and honesty of his intentions. "My aim is, above all, the main- tenance of peace," without which the greatest social problems of the day, the solution of which was the most prominent duty of our time, could not be successfully grappled with. And it was his intention to do all in his power to promote good relations between Germany and the other nations whose co-operation was necessary to the great work of the advancement of civilisa- tion. It is not easy to make this sort of formal announcement in language sufficiently terse and sufficiently dignified. But both the Lord Mayor and the Emperor may be said to have succeeded in hitting precisely the right key, and in being neither bald nor too elaborately sonorous.
Previous page
