The actual opening of the Baltic Canal on Thursday went
off, as far as the German Emperor was concerned, magnificently well. The Hohenzollern,' with his Majesty on board, steamed from the entrance on the Elbe to the debouchure in Kiel Harbour, in nine hours, exciting along the entire route the screaming enthusiasm of crowds of Holsteiners ; and the Emperor was received in the vast land- locked harbour by the squadrons of fourteen nations and a salute from two thousand five hundred guns, such as no European will hear again. No accident marred his progess ; but, unfortunately, the next vessel, the Kaiser Wilhelm II.,' a ship of 7,000 tons, with all the Ambassadors on board, in passing the sharp curve at Levenson, had fouled her screw, and detained the whole remainder of the procession, which included twenty- three vessels, for an hour. She got through at last, however, in time for the banquets, and there was throughout the day no loss of a life or of a ship. Indeed, the arrangements are said to have been admirable, and to testify in a marvellous way to the naval skill of the Emperor, who dictated them all himself. We have noted elsewhere the element alike of irony and insincerity in the show, bat it cannot be questioned that it was one of the most bewilderingly magnificent upon which men have ever gazed.
