BOOKS.

THE EMPEROR WILLIAM'S SPEECHES.* IN a loquacious age, in a world craving to express its ideas and emotions, there still remains among us one silent class. The Sovereigns of modern Europe appear for the most part to have adapted to their own use the ancient nursery maxim : they are seen but (so far as the unprivileged multitude is concerned) they are not heard. Behind the screen erected by constitutional government we dimly per- ceive them moving about their various pursuits and duties, emerging at times to play the most conspicuous part in some national pageant. We have reason to believe them kindly, diligent, courteous, and conscientious. We learn with respectful interest that one has a taste for literature and that another plays golf. On public occasions they say what ought to be said with dignity and decorum, and now and then some poignant phrase uttered, or reported to have been uttered, by Royalty sets the heart of a nation vibrating in generous sympathy. But as a rule their first care is to confide nothing indiscreet or singular to the public ear, and in these circumstances it is evident that their remarks must be mainly adorned by a safe and colourless virtue. In a word, they generally observe Bacon's advice against short, sharp sayings that "fly abroad like darts," and use instead those long speeches which, as he also tells us, are " flat " things and " little noted." There is only one reigning Prince in Europe whose speeches could fill a volume of four hundred and forty pages, and fill it interestingly.

No one can wonder that the German Emperor delivers with alacrity his required, and rather more than his required, tale of speeches. It would be impossible to own his talent and

• Kaiserreden : Reden und Ertasse, Briefs und Telegramme, Kaiser Htthents II. Bin Charakterbad des Deutsche% Kaisers. Leipzig: J. J. Weber. [6 marks.]

not wish to exercise it ; of all possessions this is the hardest to keep to oneself. Was it a good fairy or a malicious sprite that bestowed upon him his brilliant and dangerous gift ? Opinions differ, and history will decide between them; but if other nations need not envy the Germans their Emperor's eloquence—his speeches number on an average thirty for each year of his reign—they are perhaps in a position to admire it with less reserve. His language is always easy, pointed, picturesque,

and so German that it suffers greatly in translation ; he is not afraid—in Germany no speaker need be afraid—of a romantic sentiment or of a poetic phrase, and he is perhaps at his best when he is launching an ironclad or dedicating a monu- ment. But whether he is greeting with friendly warmth, primus inter pares, the Princes of his Empire, or indicating the path of duty to the office-bearers of "my Church, of which I am summits episcopzis," or paternally admonishing the German artisan to put his whole faith in the Government, and not to be led astray by the wicked Social Democrat—" a name which, in my opinion, is synonymous with 'enemy of the Fatherland "- his discourses are penetrated by a note of frank egoism which lends colour and individuality to all he says. His tone is always dexterously adapted to the audience he is addressing, but he frequently forgets that he is overheard by a far larger audience than that which is seated before him. This may have something to do with his profound mistrust of the Press, which, careless of his admonition to ponder the old maxim of an ancient Emperor—" An Emperor's words are not to be twisted and turned "—" too often, unfortunately, expounds my words and expressions in a sense which they cannot possibly bear." "The spirit of disobedience glides through the land disguised in iridescent raiment to seduce the hearts of my people, and uses an ocean of printer's ink to obscure the path, which is, and must be, clear as day to any one who is acquainted with me and my principles."

The paradoxical element in his character which has often perplexed his critics, and has led Germans to declare that "the Emperor is so unexpected," is here plainly visible. The son of a practical raze, he is also a poet, a hero- worshipper, an idealist who would fain see the drama "an incarnation of beauty, of the artistic vision," so that we should leave the theatre "not disheartened by the recollection of depressing scenes and bitter disillusions, but purified, uplifted, and strengthened anew for our struggle towards the ideal." Intensely alive to the importance of progress, the modern developments of life and thought are yet so distasteful to him that he moves among us a living anachronism. What else can we call a statesman who hopes to restore "not only

in this province but in my whole land unconditional obedience to the Crown and its wearer" ; who declares that "he who is not a good Christian is not a good man, is not a Prussian soldier, and can in no circumstances fulfil what is required of a soldier in the Prussian Army "; and who assures the clergy that "in the present troublous times, when the spirit of unbelief is sweeping through the land, the Church's only support and defence is the Imperial hand and the shield of the Empire " ? We listen and dream ourselves back in the days of the Treaty of Passau. On the other hand, his views on education are entirely radical. "Our buciness is to educate young Germans, not young Greeks and Romans," he declares. "Hitherto more weight has been laid on know- ledge than on capacity Eon the kennen than on the kOnnen] ; this is plain from the examination papers, which start from the idea that the scholar must above all know as much as possible ; whether it fits him for life or not is a secondary matter." He would have more importance attached to modern history and to the national idea. "Till now the path has led from Thermopylae past Cannae to Rosslyach and Vionville ; I would lead our children from Sedan and Gravelotte past Leuthen and Rossbach back to Alantinea and Thermopylae."

But if the Emperor's speeches read or heard singly create an impression of fantastic and impetuous vehemence, studied as a whole they reveal a very different character. They show a statesman who is often vehement, but rarely either impetuous or fantastic ; who is, on the contrary, a true Hohenzollern, persistent, adroit, and surprisingly patient. He gains his converts less by the originality or logic of his arguments than by the dogged reiteration of them. We may trace these qualities most plainly perhaps in his handling of the naval question. It was with great astonishment that the Germans learned soon after his accession that without abandoning the military traditions of his house, William II. was, as he describes himself, a " passionirter Seemann," and that his first important measure was a scheme for the thorough reorganisa- tion of the Navy and the creation of what was practically a new Fleet. From that day to this he has never wearied of reminding his countrymen that "our future lies on the water," of pleading in season and out for the ships "of which we have need—and such cruel need !" He pressed for them at first on commercial grounds. "I see it to be my highest duty," he said at Bremen in 1890, "to protect and develop the Empire handed down to me by my predecessors, and to declare that I will do my best to enable your commerce to develop and prosper undisturbed." And in 1893 :—" May Bremen's trade develop and prosper in the shadow of peace, remembering the great days of the old Hansa, whose motto

not only you but all of us must bear in mind if we would advance in the markets of the world,—Natigare "wens eat, rivere non eat necesse." But another note is audible in the interesting speech delivered in Hamburg in October, 1899 :— "With deep anxiety I have been forced to watch how slowly Germans learn to interest themselves in the great questions which are moving the world, and to comprehend their political meaning. Look round and see how things have changed in the last few years.

Old Empires pass and new ones are arising Changes that in old days took centuries to come about are now wrought in a few months. In this way the task set for our German Empire and

people has immensely enlarged its scope Our people must make up their minds to offer the necessary sacrifices. Above all, they must lay aside their habit of seeking the highest good on sharply defined party lines. They must set bounds to their old hereditary fault of considering everything as an object of unbridled criticism For these are precisely the political sins which are revenged on our naval interests and on our Fleet. If during the first eight years of my reign the strengthening of the Navy had not been obstinately refused in spite of my innumerable prayers and warnings, mockery and scorn being showered upon me into the bargain, in what different fashion might we not now advance our commerce and our interests overseas ! And yet my hopes that the German will still rouse himself have not vanished."

And in the same year he congratulates himself that "though our countrymen have learned very slowly to appreciate the importance of the command of the sea, they have begun to learn it, and when once an idea, has kindled a spark in the German mind it is certain to blaze up in time." He paints marine pictures; he rejoices in each new branch of the Navy

League ; he founds a Schiffsbautechnische Gesellschaft in imitation of our Institute of Naval Architects ; he does not hesitate to describe the opponents of his policy as Vaterlands- loan, men without a country; at the Queen's Jubilee in 1897 he sent an impassioned telegram to Prince Henry, who

came to represent Germany at the Naval Review :—" I deeply regret that while other nations are dazzling all eyes with their proud battleships, I can place at your disposal no better vessel than the 'Kaiser Wilhelm.' This is the mourn- ful result of the conduct of those men without a country who have managed to prevent us from procuring the necessary additions to the Fleet. But I shall not rest till I have brought my Navy to the same high level as my Army." In 1900 he had the happy thought of sending a division of picked torpedo-boats up the Rhine as far as Germersheim, in the Bavarian Palatinate, as an object-lesson to the dwellers inland.

It met everywhere with an enthusiastic reception, and the Emperor was not slow to utilise the impression produced. While gratefully acknowledging the compliments paid to his officers and men, he still insists that "we must press on, so that our Fleet may soon appear upon the scene strong enough to

command respect and to augment the power of my hand to keep the peace of the world." Still more significant are the sentences uttered two years ago when, in laying the foundation- stone of a museum on the Saalburg near Homburg, he speaks of the old Roman fort as "a token of Roman power, a link

in the strong iron chain bound by the legions of Rome round their mighty Empire Thus with the first blow I dedicate this stone to the remembrance of the Emperor Frederick III.; with the second to the youth of Germany, who will learn in this newly-erected museum the meaning of

the word Weltreich ; and with the third to the future of our Fatherland, which in years to come, by the common labours of Princes and peoples, may see its armies and its citizens as powerful, as firmly united, and as influential as once was the Roman Empire; so that, as of old men said, Civis Romanies sum,' in the future they may say, am a German citizen." This speech, taken in connection with an observation made in 1890, two years after his accession, and recorded by M. Jules Simon—" Since I ascended the throne I have reflected a great deal, and I think that in my present circumstances it is more to my advantage to show myself friendly than to make myself feared "—gives Englishmen something to think about.

The best clue to the ideals of this man who never loses sight of his ideals is to be found in his addresses to his Brandenburgers, the men of the Mark, on whom their Mark- graf places a particular reliance. It is naturally to them that he confides that the example he chose for himself in early life and still aspires to imitate is that famous Brandenburger, the Great Elector. When he looks at his family portraits, it is upon him that his glance rests longest and most sympa- thetically. He can hardly speak to a Brandenburg audience without a reference to his hero. The Great Elector's name is not a household word to Englishmen. No Carlyle has told us the story of the Prince whose first action on coming to the throne at twenty was to release himself from the control of his father's old adviser, the Chancellor Schwarzenberg ; who steadily refused to be drawn into the seething turmoil of the Thirty Years' War, but spent his time quietly organising his Army and increasing the scanty resources of his land till the day came when war was more profitable than peace ; who dexterously held the balance between Sweden and Poland, siding first with one and then with the other as interest dictated ; who created a Navy and founded a German colony on the Guinea coast, and planned a German East India Company; who found Brandenburg a Constitutional State and left it an Absolute Monarchy; and was upheld throughout his strenuous life by the certainty that God was invariably on the side of the Hohenzollern. It is this certainty which underlies the Emperor William's confidence in himself and in his destiny. "Firm as a rock," he said last February, "is my belief that our Ally of Rossbach and Dennewitz will not leave me in the lurch. He has given Himself such endless trouble over our old Mark and over our house that we cannot believe He has done it for nothing To the everlasting com- plaints and insinuations about the vessel's new course, I reply calmly and resolutely, 'My course is the right one and I shall continue to steer it."

Assuredly the German Emperor's speeches reveal a very interesting and fascinating personality. But as one reads them it is impossible not to ask the question,—" Apart from all other considerations, is a man who speaks like this fit to be the ally of a free people and to control their foreign policy P"