The German Emperor made a striking speech on Friday week
at the annual dinner of the Brandenburg Diet. We have quoted the principal passages of the speech elsewhere, but we may mention here its general drift. The Emperor declared, in his usual half-poetic language, that he had been deeply impressed by his visit to Palestine, that he held strongly the orthodox belief of Christendom, and that on the Mount of Olives he had renewed his "military oath" to God to protect and organise the unity of Germany. Germany was a great oak, and the German Michael—not, apparently, the Archangel, but the soldier—must guard its growth with his sword bare. His Majesty threatened to extirpate "the vermin who gnaw its roots " — probably the Socialists, but possibly all guilty of lese majed6 — and told the following story. Shortly after '71 the three paladins, Bismarck, Moltke, and Roon, dined together. The great Chancellor "said : — We have achieved all we fought, struggled, and suffered for. We stand on the pinnacle of all we ever dreamed of attaining. What more can we expect that will interest or inspire or stimulate us after what we have seen ? ' There was a brief pause, and then the old Schlachtendenker (the thinker of battles, Moltke) suddenly said : To see the tree grow.' And profound silence reigned in the room." By the way, has any body ever seen anywhere any sentence known to have been uttered by Von Roon ? He is always one of the German Triad, but he never says anything.
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