The publication of the Hohenlohe Memoirs has been the sensation
of the week in Germany. At first it was contended, plausibly enough, that they were issued with the approval and at the desire of the Kaiser to vindicate his action in dis- missing Prince Bismarck, and also to remind Austria, on the eve of the renewal of the Triple Alliance, of his good services to the Dual Empire. This theory, we may note, even survived the Kaiser's indignant telegram to Prince Philip Hohenlohe. The opportuneness of the indiscretion has naturally enough given rise to a good deal of scepticism, and the complicity of the Kaiser has been broadly hinted at in the unofficial journals of Austria-Hungary,—a view which the publication of the Memoirs in book form has now rendered quite untenable. The Kaiser's annoyance, as we point out elsewhere, seems excessive; but he is fully entitled to chain for Royalty the right to be consulted before such intimate revelations are made,—a right which is seldom denied in the case of ordinary individuals.
