THE LIPPE-DETMOLD INCIDENT.
IT is hard to conceive anything smaller either in itself or in its immediate consequences than the Lippe- Detmold incident. By itself, indeed, it hardly rises to the dignity of an incident. The Regent of the Prin. cipality and the German Emperor have differed about the title which properly belongs to the Regent's children. The Regent has expressed his dissatisfaction with the Emperor's decision, and the Emperor has told the Regent not to address him in this way in future. This is all that has happened, and it is about as trifling a controversy as is often met with even in the Royal class. It would call for no comment were it not that incidents quite as insignificant have sometimes been looked back to as marking the first step in a new political departure. It would be the very height of rashness to predict that this will happen in the present instance. But the controversy has already evoked some feeling not in Germany only, but in Prussia. The Emperor has probably forgotten that he is the Sovereign of a Federal Empire, and that the very root-idea of a Federal Empire is that each of the sub- ordinate Sovereigns has his recognised place in the Imperial system. There is no need to be a parti- cularist to see how important it is that the Em- peror should keep this fact steadily before his eyes. It is the most natural thing in the world for him to forget it. All Europe, indeed, is continually helping him to forget it. To the Sovereigns and the people of other countries the German Government means the Emperor and Germany means the Emperor's dominions. Prussia has become to us but a name in history. What was once Prussia is now Germany. We know, of course, that this is a wrong presentation of the facts. We know that there are German Sovereigns beside the Emperor, and German territories beside Prussia. But though we know these things we find it hard to keep them in mind, or rather, we have no possible reason for keeping them in mind. For all ordinary and practical purposes the Emperor does stand for Germany, and it would be mere pedantry to deny this. But though Europe may ignore every- thing in Germany except the Emperor, it is not prudent for the Emperor to ignore everything in Germany except himself. It is natural that he should do this, but all the same he would be better advised if he remembered on every occasion the special conditions of his power. His authority over Germany is not identical with his authority over Prussia, his position as Emperor is not identical with his position as King. His telegram to the Regent of Lippe-Detmold shows that there are times and moods in which he forgets these limitations, or, as he himself perhaps would prefer to say, rises above them. In so far as he does so in mere forgetfulness or confusion of thought, it is of no moment; but if he came to hold the same theories of his Imperial authority as he does of his Royal authority, and to regard Germany as the patrimony of the Hohenzollerns, it might have serious consequences. Federal government in all its forms is an instrument of extreme delicacy, and William IL is not quite the man to handle instruments of this character.
From this point of view, the extracts from the German newspapers which the Berlin correspondent of the Times gave on Wednesday have a certain importance,—greater importance, indeed, than anything in the incident itself. Two of them are from Munich journals. To Bavarians a dispute between the Emperor and the Regent of Lippe- Detmold may reasonably wear a different aspect from that which it wears to us. The Regent equally with the Emperor is" a Sovereign of the German Confederation." He too has his sovereign rights, which do not change their character because the person who infringes them is the Emperor. The treatment which the Regent has experienced may be meted out to other German Sovereigns, with the inevitable result of breeding dissatisfaction in the Federal Council. The Emperor has shown an amount of irritation far in excess of the merits of the case, and the "moral prestige of our greatest Federal State has become exposed to suspicion." These newspapers see that what has happened to the Regent of Lippe-Detmold is just as likely to happen to any other German Sovereign. Lippe-Detmold is a very small Principality, but down to the proclamation of the German Empire it was an inde- pendent Principality, and in that character its rights were the same in kind as those of Bavaria or Baden or Saxony. Whatever rights these retain in their Federal character are shared by Lippe-Detmold, and an attack made on them is equally an attack on the rights of the greater States. Nor is it only in the smaller States of the Federation that the Emperor's action has given offence. 'There is a section of the Prussian people which shares the irritation of the South Germans. The tie in this case is mainly one of religion. The Centre is a German rather than a Prussian party, and it has no wish to see the rights of its Southern allies interfered with. The Kolnische Volkszeitung is quite as anxious to point the moral of the Lippe-Detmold incident as any Bavarian journal can be. What happens to-day," it says, "to the Regent of little Lippe can happen to-morrow to the Prince-Regent of Bavaria, or to the Sings of Saxony and Wiirtemberg." It recalls with satisfaction the declaration made at Moscow at the time of the Czar's coronation by Prince Louis of Bavaria, that "the German Sovereigns were not vassals but allies of the Emperor," and insists that the national interest and the interest of the Federated Sovereigns alike demand that this relationship should remain as it is, and these Federated Sovereigns should "resolutely resist every attempt to effect an alteration." If they fail in this duty and let Lippe go to the wall, they will certainly discover that "after the little ones it will be the turn of the big ones."
These are bold words to come from a Prussian journal, for the weight of the Emperor's displeasure is not always very nicely proportioned to the gravity of the offence,— and the Kolnische Volkszeitung may prove this to its cost. But this very circumstance is an indication that the Emperor's action, slight as it is in itself, has created a large amount of dissatisfaction in Germany. That is a feeling, no doubt, which, considering the relative strength of Prussia and her allies, cannot have any present con- sequences. But if the sentiment were to grow it might hereafter make the government of the Empire decidedly more difficult than it has yet been. It is sometimes very convenient to the German Government to fall back upon the Federal Council. It is an Upper House of remarkable dignity and authority, and occasions may easily arise when it will serve as an invaluable breakwater against the assaults of the popular party in the Reichsrath. But the Federal Council is composed of the representatives of the Federal Sovereigns, and if the Emperor alienates his " allies " he may find at some critical juncture that he cannot depend on their support in the Federal Council. He may be strong enough to dispense with assistance of this kind, but it is also on the cards that the loss of it may, at one time or another, make it difficult, if not impossible, for him to resist the pressure of Parliament. Such speculations as these rest on the very elenderest of foundations, but horoscopes as improbable have sometimes, if rarely, been realised.
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