PRINCE HENRY'S RECEPTION.
THERE is only one bad point about this reception of Prince Henry in America,—it may deceive the Emperor :William. He has evidently been informed by his agents in Washington that the Americans regard his policy with suspicion, and fully realising, since the Spanish War, that America is a "world-Power," and may place obstacles in the way of some of his plans, he has cast about for means of soothing American opinion. The easiest method of conciliation is to appeal to a foible ; and the Emperor, we fancy, like almost all Continentals, imagines that the special American foible is snobbishness. They love, he is told, to be compli- mented by the great, they worship rank, and they will postpone even serious interests to secure social recognition. Their millionaires like to marry their daughters to Dukes ; their smart people are always imitating ; their travellers are eager for Royal or aristocratic invitations. To send them a Prince, a real Prince, a sailor Prince who can behave like a democrat, would, in the judgment of Berlin, delight them all, and. convince them. that Germany is, after all, their most reliable friend, the State which will least oppose their desire for a world-wide commerce. There are, too, four millions of the Prince's countrymen in the United States, and they will, the Emperor probably thought, furnish a centre to the reception which will lend to it the glow and warmth which a blazing fire adds in chilly weather even to the most friendly or intimate of gatherings. Accordingly the Prince has been sent, has delighted all on his steamer with his affability and. his readiness to "liquor up" or to be photographed, has arrived safely in Washington, has assisted at the launching of the Emperor's new yacht, and will, we doubt not, receive throughout America a reception that will confirm his Majesty in his view. The polite- ness of the politicians will be perfect. The cheers of the endless crowds will be most hearty. The expenditure of the millionaires will be on a scale to make Prince Henry feel as old Marshal Blucher is said to have felt when he first saw London : " God ! what a city to plunder." The natural kindliness of Americans, a quality in which they excel every other people, will exhibit itself in a thousand ways, many of them original ; while Hans Breitmanu will tax the resources even of American breweries in his eagerness to express his love and reverence for the country to which he has no wish ever to return. We are going to spend £100,000 of public money, besides a mighty sum from private resources, on the Coronation, and the Americans share to the full the love of pageantry and scenic display which makes that expenditure acceptable. They will spend anything or do anything that hosts can do to wel- come an honoured guest who comes among them to repre- sent at once a nation and a King, and who breaks by the grand peep-shows of which he is the occasion the colourless monotony of daily life. The visit, apart from accident or illness, will, we have no doubt whatever, be a grand social success, and confirm the Emperor in his belief that in ordering it he has carried out a most far-sighted and ingenious plan.
He will find himself mistaken, for he has read the American character wrong. They are no doubt a sensitive people, keento perceive and to resent anything which savours of slight, and greatly pleased whenever they see that the ancient Courts acknowledge the nation of which they are so proud as among the greatest of the earth. There are but six first-class Powers in the world, and in the visit of -Prince Henry America is acknowledged publicly and with great' and honorific ceremony to be one of the six. That naturally pleases Americans ; but all the same, it does not please them in the way or to the extent that the German Emperor thinks it does. For American snobbishness, so far as it exists—and it is absurdly exaggerated, owing to the -idea,- at which any Swiss would smile, that Republicanism is inconsistent with class distinctions—is not based, like the snobbishnesEi of Europe, upon ingrained deferences, but arises from a spirit of self-appreciation. It is the wish to see Ms estimate of himself justified. which makes the American so cordial when the aristocrat acknowledges his equality. He is not pleased because he is kindly patronised, but because the European shows himself a little more ready to be just than he had fancied he would be. The consequence of that difference between his feeling and that of the European is that the American reckons up the grandee quite impartially, and feels when it comes to business no inclination to allow him the best of the bargain. The thunders of welcome in Chicago will be perfectly sincere, but they will not induce the dealers in "hog products" to abate one tittle of their objection to the new German tariff. If Prince Henry asks to see a Volunteer review, the Volunteers will turn out in tens of thousands and put themselves to any inconvenience to gratify their guest ; but if he asks for special privileges for Germany in Cuba or the Philippines, the answer will be dictated by a single idea. as to what is best for per- manent American interests. As guest, all roads will be levelled that he may not be jolted; but as Ambassador he will obtain even less than Dr. von Holleben, because there will be more suspicion that he has some secret object in View. The American kindliness and keen- ness are both most real; but they are kept in separate mental compartments, and that which stirs the former, even to effusiveness, leaves the latter unaffected, or possibly a little more awake. Admiral Dewey doubtless felt the honour done him in a special invitation to meet the Prince; but to accept it would have meant that the scene in Manila Harbour was forgotten, and consequently the Admiral considered his wife too ill to be left for the entertainment. American photographers are taking " snapshots " of the Prince at every turn in his progress ; but the snapshots we should like to see would be those of the President and. Mr. -Hay just before and•just after the Prince had made some political request.
They would hardly look, if our view of the American tem- perament is correct, like the faces of the same persons. The infinitely courteous hosts will in a moment be hard business men, thinking not of the pleasantest sentences to say, but of the permanent interests of the United States. Only the humour might linger a little in the eyes.
If the German Emperor wishes really to conciliate American statesmen or the American people, he will have to show that his plans are consistent with the interests and prejudices of the Union. That is not at this moment apparent in the proposals for a new tariff. It does not appear clearly in the demands for a monopoly of mining concessions in Shantung. And it - is entirely absent from the Emperor's obvious craving for new bases. for his " world-power," bases which, as Americans instinc- tively feel, might be found at last to be incon- sistent with the Monroe doctrine. There is but one place in the world where Germans could found a trans- marine Empire that one day might rival or surpass the Motherland, and that place is Brazil. It may be possible, by a steady policy continued for years, to make that consistency evident to the American people ; but the process will not be greatly helped by the visit and reception of Prince Henry, though that is, from another point of view, a most pleasing incident in the long history of 'international intercourse. The despatch of a man so closely connected with his throne on such an errand was, on the part of the Emperor, a most graceful act, and graceful acts please nations as well as individuals ; but if the German people expect from it political consequences, they are, we think, deceivingo themselves. In politics the Americans cannot be flattered into or out of anything, and they will dine a guest on new plate and amidst servants in new liveries at an expense which even to the guest seems wasteful, without for a moment losing sight of the objects which he is intent to gain and they to foil.
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