The German Emperor made a characteristic speech at Bremen on
Wednesday, the occasion being the unveiling of an equestrian statue of his father. " When I came to the throne after my grandfather's Titanic age, I swore a soldier's oath (Fahneneid) that I would do my utmost to keep at rest the bayonet and cannon, but I swore, too, that the bayonet must be kept sharp, the cannon loaded, and both efficient, in order that neither jealousy nor envy, looking askance at us from without, might disturb us in the cultivation of our garden and in the decoration of our beautiful house." After thus making his opinion clear that civilisation often "goes for'ard on a powder-cart," the Emperor with striking humility puts away the crown of
universal dominion. " Upon the ground of the experiences which history had taught me I inwardly pledged myself never to strive for empty world-dominion. For what has become of the so-called world-wide Empires P Alexander the Great, Napoleon I., all the great heroes of war, swam in blood, and they left behind them nations bowed beneath the yoke, which rebelled again at the first opportunity and brought these Empires crumbling to their fall." The only world-wide Empire for which the Emperor has any use is the newly created German Empire, which enjoys "the most absolute confidence on every side as a quiet, honest, and peaceful neighbour."
