THE EMPEROR WILLIAM'S SPEECHES. T HE two speeches which William II.
of Germany has delivered this week, one as Emperor to the Reichstag, and one as King to the Prussian Diet, completely bear out the impression produced by his earlier utterances. He intends, in the first place, to be a real Sovereign, an actual and an important factor in the government of his dominions. He expresses, as he well may, perfect content with the share of power allowed him by the Constitution of Prussia, which is really as great as that of the American President, —plus irremovability and plus the direct command-in-chief of a million soldiers,—but he clearly will allow no diminu- tion of the prerogative. His declared model, exalted in every speech and proclamation, is his grandfather, who so repeatedly defied Parliament, and he expresses with ominous clearness his determination to hand on his powers intact. "I," he continues, "am far from aiming at an enlargement of the prerogatives of the Crown, and thus disturbing confidence in the stability of the legal con- ditions under which we are governed. The legal status of my rights, so long as it is not called in question, is sufficient to afford to the life of the State that measure of monarchical influence which Prussia requires in pursuance of its his- torical development." The King is satisfied with what he has ; but if that is questioned, he may ask for more. The same spirit is displayed in the address to the Imperial Reichstag. The Emperor is contented with the German as with the Prussian Constitution ; but though he will guard all rights conceded to the representatives—including those granted to the Bundesrath, the strongest Upper House in Europe, because it represents Kings—he will also guard all rights, and they are many and great, reserved by the Constitution to the Emperor. He will be a monarch, in fact, both in Empire and Kingdom, a true Hohenzollern after the fashion of those whom he calls his "exalted ancestors," and the Hohenzollern way is to govern personally. The spirit in which he will exercise his powers may be a tolerant one, and as far as religious liberty is con- cerned, he specifically promises that it shall be, especially as regards Catholics ; but he will exercise them himself. It is an Emperor with an individual will and a lofty idea of his own rights who has mounted the throne, and who suggests as his first advice to the German Legislatures that they carry still further Prince Bismarck's idea of legis- lating for the poor. That legislation has not as yet diminished much the growth of Socialist feeling or the bitterness of Liberalism, and it is not difficult to foresee that if peace continues, the German masses and the German Emperor may yet stand face to face.
But will peace continue ? That does not depend entirely on the Emperor of Germany ; but so far as it does, he is evidently desirous to preserve it. He dis- claims absolutely any idea of aggression, and indicates with a distinctness which suggests, at all events, clearness of purpose, the method of defence upon which he relies. He re-endorses in the plainest language the treaties with Austria and Italy, and adds, to the great contentment of Vienna and Rome, that he will consider an attack on his allies an attack upon himself. This has hitherto been doubtful, especially if Austria were attacked by Russia ; but the Emperor is as clear as the forms of diplomacy permit. "My love for the German Army, and my position in regard to it, will never tempt me to jeopardise for the country the benefits of peace, unless the necessity of war is forced upon us by an attack on the Empire or its allies." The League of Peace, with all its conse- quences, is accepted by the new monarch, who exults in it not only because it makes him strong, but because it makes him so strong that he can offer terms to his most dangerous foe. "Our existing agreements with Austria-Hungary and Italy permit me, to my satisfaction, to cultivate carefully my personal friendship for the Emperor of Russia and the peaceful relations which have existed for the past hundred years with the neighbouring Russian Empire, and which correspond with my own feelings and with the interests of Germany." A great effort is to be made to " square " St. Petersburg, that is the meaning of this sentence, con- firmed by the arrangements already making for a personal interview between the Kaiser and the Czar, an inter- view which may have momentous consequences. If the interview succeeds, if, that is, the Romanoffs and the Hapsburgs can be induced to suspend their chronic jealousy, as they suspended it in 1877, France will be entirely isolated, and peace, as Germans understand peace, may be preserved. In other words, whatever happens in the Balkans, or whatever becomes of Eastern Europe, there will, if Russia and Austria agree, be no need to mobilise the German Army. That is, in a German Emperor's mind, when he is addressing his people, the test of peace or war. He is not thinking of the world, but of his own subjects and. dominions. The precise situation, in fact, will be created at which Prince Bismarck hinted in his great speech, and which he has for months been striving to secure. Russia and Austria will arrive at a compromise, if not an alliance, Germany will remain passive, and France without an ally will be forced to choose between war single- handed with Germany, and an angry quiescence such as laf. Jules Simon, who knows his countrymen well, believes the.y will display.
The outlook is not altogether a pleasant one for those who desire to see Eastern Europe free, for Emperors when they meet are not particularly careful of international rights ; but there is clearly peace for the moment, and though the ultimate object can be dimly seen, it is still far off from realisation. The German and Russian people do not trust each other, and a reconciliation of Russia and Austria can only be accomplished through a partition of Euro- pean Turkey, which would reawaken the fiercest jealousies- among dynasties as well as peoples. The Hungarians cannot bear the idea, and the Austrian Chancellor, in his- very last speech to the Delegations, emphatically repudiated any advance to Salonica, and has pressed on his demand for £4,700,000 to be spent in warlike preparations, thus bringing up the total extra military outlay for the Dual Monarchy to thirteen millions in one year. Sums of that kind are not spent by an embarrassed State without the gravest reason, and we may rely on it that in Vienna the idea of averting war by a grand " tra,nsaction " is not at present entertained. It is, however, towards an arrangement in some shape or other that Prince Bismarck looks, and the Emperor's speech to the Reichstag shows that he has obtained the hearty sanc- tion of his new master, who, be it remembered, may in the natural course of human affairs govern for forty years. The Chancellor's policy, therefore, whatever it is, will go forward actively, and it is certain to be a momentous one.
He is seventy-five already, and his object is, either by compacts or by war, to leave Germany, before he dies, secure against any coalition. That has not been accom- plished yet, and Prince Bismarck, we may be certain, though he wants no war if he can dispense with it, and no accessions of territory, is not contented yet with the solidity of his great structure. It can stand probably against any storm, but its architect, as he showed in his struggle with the Papacy, is never entirely free from the belief that he can bind the wind.
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