THE REICHSTAG AND THE KAISER.
WE wonder what moderate and sensible Germans, of whom there must be hundreds high in office and most experienced in affairs, think of the present internal situation of their Empire. It is one of the chronic sources of weakness in Germany that they never speak except to each other, that they are bound by an inviolable rule of etiquette not to criticise superiors, and that there is therefore no criticism either of the Emperor or the Administration except from persons who, however able or eloquent, have always been irresponsible for the machine. So strict is the custom that when Prince Bismarck breaks through it, as he does sometimes, he creates in Germany a kind of alarm as if he were in some way declaring war upon the throne or blaspheming against officials. The moderate and experienced must, however, have thoughts, and they can hardly be altogether pleasant ones. To us, gazing from the outside, the two great forces in Germany appear to be declining in judgment, the Reichstag abandon- ing itself to party feeling, and theEmperor giving more and more prominence to a vein of rashness which, able as he is certainly exists in the composition of his mind. The refusal of the Reichstag, by a vote of 163 to 146, to vote an address of congratulation to Prince Bismarck on his eightieth birthday, is as unwise as it is unmannerly. No doubt the Roman Catholics, the Socialists, the Poles, and the Alsatians, have all suffered grave injuries at his hands ; but he is now out of power, a grand historical figure, and they should at the utmost have abstained from voting, or, while allowing the vote to be unanimous, should have confined themselves to a protest that they honoured the man as a hero and not as an administrator of domestic affairs. The Liberals had not even that excuse, for the Prince made the Parliament in which they sit, founded it upon the universal suffrage to which they are devoted, and though in some respects a Tory of Tories, always tried to secure a majority, always showed himself ready for debate, and is even now, rather to our amazement, anxiously maintaining that all the German Parliaments possess and should exercise a right of free criticism upon foreign affairs. To insult such a man who has done such things while he is maintaining such doctrines, is an extreme instance of party folly, and will, we greatly fear, deepen the national distrust of men who put party above national sentiment, and who seem already to a great section of the moderate Liberals of their country, to do- nothing except talk. Certainly they do not produce wise leaders, or such a folly could never have keen committed.
It was equalled. or even surpassed, by the Emperor. The exact mental force of William II. is still a moot ques- tion, for it has not yet been tested by events of the first class ; but he has unmistakably the old Imperial foible of regarding resistance to his will as an affront to himself.. His Government had suggested and supported the address to Prince Bismarck, though it was actually moved by Herr Leventzow, President of the Chamber ; and when it was defeated, the Emperor felt as if he had been personally assailed. He instantly sent by telegraph the following message to the Chancellor, whom it must not be forgotten he himself dismissed :—" Allow me to express to your Serene Highness my deepest indignation at the decision just taken by the Imperial Diet, which is diametrically opposed to the sentiments of all German Princes and their peoples." That is a most extraordinary action. The position of the German Kaiser is not of course that of an English Sovereign, and is not intended to be, and it is complicated by his position as direct head of an Army which includes every citizen ; but a plain and bitter denunciation of a Parliament publicly telegraphed by a. Sovereign, is inconsistent with any Constitution of any sort or kind. We can remember nothing in the least like it, except President Andrew Johnson's public description. of Congress as "a body hanging on to the verge of the Administration." That the Reichstag had behaved badly we admit ; but it had in no way exceeded, or even strained, its legal rights ; it had done nothing except refuse a sug- gested courtesy ; and to declare that its conduct excited indignation in the Emperor, and that the whole people were against it, was to treat it as a body without in- dependence, and morally bound to obey its Sovereign's suggestions. From writing such Fl telegram to entering the Reichstag booted and spurred, as Louis XIV. entered the Hall of the old Parliament, and ordering the Deputies to pass an Act, the distance is not so very great. The Emperor must think himself master in some very real sense before he can rate a Parliament as he would rate an offending officer, and certainly has done his very best to lower the prestige of a co-ordinate branch of the Legis- lature. It is impossible for Englishmen to deem such conduct, impulsive as it may have been, a proof of wisdom, or even of capacity to govern well, and diffi- cult to disconnect it entirely from the extraordinary violence of the Emperor's language on the following Tuesday. The Emperor wished to honour Prince Bismarck in his double character of statesmanand cuirassier, and naturally enough presented him with a magnificent sword, sheathed in a golden scabbard. It was not, however, equally natural to say to its recipient :— " Before the eyes of these troops I come to present your Serene Highness with my gift. I could find no better present than a sword, the noblest weapon of the Germans; a symbol of that instrument which your Highness, in the service of my grandfather, helped to forge, to sharpen, and also to wield—a symbol of that great building-time during which the mortar was blood and iron—a remedy which never fails, and which in the hands of Kings and Princes will, in case of need, also preserve unity in the interior of the Fatherland, even as, when applied outside the country, it led to internal union." That is surely a most alarming, as well as astounding, statement. There are two explanations of it current in Germany,— one that it is directed against the claim of any German State to secede from the Empire, and the other, that it announces the decision of the Emperor and his confederates to deal with Socialists and Anarchists, if necessary, through military force. In either case the announcement was unnecessary and indiscreet. Nobody doubts that the German Empire, which was, in fact, built by the sword at Langensalza, as well as in the war with France, would decree the military occupation of any seceding State ; and to threaten any party, even the Socialists, with martial law, while it is trying to win through the ballot, is, in fact, to suspend the Constitution in favour of a state of siege. We do not suppose that the Emperor intended anything of the kind, but it seems clear that he has been brooding over the situation ; that he feels the resistance of the Socialists just as he feels the resistance to the address to Prince Bismarck, and that his conclusion is,—" Well, well, I have still the sword, and that is a remedy that never fails." Many a King has come to that conclusion before him, but few have been so far left to themselves as to deem it wise on such a subject to think aloud. It is a threat, let us explain it as we will ; and wise Monarchs do not threaten until the hour has arrived to strike, still less do they threaten military violence as the remedy even for internal grievances. "The sword a remedy" for internal ills "which never fails ! " As well say the surgeon's knife is a remedy for fever which never fails. Prince Schwartzen- burg, a Tory of Tories, with an irresistible army at his back, tried that remedy under most favourable circum- stances, and his conclusion after long experience was embodied in that wisest of all political good sayings, which the German Emperor will do well to include among the many apophthegms in which he believes :—" You can do anything with bayonets—except sit on them."
We make these comments with keen reluctance. We do not believe the function of Monarchy is played out, for democracy needs both checks and leaders, and an able Sovereign might in many circumstances be the most competent man to furnish both. He has not to be manu- factured like a. popular favourite, he is always there, and he excites none of the jealousies which in a democracy so impede or paralyse individual leadership. We have watched the German Emperor with more sympathy than most of our countrymen, have understood that he wished to be in civil affairs the "house-father," with great ulti- mate authority but no wish to repress individual movement, and have even credited him, especially in his action as regards handicraftsmen, with a capacity of initiative. The throne, however, is not doing him good. There is wilfulness visible—we will not say caprice—in acts like the dismissal of Count Caprivi and the recall of General von Werder from the Rus- sian Court, and something more than wilfulness— Imperialism of the old Roman type—in speeches like the one at Friedrichsrub. What could a Roman Imperator have said that was stronger than "the sword is the remedy that never fails " ? There is the essence of tyranny in a sentence of that kind ; and if the Emperor really uttered it after consideration, it is not a leader that Germany has in him, but an absolute ruler of the type which all modern history shows us to be worn out. It may turn out, of course, that the Emperor spoke hastily, under the influence of that emotion, half-poetic, half-arising from an exag- gerated sense of his own personality, which he has often previously betrayed ; but if his speech is to be accepted in the light of a manifesto to his people, all that can be said is, "What a pity ; what a source of hopefulness has passed away."
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