Count Ballestrem, President of the German Reichstag, delivered a remarkable
eulogy of the Emperor at a dinner held last Saturday to celebrate the Emperor's forty-first birthday. He specially praised the Emperor's habit of in- variably adopting a definite attitude towards any subject— social, political, economic, or scientific—which touched the soul of the people. "He sets up an intellectual standard which can be seen from afar." Like all the great Hohenzollerns, he understands his time. " He has said : I live in an epoch of publicity, of the spoken word, and at the same time I do not want to be a so-called constitutional Monarch, who reigns, but does not govern.' His individuality," added the Count, "must fill us with admiration, and we must be grateful to Providence for giving us such an Emperor in these times.*
Count Ballestrem's theory of the responsibilities of an up-to-date Emperor is ingenious, but places a dangerous premium on versatility and eloquence.
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