BOOKS.

THE GERMAN EMPEROR AT HOME.t

THE author of these reminiscences, which are written with much ability and a charming lightness of touch—a touch, however, that is likely to charm the German Royal Family less than English readers—was for some years teacher of English to the German Emperor's only daughter. That daughter, who is now Duchess of Brunswick, was nine years old when Miss Topham " undertook " her. She was a wayward child, full of energy, as tremendously interested in a new subject as her father always is, yet, like her father, never penetrating deeply into it. Miss Topham draws a real picture of the household which is dominated by the restless Emperor. A removal to or from one of the forty Royal palaces takes place at short notice, and with whirlwind speed; the staff live in a state of apprehension lest they should be found wanting in some detail of the migration, though all the time one feels that there should have been no need for their apprehension if a little more notice had been given. Then we see the Princess bickering with her brother, Prince Joachim—she defends herself with convincing fervour against the accusation that girls are "no good" and can neither fight nor ride. We hear the Princess imitating with realistic success the sound of a cork being

• The German Emperor recently described Austria as a "brilliant second" to Germany.

t Memories of the Kaiser's Court. By Anne Topham. With 16 Illustrations. London: Methuen and Co. [10s. 6d. net.} drawn out of a bottle and the wine bubbling out, and when Miss Topham reproves her for a scarcely ladylike per- formance she retorts shatteringly that this particular socomplishment was taught her by Papa. The outstanding facts are the imposition of the Emperor's will on all his family and his retinue—he even buys a dozen hats every year as a present for the Empress without consulting her taste in the matter—and the proud affection entertained for the Emperor by his daughter. The boys may be brought up without latitude, but indulgence obviously comes,the way of the only girl. And what a wonderful man she beholds in her father—how kind, how amusing, how strong, and what an unforgettable experience for any one it must be when he or

she is presented to Papa!

All this is very pretty. But the first question the reader will ask himself is : How does the Emperor's domestic character fit in with the policy of violence and ruthlessness that is now laying waste a considerable part of Europe ? The question is less urgent than natural, for indeed, if the Emperor were proved to be a much less genial person in his own house than he seems to be, devastation and merciless military pro- gress are only too patently reconcilable with such geniality. Experience gives us no cause to be astonished at this. Penologists tell us that the most cold-blooded murderers have exhibited in prison the gentlest and most romantic of sentiments, refraining from crushing an insect on the wall, or saving from their slender rations of food crumbs to feed the birds that waited outside their cells. We do not, of course, suggest any comparison between such men and the Emperor. We only mean that the very natural question asked by readers of this book will not lead them very far, and scientifically is scarcely worth asking. If a Mine. de Brinvilliers was capable of tender and humane emotions, the War Lord who devastates Europe may still more credibly be a genial and attractive personality in his own home. For ourselves, at all events, we have not the least difficulty in believing in both sides of the shield—the pious goodwill of the carol-singing Royal Family at Christmas, and the father and sons in impressive uniforms placing themselves at the head of an army of modern Huns burning and shooting because the advance of German culture requires that it shall be so.

Let ns quote several passages from Miss Topham's pages, since in this way we can best do justice to her book. First we take what she says about the Emperor's character :— " The Emperor's conversation at its best has a certain quality of intoxication—is provocative of thought and wit. Men have been seen, grave American professors and others of that type not easily thrown off their mental balance, to retire from talk with His Majesty with the somewhat dazedly ecstatic look of people who have indulged in champagne; then they go home, and under the influence of this interview write eulogistic, apologetic character- sketches of the Emperor. It may be asked how does he appear in the intimacies of private life, to the inner circle of his Court, to those who see him in unguarded moments ? Men often change for the better, or sometimes for the worse, when they retire from the public eye, but the Emperor is much the same everywhere, he has no special reserves of character for domestic consumption only. At home ho inspires much the same charm that he does abroad, and sometimes the same irritation. Unexpected people, whimsical people, are necessarily alternately irritating and charm- ing just as their moods happen to please or displease the circle of people whom they sleet. He is a man who is bound to got some- what on the nerves of those who surround him, to make his service laborious to his servants, his secretaries, his courtiers, who live in a state of continual apprehension, fearing that they may not be ready for some sudden call, some unanticipated duty. There is no more alert place in the world than the Prussian Court. We are like the Israelites at the Passover,' grumbled one lady : we must always have our loins girt, our shoes on our feet—shoes suitable for any and every occasion, fit for walking on palace floors or down muddy roads—our staff in our band; nobody dare relax and settle down to be comfortable.' The Emperor disapproves of people who want to settle down and be comfortable. In a jolly, good-humoured but none the less auto- cratic kind of way, he seta everybody doing something. He likes to keep things moving, has no desire for the humdrum, the usual, the everlasting sameness of things. No one who knows the Emperor Intimately can fail to see how early English influences have helped to mould his character, how intensely he loves and admires English life as apart from English politics, for which he has a perplexed, irritated wonderment and contempt. 'Not one of your Ministers,' he said to me en one occasion, 'can tell how many ships of the line you have in your navy. I can tell him—he can't tell me. And your Minister of War can't even ride : I offered him a mount and every opportunity to see the manoeuvres—" Thanks very much for your Majesty's gracious offer—Sorry can't accept it —I'm no horseman unfortunately." A Minister of War !—and can't side! Unthinkable I' He gave his short, sharp laugh." Miss Topham bad a happy knack of drawing out the Emperor, and when she " kept her own end up " he seems generally to have been pleased :— " Ah, you have never had a Napoleon to plunder and burn your country houses,' sighed the Emperor, almost apologetically, once, when talking of his English visit: 'your Reynoldses and Gainsboroughs, where would they have been if Napoleon's Marshals or his soldiers had seen them P Perhaps burnt or destroyed, or sent to the Louvre. Think what it must mean to the children of a house to live with one of those pictures, to absorb it unconsciously into their mentalities ; they must grow up with a love of beautiful things—they cannot help it. We have nothing of the kind ; our houses were stripped and burnt.' I suggested something about Cromwell and the way his gentle Ironsides in their zeal smashed up the beautiful sculptures of our cathedrals and stabled their horses in the naves. ' Though the horses did less damage than the men,' I conceded. ' lh, Crom- well ! ' he replied: Cromwell did nothing in comparison with Napoleon ; besides, that was much further back—long ago- Gainsborong,h and Reynolds not yet born. All our art-treasures were absolutely destroyed, burnt, by Napoleon. Art and War cannot live side by side. We have had too much fighting, and now must re-create, rebuild almost from the beginning.' Yes, it is lucky for us that we live on an island, and that the French fleet met its Trafalgar,' I said. 'Nelson saved our art-treasures for us, I suppose.' I expect he did,' returned His Majesty, nodding his head emphatically. So you recognize that, do you P' and he turned away laughing and still nodding vigorously, thinking, I am sure, a good deal about Nelson and the fleet."

So there is the truth I Louvain had no fleet, no Nelson, only a weak but heroic militia, who resisted a gross violation of their neutrality. Such people must suffer for the crime of weakness. Do their architectural monuments and pictures perish ? Well, it is necessary they should learn that there is a new Napoleon—or, let us say, a new Attila, since that is the name which the Emperor once deliberately chose for

himself.

Even in Prussia there are some men of the old school who have misgivings about the stupendous growth of the spirit of success. Miss Topham was made aware of this once at a picnic supper :— " Some of the gentlemen of the suite, those imbued with the old Prussian spirit of economy which believes in limiting avenues of expenditure, often expressed impatience and disapproval of these suppers. 'Now look !' said one of them to me : • there are four carts for the kitchens alone—horses, coachmen, grooms ; think of the work all this has caused these poor cooks '—he glanced at four white-clad individuals who were peaceably pursuing their avoca- tions under the shade of a tree, and appeared to be quite as happy as the rest of us. I think they really enjoy it,' I said deprecat- ingly ! of course it is a trouble—picnics usually are ; but there are plenty of horses in the stables—they may as well come out here as not.' He shook his head and sighed. Ah, it is a different spirit,' he said sadly. 'My father used to tell me how simply the Old Emperor William lived. Never took more than one adjutant with him, not this crowd '—and he waved his hand at the row of gentlemen whose gaze was concentrated on the Emperor engaged in concocting some kind of a strawberry Bowle. Never used more than one carriage if ho could help it, at most two. Look at that procession'—and his gaze wandered dubiously to the long line of vehicles which stood in the shade a little way down the hill. We could hear the clink of bits and the stamp of the waiting horses. The Old Emperor William,' I ventured, was King of Prussia for a good while before he became German Emperor; he could not change his habits later on. Besides, everybody lives more extravagantly now ; even the working classes—' He groaned and shook his head, and murmured something which sounded disapproving and prophetic of disaster."

Miss Topham was known—an instance of the Emperor's characteristic humour—as the British Dreadnought." When she appeared in a new hat or dress, "Here comes the Dreadnought in a new coat of paint!" the Emperor would exclaim.

As regards the Crown Prince's character Miss Topham says :—

"He is, as every one knows, a young man who has devoted much time to sport, and, like his father, has many spheres of activity, having written a book, visited India, and made some good and a few unwise speeches. He is an ardent soldier and a typical Hohenzollern, with supreme confidence in the star of his family, and earnestly desires to live his life in his own way, to move with the times, to be a child of his century; and it is probable that with a little more experience of life, especially perhaps of that discipline of sorrow which initiates most men into a new sphere of thought, he will develop into the man the world hopes to see in him—something steadfast and strong, and perhaps a little more silent. At present he is very good-natured, very kind, very crude in his ideas, very young for his age, very self-confident and rather selfish, as the modern type of young man is apt to be. He is popular in Potsdam, where he picks up little boys for rides on his charger as he comes home from drill, flings gold pieces abroad to poverty-stricken people, gives lifts in his motor-car to weary men on the road."

If Miss Topham was a Dreadnought, the name was rather accidental than illuminating. But surely the name was fairly and squarely earned by the British nurse who for years ruled her own province in the Emperor's household. Splendid woman l How well we know her, or her like, and how proud we may be of her !-

"' Nanna ' is a disciplinarian of the first water, and like other disciplinarians, brooks no interference with her own laws, which, in a court where many overlapping interests exist, is apt to breed many difficulties. She has been thirteen years in the service of the Empress, has brought up the younger children from birth, watched by them together with their mother many nights when they were ill, and practically saved the life of Prince Joachim, the youngest of the Kaiser's six sons, by her constant and faithful care of his delicate infancy. But one by one her nurslings have been taken from her, not without a certain fierce opposition on her part. Prussian princes are given early into military hands. It is a tradition of their training, and the shrewd old nurse has a very strong opinion, shared by the Kaiserin, that an inexperienced young officer is no person to be entrusted with the superintendence of a young child's physical and mental needs. She has battled indomitably, and often successfully, for her charges, invading even the professorial departments ; and, aided and abetted by the Court doctor, who naturally considers physical before intellectual development, has often entirely routed the educational authorities, who have had to retire baffled and disconcerted."

We will end by quoting a few sentences to which we may apply the remark John Bright once made of the Duke of Wellington when the Duke's great age was cited as an explanation of what Bright thought a foolish act—" That

explains everything !"

"Nobody has ever accused the Emperor of being a diplomatist. He himself believes that he is very astute and can see farther than most men. He is, so to speak, a little blinded by his own brilliancy, by the versatility of his own powers, which are apt to lead him astray. He has never acquired the broad, tolerant out- look of a man who tries to view things from another's standpoint. He has, in fact, only one point of view—his own—and a certain superficiality characterizes his thought. He has a marvellous memory for facts, deduces hasty inferences, is too prompt in decision, relies perhaps too entirely on his own judgment and his own personal desires and experiences ; he does not, in fact, give himself time and opportunity to think things out, to weigh consequences, and he has, unfortunately, few really great minds around him. Conscientious, bard-working men in plenty, but the man of imagination, of original conception, of new ideas—and there are many such men in Germany—does not seem to be admitted to his councils. A great statesman is not at hand just now—one who can impress his thought on the Emperor's receptive mind and guide his activities, the wonderful forces of his mind, into the best avenues for their development."

Unlike the Duke of Wellington, the Emperor is not old, but when we read that he neither wisely leads himself nor is wisely led we say we want no further reasons to account for the present war. " That explains everything I"