It may be said that the Kaiser, if he allowed
his prerogatives to be abrogated temporarily, would do it only to trick us ; that he would put up a dummy popular Assembly as a stalking-horse, and would reappear later from behind the docile animal to claim the advantage of all the easier terms allowed to the German democracy as such. We would ask those who fear the possibility of such trickery—we do not doubt, of course, that the Kaiser would attempt it—whether they know of any instance in history of a political institution temporarily abrogated being restored exactly as it was. We cannot think of any. It is surely incon- ceivable, in spite of the complqisance of the German people, whose "tameness is shocking to us," that the Kaiser could come back with "his aspect as of yore" haring once allowed others to sit in his place.
Previous page
