Could Prussia possibly have dared to think of laying an impious hand upon Belgian neutrality! But if not, why should they have been at such pains formerly to prove to me that the thing was inconceivable?

Prussia wants a Belgian alliance and the King refuses. Splendid! But let him tell us so himself! I confess that such a doc.u.ment would interest me far more than all that I have published on the subject!

May not the explanation of King Leopold's journey be, that William II would like a mobilisation in Belgium just as he wants one in Italy? M.

Bleichroder will supply the cash. He has already got his bargain money, viz. Pastor Stocker in disgrace, and the repudiation of anti-Semitism by its ex-partisan, William II.

November 27, 1890. [16]

How can one avoid taking an interest in William II of Hohenzollern? He is one of those people who, by every means and in every way, insist on being noticed. This up-to-date Emperor is obsessed by the idea of making profit, for purposes of advertis.e.m.e.nt, out of every sensation; he loves to upset calculations and produce every kind of astonishment.

He believes that he has not fulfilled his part, until he has made a number of people lift their arms to heaven at least once a day and exclaim: "William is marvellous!" He wants to hear this cry arise from the humblest and the highest, from the miner's gallery and the palace of his "august confederates," from the workman's cottage and the homes of the middle-cla.s.s, from the officers' club, from church and chapel, from the Parliament of the Empire and the House of Peers.

Being _blase_ himself, it pleases him to tickle public opinion with spicy fare; his lack of mental balance compels him to these endless and senseless choppings and changes, to all these schemes projected, proclaimed and cast aside.

The former Court of his grandfather is already in ruins, the work of Bismarck crumbling in the dust; in less than no time he has reduced the old aristocratic and feudal Prussian monarchy to the purest kind of democratic Caesarism.

Perched above every political party in Germany, William the Young wants to be the one and only ruler and judge of all. Among themselves let them differ as and when they will, it being always understood that all these separate opinions must equally be sacrificed to the Emperor.

Before long the King of Prussia will endeavour to be at one and the same time the spiritual head of the Lutheran Church and the temporal Pope of the Catholic Church, the leader of economists, the cleverest of stategists, the one and only socialist, the most marvellous incarnation of the warrior of German legends, the greatest pacifist of modern times, explorer in his day and soothsayer whenever he likes. In his own eyes, William is all these.

Have not the delegates of the old House of Peers ingenuously complained during these last few days that they no longer possess any initiative of legislation? But they have just as much or as little as the honourable members of the Prussian Diet.

All schemes of reform emanate from the Emperor. The people have no right to be Emperor. Surely that is simple enough?

To bulk larger in the public eye, William dwells apart; he can no longer endure that any one should presume to think himself useful or agreeable to him or to give him advice. He is fulfilling the prediction that he made of himself when he was twenty-one: "When I come to reign I shall have no friends; I shall only have dupes."

More infatuated with himself than ever, the Emperor wears his mystic helmet _a la_ Lohengrin, tramples the purple underfoot and has the throne surrounded by his life-guards, wearing the iron-plated bonnets of the days of Frederick II. Thus he deludes himself with the dream of absolute authority. His mania for power is boundless, his pride knows no limits. He recognises only G.o.d and Himself.

To his recruits, he says: "After having sworn fidelity to your masters upon earth, swear the same oath to your Saviour in Heaven!"

But in his moments of solitude, in the privacy of the potentate's toilet-chamber, must it not be dreadful for him to reflect that his silver helmet rests on ears that suppurate, that his voice comes from a mouth afflicted with fistula of the bone, and that there are days when his sceptre is at the mercy of the surgeon's knife?

December 11, 1890. [17]

The rumour has spread, and has not yet been authoritatively contradicted, that William is suffering from disease of the brain. Is not this in itself good and sufficient reason to make him wish to prove that no one in his Empire can do as much brain work as he can? We, whose minds are so confused in the endeavour to follow William's movements at a distance, where little things escape us, can imagine what it must be to observe them from close at hand!

One of the chief glories of his reign will be to have produced the diagnosis of a new disease, "locomotor Caesarism" of the restless type.

Before his case, these symptoms were always a.s.sociated with paralysis.

Here is a discovery that may turn out to be more genuine that that of Dr. Koch.

The unfortunate Koch is one more of William's victims. It was his Imperial will that Germany should wake up one morning to find herself possessed of a Pasteur of her own. He could not even wait long enough to allow the necessary experiments to be made with a remedy which is so violent that it may well be mortal. At the word of command "Forward, march," Koch found himself propelled by His Majesty into the position of a benevolent genius.

Dr. Henri Huchard has expressed his opinion of Koch's method in the following words: "In therapeutics, daring is always permissible, so long as it preserves its respect for human life."

A few days ago, the German Emperor was thrusting his advice on a man of science, to-day he is overthrowing the most venerable traditions of the Prussian monarchy with the scheme of M. Miguel, the new system, for taxing incomes and legacies, opening a campaign against the n.o.bility and the old conservatives. With the help of an official of the "younger generation"--for thus is he pleased to describe his Minister of Finance--he begins to make war on the "old school."

With the "old school" in his mind's eye, he conceives another idea, namely, that of a new method of teaching in the elementary, secondary and high schools, upon which it will be unnecessary to improve for the next hundred years. He sets the faithful M. Hinzpeter to work, and compels him to toil night and day to prepare a complete programme in all haste--whereupon behold the Emperor holding forth to the collegians just as he does to the recruits.

"Down with Latin!" cries William. "Let us make Germans instead of Greeks and Romans! Let us teach our children the practical side of life." All of which does not prevent him from adding: "Let us teach them the fabulous history of our race."

William insists that his name shall be on every lip--that he be recognised as father of his workmen, father of collegians, father of the country at large. It is his ambition to look upon all his subjects as his sons. Much good may it do them!

December 27, 1890. [18]

The Emperor of Germany, determined supporter of triumphant militarism, and, therefore, the deadly enemy of every permanent and beneficial social reform, has suddenly stopped short in his attempts to improve the condition of the ma.s.ses.

If you ask: To whom does William II give satisfaction? the only possible answer is: Himself! For it matters nothing to him whether these plans of his succeed or fail. The thing that does matter to him is, that he should have left his mark everywhere, and that, after a quarter of a century or more, legislators shall inevitably find, in every project of law, the sacred mark, the holy seal of William's mind.

[1] From _La Nouvelle Revue_, of April 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[2] This paper had been, till then, in the service of Prince Bismarck.

[3] _La Nouvelle Revue_, May 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[4] _La Nouvelle Revue_, May 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[5] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[6] _La Nouvelle Revue_, June 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[7] Several pages of the "Letters on Foreign Policy" of June 12 give proofs, undeniable and complete, that the preparation of crimes committed by anarchists in Europe was instigated at Berlin, William knowing and approving the fact.

[8] _La Nouvelle Revue_, July 16, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[9] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[10] _La Nouvelle Revue_, August 16, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[11] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[12] _La Nouvelle Revue_, September 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[13] _La Nouvelle Revue_, October 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[14] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[15] _La Nouvelle Revue_, November 16, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[16] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 1, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[17] _La Nouvelle Revue_, December 15, 1890, "Letters on Foreign Policy."

[18] _La Nouvelle Revue_, January 1, 1891, "Letters on Foreign Policy."