March 1, 1891. [3]

For some months past, my dear readers, I have predicted that William II will not be satisfied without paying a visit to France. The visit of the Empress Frederick should have prepared us for this amiable surprise. But because the august mother of the German Emperor was received by us with nothing more than cold politeness, the _Cologne Gazette_ gives us a sound drubbing, as witness the following--

"The French have no right to be offensive towards the august head of the German Empire and his n.o.ble mother, by insulting them after the manner of blackguards (polissons). Every German who has the very least regard for the dignity of the nation must feel mortally insulted in the person of the Emperor."

"The German people have the right to expect that the French Government and the French nation will give them ample satisfaction, and will wipe out this stain on the honour of France, by sternly calling to order the wretches in question, creatures whom we Germans consider to be the refuse of human society."

And we who belong to this "refuse," who flatter ourselves that we have made extraordinary efforts of self-control when we refrained from saying to the Empress Frederick: "Madame, spare us; let it not be said that you went one day to Saint-Cloud, and on the next to Versailles, lest our resolution to be calm should forsake us"--we, I say, now perceive, that all our prudence has been wasted, and that we are still "refuse," the refuse of human society.

The character of William II continues to develop its series of eccentricities. With him, one may be sure of incurring displeasure, but his favours are shortlived. His mania for change is manifested to a degree unexampled since the days of the decay of the Roman Empire. His freakishness, the suddenness of his impulses, are becoming enough to create dismay amongst all those who approach him. One day he will suddenly start off to take by surprise the garrisons of Potsdam and of Rinfueld; he gives the order for boots and saddles, which naturally leads to innumerable accidents. Next day you will find him issuing a decree that, a play written by one of his _proteges_, ent.i.tled _The New Saviour_, is a masterpiece, which he would compel the public to applaud.

The best he can do with it is to prevent its being hissed off the stage.

Another day he has a room prepared for himself at the Headquarters of the General Staff, where he interferes in the preparation of strategic plans, without paying the least attention to the new chief who has replaced Count Waldersee. Then, again, he connects his private office with the entire Press organisation, so as to be able to manipulate the reptile fund himself, and to dictate in person the notices he requires, concerning all his proceedings, in the newspapers which he pays in Germany and in those which he buys abroad.

All of a sudden it occurs to him that six more war-ships would round off the German Fleet; and so he demands that they be built on the spot. His Minister resists, pointing out that the approval of the Reichstag is required, William II flies into a pa.s.sion, and the wretched Minister obeys. Suddenly it occurs to him also to remember the existence of a certain Count Vedel, greatly favoured by the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar.

He summons him by telegraph, and makes him his favourite of an hour.

When it pleases him to remove a superior officer, or to put one on the shelf, nothing stops him, neither the worth of the man, nor the value of the services he may have rendered. One can readily conceive that German generals live in a state of perpetual fright. Add to all this that William is becoming impecunious. He has taken to borrowing, and is reduced to making money out of everything. What will the Sultan Abdul Hamid say when he learns that the Grand Marshal of the German Court has put up for sale the presents which he offered to the Emperor, his guest, and which are valued at four millions!

These things bring to mind the threat which William II uttered a few days before the fall of Bismarck: "Those who resist me I will break into a thousand pieces."

March 12, 1891. [4]

The many and varied causes which led to the journey of the Empress Frederick to Paris, and the equally numerous results that the Emperor, her son, expected from that visit, are beginning to stand out in such a manner that we can appreciate their significance more and more clearly.

This proceeding on the part of William II, like all his actions, was invested with a certain quality of suddenness, but at the same time, it reveals itself as the result of a complicated series of deliberate plans.

The object of these last was, as usual, the young monarch's unhealthy craving for making dupes. To this I shall return later on. Let us first examine the causes of William's sudden impulses.

He has acquired, and is teaching his people to acquire, the taste and habit of sudden and unexpected happenings. It having been the habit of Bismarck to speculate on things foreseen, it was inevitable that his jealous adversary should speculate on things unforeseen. Moreover, the King-Emperor is dominated by that law of compensation, from which neither men nor things can escape, and from which it follows logically that Germany, after having profited by methods of continuity, is now condemned to suffer, in the same proportion, her trials of instability.

In determining upon the journey of his august mother to Paris, the Emperor took no risks other than those which pleased him, and which served the purposes of his grudges and his policy. In the first place, this journey would serve for a moment to divert attention in Germany from a policy which the great industrials and the workmen, the party of progress and the conservatives, all unite in condemning. In the next place, Berlin, having for a long time made ready to be amiable to Paris, was bound to resent all the more acutely any failure to reciprocate her kind advances. These results could not fail to be favourable to the vote of credits for military purposes, which are always the last credits asked for by the Government (whether under Bismarck or under Caprivi) and which are always voted under stress of an appeal to the eternal but utterly non-existent dangers, that are supposed to threaten Germany from France.

If our capital, then, should extend a cold welcome to the august mother of the German Sovereign, the result could not fail to be of immediate advantage to the vote of military credits. I ask my readers to notice, by the way, the deliberate coincidence of the journey of the Empress with the demand for these credits, and also with the anniversary of the Treaty of Versailles. Finally, it was to be expected that if she were badly received, the mistake thus committed by the Empress Frederick would make "the Englishwoman" more unpopular in Germany; and, so far as one knows, her Imperial son has never been pa.s.sionately devoted to her. Moreover, she afforded Bismarck an opportunity of getting rid of a little of his venom, as witness the following words of his--

"Only an Englishwoman," the ex-Chancellor declared during a visit to Mr.

Burckardt, "could possibly have inspired the Emperor with the idea of sending her to Paris as a challenge to the French. A German woman would have had too much respect for her own dignity to go and visit Versailles and Saint-Cloud. The n.o.bility of her feelings would have forbidden her to make a triumphal appearance amidst the ruins of the houses and castles destroyed by our troops, and her pride would have prevented her from seeking the homage and the favours of the vanquished. The Empress is English, and English she will remain."

But if France were to welcome with enthusiasm--or even with favour--the Empress Frederick, William II might justifiably conclude (without making allowance for the sympathy which the widow of the Emperor-Martyr inspires in Frenchwomen) that France had accepted the accomplished fact, abandoned her claims to Alsace-Lorraine, and the defence of her future interests in common with Russia. In that case, he would have treated France as he treats those who show him the greatest devotion. In order to get a clear idea of the object pursued by William II, it is sufficient to read two short extracts from the _etoile Belge_, a blind admirer of the Emperor of Germany, and to read them separately from the enthusiastic articles which this paper published at the commencement of the journey of the Empress Frederick.

The correspondent of the _etoile Belge_ wrote as follows--

"In confiding his mother and his sister to the hospitality of Paris, William II committed an act as clever as it was courageous. Let him continue in this policy of pacific advances, and the idea of a reconciliation with Germany will soon become more popular than the Russian Alliance."

The Berlin correspondent of the same _etoile_ wrote--

"Germany has at least as much as England to gain in bringing it about that Russia should not feel too sure of French support."

Is not this clear enough? There you have it: the real object which underlay the visit incognito of the Empress Frederick for the furtherance of the interests of Germany, It meant a reconciliation with Germany, which would have separated us from Russia, from which England had everything to gain, which would once more have surrendered our credit to Italy unconditionally, and would have compelled us to renounce Alsace-Lorraine for good and all.

What then would have been the results had she paid us an official visit?

We have already seen that none of the alternative schemes for this journey could work to Germany's detriment; we need, therefore, not be astonished at the publicity given by the Count von Munster to all the comings and goings of the Empress, and at the determination shown by Her Majesty to investigate the quality of our patriotism in all its various aspects. The memories which the Empress went to recall at Saint-Cloud and at Versailles were the same as those which she compelled us to call from the past: memories glorious for her but unforgettably sad for us, memories which, in reminding her of victory, were meant to remind us of a defeat to which our conquerors have added cruelty.

I watch with fervour the expression of our patriotism. A race which forgets the brutal insults of superior force deserves slavery. Italy would never have reconquered Milan and Venice had she resigned herself to see them pa.s.s under the yoke of the stranger. Forty years and more had pa.s.sed since the 2nd of May, [5] when Prince Napoleon thought fit to send Prince Jerome as Amba.s.sador to Madrid. He was forced to leave it.

Princess Murat was in no way responsible for what the French Generals had done. She came in the suite of the Empress Eugenie, but Spain found a way to make her displeasure manifest without any lack of courtesy. To the Empress Frederick, France has shown a melancholy kind of astonishment rather than dislike, and has displayed an infinite courtesy. Not a single demonstration, not a gesture, not a word from the population of Paris has done anything to detract from the city's world-wide reputation for hospitality.

The Emperor William I and Bismarck, who pretended to make war only against the Empire, would have shown themselves to be great and far-seeing political minds had they left Republican France in possession of the whole of her territory. Although beaten at Sedan, she would have remembered Jena, and Germany's revenge would have quickly been forgotten.

Let us remember the words of the Emperor of Germany--

"I would rather that all my people should fall upon the field of battle than give back to France a single clover-field of Alsace-Lorraine."

The _Post_ of Strasburg, recalling this declaration, adds--

"The French _bourgeoisie_ is too cowardly to begin a war. It is willing to smile at the words of Deroulede, but does not move. The people of Alsace-Lorraine have done quite rightly in turning away from these talkers. We have _permitted_ them to become Germans, why then, should they refuse the privilege?"

But William II continues to evoke the red vision of France militant, in order to obtain the vote for his military credits. It would seem that his liberalism has gone to join his socialism. At the dinner of the Brandenburgers he said "G.o.d inspires me; the people and the nation owe me their obedience." No matter whether he bungles or blunders, G.o.d alone is responsible, and it is not for the people or the nation to argue. And what is more, has not the new President of the Evangelical Church just proclaimed William II as _summus episcopus_? Just as William claims to decide infallibly every political question he will now decide all theological questions, without asking any help from the supreme council of the Evangelical Church.

Pope, Emperor and King--but does anybody suppose that this will satisfy him?

March 27, 1891. [6]

The reception of the delegates from Alsace-Lorraine at Berlin is characteristic. William II, eternally pre-occupied with stage-effects, has on this occasion accentuated the disproportion between the framework and the results obtained. He insisted upon it that the proceedings should be as imposing as the refusal of the delegates' request was to be humiliating. All the pomp and circ.u.mstance of State was displayed for the occasion, with the result of producing a scene, carefully prepared in advance, worthy of a Nero. The Emperor of Germany surrounded by his military household, in the hall of his Knights of the Guard, receives the complaints of the representatives of Alsace-Lorraine, who have come to ask for a relaxation of the laws imposed on them by conquest. To them, William II made answer: "The sooner the population of Alsace-Lorraine becomes convinced that the ties which bind her to the German Empire will never be broken, the sooner she proves more definitely that she is resolved henceforward to display unswerving fidelity towards _me_ and towards the Empire, the sooner will this hope of hers be realised."

Above the Imperial Palace, during this scene, the yellow flag of the Emperors of Germany floated side by side with the purple banner of Prussia.

Another picture--

The Emperor gives a banquet to the delegates of Alsace-Lorraine, after having refused to hear their complaints. At the same table with them he invites Herr Krupp to sit, in order to remind the people of the annexed provinces of the cannons which defeated France and will defeat her again.

Here we have a reproduction of the Roman Empire in decay. The power of the conqueror, imposed in all its pomp upon the vanquished, with the cruelty of a bygone age.

The all-absorbing personality of William grows more and more jealous. He would like to fill the whole stage of the theatre of the empire and of the world itself. More than that, he even demands that the past should date from himself, and he turns history inside out, having it written to begin with his reign, and reascending the course of time. First himself, then the house of Hohenzollern, then Prussia, and let that suffice. The other dynasties, other kingdoms of Germany, count for so little that it is sufficient merely to mention their existence. The history of which I speak, written for the German Army, will be prescribed later on for use of the high schools.

From each department of the public service William lifts an important part of its business. From the Department of Education he takes the direction of public worship, which, in his capacity as _summus episcopus_, he proposes to control in person. From the War Department he takes the section having control of maps and fortresses, which, he proposes to place under the general staff and his own direction. He is planning to make a province of Berlin, so that he himself may govern it in military fashion, etc., etc. Is it possible that the mind of such a man, thus inflated with pride, should not succ.u.mb to every temptation of ambition? Is there any one of those about him, or amongst his subjects, who can say where these ambitions will end? When one thinks of the ma.s.s of ambitions and emotions that William II has exhausted since he came to the throne, when one thinks of the difficult questions he has raised, the obstacles he has created and the enterprises he has undertaken, how is it possible not to _fear_ the future?

Germany is beginning to be oppressed by a feeling of uneasiness. She is beginning to realise that her Emperor, by designing the orbit of his activity on too large a scale, is producing the contrary effect, with the result that sooner or later, the narrowing circ.u.mference of that orbit will close in upon him, and he will only be able to break its barriers by violent repression from within _and by a sudden outbreak of war without_.