The Emperor's Eccentricities.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 603, 26 March 1892, Page 2

The Emperor's Eccentricities.

Tho German Emperor has apparently an unlimited capacity for the doing of eccentric acts, which show him to be destitute of that tact and good feeling so essential in the character of a modern monarch who lives before the eyes of the world, and which can scarcely be excusod on the ground of youthfulness. His last freak has scandalised German society, pained hi 3 mother, and enraged the Queen and his other relatives in England. It appears, according to the World that the Emperor received an intimation while he was shooting at Buckeburg of the practically hopeless condition of the Duke of Olarence. He went on with his sport, however, and even' when apprised by telegram the next day of the fatal result of his young relative's illness, he had another day's shooting and did not return to Berlin until the Friday following the Thursday on which the Duke died. Under the circumstances he might have been expected to call on his mother at once, but instead of doing so he allowed another twentyfour hours to elapse before he visited the Empress Frederick, and I it was Sunday afternoon before he paid a visit to the British Embassey. Court mourning was only ordered for ten days, which would have been accorded to any Princelet in Germany, and the flag at the Schlost was not lowered to half-mast, while on the - day of his cousin's funeral, instead of attending the funeral servioe in Berlin, and thereby complying with the earnest entreaties of his mother he held an inspection of recruits at . Kiel, a function which would appear to be of at least only secondary importance compared to the loss of the friendship of England/ Lastly, he refused to allow his brother Prince Henry to attend the funeral but sent Prince Leopold, although the Empress Frederick - and the Queen and Koyal Family all wished Prince Henry to be present at the sad ceremony^ No cause can be assigned for the Emperor's unsympathetic) conduct. ' It is not a yoar since he visited England, whea hundreds of thousands of people crowded the streets to welcome him as they might have done if he had been their own king returning from a war, and accorded him a reception such as London rarely gives to foreign sovereigns. The most friendly relations apparently prevailed between him and the English Royal Family, to whom he is related by tho nearest ties of, kinship, and yet when he had an opportunity of showing, at a time of national mourning, his sympathy with the bereaved parents and the Queen in their sorrow, add with the whole English peoplo, ho wholly neglected it, and shewed perfect indifference to the feelings of the nation. The Emperor's next reception by the people of England will probably not be 60 pordial as on the last oocasion.