AN IMPERIAL RECLUSE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13333, 27 January 1909, Page 6

AN IMPERIAL RECLUSE.

For many years the Kaiser has supplied tho nations with surprises. But scarcely anything the Imperial sensationalist has done can have struck his world with more' amazement than his appeal to the German Press to refrain from publishing further news of his doings, "as he desires to live as quiet " a life as possible.' The fiercest light that ever beat upon a throne has never before been too dazzling for him. No modern monarch ever acted more consistently as if he believed in tho Divine right of kings, and Press and people have conspired to set him cnly a little lower than the angels. Under his rule Constitutional government was out a name; Chancellor and Councillors, and the members of the Reichstag wore but his •puppets, since the faintest breath of criticism was regarded and treated as treason. Ho imposed his will -upon the nation as he sought to impose it upon tho world. And yet a brief day or two sufficed to bring him down from his lofty pedestal. The publication of tho interview which appeared in the London "Daily Telegraph," the hasty suppression of the American interview in tho "Oentury," with the subsequtnt publication of what purported to be the gist of tr.» Kaiser's imprudent remarks, roused tho most intense resentment in Germany, and) brought the Emperor witfllin sight of a revolution. Almost in a day his power of personal rule passed from him; democracy reognising its opportunity, demanded its proper share in the government of the Empire, and the Kaiser, bowing to the storm, announced through his Chancellor that he would in future display more reserve and' more respect for Constitutional usages. Forthwith he passed from one extreme to the other. Berlin, accustomed to daily displays of Imperial pomp and to tho" flamboyant utterances that-added no little in their way to the gaiety of nations, missed tho Kaiser's public appearances, and as his retirement became more prolonged, surprise changed to a conviction that he must be ill. Nothing but physical inability, it was believed, could keep him in seclusion. When he failed to keep an engagement to go to Kiel and perform tho ceremony of swearinc in naval recruits in person, something like alarm was felt. The Kaiser, it was felt, must 6urely be very ill to let slip an opportunity of delivering one of his characteristically patriotio speeches in honour of the navy- 1* was not » however, illness, but repentance and a desire to practise tho role of a Constitutional monarch that kept tho Kaiser from the public gaze. Instead of travelling, hunting, attending theatrical rehearsals, motoring, and supervising the public and private affairs of the nation as was his wont, the Emperor, we aro told, "works steadily at Potsdam, re"ceives Cabinet Ministers in audience, " studies dull, official reports, and " reads tedious White Books issued by " tho various Departments of State." With one exception, he made no public appearance in the six weeks following his declaration of his changed policy. Coincident with this amazing self-efface-ment the German nation, with one accord, seems to have resolved to ignore the law of "lese-maj-ste." Parliament, Press, and people said what they liked about the Kaiser, and nobody suffered. Herr Harden, the notorious editor of

the "Zukunft," who exposed tho Eulenberg scandal, declared that the country had been excluded from every political and national circle in Europe through the egotism and bumptiousness of William 11., who in future might do as he chose and spend what ho chose, but would havo to hold his tongue. It is to the Kaiser's credit that ho should see the wisdom of listenin_ to the people, and should set about trying to live down the record of his twenty years of personal rule. But tho change is so sudden and so violent as to suggest doubts as to whether it is really permanent.