THE LONELY EMPEROR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIX, Issue 13107, 22 April 1903, Page 5

THE LONELY EMPEROR.

. {The World.) There is something infinitely pathetic in the reply the Austrian Emperor recently made when urged to take life a little more easily, to stay in bed a little longer, for one thing—to rise at sis, perhaps, instead of four. “That is quite impossible,” his Majesty remarked sadly; “I can only just get my day’s work in as it is.” The Emperor is an old man how; his strength has begun to fail him of late; and at that time he was dll, often in great pain. None the less, no matter whether he had slept or not, he must turn out hours before the majority of his subjects would dream of leaving their beds, as otherwise he would not be able “to get his day’s work in." Nor was there any exaggeration in what he said ; he must work practically the whole day long to. do what he has to do—what, as Sovereign, he holds he is bound to do,; Never was there a more conscientious ruler, one with a keener sense of the duty he owes to his subjects. At any sacrifice, their business must be attended to, he maintains, their interests must bo safeguarded. And more often than not it happens that the business is business that he alone can attend to, the interests are interests that he alone can safeguard. Were he to ieav the work for others to do, however wt,/ it might be done, there would he cavillir and. quarrelling without end. There a - some dozen rival nationalities in his on, pire, it must be remembered, each con sumed with the desire to annihilate all t.; rest; and no one but he can SMOOTH THEIR EASILY RUFFLED SUSCEPTIBILITIES and keep the peace among them; no one but he can hold the balance even between Magyar and Austrian, Slav, (Ireek-Latin, German, Croat and "Czech, and prevent them from flying at one another’s throats. For his subjects of all races alike have unbounded faith in him, whereas in his Ministers they have, as a rule, no faith at all; it is always to him, never to his Ministers, they look for guidance when difficulties arise. And in the Austro-Hun-garian Empire difficulties are always arising—nob only racial difficulties, but social, religious, economic and all other kinds of difficulties, just as in the Austrian Imperial family difficulties are always arising, too; for archdukes and archduchesses seem even more prone than other mortals to love those' whom they ought not to love, and to leave unloved those whom they ought to love. And with all these difficulties, national as weli as domestic, the Emperor has to grapple, and without anyone to give him a helping hand. . . . During the fifty-four years Franz Josef has now been Emperor he has not only had to work hard early and late, but to face trials of every kind—to face them alone, too, for the most part; for between him and almost every member even of his own family there has always been a bar of some sort or another. For many a long year, indeed, most of them regarded him and treated him as a sort of Hapsburg Philippe d’Egalite; and all because he thought more of the present than of the past, and was bent on serving Austria, even though to do so he must SET AT NAUGHT MEDIAEVAL PREJUDICES and step on the toes of the Pope himself. In the early days of his reign he had, it is true, his mother, who was devoted to him, by his side; but ns time passed she drifted away, for her feelings were hurt at finding that, when her advice clashed with that of his responsible Ministers, it was theirs, not hers, that was taken—at finding, in fact, that he kept to the spirit as well as the letter of the oath he had sworn to his people. . . . The Austrian Emperor had the good luck—if it ■were good luck—to marry a woman with whom he was passionately in love; but with all her noble qualities, the Empress Elizabeth proved but a sorry helpmate, for she had more than a touch of genius, and all the world knows that it is “un rude metier d’etre lemari d’une femme de genie/’ BU would have Janad death M her bus-

band’s sake with delight any day, huh nothing that he could say or do would induce her to fulfil the simple duties of her position, and thus give him the help she could give. Hold receptions or be present at halls, she would not; if any Court entertainments were arranged, indeed, the chances were that before the day came round she would TAM 3TLIGHT TO SOME MOUNTAIN’ EETBEAT far beyond the reach of those curious glances she so dreaded. She would go away on- hunting expeditions for months at a time, and leave the Emperor to do her work at'Court in addition’to his own. Nor was he more fortunate in his son than in his wife; for the Crown Prince Rudolf, although devotedly attached to him, neither understood him, nor, perhaps, quite appreciated him. Ho did not realise the difficulties of his father’s position, and r therefore never gave him the help of which h* stood so sorely in need. To-day the Emperor is, of course, more lonely than he has ever been; excepting for his daughters, indeed, he is now practically alone in the world, so far as relations are concerned; for between him and his nephew and heir, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, there has never been even a touch of sympathy.