A LONELY MONARCH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 13948, 2 January 1909, Page 5 (Supplement)

A LONELY MONARCH.

There are many signs that the German Emperor himself feels sadly and bitterly that he has been a failure. This is brought out, says M.A.P., in an able and judicial article. upon him which appeared in a recent number of a well-known German publication. The article winds up with this epitome of the Emperor's position : . When William 11. says he stands alone, it is the truth. But the recently repeated charge that people would not give him the hand, would not accord him their fullest confidence, is not justified. Even in the shadow of the veneration for Bismarck, the Emperor might have achieved a true popularity, something on the lines of the old Emperor's; but he himself broadened the shadow by so often remaining mute where a word, a glance would have reconciled and made good, by doing the opposite of what his people expected of him, and by not thinking it worth while to adapt himself to the people of whom he was born. Despite all that attracts us in the healthy, fiery temperament, the " weltpolitisch" sense, the technical genius of William 11., despite . the ■ fact, that the ideal family life at the Imperial court touches the best chords in the German national character, the person of the Emperor does not draw near to us. He has long since felt it, and we know that he feels it deeply. With words of bitterness he has confessed that a lord of a people of sixty million suffers from loneliness. DARIKG SATIRE. The writer is justified in speaking of the Emperor as an enthralling, subject; there is no man of his time of whom so much has been written, who has excited so much curiosity, uncertainty, and speculation. Kenan, the great French agnostic, when he was nearing the close of his life, gave as one of the reasons why he would wish to live longer his curiosity to know what would be the end of the German Emperor. Another German journalist— merciful than the one I have quoted—gave a long study of the Emperor. It was one of the most dexterous and most venomous indictments ever written of a ruler. It professed to be simply a portrait of Caligula, the mad Roman Emperor, whose excesses and follies were among the factors that brought about the downfall of Rome. The Roman Emperor was criticised for his frequent and impulsive voyages ; this, of course, was meant as an attack on that passion for travel which is one of the peculiarities of the German Emperor. Tho well-known incident of Caligula, proposing that his horse should be elected as Consul of Rome was used to suggest the stupid friendships and the indefensible appointments which the German Emperor made to the highest posts. There was plenty about the love of luxury and of display, which were the characteristics of the Roman ; but everybody knew that this was an illusion to the very grandiose, and very costly, and very spectacular performances in which the Emperor delights. It was well for the daring satirist that he belonged to South Germany; if he had lived in Prussia, ho would have served some months in a fortress. . ;.•-.-