FRANZ JOSEPH, THE LONELY EMPEROR

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 4978, 30 May 1903, Page 3 (Supplement)

FRANZ JOSEPH, THE LONELY EMPEROR

There is something infinitely pathetic in the reply tho Austrian Emperor made when urged to take life a little more easily, to stay in bed a little longer for one thing—to rise at six, 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.” Tho Emperor is an old man now; his strength has begun to fail him of late; and at that timo ho was ill, often in great pain. None the less, ■no matter whether lie had slept or .-not, ho must turn out hours before the majority of his subjects would dream of leaving their beds, as otherwise ho would not be able “to got his day’s work in-.” Nor wa.s there any exaggeration in what ho said ;• he must work practically tho whole day long to do what he has to do—what, as a sovereign, ho holds he is bound to do. Never was there a move conscientious ruler, one with a keener sense of the duty ho owes to his subjects. At any sacrifice their business must bo attended to, he maintains; their interests must bo safeguarded. And more often than not it happens that tho business Is business that ho alone can attend to, tho interests a.re interests that lie alone can safeguard. Were ho to leave tho work for others to do. however well ..it might bo done, there would be cavilling and quarrelling without end. There are some dozen rival nationalities in his Empire, it must bo remembered, each consumed with tho desire to annihilate tho rest; and no one but ho can smooth their easily ruffled susceptibilities and keep the peace between them; no one but ho can hold the balance even between Magyar and Austria. Slav, GreokLatin, German, Croat and Czech, and prevent them from flying at orio 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-Hungarian Empire difficulties are always arising—not 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 Archdruchesses seem even more prone than other mortals to love those whom they ought not to love and to leave unloved those v horn they ought to love. And with all these difficulties, national as well as domestic, the Emperor has to grapple, and without anyone to give him a helping hand. —“Tho World.”