The Emperor William.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 11666, 28 January 1901, Page 1

The Emperor William.

• nAS SEEN THROUGH GERMAN SPECTACLES. So grave an offence is lese majeste held to be in Germany that we rarely get an opportunity of learning what is the view which the average subject of the Emperor William entertains in regard to ' His Majesty. • All the more welcome, therefore, is the appreciation of the German Emperor which Herr Lndwig KlausnerDawoc gives in the new number of the Fortnightly Review. The writer is a frank and fearless critic as well as a keen observei of character. He has much to say in praise of his Imperial master, bnt at the same time he is not negligent of his faults. LIKE A RING SET WITH JEWELS. Like most of ns, Herr Klausner-Dawoc is impressed by the kaleidoscopic and varied features of the Emperor's personality: — He is not a "Koh-i-noor," a "Regent"; he is more like a ring set with different jewels, varying in value, size, colour, and fire, which, combined, make a more dazzling impression than the rarest single "diamond. From his father he has inherited his good temper, his^ love of arts, and magnificent display; from his mother, the Princess Royal' of Great Britain, he has his love of the navy, and all sorts of out-door sport, as well as for adventuring himself in the liberal arts; from his grandfather, William L, he has the instinct of the soldier in the good, business like sense, who may in due tune be a good general, bnt need not turn out to be a great captain, a Napoleon, a Fredeiick, a Mariborpugh. And there are still more influences Which moulded his character. He was the first of the Hohenzollerns ,'who visited a public school and made friends there with sons of simple citizens— even -with a Jew. Add to this that, after losing in about a quarter of a year his. two predecessors, he succeeded to the throne both, rather young and almost unprepared. . DISMISSAL OF BISMARCK. One of the greatest merits of William 11. in the eyes of;. the writer Of thar character sketch is that he preferred peace rather than war. " The temptation to make use of the most perfect war machine in Europe, at that time still guided by a goodly number of celebrated generals, Bismarck and *&oltke still alive, must have been very great for an ambitious young man." His Becond great merit was that he dismissed Bismarck :—: — , This may seem strange, considering that a young monarch needs nothing more than an old, wise, and strong Minister, more especially a Minister of the world-wide fame and influence of a Prince Bismarck. But it was exceedingly good luck for Germany that Prince Bismarck was not permitted to die in harness, as he often wished. If he had died as Chancellor, without the world having had an opportunity of seeing William 11. and Germany getting on without Prince Bismarck, his death would no doubt have meant war. Alive and not ruling, Prince Bismarck served, as it were, as a buffer State. As it happened, both France and Russia had to fear the j reappearance of Cincinnatus. Meantime, the world had seen all that was right in Germany without the great founder of the Empire. But it may be granted that this high political motive was not the only cause of the overthrow of the first Chancellor. Long before this catastrophe there have been politicians who prophesied that the young Emperor and the old Chancellor would not be in accord for long. Prince Bismarck himself was sagacious enough to forestall his own fate, for he used to say the Emperor would be his own Chancellor. Yet he was not wise enough to take the consequences. Maybe gratitude, the popularity of the Chancellor, and the advantage of having such a man as first Chancellor would have made the Emperor delay from day to day and from year to j'ear the catastrophe, were not his over - ruling desire to let the world, especially his own people, know that in Germany, in Prussia, the monarch is the real ruler. William 11. was jealous not as a man, but as a sovereign. One should be master, and that one was not to be the Chancellor. It was a question of principle. It was a point of honour with the young Emperor to show the world in our more or less republican age that monarchs are not necessarily superfluous ornaments, but ought to and could do good work for their civil list. OVERDOING IT. The Emperor, although perhaps the most modern monarch alive, was anxious to revive monarchical feeling just as the Roman Emperor Julian 11. (Apostata), in spite of having been a Christian, wanted to revive Paganism. Herr Klausner-Dawoc does not hesitate to say, however, that, in his zeal, William 11. overdoes it sometimes: — To have brought before the public one of his musical compositions, to circulate his drawings and pictures, did not exactly further the Emper's ends, at least in the opinion of the educated classes. They know very well that to distinguish oneself nowadays in music or painting requires thorough and lifelong application, such as an emperor could not afford, even if he waß less of a soldier, a politician, traveller, hunter, and, above all, of a conscientious ruler. Thus suspicion arose here and there, that vanity was at the bottom of it, or something of a Neronian desire to force- people; even

against their better judgment to applaud and exclaim : " Qualis artifex !' Educated classes, too, know full well'that the <ime for universal geniuses bas gone, and that one had plenty to do to excel in a special art. Altogether tho Emperor made the greatest of mistakes when he nii'dilkd with art. The way he is tiicoiiriiying authors of patriotic plays is more hurtful than beneficial, both to the authors and to that sort of poetry. People somehow turned the old adtige '• Quod licet Jovi non licet bovi ' into " Qnod licet bovi. non licet Jovi." An Tniperor should not be above composing and painting, but above publishing. HIS SPEECHES. According to this exceedingly frank critic, the greatest enemies of the Emperor are one of his virtues and one of his talents. The first is his genial, impulsive temper, and the second his power of speech. With regard to the latter, Herr Klausner-Dawoc expresses the opinion that His Majesty is more ruled by it than he rules it. "He gets, as it were, intoxicated by his own words, and is carried away by his rhetorical phrases." The Emperor, we are told, speaks as a poet who is under" the influence of his inspiration and is carried away by it, and by his rhymes and his rhythms: — In formtr years, when the Emperor made use of extravagant exprt-ssio is, they were excused by reason of his youth and his inexperience. That is vow no more possible, since he is i_ his prime and has sat thirteen years on the throne. A German Byron may perhaps, "mutatis mutandis," some day say of him what Lord Byron said of Napoleon: An Empire that couldst crush, command, rebuild But govern not thy pettiest passion, nor, . However deeply in men's spirits skilled, Look through thine own, nor curb the lust of war, Nor learn that tempted Fate will leave the loftiest star. The world at large, generally, does not think of William U. as orator 1 or poet, but as Emperor, and attaches to his, speeches more political importance than' they are meant to have. The Saalburg speech of the Emperor the other day, for instance, which the London Press took as a startling programme of a monarch aspiring to the empire of the world, made no Isuch impression upon Germans, who have more accustomed themselves to the Empeior's rhetoric. William 11. seems to be conscious now of his weakness. At least, he did not take it amiss when Count Bulow suppressed some of the most ferocious passages of his Hnnnen speech, else he would njothftveiiominated him successor to Prince fiohenlohe, whose greatest merit dnring his six years' chancellorship was that he knew how to be the nether millstone* Such merits are not to the taste of everybody, certainly not of the multitude. Psychologists, however, and historians. can eramate the real value of statesmen who, for the benefit of the whole, remain in the dark and appear weak. a modern sovereign and a modern man;. * William 11. is now, says the writer, " the centre of the State at home and the representative of his nation abroad," notwithstanding his shortcomings. To realise this ideal was what he aimed at, not from mere personal motives, bnt because he considered it to be necessary for the throne and for the fstlerland. This is the reason, too, that though in private rather fond of pUun living and doing, he loves grand' display in public, which, hovever, his artistic nature really enjoys. He makfes the same use of pomp in the interests of royalty as the Roman Catholic Church does in the interests of religion. The glspt question of the future is whether he will not , one day think it necessary in the interests of royalty- to have l__t fight with P&riiam&tt Itself, Which; of course, would be disastrous to all concerned — to the whole country. Btrr'afc Ift~ is wise enough to see that, and as he loves his country, it may after all be assumed that he will not go far. Mystio^as he may seem — we ourselves' don't qmte'hejieve in his mysticism, which very likely, too, is only a means to further his ends— he is above all a modern sovereign, a thoroughly modern man, so< v much so that he even gave university' privileges to technical schools; that he ia about to • modify classical learning in the high schools, and that not onef* year has , elapsed since he ascended the throne without a law being passed in favour of the working classes.