The Schemes of the Kaiser | Page 7

States, even after 1870, we had preserved certain trusty friendships: of these William II now tries to rob us. He appears and, to use his own expression, draws men to him by magic strings. To the people who are offshoots of Germany he figures as "the Emperor," unique, mysterious, he who goes forward in the name of the fables of mythology, gathering and uniting anew in his slumbering people the instincts of vassalage. "Super-German virtues," he calls them, "ornaments of old-time Germany." This monarch who, in his own land, is pleased to pose as a Liberal!
Can it be that this same William who, on the Bosphorus held communion with the stars, who, writing to Bismarck, said, "I talk with God," finds the celestial responses so inadequate that his mind must needs invoke a retinue of Teutonic deities?
"Let the Latins, Slavs and Gauls know it," says he, "the German Emperor bears to Germans the glad tidings which promise them the sovereignty of the world!"
Have not even the Anglo-Saxons bowed before the sovereign will of William II, so that before long the island of Heligoland will see the German flag floating over its rocky shores?
Yes, let her Press and public men say what they will, proud Albion has delivered herself over to Germany. She has made surrender to our enemy in the hope that we shall thus become for her an easier victim, that she will be able to recover at our expense what Germany has taken from her. Lord Salisbury hopes, in return for the plum he has yielded, to be able to help himself to ours, to those of Italy and Portugal, and to share others with Germany.
But such is the character of William II that he despises those who serve him or who yield to his will. Like Don Juan, he seeks ever new worlds to conquer, new resistances to overcome, and neglects no means to secure his desired ends. England and Austria to-day count for less than nothing in his schemes. These countries have had a free hand in Bulgaria, and they have used it to indulge in every sort of intrigue. Screened by Bismarck, they have advised, upheld and exalted Stamboulof, they have set up the Prince of Coburg. And William, not having inspired any of this policy, would like to see it end in complications shameful for his associates.
As to the King of Sweden, he thinks it due to the dignity of his people to make some show of resistance, but one feels that this is only done to save appearances. He also has delivered himself, bound hand and foot, just as they have all done, the Emperor Francis Joseph, the King of Italy, the Hohenzollern who reigns at Bucharest, Stamboulof, Lord Salisbury and Leopold II.

July 29, 1890. [9]
The Imperial bagman travelling in Germanophil wares conceals under his flag a very mixed cargo. He makes a Bernadotte to serve as speaking trumpet for Prussian Conservatism at the same time that he subsidises agents provocateurs for the purpose of misleading and internationalising the social reform programme of the Danes.
And all the time, in every direction, he comes and goes--this ever restless, universal disturber--creating and perpetuating instability on all sides, so as to increase the price of his peace stock, he controlling the market. It is Bismarck's old game, played with up-to-date methods.

August 12, 1890. [10]
Does it not seem to you, dear reader, that the voyage of William II to Russia suggests in more ways than one the scene of the Temptation on the Mount?
At St. Petersburg there reigns a sovereign whose life, directed by the inspirations of his soul, is one long act of virtuous self-denial; who prefers the humble and the lowly to fortune's favourites; whose works are works of peace, and whose intentions are always those of a man ready to appear before Him Who only tolerates the great ones of this earth when their power is balanced by a due sense of their moral responsibility, by devotion to duty and truth.
At Berlin there reigns a man of ungovernable pride, who aspires to be torch-bearer to the world. Restless, like the spirit of evil, tormented by his inability to do good, he has dedicated his soul to wickedness and lies.
Alexander III regarded his accession to the throne as an ordeal, the sacrifice of his life. He would have given his own blood to spare his father the pangs of death. William II seized fiercely on the reins of power, after having committed a crime, at least in his heart; after having wished for the death of his father and increased his sufferings by his conduct.
By the tragic end of two martyrs, God has brought face to face those who are destined to be the champions of good and of evil respectively in these last years