Indeed, his own people are among the severest critics. One of them, Professor Quidde, early in the reign, made an extraordinarily ingenious, but quite unjustifiable, comparison of him to Caligula, which, though only consisting of cla.s.sical quotations and making no mention of the Emperor, was seen by everybody to refer to him and has caused discussion ever since. While many foreign critics have done the Emperor justice, others in turn have made him out to be arrogant, sn.o.bbish, bombastic, superficial, incompetent, and insincere. To writers of this cla.s.s he is always the German War Lord, ready to pounce, like a highwayman or pirate, on any unprotected person or property he may come across, regardless of treaty obligations, of international disaster, or of the dictates of humanity. One day they announce he is planning the annexation of Holland in order to get a further set of naval bases, the next that he means to take Belgium to make a road for his armies into France, a third that he is about to set at naught the Monroe doctrine and with his Dreadnoughts seize Brazil. All these things are conceivable and not impossible, but they are in the very highest degree improbable, and, as yet at least, ought not to be considered seriously. To sensible and better-informed people everywhere he is a Prussian king of the best type, a sincere friend of peace, with a mania for pushing the maxim "_Si vis pacem para bellum_"
to extremes, politically the most influential man in Europe, and, with all his faults, one of the greatest Germans of his time.
The character of the Emperor, as monarch, is reflected very largely in the character of the Germany of to-day.
Germany is optimistic, ardently desirous of peace, bent on worthily maintaining the great place she has won, and deserved to win, among the nations, and so materially prosperous as to make many Germans tremble at the thought that the prosperity may be too great to last.
This, however, is not to a.s.sert that in Germany everything is _couleur de rose_. There are not a few things in the Empire"s social and political conditions which are antiquated or promise no good. Noxious as well as beneficial forces have been introduced into the social life of the country and are beginning to make themselves felt. German home-life is ceasing to be the admirable and exemplary thing it was before the present era of cla.s.s rivalry, commercialism, the parvenu and the sn.o.b. The idealism which made the Empire a possibility is pa.s.sing away. There is need, and a general demand, for franchise reform in Prussia, and a change in the spirit of Prussian bureaucratic administration would be acceptable, though it is, perhaps, hopeless to expect it. The opposition in Germany between the monarchic and the democratic principle, if not more marked than it was twenty or thirty years ago, is manifesting itself over a wider and perhaps deeper area.
The relations between capital and labour are far from satisfactory adjustment. Social democracy is yearly gaining fresh adherents, and if guilty of no political violence, is yet a constant source of danger to domestic peace. The German middle cla.s.s, that bourgeoisie which is the backbone and strength of the Empire, is losing its Spartan simplicity and its content with small and moderate pleasures; and the national virtues of thrift and self-denial are yielding to the temptations of wealth and luxury. Business credit is unduly stretched, speculation in land has attained disturbing proportions, and the banking world is in too many instances allied with hazardous or doubtful enterprises.
Nevertheless the country as a whole is sound, intellectually, morally, and financially.
It would be difficult to mention any of the greater tasks of imperial administration to which the Emperor does not continue to devote personal attention. He is the life and soul of the army and navy, though it should not be forgotten that as regards the latter he has in Admiral Tirpitz an executive talent worthy of his own directive. His interest in the mercantile marine remains what it was when in 1887, as Prince William, he drew up an expert opinion which decided the Hamburg-Amerika Company to build their fast ocean-going steamers at home instead of abroad, and by the success of the experiment commenced the modern development of Germany"s shipbuilding industry. Indeed, his attention to the Hamburg line, familiarly known as the "Hapag" line, from the initial letters of its legal t.i.tle, "Hamburg-Amerika Packetfahrt-Aktien Gesellschaft," and to the Norddeutsche line from Bremen, has given rise to the unfounded belief that he is heavily interested in their financial success. Herr Albert Ballin, the Director of the Hamburg line, though a Jew, is among his intimates and advisers, and the Emperor is said to have caused umbrage more than once to Court officials and the aristocracy by giving directors of both lines precedence at his table. Without the Emperor"s personal support it is probable that neither the firm of Krupp at Essen nor the splendid shipbuilding yards at Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin and elsewhere would continue to progress as they are doing. He neglects no opportunity of stimulating Germany"s internal and external trade.
He is at all times ready to encourage the introduction of useful achievements of modern science and invention. And lastly, by tactful treatment of other German rulers, and a wise policy of non-interference with their States, he is promoting a feeling of federal solidarity.
The Emperor"s conception of his relations to the people remains to-day what he was brought up in and what it was when he mounted the throne.
In England, America, and France the people are the real rulers, and their monarch or president is their highest official servant and representative. The idea is not perhaps const.i.tutionally expressed, but it is universally and deeply felt in the countries named. In Germany the opposite theory obtains--for how long it must be left to the future to say. In Germany the Emperor is the real ruler, the genuine monarch, and the people are his subjects, the country his country. Hence, while an English king in an official doc.u.ment or public statement would not think of putting himself first and the people or country second, the German Emperor"s official statements and speeches constantly repeat such expressions as "I and my people," "I and the army," "my capital," "me and the Fatherland," and a score more; so that Anglo-Saxons and other foreigners acquire the impression that the word "my" is no figure of rhetoric or pride, but a simple claim of ownership or possession. And the official relation between monarch and people is reflected in the people"s ordinary life. To the foreigner it continually appears that the public are the servants of the official, not the contrary, whether officialism takes the shape of a post-office clerk, a tramcar conductor, a shop salesman, a policeman, or a waiter. All these functionaries are the possessors of an authority which the citizen is expected to, and usually does, obey.
The explanation of such a state of things is a little abstruse, but an attempt may be made at giving it.
The period immediately preceding the reign of Frederick the Great was a period of absolute monarchy in Germany, a system introduced from France, where Louis XIV had proclaimed the doctrine _L"etat, c"est moi_, according to which the lives and property of the subject belonged to the Prince, whose will was to be obeyed without question or demur. There were now four hundred courts in Germany in imitation of the Court of Versailles, and the smaller the princ.i.p.ality the greater the absolutism. Absolutism, however, required an army to support it; hence the establishment of standing and mercenary armies and the disuse of arms by the citizen. The result, to quote Professor Ernst Richard"s work on "German Civilization," was that
"the pride of the burgher and the peasant was broken. A submissive servility hopelessly pervaded the ma.s.ses, and even the best had lost all social and national feeling, all sense of being part of a greater body.... The luxurious life and the arrogance of the ruling cla.s.ses were accepted as a matter of course, one might say as a divine inst.i.tution.
Thus those traits of character, which had come to light under the cruel stress of the Thirty Years War, fostered by the rule of despotism and the worst vices, took deeper root.
To these belong that greed for social position, for t.i.tles and the smiles of the great; servility towards those who hold a higher position as bearers of official t.i.tles and dignity, a fear of publicity, above all a rather remarkable inclination to a peevish, petty, and sceptical att.i.tude as regards the knowledge and ability of others. The exaltation of the position of the prince extended to his Court and his officials, as well as to the n.o.bility, which had long since become a Court n.o.bility."
But absolutism had to go with the changes in human thought under the influence of Rationalism, which brought with it the idea of the State, not the absolute prince, as ruler. This idea was embodied in the _Rechtstaat_, or State based on law, which was introduced by Frederick the Great, the "first servant of the State." The State, he said, exists for the sake of the citizens. "One must be insane," he wrote,
"to imagine that men should have said to one of their equals, "We will raise you so that we may be your slaves, we will give you the power to guide our thoughts according to yours." They rather said: "We need you in order to execute our laws, that you show us the way, and defend us. But we understand that you will respect our liberties.""
The _Rechtstaat_ exists in Germany to the present day, the Emperor is at the head of it, and the people are content to live within its confines. It is not, as has been seen, coterminous with the whole liberty of the subject, but is yet a vast bundle of rights and obligations which in public, and much of private, life leaves as little as possible to the unaided or undirected intelligence or goodwill of the citizen. It is an exaggeration, but still expresses a popular feeling even in Germany itself--and certainly describes an impression made on the Anglo-Saxon--to say that outside this bundle of laws and regulations, which, clearly and logically paragraphed, orders to a nicety all the public, and many of the private, relations of the citizens, everything is forbidden or discouraged by authority. Yet, as has been said, the people are satisfied with it, and it must be admitted that if it confines individual liberty within what to the Anglo-Saxon seem narrow limits, still, by directing the individual to common ends, it works great public advantage. It is in truth a very intelligent and practical form of Socialism, infinitely less oppressive to the people than would be the socialism of the professed Socialist.
It left, however, the German caste system of Frederick"s day undisturbed; as Professor Richard says:
"The n.o.bility retained its privileged position. It was considered a law of nature that the n.o.blemen should a.s.sist the monarch in the administration of the State and as leaders of the army; the peasant should cultivate the fields and provide food; the commoner should provide money through industry and commerce."
To the Anglo-Saxon, of course, brought up with individualistic views of life and demanding complete personal freedom, the German _Rechtstaat_ would be galling, not to say intolerable. The Englishman, however, has his _Rechtstaat_ too, but the limits it places on his liberty are not nearly so restrictive in regard to public meeting, public talking, public writing, in short, public action of all sorts, as in Germany. Besides, the spirit of laws in England, as naturally follows from the Englishman"s political history, is a much more liberal one than the German spirit, which is still to some extent under the influence of the age of absolutism.
The German conception of the _Rechtstaat_ entails, as one of its consequences, a sharp contrast between the rights and privileges of the Crown and the rights and privileges of the people; and therefore, while the Emperor is never without apprehension that the people may try to increase their rights and privileges at the expense of those of the Crown, the people are not without apprehension that the Crown may try to increase its rights and privileges at the expense of the political liberties of the people. To this apprehension on the part of the people is to be attributed their widespread dissatisfaction with the Emperor"s so-called "personal regiment," which, until recently, was the chief hindrance to his popularity. In truth the Emperor is in a difficult position. To be popular with the people he must be popular with the Parliament, but if he were to seek popularity with the Parliament he would lose popularity and prestige with the aristocracy and large landowners, who have still a good deal of the old-time contempt for the mere "folk," the burgher, and he would lose it with the military officer cla.s.s, which is aristocratic in spirit, and is, as the Emperor is constantly a.s.suring it, the sole support of throne and Empire. In addition to this it has to be remembered that a large majority of South Germany is Catholic, and, generally speaking, no great lover of Prussia, its people, and their airs of stiff superiority.
The personal relations of the Emperor to his people, and in especial to the vast burghertum, are precisely those to be expected from his traditional and const.i.tutional relations. He is not popular, but he is widely and sincerely respected. His preference for the army, intelligible though it is, and the cleavage that separates Government and people, explain to some extent the want of popularity, using that word in its "popular" sense; while the consciousness of all the nation owes to his "goodwill," his initiative and energy, his conscientiousness in all directions, is quite sufficient to account for the respect. It is, in truth, in part at least, the respect which excludes the popularity. No one is ever likely to be popular, anywhere, who is constantly endeavouring to teach people how to live and what to think, and at the same time seems to have no social weaknesses to reconcile him with those--no small number--who are fond of cakes and ale. Some of the Emperor"s acts and speeches have postponed, if not precluded, eventual popularity--his breach with Bismarck, for example, the whole "personal regiment," and speeches like that at Potsdam in 1891, when he told his recruits that if he had to order them to shoot down their brothers, or even their parents, they must obey without a murmur. Speeches of this last kind live long in public memory. In his dealings with his people the Emperor is neither arrogant--"high-nosed" is the elegant German expression: "arrogant" is no German word, Prince Bulow would doubtless say-- towards his subjects, nor are they cringing towards him, though this statement does not exclude the excusable embarra.s.sment an ordinary mortal may be expected to feel in the presence of a monarch. The Emperor himself desires no "tail-wagging" from his subjects, and though there is something of the autocrat in him, there is nothing of the despot.
Certainly for the present, Germans, with rare exceptions, are satisfied with him. They are prospering under him. The shoe pinches here and there, and if it pinches too hard they will cry out and perhaps do more than cry out. They do not consider the Emperor perfect, but they forgive his errors, and particularly the errors of his impetuous youth, even though on three or four occasions they brought the country into danger. Monarchy has been defined as a State in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting things: a republic, as a State in which the attention is divided between many who are all doing uninteresting things: Germans find their Emperor interesting, and that is a stage on the road to popularity.
The imperial ego, which is quite consistent with the German view of monarchical rule and conformity with the _Rechtstaat_, is specially advertised by the pictures and statues of the Emperor which are to be found all over Germany, to the apparent exclusion of the pictures and statues of national and local men of distinction. The Emperor"s picture almost monopolizes the walls of every public and munic.i.p.al office, every railway-station refreshment-room, every shop, every restaurant throughout the Empire. Wherever it turns the eye is confronted by the portrait or bust of the Emperor, and if it is not his portrait or bust, it is the portrait or bust of one or other of his ancestors. An exception should be made in the case of Bismarck, the reproduction of whose rugged features, s.h.a.ggy eyebrows, and bulky frame are not infrequent; statues and portraits, too, of Moltke and Roon, though much more rarely met with than those of Bismarck, are to be seen, while those of Goethe, Schiller, Kant, Lessing, Wagner, or other German "Immortal," are still rarer. Only once, or perhaps twice, in all Germany is there to be found a public statue of Heine--for Heine was a Jew and said many unpleasant, because true, things about his country. The travelling foreigner in Germany after a while begins to wonder if he is not in some far Eastern country where ancestor-worship obtains, and where one tremendous personality overshadows, obscures, and obliterates all the rest. In truth, however, this is not the lesson of the imperial images for the foreigner. They teach him that he is in a country with a system of government and views of the State different from his own, that the Empire is ruled in a military, not a civic spirit, and that the counterfeit presentment of the Emperor, always in dazzling uniform, is the sign of the national acceptance of system, views, and spirit.
A similar lesson is taught by the Emperor"s speeches. In England the King rarely speaks in public, and then with well-calculated brevity and reserve. In five words he will open a museum and with a sentence unveil a monument. The Emperor"s speeches fill four stout volumes--and he is only fifty-four. The speeches deal with every sort of topic, and have been delivered in all parts of the Empire--now to Parliament, now to his a.s.sembled generals, now at the celebration of some national or individual jubilee, now at the dedication of a building or the opening of a bridge. The style is always clear and logical, in this respect contrasting favourably with the German style of twenty years ago, when the language wriggled from clause to clause in vermiform articulations until the thought found final expression in a mob of participles and infinitives. Metaphors abound in the speeches, some of them slightly far-fetched, but others of uncommon beauty, appropriateness, and pith.
There is no brilliant employment of words, but not seldom one comes across such terse and happy phrases as the famous "We stand under the star of commerce," "Our future lies on the water," "We demand a place in the sun."
On the English reader the speeches will be apt to pall, unless he is thoroughly saturated with Prussian historic, military, and romantic lore and can place himself mentally in the position of the Emperor.
The tone, never quite detached from consciousness of the imperial ego, hardly ever descends to the level of familiar conversation nor rises to heights of eloquence that carry away the hearer. With three or four exceptions, there is no argumentation in the speeches, for they are not meant to persuade or convince, but to enjoin and command. They do not contain any of the important and interesting facts and figures of which, nevertheless, the Emperor"s mind must be full, and they are wanting in wit and humour, though nature has endowed the Emperor with both.
On the other hand, it should be remembered that they are the speeches of an Emperor, not of a statesman. The speeches have no political timeliness or object save that of rousing and directing imperial spirit among the people by appeals to their imagination and patriotism. Had the Emperor been actuated by the spirit of a Minister or statesman, he would have been far more alive to the fact than he appears to have been, that every word he uttered would instantly find an echo in the Parliament, Press, and Stock Exchange of all other countries.
The Emperor"s fundamental mistakes, as disclosed by his speeches, appear to an Englishman to have been in a.s.suming when they were made that the Empire was in a less advanced stage of consolidation and settlement than it in fact was, and in underrating the intelligence, knowledge, and patriotism of his people. From this point of view his early speeches in particular sound jejune or superfluous. What would the Englishman say to a king who began his reign by a series of homilies on Alfred the Great or Elizabeth or Queen Victoria; by using strong language about the Labour party or the Fabian Society; by appeals to throne and altar; by describing to Parliament the chief duties of the monarch; by recommending the London County Council to build plenty of churches; by calling journalists "hunger-candidates"; by frequent references to the battles of Waterloo and Trafalgar? Yet, _mutatis mutandis_, this is not so very unlike what the young Emperor did, and not for a year or two, but for several years after his accession. To an Englishman such addresses would appear rather ill-timed academic declamation.
Yet there was much, and perhaps is still much, to account for, if not quite justify, the Emperor"s rhetoric. The peculiarity of Germany"s monarchic system placed, and places, the monarch in a patriarchal position not very different from that of Moses towards the Israelites--a leader, preacher, and prophet. Again, the Empire, when the Emperor came to the throne, was not a h.o.m.ogeneous nation inspired by a centuries-old national spirit, but suffered, as it still in a measure suffers, from the particularism of the various kingdoms and States composing it: in other words, from too local a patriotism and stagnation of the imperial idea. Thirdly, the Empire had no navy, while an Empire to-day without a navy is at a tremendous and dangerous disadvantage in world-politics, and the mere conception that a navy was indispensable had to be created in a country lying in the heart of Europe and with only one short coast-line.
The Englishman is as loyal to his King as the German is to his Emperor, and England, as little as Germany, is disposed to change from monarchy to republicanism. But the Englishman"s political and social governor, guide, and executive is not the King, but the Parliament; because while in the King he has a worthy representative of the nation"s historical development and dignity, in the Parliament he sees a powerful and immediate reflection of himself, his own wishes, and his own judgments. Moreover, with the spread of democratic ideas, the position of a monarch anywhere in the civilized world to-day is not what it was fifty years ago. The general progress in education since then; the drawing together of the nations by common commercial and financial interests; the incessant activity of writers and publishers; the circulation and power of the Press--themselves almost threatening to become a despotism--such facts as these tend to change the relations between kings and peoples. Monarchs and men are changing places; the ruler becomes the subject, the subject ruler; it is the people who govern, and the monarch obeys the people"s will.
Such is not the view of the German Emperor nor of the German people.
To both the monarch is no "shadow-king," as both are fond of calling the King of England, but an Emperor of flesh and blood, commissioned to take the leading part in decisions binding on the nation, responsible to no one but the Almighty, and the sole bestower of State honours. There are, it is true, three factors of imperial government const.i.tutionally--the Emperor, the Federal Council, and the Imperial Parliament; but while the Council has only very indirect relations with the people, the Parliament, a consultative body for legislation, is not the depositary of power or authority, or an a.s.sembly to which either the Emperor, or the Council, or the Imperial Chancellor is responsible. It must be admitted that, while such is the const.i.tutional theory, the actual practice is to a considerable extent different. The Emperor is no absolute monarch, even in the domain of foreign affairs, as he is often said to be, but is influenced and guided, certainly of late years, both by the Federal Council and by public opinion, the power of which latter has greatly augmented in recent times. Whether the Reichstag really represents public opinion in the Empire is a moot-point in Germany itself. It can hardly be denied that it does so, at least in financial matters, since with regard to them it has all the powers, or almost all, possessed by the English House of Commons in this respect. Where its powers fail, it is said, is in regard to administration; for though it deliberates on and pa.s.ses legislation, it is left by the Const.i.tution to the Emperor and his Ministers to issue instructions as to how legislation is to be carried into effect. The result is to throw excessive power over public comfort and convenience into the hands of the official cla.s.s of all degrees, which naturally employs it to maintain its own dignity and privileged position.
Towards one cla.s.s of the population, and that a highly important and exceptional one, the Emperor"s att.i.tude of unprejudiced goodwill has never varied. Israelites form only a small proportion--about 1 per cent.--of the whole people, and are to be found in very large numbers only in Berlin and Frankfurt; but to their financial and commercial ability Germany owes a debt one may almost describe as incalculable.
There is a strong national prejudice against them in all parts of the Empire, as there probably is in all countries, and it must be admitted that the manners and customs of the lower-cla.s.s Jew, his unpleasant and insistent curiosity, his intrusiveness where he is not desired, his want of cleanliness, his sharpness at a bargain, his oily bearing to those he wishes to propitiate and his ruthless sweating of the worker in all fields when in his power, are all disagreeable personal qualities. There is also, as a concomitant of the nation"s growth in wealth of every sort, and mostly perhaps to be found in the capital a cla.s.s of Jewish parvenu, remarkable for sn.o.bbishness, ostentation, and affectation.
But one must distinguish; and of a large percentage of the educated cla.s.s of Jew in Germany it would be difficult to speak too highly.
Germans may be the "salt of the earth," as the Emperor once told them they were, but Jewish talent can with quite as much, perhaps more, justice be called the salt of German prosperity. And not alone in the region of finance and commerce. Some of the best intellect, most of the leading enterprise in Germany, in all important directions, is Jewish. Many of her ablest newspaper proprietors and editors are Jews.
Many of her finest actors and actresses are Jews and Jewesses. Many of her cleverest lawyers, doctors, and artists are Jews. The career of Herr Albert Ballin, the Jewish director of the Hamburg-Amerika line, the Emperor"s friend, to whom Germany owes a great deal of her mercantile marine expansion, is a long romance ill.u.s.trative of Jewish organizing power and success.
The Emperor"s friendship for Herr Ballin is obviously not entirely disinterested, but the interest at the root of it is an imperial one.
In this spirit he cultivates to-day, as he has done since he took over the Empire, the society of all his subjects, German or Jew, who either by their talents or through their wealth can contribute to the success of the mighty task which occupies his waking thoughts, and for all one knows, his sleeping thoughts--his dreams--as well. Accordingly, the wealthy German is quite aware that if he is to be reckoned among the Emperor"s friends he must be prepared to pay for the privilege, since the Emperor is neither slow nor shy about using his influence in order to make the more fortunate members of the community put their hands deeply into their pockets for national purposes. A little time ago he invited a number of merchant princes and captains of industry, as American papers invariably call wealthy Germans, to a _Bier-abend_ at the palace. When the score or so of guests were seated, he announced that he was collecting subscriptions for some public object--the national airship fund, perhaps--and sent a sheet of paper to Herr Friedlander Fuld, the "coal-king" of Germany, to head the list. Herr Fuld wrote down 5,000, and the paper was taken back to the Emperor.
"Oh, this will never do, lieber Fuld," he exclaimed, on seeing the amount. "At this rate people will be putting down their names for 50.
You must at least double it." And Herr Fuld had to do so. A few weeks afterwards there was another invitation to the palace, and the same sort of scene took place. A little later still Herr Fuld got a third invitation, and as an imperial invitation is equivalent to a command, he had to go. When he arrived he noticed his fellow-industrials looking uneasy, not to say sad. The Emperor noticed it too, for his first words were: "Dear gentlemen, to-night the beer costs nothing."
Throughout the reign Germany has made it her constant policy to cultivate friendly relations with the United States. Chancellor von Bulow, in 1899, apropos of Samoa, said in the Reichstag: "We can confidently say that in no other country has America during the last hundred years found better understanding and more just recognition than in Germany." This is true of the educated cla.s.ses, professional, professorial, and scientific; but the ordinary European German, who does not know and understand America, still displays no particular love for the ordinary American. At the same time he probably prefers him to the people of any other nation. American outspokenness in politics, for example, must be refreshing to minds penned within the limits of the _Rechtstaat_. He sees in them, too, millionaires, or at least people who come from a country where money is so abundant that, as many country-people still think, you have only to stoop to pick it up. When it comes to business, however, he is a little afraid of their somewhat too sanguine enterprise, and is given to suspect that a "bluff" of some sort is behind the simplest business proposition. Much of this, of course, is due to ignorance heightened by yellow journalism, for as a rule only the vastly interesting, but mostly untrue, "stories" regarding Germany printed in the yellow press come back to the Fatherland.
The German, again, is made uneasy by what he thinks the hasty manners of the Americans; he considers them uncivil. So, let it be admitted, they sometimes appear to be to people of other nationalities; but then as a rule Americans who jar on European nerves will be found to hail from places where life, to use the American expression, is "woolly,"
or too strenuous to allow of the delicacies of real refinement. The ordinary idea of the German in Germany, held by the stay-at-home American, is a vague species of dislike, founded on the conviction that the American, not the German, is the salt of the earth; that the German regard for tradition makes them a slow and slowly moving race; and that the Emperor as War Lord--for he is almost solely known to him in that capacity--must be ever desirous of war, in particular wishes to seize a coaling-station or even a country, in South America, and, generally speaking, set at naught the Monroe doctrine. The Governments on both sides, of course, know and understand each other better. In November, 1906, Prince Bulow publicly thanked America for her att.i.tude at Algeciras, implying that it was due to her representative"s conciliatory and reconciliatory conduct that the Conference did not end in a fiasco. "This," said the Chancellor, "was the second great service to the world rendered by America; the other," he added, "being the bringing about of peace between Russia and j.a.pan."
A great deal of the increased intercourse between the two countries is due to the personal endeavours of the Emperor. What his motives are may be conjectured with fair accuracy from a general knowledge of his "up-to-date" character, the commercial policy of his Empire, and the events of recent years. He has a whole-hearted admiration for the American character and genius, so akin in many ways to his own character and genius; and if he refuses to recommend for Germans similar inst.i.tutions to those in States, federated in a manner somewhat a.n.a.logous to that of the kingdoms and States composing his own Empire, it is not from want of liberality of mind, but because they are wholly opposed to Prussian tradition, because his people do not demand them, and because he honestly believes that in respect of topographical situation, climate, historical development, and race feelings and sentiment, the safeguards and requirements of Germany are widely different from those of America.
As a young man he naturally had very little to do with America or Americans, though among his schoolboy playmates was a young American, Poulteney Bigelow, who afterwards wrote an excellent appreciation of the fine traits in the Emperor"s character. At the same time the Emperor himself has stated that the country always interested him, and recent visitors bear out the statement fully. In 1889, a year after his accession, he expressed his admiration for America, when receiving the American Amba.s.sador, Mr. Phelps. "From my youth on," the Emperor said,
"I have had a great admiration for that powerful and progressive commonwealth which you are called on to represent, and the study of its history in peace and war has had for me at all times a special interest. Among the many distinguished characteristics of your people, which draw to them the attention of the whole world, are their enterprising spirit, their love of order, and their talent for invention. The predominant sentiment of both peoples is that of affinity and tested friendship, and the future can only strengthen the heartiness of their relations."
More than twenty years have elapsed since the words were uttered, and the prediction has been fulfilled.
Scores of anecdotes, it need hardly be said, are current in connexion with the Emperor and American friends. One of them is that of an American, Mr. Frank Wyberg, the husband of a lady who, with her children, used often to visit Mr. and Mrs. Armour on their yacht _Uttowana_ at Kiel, there met the Emperor, and was invariably kindly greeted by him. Mr. Wyberg was summoned with his friend, General Miles, to an audience of the Emperor in Berlin. Before going to the palace Mr. Wyberg went to a well-known picture-dealer in the city and bought a small but artistic painting costing about 1,000. He had the picture neatly done up, and carried it off under his arm to the hotel where he was to meet General Miles. As they were leaving for the palace the General asked Mr. Wyberg what he was carrying. "Oh, only a trifle for the Kaiser!" was the reply. The General was horrified, and tried to dissuade his friend from bringing the picture, telling him that the proper procedure was to ask through the Foreign Office or the American Emba.s.sy for the Emperor"s gracious acceptance of it.
Otherwise the Emperor would be annoyed, he would think badly of American manners, and so on. Mr. Wyberg, however, was not to be deterred, and insisted that it would be "all right." While waiting in the reception-room for the Emperor, Mr. Wyberg unwrapped the picture and placed it leaning against the wall on a piano. By and by the Emperor came in, and almost the first thing he said, after shaking hands, was to ask what the presence of the picture meant. Mr. Wyberg explained that it was a mark of grat.i.tude for the kindness the Emperor had shown his wife and children at Kiel. The Emperor smiled, said it was a very kind thought, and willingly accepted the gift. The story has a sequel. A day or two after a Court official called at the hotel, to get from General Miles Mr. Wyberg"s initials, and after another few days had pa.s.sed reappeared with a bulky parcel. On being opened the parcel was found to consist of a large silver loving-cup, with Mr.
Wyberg"s name chased upon it, and underneath the words, "From Wilhelm II."
Another anecdote refers to an American naval attache, a favourite of the Emperor"s. Dinner at the palace was over, and the attache, wishing to keep a memento of the occasion, took his large menu card and concealed it, as he thought, between his waistcoat and his shirt.
Unfortunately, when taking leave of the Emperor, the card slipped down and part of it became visible. The Emperor"s quick eye immediately noticed it. "Hallo! H----," he exclaimed; "look out, your d.i.c.key"s coming down!" The story shows the Emperor"s acquaintance with English slang as well as his geniality.
The Emperor seems to take pleasure in displaying himself to Americans in as republican a light as possible, and when he desires the company of an American friend, stands on no sort of ceremony. The American"s telephone bell may ring at any hour of the day or evening, and a voice is heard--"Here royal palace. His Majesty wishes to ask if the Herr So-and-So will come to the palace this evening for dinner." On one occasion this happened to Professor Burgess. The telephone at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin rang up from Potsdam about six in the afternoon, and there was so little time for the Professor to catch his train that he was forced to finish his dressing _en route_. Or the invitation may be for "a gla.s.s of beer" after dinner, about nine o"clock.
If it is a dinner invitation, the guest, in evening clothes, with his white tie doubtless a trifle more carefully adjusted than usual, drives or walks to the palace. He enters a gate on the south side facing the statue of Frederick the Great, and under the archway finds a doorway with a staircase leading immediately to the royal apartments on the first floor. In an ante-room are other guests, a couple of Ministers, the Rector Magnificus of the university, and perhaps a "Roosevelt" or "exchange" professor; and if the party is not one of men only, such as the Emperor is fond of arranging, and the Empress is expected, the wives also of the invited guests. Without previous notice the Emperor enters, an American lover of slang might almost say "blows in," with quick steps and a bustling air that instantly fills the room with life and energy, and showing a cheery smile of welcome on his face. The guests are standing round in a half or three-quarter circle, and the Emperor goes from one to the other, shaking hands and delivering himself of a sentence or two, either in the form of a question or remark, and then pa.s.sing on. When it is not a bachelors"
party, the Empress comes in later with her ladies. A servant in the royal livery of red and gold, on a signal from the Emperor, throws open a door leading to the dining-room, and the Emperor and Empress enter first. The guests take their places according to the cards on the table. If it is a men"s party of, say, four guests, the Emperor will seat them on his right and left and immediately opposite, with an adjutant or two as makeweights and in case he should want to send for plans or books. On these occasions he is usually in the dark blue uniform of a Prussian infantry general, with an order or two blazing on his breast. He sits very upright, and starts and keeps going the conversation with such skill and verve that soon every one, even the shyest, is drawn into it. There is plenty of argument and divergence of view. If the Emperor is convinced that he is right, he will, as has more than once occurred, jestingly offer to back his opinion with a wager. "I"ll bet you"--he will exclaim, with all the energy of an English schoolboy. He enjoys a joke or witticism immensely, and leans back in his chair as he joins in the hearty peal about him. When cigars or cigarettes are handed round, he will take an occasional puff at one of the three or four cigarettes he allows himself during the evening, or sip at a gla.s.s of orangeade placed before him and filled from time to time. When he feels disposed he rises, and having shaken hands with his guests, now standing about him, retires into his workroom. A few moments later the guests disperse.
Conversation, both in England and Germany, sometimes turns on the question whether or not the Emperor will be known to future generations as William "the Great." It is agreed on all sides that he will not take a place among the mediocrities or sink into oblivion. We have, though only negatively and indirectly, his own view of the matter, if, that is, it may be deduced from the fact that he has more than once tried to attach this _epitheton ornans_ to the memory of his grandfather. At Hamburg in 1891 he desired a statue to the Emperor William I to bear the inscription "William the Great." The cool common sense of the cautious Hamburgers refused to antic.i.p.ate the decision of posterity and placed on the pedestal the simple words "William the First." In deference to the Emperor"s well-known wishes, if not at his request, the Hamburg-Amerika line of steamers christened one of their ocean greyhounds _Wilhelm der Grosse_. The mere fact that people discuss the question in his lifetime is of happy augury for the Emperor. Perhaps some other epithet will be found for him. "Puffing Billy" is one of his t.i.tles among English officers, taken from the name given locally to Stephenson"s first locomotive. But history has many ranks in her peerage and many epithets at her disposal--great, good, fair, lionhearted, silent--_that_ the Emperor will not have--and a host more. Maybe the greatest rulers were those whom history, as though in despair of finding a single term with which to do them justice, has refrained from decorating. Timur, Akbar, Attila, Julius Caesar, Elizabeth, Victoria, Napoleon have no epithets, and need none.
However, it is clear that a verdict on the Emperor"s deserts is premature. Suppose him at the bar of history. The case is still proceeding, the evidence is not complete, counsel have not been heard, and--most obvious defect of any--the jury has not been impanelled.