He will use every possible expedient of trickery and guile, and, even
more confident than his teacher Bismarck in the eternal gullibility of
human nature, he will exploit it for all it is worth.

Take this example of our gullibility, as displayed in the question of
passports for Alsace-Lorraine. A section of the European Press, well
primed for the purpose (the Guelph funds not having been restored, so
far as we know, to their proper owner), continues unceasingly to
implore William II to consent to a relaxation of the regulations in
regard to these passports. The idea is, that when our credulous fools
come to learn that this relaxation has been granted, there will be
absolutely no limit to their enthusiasm for him. Already they speak of
him good-naturedly as "this young Emperor."

(Is it not so, that, every day, old friends whose rugged patriotism we
thought unshakable, meet us with the inquiry, "Well, and what have you
got to say now of this young Emperor?")

This young Emperor piles falsehood upon falsehood. If he permits any
relaxation of the passport regulations, you may be perfectly certain
that he will give orders that the _permis de séjour_ are to be more
severely restricted than before. Once a passport is issued, it is of
some value; but the _permis de séjour_ is a weapon in the hands of the
lower ranks of German officialdom, which they use with Pomeranian
cruelty. Every German bureaucrat in Alsace-Lorraine aims at preventing
Frenchmen from residing there, at getting them out of the country; and
nothing earns them greater favour in the eyes of their chiefs.
Therefore, if this "young Emperor" is to be asked to grant anything,
let it be a relaxation of the _permis de séjour_.