pacifism--His journey to Russia--The German Press invites us to forget
our defeat and become reconciled while Germany is adding to her army
every day.


April 12, 1890. [1]

What an all-pervading nuisance is William!

To think of the burden that this one man has imposed upon the
intelligence of humanity and the world's Press! The machiavelism of
Bismarck was bad enough, with its constant demands on our vigilance,
but this new omniscient German Emperor is worse; he reminds one of some
infant prodigy, the pride of the family. Yet his ways are anything but
kingly; they resemble rather those of a shopkeeper. He literally fills
the earth with his circulars on the art of government, spreads before
us the wealth of his intentions, and puffs his own magnanimity. He
struggles to get the widest possible market for his ideas: 'tis a petty
dealer in imperial sovereignty.

There is nothing fresh about his wares, but he does his best to
persuade us that they are new; one feels instinctively that some day he
will throw the whole lot at our heads. I am quite prepared to admit
that, if he had any rare or really superior goods to offer, his
advertising methods might be profitable, but William's stock-in-trade
has for many years been imported, and exported under two labels, namely
the principles of '89 and Christian Socialism.

The German Emperor has mixed the two, after the manner of a
prentice-hand. His organ, the _Cologne Gazette_, with all the honeyed