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a last attempt to check the Kaiser's shipbuilding policy. "There is an idea in our naval circles," said he, "that once we have taken some decided step towards the further construction of our fleet, England will submit to the inevitable, and we shall become the best friends in the world. . . . It is a disastrous mistake. . . . Fear will have quite different fruits. It will set England in arms against us." The Kaiser flouted Metternich, who was obviously in the right of it, and who possessed a knowledge of England whereof the Kaiser's tortured brain was incapable. better tone towards Germany will only be obtained by a larger fleet," the Emperor wrote in 1911, "which will bring the British to their senses through sheer fright." It was presently proved how rash and foolish the Kaiser was to depend upon the " sheer fright" of the English. Meanwhile Metternich followed resolutely what he thought the way of duty, and he was knocked over the knuckles for his pains. "The poor man is past praying for! His parrotcry is, 'Don't arm at home, and then England will go on being in a good temper.' Thus said the Kaiser, and, speaking thus, failed to move Metternich from his purpose. "I am conscious," he wrote to his Emperor, "that my attitude does not meet with support from your Majesty. But I should depart from the truth if I reported otherwise, and I cannot barter my con

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viction even for my sovereign's favour. Moreover, I doubt if your Majesty would be better served by smooth and optimistic communications persisted in until we suddenly found ourselves facing a war with England." There was an end of the matter, and Metternich fell, a victim to Tirpitz, because he had done his duty.

Herr Ludwig's sketch of the Kaiser, made from documents which could only have been published after the defeat and flight of William II., serves no purpose but the truth, save in one point. The author, who for the most part refrains from propaganda, cannot forbear to argue, from from the documents cited, that the Kaiser was not responsible for the war which broke out in 1914. His own book provides him with the clearest confutation. It makes no difference to the Kaiser's guilt that he drew back in fear at the last moment from the consequences of his own folly. He never once in his miserable career had the courage of his big words. Noisy in speech, he was always, as we have said, timid in action. None the less he was the only begetter of the world war. He assumed the pose of Attila, he began to rattle his sabre as soon as he ascended his throne. He took upon himself the pose of a universal arbiter. It was his job-in words at least-to govern the whole of Europe. His sword was always sharp, his armour was always shining, when he displayed them on

the hustings. Wherever there was a dispute, he claimed the right to settle it, and he complained more than once that news which had nothing to do with him was kept from him. He wished to have a finger in every pie, and was never so happy as when he was embroiling other Powers. He thought it well to send his telegram to Kruger, to advise Edward VII. about the conduct of the Boer War-he declared that his uncle's best policy was to own himself beaten, to publish the monstrous interview in 'The Daily Telegraph.' Three times was an alliance with England, which would have made war impossible, offered him, and thrice he rejected it with scorn and contumely. Did not these follies contribute to or make certain the war, which, when it came, filled him with terror? And if Herr Ludwig cannot see in his whole career a settled purpose to dominate Europe by his arms, then the lesson of his own book is lost upon him. A king may not plead "not guilty" on the ground that he was not equal to the trust reposed in him, and though the Kaiser was supported in his reckless adventures by the flattery of a thousand sycophants, once or twice during the thirty years of his ill-omened reign he listened to the truth. Eulenberg, if we may believe his own account, warned the Kaiser in 1899 that if he were still "incautious," abdication or a royal commission might be forced upon him.

And when the Kaiser, looking grave, asked upon what he based his warning, Eulenberg found as discreet an answer as was possible. "Cardinal Hohenlohe," said he, "whom your Majesty revered, said very earnestly to me immediately before his death, 'I know you are absolutely devoted to the Emperor, and, moreover, in a position to give him really outspoken advice. Tell him to be very careful! I know for a positive fact that the idea of declaring him to be irresponsible for his actions has been widely discussed, that very many persons, among them highly placed ones, would be willing to support such a proceeding. You must warn the Emperor.' For some time the Kaiser took the Cardinal's warning seriously, but in a day or two his mood changed, he forgot the danger that hung over his head, and was as reckless in his speech as ever.

And if Herr Ludwig, or any other, is in doubt concerning the Kaiser's responsibility for the war, let him remember the spirit in which William II. heard and commented upon the news of the Archduke's murder. At the beginning of July 1914 he wrote in the margin of a German document, now or never!" When the German Ambassador in Vienna advised, decidedly and earnestly, against any rash steps, the Kaiser broke out out furiously, "Who gave him any such tions? It is idiotic! nothing to do with it.

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on, if it comes to blows, they'll be saying that Germany wasn't inclined! Tschirschky, if you please, is to have done with that nonsense! The Serbs must be silenced, and at once! " When all about him were counselling prudence, he was shrieking at the top of his voice. Count Tisza counselled moderation, and the Kaiser commented: "Towards murderers, after what has come to pass? Imbecility!" And underneath he wrote: in the time of the Silesian War, 'I am opposed to councils of war and deliberations, since in these the chicken-hearted party always has the upper hand' (Frederick the Great)." Did he foresee, we wonder, how long it would be before he himself joined the chicken-hearted?

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Thus with his intemperate language he hastened on the coming of war; he declined to have anything to do with conferences or discussions. And then, when war came as the natural consequence of his vanity and ignorance, he did what he might, too late, to put it off. The petulant civilian awoke in his breast, which he wanted the world to believe was martial always. He assigned all the blame for the conflict to Edward VII. and England. "The dead Edward," he cried, "is stronger than the living I!" But even if he fell, he would drag down with him

his enemies, the English. "Our consuls in Turkey and India, our agents, and all such, must inflame the whole Mohammedan world to frantic rebellion against this detestable, treacherous, conscienceless nation of shopkeepers; for if we are to bleed to death, England shall at all events lose India ! " If only words could have killed !

And the war came, and William II. was asked to play a part of which he had always boasted, and which he could not sustain. He was afraid to make a decision or to take responsibility. No ill news ever came to him, and he remained, throughout the war, an amateur, whom nobody trusted and nobody obeyed. Rarely has so terrible a Nemesis fallen upon a man. Yet he felt it not.

He still talked with a loud voice, and pretended to set a high value on himself, and then on 9th November 1918 he stepped into his motorcar, unmourned and unregretted, and disappeared into the leisured ease of a neutral country. Had he been a real king he could not have survived the humiliation. But no change of heart has ever overtaken him, and he is content to babble in the press of his exemplary youth, and to ask the sympathy of the English, whom he has hated unto madness.

INDEX TO VOL. CCXX.

A. W. B.: THE HAWAIIAN LAVA FLOW FEUD, THE STOCKHOLD, 654.

OF APRIL 1926, 248.

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:

CADI A VAZIR OF THE PIR, 799.
CAILLOUX, POUSSE: MOVABLE COLUMNS,
397.

CHART-MAKERS, THE, 814.

CHINESE PORTRAITS, MODERN: XIII.
THE DIPLOMAT, 145-XIV. THE MAN
OF AFFAIRS, 152.
COLUMNS, MOVABLE, 397.
Communist Papers (a Blue Book), the,
278-its reception by the Labour
Party, 279-Al. Carthill's 'False
Dawn' quoted, 282-"Defeatism,"
283 et seq.

CONFLICT OF RISK, A, 210.
COPPLESTONE, BENNET: TALES OF S.O. S.

AND T.T. T.-V. RED OR GREEN, 86-
VI. A CONFLICT OF RISK, 210-VII.
GOLD FROM SEA-WATER, 315.
CUMMINS, A. G.: THE MYSTERY OF A
FINGER, 1.

CUXHAVEN RAID, THв, 107.

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FROM THE OUTPOSTS :-

MALWAL, 561.

THE APPEAL, 98.

WHO OR WHAT TOLD THE DOCTOR?
102.

FUNDI :-

BUSH GIPSIES: II. THE UNCROWNED
KING, 233-III. THE PARrtners,
370-IV. THE TWISTER, 532-V.
THE DEFAULTER, 782.
STRIKE-BREAKING ON A "GENERAL,"

72.

FUTURE OF BRITISH INDUSTRY, THE,
578.

General Strike, lessons of the, 132
et seq.

GOLD FROM SEA-WATER, 315.
GORDON,

JAN: "DOWN CHARGE,
TARRYBEAM!" 191.

GORST, HAROLD E.: THE SECRET OF
DEATH, 342.

GRAHAM, HELEN: THE BLACK SHEEP'S
HOME-COMING, 158.

GREATER THAN NAPOLEON, A, 433.
GREEN, Rev. C. E.: THINGS SELDOM
SEEN AND FACTS DISPUTED, 124.
GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, 549.
GUNDI SESE, 327.
GUNGA DIN, 499.

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JIGGITTS, LOUIS M., Attorney at Law:
WITHOUT BENEFIT OF LAW, 204.
JOB OF WORK, A, 717.

JORDAN, HUMFREY: A JOB OF WORK,
717.

Kaiser William II., 852.

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KING, LOUIS MAGRATH : MODERN
CHINESE PORTRAITS XIII. THE
DIPLOMAT, 145-XIV. THE MAN OF
AFFAIRS, 152.

LAW, WITHOUT BENEFIT OF, 204.

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