then Chancellor, in an attempt at self irony, referred to the incident as an °extra tour? Twice before since 1871, still under the Bismarckian era, war with France had been near, in 1875 and in 1887 (during the Boulanger obsession), but had been averted by the con summate statesmanship of the old Chancellor. With the Kaiser, being in fact his own Chancel lor, things could not run so smoothly. Largely this was owing_ to the peculiar mental and moral makeup of William II. A firm believer in the divine origin of his office, as confessed by one of his most noted utterances, wherein he declared tliat he owed his °awful respon sibility, toward the Creator alone, wherefrom no man, no minister, no parliament, no people can relieve the sovereign," he harbored most exalted notions of his own importance. He lacked entirely the deep human humility of his grandfather, although in many things he took the latter for a model. No ruler during his torical times has been so profuse and varied a public orator, nor one so careless in shocking enlightened public opinion. Volumes of his speeches have from time to time, ex hibiung him in a curiously kaleidoscopic as pect. Many of his remarks sound almost maniacal in their frenzy. Many have been frequently quoted, as his farewell remarks to the detachment of German troops for the seat of the Boxer rebellion in China, where he com pared himself to Attila, the Hun, characterized the Chinese as "cowardly curs," and enjoined ,his men to °spare nobody, make no prisoners)); the injunction to a body of recruits in Berlin to `shoot down, if need Iv their own mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, in order to fulfil their flag oath," and many more. There is a never-ending recurrence in his speeches to the fact that his own throne was founded in bloodshed and maintained by the bayonets of his faithful army," a constantly reiterated as sertion that his °trust is in his army." His apologists in their commentaries advance vari ous explanations. Probably, however, physical reasons, bodily ailments have something to do with it all.
The "zigzag course," as Bismarck called it, pursued by the Kaiser was, of course, reflected in his choice of Chancellors after the real founder of the empire had been dismissed in disgrace. Caprivi's term was short; a thorough disbeliever in the colonizing venture, his views did not harmonize at any time with those of his master, but he obeyed the latter as his "chief commander," without questioning • his orders. Prince Clovis Hohentohe, the scion of a famous and ancient house, members of which had been leaders when the Hohenzollerns were still in obscurity, was a man of different type— used to the democratic ways of the South Ger mans, a kindly grandseigneur of the old school, easy-going, to be coaxed rather than bidden. When, however, the Kaiser over the head of the old gentleman had plunged into the Kiaochou adventure and almost precipitated war, Hohen lohe got out from under and made way to an other man from the north, to Prince Billow, courtly, of artistic leanings, a clever, pliable diplomat, not a states-ian. He in turn met his fall by, for once, siding with the liberal Left in the Reichstag in favor of a more equable distribution of taxes in a pending bill, one making the Agrarians (and Younkers) bear a juster share of the burdens. Billow was fol
lowed by Ernst von Bethmann-Hollweg, a well meaning mediocrity whose will to arrive at a better understanding with Great Britain was good, but who shrank from the only means to arrive at that result.
When, in 1908, Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina, and when Russia and Serbia made warlike preparations, the Germany of those days identified herself with her neigh bor and ally and unready Russia backed down. In 1910 the problem of a fairer and more liberal electoral system for Prussia played the greatest part, and the Prussian Diet (with the co-operation of the cabinet) succeeded in de feating the proposed reform. The three-class electoral system, characterized by Bismarck himself as "the worst in the world" and by means of which 85 per cent of the voting population choose but one-third of the member ship of the Landtag (Chamber of Deputies), was retained, despite repeated pledges of the Kaiser, as king of Prussia, to abolish the in iquitous system. In the following year. Ger many and Russia amicably agreed as to the Near East, especially Persia and Mesopotamia, Germany being allowed to continue her Bagdad Railway and to exploit that section commer cially. During the same year another embroil ment with France and England arose over Morocco. It was settled with a good deal of difficulty by France yielding up to Germany 112,000 square miles of French Kongo, in ex change for sanctioning France's protectorate over Morocco. In 1912 another memorable Reichstag election took place. The 'Blue Black Bloc" (i.e., the Junkers and the Centre party) were facing the Socialists and Liberals at the polls. The central government inter fered, declaring against the latter and dubbing them enemies of the Crown. Nevertheless, the Socialists increased their number in the Reichstag by a score, to 110 seats, and their popular vote to 4,238,000. Despite this the illiberal elements in the national Parliament remained in control. They sanctioned, on the pretext of the threatening attitude of the Triple Entente, immense war preparations and a rousing special tax. The Zabern affair of 1913, originally due to trifling causes but clearly showing the preponderating influence of tin checked militarism, created a great sensation, both in and out of Germany. Throughout this whole period of 1871-1914, the country unmis takably exhibited an inner rift, occasioned by the fact that the wonderful economic progress of the nation was not accompanied by a similar political progress. The Reichstag membership was still based on the old population census of 1870, taking no account of the enormous growth of the urban population, with its over whelming Socialist makeup, so that the out worn rural predominance of the Younker class was still retained. In the Prussian Diet (and, in a minor degree, in the other states of Ger many) the misrepresentation was far worse. Practically, the ancient system amounted to a partial disfranchisement of the most progres sive and best portions of the nation. The large cities, it is true, nearly all sent Socialist dele gates to the Reichstag, where, however, they found themselves impotent to effect serious political reforms because of the greater num ber of the Younker element and its allies whose election was rendered feasible under the mis representative old census.