To make the thing complete (and it
may well be that the idea is germinating in his mind) it would only
require him to visit the fortifications on the Meuse. The _Berliner
Tageblatt_ in a long article informs us that the Emperor declares them to
be _perfect_. 'Tis a good word. . . .
When the Imperial traveller shall have exhausted all pretexts for rushing
about on this Continent, he will go to Africa. There is a _but_ about
this; it arises from the question whether he will be able to obtain from
his Ministers that they should ask the Reichstag or the Landtag for the
800,000 francs that he needs for the voyage, the Constitution forbidding
the King of Prussia to leave Europe. But what does the Constitution
matter to William II? He, the master, will put an end to it!
August 1, 1891. [10]
What are the qualities which have distinguished the Government of Germany
since the victories of Moltke? The patient tenacity of William I, and a
continuous policy of trickery raised by Bismarck to the level of genius.
William II is a mind diseased, infatuated with itself. His actions are
dominated by pride, and all the most childish off-shoots of that
weakness, love of noise, of attitudes, of pomps and vanities and
jewellery; his mind is a thing of somersaults, and his will is subject to
capricious whims and sudden outbursts of temper.
August 11, 1891. [11]
May we not flatter ourselves that the torments of William II are now
beginning? He, who only yesterday proclaimed himself to be the
triumphant personification of the German Empire, is now compelled to
inaction as the result of a fall.
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