KING WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 63, 15 March 1871, Page 3

KING WILLIAM OF PRUSSIA.

0 (From the London Times, Dec. 23. If ever there was a man who won his to au Imperial Throne, King William stands without a rival ; for he has conquered his own subjects and the Crowu he is entreated to assume has not beeu torn from tlie brow of another. At the request of the German people aud of their Princes, he takes up what hail been cast aside, and, radiant with new victories, , he places it on his head. Well may he say, " Lefc liim beware who touches it." Bv what means has King William got into tliis heart of France, so thafc the supplicants of the Reichstag had to travel three days as they came into his presenep, and how has he earned his Crown ? By his own single unassisted purpose, and by the exercise of his own indomitable will. For, whatever may have been written and thought by thinkers and statesmen, it is to the Prussian army, arid to it alone, German unification is due. That army is tiie creation one may say of the King, and of the Kiug alone. The constitution,of the force, its organisation, its movements, were devised and directed by others. Its existenco is due to him. For four years he stood face to face with his people They yearned for one object. But they would not, or did not, see how and how only it could be attained. The king saw it clearly. There was one way, Jsvbich. philauthrophists might contemn, statemen dread, aud philosophers despise, but to his eyes ifc was the sole way of giving to Germany that complete mastery and that absolute independence of all foreign interference and dictation which would enable her to become the great ceutral Power of Europe. It was force — brute force, if you will, expressed by an army complete in all its parts, to be supplied by>' a nation, every man of which was trained to ui;.i_. When others quailed — eveu the great Chancellor, it is said, hesitated at times — the King was resolute aad inflexible. . He said : — '"'I am not a man of science or a diplomatist; I know little or nothing of philosophy. But one thing I understand thoroughly, and that is the army, aDd I am determined to have aa army which can be depended upou to work out the unity of Germany according to the ouiy method I can comprehend and think feasible. IfVthe Parliament oppose me I will force th_jn to submit to my will for their own good. Let them speak and vote as they please, I will act. Let ' wrttters scold aud orators inveigh, I will pe/severe." And so he did. For four years, from 1 86 1 to 1865, the King overcame opposition by the simple exercise of the Royal prerogative, or by the might of the Royal wiil depending for its full exercise on the use of the machinery he had in his grasp. And now he is in the heart of France, aud sees the last enemy of German unity, if not at his feet, powerless to prevent his work. First he conquered his own people. Next he smote the rival Power of Austria, accepting the rash challenge of his soleremaining foe, he rushed upon him with resistless force, and a captive emperor and an army of 300,000 men in bondage attest the strength of the weapon he prepared aud put into the hands of his Generals. Without King William there would be no Emperor William. Without King William Count Bismarck must have u toiled in vain, aud Von Roon aud Moltke aud all these famous leaders have organised and planned and drawn their swords to no purpose. For remainder of news see fourth page.

The painter wasn't very far out when he made a village chemist's sign read: — * "Physiciau's 'prescriptions carefully confounded." *'