KAISER WILHELM AS A FIGUREHEAD.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2745, 10 January 1882, Page 3

KAISER WILHELM AS A FIGUREHEAD.

Personally, the Emperor of Germany; is a large-limbed, good-natured, not-too-quick-witted man,' /charming ns a studyj of character;. - He Ms; in ' hirf” Warlike’ aspect, a little more real than our; lamented King G dorge, who had so oflen-'deseribed the- event* that'he died ■ in the unshaken belief that he had led a charge 1 of cavalry .in’the ./Battle of; Waterloo. .The-, Eiqparqr William,, bps •actually' hear I'.the , distant artillery, and-fias-looked upon the smoke l of battle when tbe firing had ceased.! ; We ,alV>jemember,,.tfie v great; VtUack he; 'J»d o£ tiding; pp ip the,.grepb battle : .fields of 1870 jaHt,nß,all..waß*oi?er, and, fdating, from amidst the.slain;.blood.Ted: 1 telegrams to bis “ dear Augusta;”, prais-ing-'God for'this’ new victory.’ I 'don’t mean to say that he would riot have ioi'hed in the, fray bad need been'or etiquette permitted. 'Ho' ’comps of . a 'soldier,' family,;'.and hie ' sons showed,, duringihe same campaign, the stuff,of i iyhich. tl>e . old free, ; was .made. ;-But fhere.heing no need, for him tq draw his ■;«word, he was kept out of thenrnnge of bullets, and his movements .carefully; timed, so that he might come im with :• ■theflourish of trumpets * that announced a frpsh and heavier defeat for the French.' 5 In war Von-Mbltke'did the fighting and the Emperor "wrote the telegrams from the battlefield., Similarly in politics Bismarck plpts and Schemes, and often wins, and when all in ready, the old Emperor is trotted out at “ inter--riCws ” which take place in the face of the; world, and whereat the-harmless old gentleman , ponderously •• plays liie - f puppet , part, and thinks ho is moving the world. The real EmEeror of .Germany is the heavy looking urly man, who, not so many years; ago, in despair of his future, declared that heaven had intended him to be a farmer,- attd that when ho left his country home to dabble in politics,; ho was flying in the face of Providence. - Bismarck has.a profound and unfeigned reverence.for his Imperial Master, as is frequently shown in the volume of his “ Early Letters,” , which, >ith characteristic and amazing frankness, he half a dozen years ago permitted the world toread. But he plays with him with the skill and coolness that a marionette is handled by its proprietor., ' Probably the last man in the world to "suspect the autocracy of Bismarck is the

Emperor WilHam.vYet' everyone else knows that in Germany the Emperor reigns and Bismarck governs.- —Cardiff “ Times.’’