THE LATE GERMAN EMPEROR. A SKETCH OF HIS CAREER.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 248, 21 March 1888, Page 9

THE LATE GERMAN EMPEROR. A SKETCH OF HIS CAREER.

Kaiser Wiuiewi, the first ruler of the new German Empire, will occupy in thehistorica] records of the present century a foremost place amongst the great personages who jjave influenced the course of political and military life in Europe. He was one of *hose men who without possessing any remarkable tatants find themselves by the force of birth and circumstances called upon to play important parts in the affairs of their country, and upon whom after the lapse of centuries people look back as great benefactors to their own country and to the international life of Europe. Possessed of a clear understanding, a firm and determined will, a spirit of consistency, self sacrifice, and conscientious uprightness, he was a prince pre-eminently qualified to make his country united and strong, and to enable it to take its proper place amongst the commonwealth of nations. The Emperor was above all things a soldier, and as a soldier the type of a Prussian officer. To Englishmen he was long known as the soldier king, and with the warlike character of their race they always have had a profound respect for the martial veteran who ruled the German states with the hand of firmness and justice. With his army he was always popular. His spirit and example seemed to quicken the leaders of the army, and from them were infused into the very lowest of the ranks. It can scarcely be said of him that he was a great strategist like Yon Moltke. But the army which triumphed at Sadowa and Sedan was of his creation. He organised the great- military machine which has made the name of Prussia respected and feared by the other military powers of Europe. He selected and supported by his correct judgment the men who had to work and manage that powerful military organisation, and up to the present day it has remained the object alike of his conscientious study and attention as of his patriotism and pride. Though essentially a man of warlike valour and deeds, he showed himself when the object of these deeds was accomplished the most pacific monarch the nineteenth century has witnessed. His conquering career was not entered upon for greed or sheer lust of conquest. He won for his Fatherland simply her security against her envious and ill-disposed neigh- j bours, he fortified his country by the establishment of good and permanent frontiers, and though Englishmen may view with a natural feeling of dislike the system of military extension over the whole populace which he introduced, there can be little doubt that it was dictated by a sense of equity and by political prudence and fore thought. Conscription, to English ideas, is a curse; in Germany and other continental nations, it is a political necessity which the exigencies of international relationship demand. - The Emperor William received his first impressions of life at a time which was naturally calculated to rouse the fiery impulses of youth, and develop the patriotism i of his feelings and the earnestness and determination of his character. His youth i

was passed in the era of his country's deepest humiliation, commencing with the unlucky day when, at Jena, tho great Napoleon crushed tho Prussian States under hie feet. Tho young Prince was deeply impressed with tho troubles and humiliations his country had to endure during this trying period, and ho saw at j this early age that his duty lay in retrieving tho disaster, and making a recurrence of similar mis- fortunes impossible. His mother, Queen Louise, the royal martyr, who died at tho time of a broken heart, materially aided him in this view of his duty, and in 1870 he obtained ample letribucion for tho cruel treatment to which sho was subjected ■by Napoleon. The martial and patriotic spirit of the great Frederic did indeed de- J scend upon tho Princo Willuun. The woids of exhortation to deliver the country from its debasement and shame, addressed to his brother and himself by the Queen in 1806, after the battle of Jena, sank like seed in a lich soil. His growth and maturity were completed by tho military education which, like all Prussian princes, lie enjoyed. When not ten years old he was appointed an ollieer by his father, and six ycais later ho served with distinguished honour by his father's s-idc in the two campaigns in the war of liberation from the Fiench. After the war he resumed his studies, during which he laid down for his own guidance those high principles of patriotism for his country and of hearty goodwill towards his and all men which always characterised his conduct. In 1818, having carefully prepared himself for the post, he leceivecl a seat and \oioe in the Council of State, but for a long time the military rather than the civil service claimed his attention. When a youth, he | was of delicate frame, but on reaching manhood he had a vigorous and stalwatt build, and his was regarded as tho noblest and most imposing figure in the Empire. In 1828 he married a princess of Saxe Weimar, long afterwards to be known as the Empress Augusta of Germany. 1 In 1840, the Prince became governor of Pomerania, whilst (us brotherhad succeeded to the throne of Germany, and his influence proved to be \ery beneficial towards framing the somewhat weak mind of his kingly ro lative towards granting the people of Germany the constitutional rights and privileges for which, in those troublesome times, they clamoured. He \ras known in political life as a moderate Liberal, abhorring the autocracy of the Absolutists alike with the excesses of the revolutionists; and in him the hopes of German patriots were centred. His brother, King Frederic William, being taken ill, and having no issue, the late Kaiser was appointed Regent, and on November 6th, 1858, he made "known his political ends and aims in a rescript, in which he foreshadowed what may be titly termed the guiding rules of his future State caieer. He would, he said, apply a reforming hand wherever the arbitrary or inadequate showed itself. As to the army, it must be strong, and able to command respect ; and tho world must learn that Prussia was ever ready to protect the right. His proposal to increase the efficiency of the army met with some discontent amongst the extreme Radicals, and they regarded him as the enemy of freedom. Actuated by this motive a student named Becker attempted the assassination of the Kaiser soon after he ascended the throne vacated by his brother'B death, but happily the bullet meant to cut short his career only wounded him slightly. This attempt was made on tho promenade afc BadenBaden, on July 14th, 1861. The policy of enlarging and reorganising the army, with other measures which the King and Bismarck, his head Minister, contemplated, arouse! a bitter conflict in the Diet for three or four sessions, which was only ended by the sceptics being shown by the battle fields of 1866 why the army had been reorganised, and of what it was capable. He entered into the short but memorable war with Austria in order to bring about a reconstruction of the empire which was absolutely necessary but could not be effected by pacific measures. His army, remodelled as it was in spite of the opposition of the Diet, was everywhere victorious, and in seven days the greatest revolution which Germany has ever seen was entirely accomplished. He used his victory with moderation, and the fruit was the much-desired union of the German States. The issue of the war was not pleasurably viewed by the Emperor Napoleon of France. He regarded with uneasiness and jealously the growing power of Germany, and as early as 1869 he began to prepare for war. The election of a Hohenzollern as King of Spain furnished him with a pretext. Although King William showed himself conciliatory in the affair, and responded to the wishes of Finance as far as was consistent with his honour, the latter grew more and more exacting, and at length presented grossly humiliating and impossible demands. By Bismarck's advice they were refused, and the Emperor of the French declared war on the King. He at once set all Germany in arms against him. From the Baltic Sea to the Bavarian Alps the suddenly reunited nation roused itself. Its armies hastened to the frontier. The King followed to take the chief command against the hereditary foe. Battle after battle was fought and won, by the Germans, and at Sedan the Emperor, hitherto the all powerful dictator of Europe, laid his sword as a prisoner at the feefc of the King. Paris also fell after a brave defence, and at Versailles tho new German Empire wae founded. It was the greatest and grandest time that Germany had seen for centuries, and the joy over their victory in a righteous war resounded through the whole broad land. On Tune 16th, 1871, the new Kaiser had a triumphal entry into Berlin. Having begun his career as an enlarger of the empire, he declared ho would continue it as a guardian of the peace. And he has since kept his word. His first great move to this end was the formation in 1872 of the famous Triple Alliance, by which Germany, Austria, and Russia were united in the bonds of friendship. This was disturbed by the Berlin Congress after the RuseoTurkish war, so far as the relations of Germany and Russia were concerned ; but a j firm alliance between Germany and Austria i prevented the dissatisfaction of Russia at her demands being modified by Germany doing anything more tkan harmlessly smoulder, and the more recent triple alliance between Germany, Austria, and Italy, was intended to render peace more secure. Of late yeai'S there have been political agitations in Germany on social subjects, principally on ecclesiastical questions. The protectionist policy of the Government, and the Socialists' movement, but in all the Kaiser pursued a policy in I accordance with those patriotic principles which at the outset of his career he laid down for his guidance, and which at all ' times ho has steadily followed.

An oyster will live to the age of 26 years— that is, in the sea he will. In the restaurant the chances are^ decidedly against him. Spmefcimes he lives a long time in the restaurant— oh, a very long bime ? But he does not live nearly so long as he lasts. In Singapore, if a lover can catch his adored in a canoe race, hfc can marry her. Hence the expression " canoebial bliss."