AN INTERESTING EXTRACT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8344, 29 January 1907, Page 3

AN INTERESTING EXTRACT.

In "The Memoiraof Prince Hohenlohe" there is an entry which by a strange coincidence bears upon the constitutional crisis of to-day, says ."Mr Lucy. Under date Berlin, November 2nd, 1884, the Prince writes in his journal: —"The Emperor spoke about England and lamented the Radical tendencies of the Government and Chamberlain's intention of carrying the Reform Bill by creating a number of peer 3. That disquiets him, ;and he is afraid that the Republican movement may gain the upper hand in England. What would be the outcome? I We shall have trouble in retaining our position,' said the Em- « peror. It is consequently necessary that at any rate the three Imperial Powers should unite to maintain the monarchical princple." That is to say, the people must be kept "on the knee." The Reform Bill alluded to is, •of course, the Franchise Bill of 1884. It is interesting to find that • even at that early period Mr Chamberlain was a bugbear to Continental Powers. What is amazing is the ignorance displayed by the German Emperor and his Ambassador in Paris as to the situation in England. At the period of this conversation Mr Chamberlain was President of the Board of Trade, and had not yet reached the personal pre-eminence marked by promulgation of the Unauthorised Programme in 1885. The idea that of his own free will he should be able to make peers sufficient in abundance to overcome the Opposition in the hereditary Chamber is striking testimony to the impression he had at this fearly date ■created abroad.,