e interests of his dynasty, they
are contradicted not only by many other utterances, but, what is more
serious, they are contradicted by his personal methods, and, above
all, by the whole trend of his general policy.

Very few observers have pointed out one special reason why the
personal methods of the Kaiser will prove in the end dangerous to
peace--namely, that they have tended to paralyze or destroy the
methods of diplomacy.

Little as we may like the personnel of legations and embassies,
strongly as we disapprove of the methods by which they are recruited,
urgent as is the reform of the Foreign Office, it remains no less true
that the function of diplomacy is more vital to-day than it ever was
in the past. For it is of the very purpose and _raison d'etre_ of
diplomacy to be conciliatory and pacific. Its object is to achieve by
persuasion and negotiation what otherwise must be left to the
arbitrament of war. It is a commonplace on the part of Radicals to
protest against the practices of occult diplomacy. In so far as that
protest is directed against the spirit which animates the members of
the diplomatic service, it is fully justified. But in so far as it is
directed against the principle of secret negotiation, the protest is
absurd. For it is of the very essence of diplomacy that it shall be
secret, that it shall be left to experts, that it shall be removed
from the heated atmosphere of popular assemblies, and that it shall
substitute an appeal to intellect and reason for the appeal to popular
emotion and popular prejudice.

For that reason it is deeply to be regretted that the personal
interferences of the Kaiser have taken German diplomacy out of the
hands of negotiators professionally interested in a peaceful solution
of international difficulties, and have indirectly brought diplomacy
under the influence of the German 'patriot' and the jingo. An
Ambassador need not depend on outside approval; his work is done in
quiet and solitude. The Kaiser, on the contrary, conducts his foreign
policy in the glaring limelight of publicity; and whenever he has been
criticized by experts, his vanity has only too often been tempted to
appeal to popular passion and to gain popular applause. For that
reason, and entirely apart from his indiscretions, the bare fact that
the Kaiser has become his own Foreign Secretary has lessened the
chances of peace.

Nor has the whole trend of his domestic policy been less injurious to
the