.

The Court held that the judgment of the Lower Court must be
sustained, since the German Imperial Laws have precedence over
any treaties engaged in by the Grand Duchy of Baden and the
United States and "that the fact that the defendant had become a
citizen of the United States does not exempt him from prosecution
in the German Imperial Courts."

In another case a newspaper editor criticised a speech delivered
by the Kaiser before the Reichstag on December 6th, 1898. The
defendant did not refer to the person of the emperor himself, but
simply attacked and ridiculed the propositions and proposals made
by His Imperial Majesty. The defence pointed out that the
Kaiser's speech was not an act of the Kaiser's own personal will,
but only an act of government for which the Imperial Chancellor
should be responsible, and that the defendant was not conscious
of the fact that the criticism contained in his article could be
an insult to the person of the Kaiser.

It was held, however, by the Court that a criticism of the
Kaiser's speech at the opening of the Reichstag is _always_ to be
regarded as a criticism of the Kaiser's person, and that the plea
that the Imperial Chancellor should be responsible for acts of
government of this sort is not sustained.

In other words it is, in Germany, a crime to criticise or
ridicule any proposition uttered by the sacred lips of the
Kaiser.

If the Kaiser announces that two and two make five, jail awaits
the subject who dares to ridicule that novel arithmetical
proposition.

It is because of these convictions for lese-majeste that the
Berliners, when discussing the Emperor at their favourite table
or "Stammtisch" in the beer halls and cafes, always refer to him
as "Lehmann."

CHAPTER V

WHEN THE KAISER THOUGHT WE WERE BLUFFING

_An Unpublished Diary_

Kaiserdom is an institution with which the American people are
really unacquainted--a complex institution the parallel of which
does not exist elsewhere. How it sought to play double with the
United States is in a general way familiar to Americans, but I
think the record of what happened in the eighteen months
preceding our break with Germany will illustrate exactly the
currents and cross-currents of official opinion which led the
United States to be scrupulously cautious in its course before
entering the war. As I talked with the Emperor or the Chancellor
or the Foreign Minister, I jotted down from time to time notes of
t