d
government.

"He gives you confidence," a diplomatist who had had many official
audiences with him said to me one day, and that exactly describes the
effect he produces. He talked freely of all things before the public
mind just then--of the approaching Coronation of King George, for whom
he expressed a more than cousinly regard and respect; of domestic duties
and family life as the ideals which shape the destinies of races; of
the Russian Church, particularly asking if its dignitaries had welcomed
me; of our English Church; of travelling; of my own impressions of
Russia and other things. It was quite astonishing afterwards to recall
the ground we had covered in that interview. And before I left he
inquired:--

"When will you be coming to Russia again, bishop?"

"Next year, sir," I said; "for I believe I am to go to Siberia."

"Siberia! How interesting! I've never yet been to Siberia. Then you'll
come and tell us all about it when you return, won't you?"

"I shall be much honoured, sir." And praying God's blessing upon himself
and the imperial family, for which he thanked me as simply and modestly
as any other layman would have done, I withdrew, feeling that it had
been one of the most helpful and memorable interviews I had ever had.

I have been often asked if the Emperor is not very much like our King,
and it is a somewhat difficult question to answer. As he stood there
that morning, in a simple pale blue uniform, well set up and looking
extraordinarily young and boyish, and smilingly happy--so entirely
different from one's expectations--it did not occur to me to see any
such likeness, but an old courtier said to me, in speaking after
luncheon of "the resemblance which is so much talked of"--

"There is no resemblance to be noticed when their two Majesties are
together, nor would there be any striking likeness seen between their
portraits in colours, but in photographs or anything that is black and
white, just bringing out light and shade, then the similarity is most
remarkable, you might easily mistake one for the other."

This puts one's own impressions very clearly. There is a well-known
photograph, circulated as a postcard in Germany, and from a German
negative, of which I have a copy, in which the two Emperors are shown in
conversation on the imperial yacht. Any one seeing it in English hands
would certainly think that it was our King and the Kaiser, and be quite
astonished at learning it was not.

T