omething
else besides God, and that is the disintegration of the Triple Alliance.

March 29, 1893. [4]

William II is ever at pains to invest those occasions in which his
personality plays a part, with all the glamour of Imperial pomp. Once
again, accompanied this time by an enormous retinue of Germans glad of
the occasion of a free trip to a sunny land, William II is about to
remind the Romans at Rome of the majesty of the Caesars. May their
King not be reminded at the same time, by certain aspects of this
triumphal procession, of Rome's captive kings. In binding herself to
Germany, has not Italy given herself over into bondage to the Teuton
and especially to Austria, her hereditary foe? I could readily answer
this question in the affirmative by looking back into the past, I who
have so often shared in the patriotic emotions of Italy in bygone days;
but every people is entitled to be the sole judge of its own destinies,
and its best friends abroad have no right to endeavour to enlighten it
by any rays which do not fall from its own heaven above. One can
easily lead a nation astray, even by means of truths that have been
clearly demonstrated beyond its frontiers. One is compelled to admit
that the most extraordinary events may occur amongst one's neighbours.

William II, after having sent General Loe to congratulate Leo XIII on
his Episcopal Jubilee, has just made a speech on the occasion of the
silver wedding of King Humbert I and Queen Margaret. It will please
the Italians, but this ambiguous policy seems to me anything but
flattering, either for the Italian Kingdom or for the Papacy. As in
1888 and with the same ceremonies, Leo XIII will receive the
Emperor-King of Prussia at the Vatican, and William II, as on that
previous occasion will be able to split his sides with laughter on
returning to the Quirinal, mimicking the Holy Father and boasting that
he has befooled him once more.

April 27, 1893. [5]

The wisdom of the nations is now enriched with a new proverb, "A
rolling Emperor gathers moss, and gathers nothing more." Before long
the tumult and the shouting of the fetes at Rome will die down, and
with them the popular excitement of enthusiasm for the all-powerful
German Emperor. The Italian people will then find itself confronted by
the exhaustion imposed upon it by the compulsory militarism of the
so-called pacific Triple Alliance. Even if cavalcades, reviews and
tournays, should awaken