again in the heart of the Roman people that
love of the circus, which this people has inspired in all the latinised
races, the economic question still remains, the question of money and
of bread, implacable. I know not why it is, but the brilliancy of
William II's visit to Italy gives me the impression of a fire of straw.
What object had he in going there, and what has he attained? I can see
none. All his fervent protestations appear to me in bad taste, when
compared with the correct dignity of the Court of Austria, third of the
Allied Powers.

May 12, 1893. [6]

How can our German Caesar, who has just made a journey to Rome after
the manner of Barbarossa, continue to suffer an assembly of talkers, of
political commercial travellers, of people who allow their minds to be
dominated by the vulgar thing called economics? It is not possible,
and therefore Caesar calls to witness the first Military Staff that he
comes across at the Tempelhof and makes it judge of the matter. "I
have had to order the dissolution of the Reichstag," says William to
his officers and generals, "and I trust that the new Parliament will
sanction the re-organisation of the Army. But if this hope should not
be realised, I fully intend to leave no stone unturned to attain the
end which I desire. No stone unturned, gentlemen, and you understand,
I hope, that it is to you that I am speaking, and you who are
concerned. You are the defenders of the past, and of the prerogatives
of the Imperial and Royal Power."

If the new Reichstag meets in the same spirit of resistance to the
excesses of Prussian militarism, William II will be condemned to
constitutional government and then, little by little, to the surrender
of everything that he believes to be his proper attributes, and of all
his tastes. No further possibility then of an offensive war, to escape
from domestic difficulties; no more parades with the past riding behind
him; no more finding a way out by some sudden headlong move, for he
would drag behind him only a people convinced against its will and too
late. The only thing then left to the King of Prussia, face to face
with a new majority opposed to militarism, would be the dangerous
resource of a _coup d'etat_.

Dr. Lieber, an influential deputy, has defined the actual situation
with a clearness which leaves nothing to be desired--

"We perceive," he said, "that the Prussian principle of government is
developing more and more, an