siasm for him. Already they speak of
him good-naturedly as "this young Emperor."

(Is it not so, that, every day, old friends whose rugged patriotism we
thought unshakable, meet us with the inquiry, "Well, and what have you
got to say now of this young Emperor?")

This young Emperor piles falsehood upon falsehood. If he permits any
relaxation of the passport regulations, you may be perfectly certain
that he will give orders that the _permis de sejour_ are to be more
severely restricted than before. Once a passport is issued, it is of
some value; but the _permis de sejour_ is a weapon in the hands of the
lower ranks of German officialdom, which they use with Pomeranian
cruelty. Every German bureaucrat in Alsace-Lorraine aims at preventing
Frenchmen from residing there, at getting them out of the country; and
nothing earns them greater favour in the eyes of their chiefs.
Therefore, if this "young Emperor" is to be asked to grant anything,
let it be a relaxation of the _permis de sejour_.

To be allowed to _travel_ amongst the brothers from whom we are
separated, can only serve to aggravate the grief we feel at not being
allowed to _live_ amongst them.

William's socialism is all of the same brand. His first display of
affection for the tyrant lower down was due to the fact that he used
him to overthrow a tyrant higher up: it was the socialist voter who
broke the power of Bismarck. When we see William embarking upon so
many schemes of social reform all at once, we may be sure that he has
no serious intention of carrying out any one of them. After having
made all sorts of lavish promises to the industrial workers, he is now
busy giving undertakings to make the welfare of the peasantry his
special care!

In his speech to the Reichstag there is no mention even of the one
definite benefit that the workers had a right to expect--namely, a
reduction of the hours of labour; but the threat of shooting "them in
the back" reappears in a new guise. William II warns the working
classes of "the dangers which they will incur in the event of their
doing anything to disturb the order of government."

"My august confederates and I," adds the Emperor, "are determined to
defend this order with unshakable energy."

Delicious to my way of thinking, this expression "my august
confederates." Is there not something astounding about the use of the
possessive pronoun in connection with the word "august," implying
sovereignty? One