d cause, to her watch-word and battle-cry of _Vive la
France_! Nobly has she laboured for France, confident ever in the
_renaissance_ of _la Grande Nation_, and of her country's final
triumph. And to-day her unswerving faith is justified, and her life
work has been recognised and crowned with honour in her own land.

With one exception, all the articles collected in this book have been
taken from Madame Adam's "Letters on Foreign Politics" in _La Nouvelle
Revue_. Together they constitute a remarkable testimony to the
political foresight and courage of _la grande Francaise_, and an
equally remarkable analysis of the policy and character of Germany's
ruler.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

Modesty is out of fashion nowadays: what is wanted is the glorification
of every kind of courage. That being so, I hold myself entitled to
claim a Military Cross, for my forty-five years of hand-to-hand
fighting with Bismarck and with William the Second, and to be mentioned
in despatches for the past.

JULIETTE ADAM.

CHAPTER I

1890

William II, the "Social Monarch"--What lies beneath his declared
pacifism--His journey to Russia--The German Press invites us to forget
our defeat and become reconciled while Germany is adding to her army
every day.

April 12, 1890. [1]

What an all-pervading nuisance is William!

To think of the burden that this one man has imposed upon the
intelligence of humanity and the world's Press! The machiavelism of
Bismarck was bad enough, with its constant demands on our vigilance,
but this new omniscient German Emperor is worse; he reminds one of some
infant prodigy, the pride of the family. Yet his ways are anything but
kingly; they resemble rather those of a shopkeeper. He literally fills
the earth with his circulars on the art of government, spreads before
us the wealth of his intentions, and puffs his own magnanimity. He
struggles to get the widest possible market for his ideas: 'tis a petty
dealer in imperial sovereignty.

There is nothing fresh about his wares, but he does his best to
persuade us that they are new; one feels instinctively that some day he
will throw the whole lot at our heads. I am quite prepared to admit
that, if he had any rare or really superior goods to offer, his
advertising methods might be profitable, but William's stock-in-trade
has for many years been imported, and exported under two labels, namely
the principles of '89 and Christian Socialism.

The