NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE German Emperor on Wednesday attended the annual banquet of the Diet of Brandenburg, and made a most extraordinary speech, a mixture of religion and autocratic pride, upon which we have commented elsewhere. His Majesty began by saying that it had unfortunately become the custom to grumble at the Government, by which "men's pleasure in life, and in the life and prosperity of our great German Father- land, is embittered." He wished " the grumblers would shake the dust of Germany off their feet," and emigrate with all possible speed. The people should trust in God and their hereditary ruler, who hopes, like Sir Francis Drake—his Majesty mistakes, it was Vasco Nunez de Balboa—suddenly to stand on the peak and look on the Pacific Ocean in its majestic calm. Heaven directs him and Prussia, having given the latter victory at Rossbach and Dennewitz ; and it is im- possible to believe that God would have taken so much pains with Brandenburg and its House without a purpose. Glorious days were at hand, if only Germans were not misled by the chatter of discontented men. " I answer firmly to all com- plaints: My course is the right one, and I shall continue to steer it." The speech is directed specially against those who oppose the Education Bill, and means, of course, that the Emperor will go his own way in spite of all opposition. No such clear assertion of right divine, and of belief that success, especially in killing enemies, proves an " alliance " with God, has been made in our time. The thought of the speech belongs so completely to another period, that it is difficult to criticise it without what would be perhaps an uncritical severity.
