The German Emperor is really a very clever man. He
is utilising this tour in Palestine, during which he sees every- thing of interest, to impress the llahommedan world of Western Asia, whose aid he may one day want in battle, and at the same time to please his Protestant subjects, who make up two-thirds of Germany, and to soothe the Roman Catholics, who make up the remaining third, and who fill Austria. He tells the former in a proclamation that he is unchangeably Protestant, and assures the latter in a series of replies to addresses that he will protect them everywhere. We think all these things academic ; but the Emperor has changed the position of every German in Turkey, has irritated the Pope, who replied to a rather effusive message with bare civility, and has profoundly annoyed the Holy Orthodox Church. The Russians can hardly contain their vexation, and imagine their religious ascendency in Jerusalem in serious danger. The Sultan will have to give them some ceremonial precedence, or the special guardianship of some one of the Holy Places. Seriously, the Emperor has done more to alienate the Greek Church than he could have done by a persecution. He has wounded their imaginations.
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