The German Emperor is getting into a rather serious con . -
filet with his capital. The Council of Berlin, by a nearly unanimous vote, has again elected Herr Kaufmann as Second Burgomaster, and the Emperor, as King of Prussia, has again refused to accept the selection. He has, moreover, refused permission to carry tramway lines across Unter den Linden, the Regent Street of the capital, and has directed that in future every architectural project contemplated by the city shall be previously approved by himself. The citizens are irritated, and in private ridicule his Majesty's pretensions to be at once supreme legislator, and Minister, and architect, and art critic, and censor literarwm., and Admiral, and Commander- in-Chief within his kingdom. They will give way, of course, as they always do ; but their comments grow bitter, and do not tend to increase respect for Royal authority. The truth seems to be that the King really understands city-making better than the citizens do, and cannot understand that a community, if it has to pay its own money, likes to learn from its own mistakes in freedom. That is one reason, at least, of the friction which, as we have pointed out elsewhere, so constantly marks the relations between Sovereigns and their capitals. Each thinks the other ought to be less self- sufficient.
