The Emperor's speeches are always interesting, not merely as the
utterances of a powerful Monarch, and delivered, in virtue of his position, under a sounding-board which causes them to reverberate throughout the entire civilised world, but from the fact that they reflect a remarkable personality, and, unlike the deliverances of most Monarchs, are unmistakably written by himself. The Emperor William, again, is a man who reads and thinks, and it is clear that in preparing his new gloss on the text Deutschland iiber alles he has borrowed freely from a passage in the "Meditations" of Marcus Aurelius, —the parallel passages are set forth in a leading article in Wednesday's Daily Chronicle. Of the sincerity of the Emperor's love of his country and of hia appeal fel' unity there can be no doubt, but what a colossal national egotism is revealed in his view of the way in which the divine mission of Germany is to be carried out ! The transition from Christian forgiveness to granite blocks as the basis of the salvation of the world is somewhat difficult to follow. But although the German Press displays a natural reticence in commenting on the self-revealing passages of the speech, the national unity for which the Emperor appeals is undoubtedly becoming more and more evident in the way which is most likely to gratify him,—the demand for a strong Navy and for greater speed in carrying out the naval programme.
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