There was another very important reason for sending Prince Henry to Manila; he is, of all the members of his house, the one most strongly imbued with liberal and progressive ideas in political affairs.  In fact, he seems to have inherited all those political views of his father, Emperor Frederick, which were a source of so much concern and apprehension to the late Prince Bismarck.  To tell the truth, the political views and aspirations of Henry are diametrically opposed to those of his elder brother, a circumstance which does not, however, in any way impair the affection existing between the two.

At the time when he sent off Prince Henry to China, the kaiser was far from well, and was suffering more than usually from the painful malady of the ear already referred to, and which is identical with the disease which first of all wrecked the mind and then killed his grand-uncle, King Frederick William IV.  Added to this, he is firmly imbued with the idea that he is destined to meet with a sudden death at the hands of an assassin, a conviction which never leaves him, and which is perhaps responsible for that species of stern and even aggressive air with which he, gazes at the cheering crowds when he rides home at the head of his troops through the streets of Berlin or of Potsdam after a day spent in military manoeuvres on the great plains of Tempelhof.

If any of my readers feel disposed to condemn him for this apprehension,—­it would be unjust to style it fear,—­let them try to imagine how they themselves would feel if they knew that there were scores of desperate men and women who had sworn to take their lives by means of bullets or explosive bombs, fired or hurled from the centre of some dense crowd, which would destroy the life of the victim of such an outrage without a moment’s warning, or without being able to even so much as raise a hand in self-defense.

Now at the time when Prince Henry sailed for China, the young crown prince was sixteen years of age; that is to say, he lacked two years of the attainment of his majority.  Had anything untoward happened to the kaiser during the minority of the crown prince, Prince Henry would, according to the laws of the house of Hohenzollern and of the Prussian constitution, have been appointed as regent until his nephew came of age.  Prince Henry’s right to the regency, as nearest male relative, was one of which he could not be deprived, save by altogether exceptional and questionable methods, which both policy and fraternal affection forbade the emperor to employ.  Yet he realized that were Henry to be entrusted with the regency he would change in the most radical fashion the course of the ship of state; would introduce measures dear to the late Emperor Frederick, but to which he, the kaiser, was unalterably opposed, and would, in short, undo everything that he himself had done; so that when eventually the crown prince came of age there would be no longer any possibility of his continuing his father’s policy, a policy which the emperor has been at great pains to inculcate into his boy.